One Day With Nepalese Mountain Dwellers

Hello! I am Gleb, 26. I had lived in Moscow but it was before I went to travel from India to Argentina. This was my day on the mountain path in Nepal, on the way to Langtang village, where refugees from Tibet live. Welcome to my June, 15th, 2012.

The first look out of the window. Today I will have to climb from 2800 m above sea level to 3800 m.

Mirror look before packing

Friendly hostess of the mountain guest house called Lama Hotel.

My breakfast

Luckily from this and the peak of Langtang I choose the second.

This smiling guy is my guide. He’s from Aryan caste of climbers.

This trip is my first experience in the mountains and it’s gonna be hard. I didn’t climb higher than 2000 m.

Wonderful pure waterfall

Constant dwellers of Langtang and hired carriers from Katmandu valley

Here it is! No, not Yeti, but a yak, the second symbol of Nepal. My guide Piney calms me down saying these ones are not dangerous.

Each 10-15 min we meet a new carrier. One working day of a carrier costs 15-25 USD depending on the cargo.

Rest time

Finally we meet Tamangs, native tribe of the Nepalese mountains. “Tamang” is translated as “a rider”.

I hired a pony and a carrier. How stubborn it turned out to be! But when I gave it some idiotic orders it didn’t listen to me and just saved my life.

Pony does not let you move faster, quite on the contrary. It wants to pasture or communicate with a lady pony… In two hours, when I see Lantang I let the pony and its owner go. This cunning old man met us at the village, he offered to take a photo and buy something from him. But it is not what I planned.

Serious Langtang dwellers

Refugees from Tibet settled here in the middle of the last century. They escaped from the tiresome Chinese government but couldn’t escape from tourists who keep coming to Langtang. That’s why they look so sullen.

Tibetans work in the tourist sphere so they are more friendly.

I spent more than an hour watching locals. This village is plain and severe. These people do not want to go down from this 3800 m height to Katmandu valley, they keep traditions.

Only 200 m remain till the highest peak – Kang Jing Goomba.

Stone quarry on the slope.

Goomba itself. Some guest houses and buddhist stupas on the slopes.

Twilight is soon. Piney leads me to one of the guest houses. I decide to go even higher to the snowy area of Langtang. Piney is grumbling but keeps following me. I gonna sleep well tonight.