Day 10 Remche to Langtang Village
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Day 10 Remche to Langtang Village |
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Leave Remche, and after 20 minutes arrive at Lama Hotel, where there are at least 9 lodges. Lama Hotel is close to the bank of the Langtang Khola, inside the forest. Just beyond Lama Hotel is a flight of stone steps leading uphill. The path climbs these steps, passing a confluence in the Langtang Khola below (30 minutes). The path crosses a small cliff, on steel bars hammered into cracks. Rocks laid on the steel bars form the path (40 minutes). It’s quite safe, so long as you don’t know that the buried part of the steel bars is corroding preferentially... You will soon forget this as Langtang Lirung comes back into view (42 minutes). Pass a large landslide which you can see on the right (50 minutes). Cross a stream (1 hour 5 minutes) and arrive at the Riverside Lodge (1 hour 20 minutes).
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Villager carrying fodder... |
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The valley gradually opens out...
I stumbled on a feast of dried radishes...
Chorten... |
Ascend through the forest. You are walking up the face of the ancient Langtang Glacier terminal moraine. Cross a stream flowing over a rock wall and flowing on down to join the Langtang Khola, now 300 metres below.
Ghora Tabela, which means ’horse stable’ in nepalese, is the first flat piece of land in the valley (2 hours 30 minutes). In 1950 Tilman noted the ‘moderate condition’ of the horses, which he thought was due to their being owned by the government! The horses are gone, but the name remains, to remind us that Nepalese is an Indo-European language. The valley beyond gradually opens out from ‘V shaped’ to a ‘U shaped’ glacial valley, if you remember your geography lessons. [28°11.90’N 85°27.45’E 3,016 metres]. There are two lodges here, with a ‘cheap and cheerful’ wind-powered prayer wheel. The army post lies 15 minutes walk ahead. You are required to sign their book. Walk onwards past disused walled fields on the left. Cross a small stream (3 hours). This area is drier and is covered by stunted rhododendron forest. Pass a large disused building (3 hours 10 minutes). Arrive at the Hotel Tibetan Lodge Thankgsyap (3 hours 30 minutes). [28°12.43’N 85°28.67’E 3,069 metres]. Cross a stream walking gently uphill. Below is a partly abandoned field system, probably dating from the 1960s, when the area was home to many Tibetan refugees. They were resettled in the late 1970s. Then pass some small houses on your left, and follow the walled path through a field system. The path contours into a stream valley, then climbs gently upwards. Above is a view of Langtang Lirung (4 hours 15 minutes). Ganchenpo comes into view to the right of Yalla Peak (4 hours 40 minutes). |
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The three yellow 'ornaments' are made of real yak butter - margerine hasn't spread up here yet...
The Gompa electric bill... not really - it's the Buddhist religous text...
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Pass a chorten made of mani stones - carved prayer stones (4 hours 45 minutes) and also the Lodge Tibet Gompa. To the left (north) you can see the village of Sangdansa with its Gompa, which unlike Kanjin Gompa is operating and open. During a festival on 16 October, 1999, I was able to sit in the Gompa and watch the mysterious ceremonies. Not that I understood any of it! Cross the stream past the Gompa Guest House. Cross the log bridge over the stream ( 5 hours 5 minutes). Above and the north is a giant waterfall, the Babachu, descending from the south face of Langtang. Arrive at Langtang Village (5 hours 15 minutes). There are a large number of huge lodges established on what used to be the village fields just west of the main village. I can remember when these hay fields were full of wild orchids. It’s sad to see these ugly buildings with their cess pits spoiling the rural idyll that was Langtang. Most of these environmental disasters have been built with money from the big western trekking companies. Langtang Village itself remains relatively unaffected, as does the eastern area of the village. Langtang is a real village, so it’s a great place to stay. The people of Langtang Village are Tibetan or ‘Bhotias’. Their ancestors migrated here from Kyirong. Kyirong lies to the north of Syabru Bensi (Day 14) in Tibet, upstream of the Bhote Kosi and the Kyirong Khola. At Kyirong during 1945, Heinrich Harrer spent 9 months during his famous ‘Seven Years in Tibet’. Harrer reported that Kyirong, whose name means ‘village of happiness’ was deserving of the name, and was the place he would like to retire to. 
The entrance to Langtang Village Last updated May 2000 - copyright Ian Johnson |
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