---
date: 2017-04-24
modified_at: 2017-04-29
tags: [lifestyle]
description: A detailed trekking adventure diary through the Langtang region of Nepal, including a mountain bike journey, challenging off-trail hiking, sleeping outdoors in steep terrain, and crossing the Ganja La pass at high altitude.
---
# Langtang Nepal

After 2 weeks Kathmandu it started itching again.. The mountains. The nature,
The view and the calmness. That’s why, and also because it wasn’t posible to go
to Mugu (simikot) alone, and because nobody had responed to my harder trek
itinerary, I decided to go to Langtang. But how? With the bus? 500 Rupees and 6
hours bumping around? No way! Let’s go on a mountainbike! So it happened: I
rented a mountainbike and the plan was to give it back after 6 days in Dhunche
(6 hours with the bus). There I would put it on a bus back to Kathmandu, to
start trekking myself. The first day I went from Kathmandu via Sunkhani to
Bidur. The last bit downwards 1 gear stopped working. When I was stupidly
cycling with one hand I even fell. A big bruise on my elbow and a big blue
bruise on my leg was the result. Fortunately it’s nothing. In Bidur I found a
nice hotel for just 12$. The next day I went at 7AM because it would become a
long day. Also I didn’t want to cycle in the heat all day. This day would be
1600 meters up! So it would take a while. 5 kilometers before I arrived in
Dhunche I got a flat tire! I would never make it before dark, it had already
been 5PM... Fortunately, there was an empty schoolbus driving to Dhunche, and
they were happy to help me. Bike in the bus, me in the bus, vamos!

The next day I was planning to fix my tire to get a new inner tube because I got
2 from the rental place. Unfortunately, It wasn’t for the right type of tire,
and there was no bycicle repair shop in Dhunche (they mostly had motorbikes
there, no cycles)... Then I decided to just put my bike on the bus and start
walking from there...

The first hiking day was 1100 meters altitude gain. Along the way I met a Polish
guy and a Israeli guy. With the polish guy I walked for about 3 hours, and with
the Israeli guy will walk for 3 days. I hate traveling alone!

20-11-2016
Started in Dimsa, 800m alitude gain in 1:50 hours. Wow, that’s fast!

After a long break in Laurabina I went on a very steep off-road trail to the
Saraswati kund (4000m) (close to gosaikund) when I reached it, there was nobody
around so I took out all of my clothes and swam in the shallow lake. It was cold
but awesome.

21-11-2016
We went from Laurabina to the Gosaikund and wanted to stay there for the day but
after bargaining and having a very heated discussion, we didn’t get a good deal…
So we went swimming in the Lake, and went further to the pass And Back. Some
Lakes had about 10cm of Ice! I even walked on it. Then we went Back to Laurabina
again.

22-11-2016
Today I decided to do something on the edge of being to dangerous. I had a good
look on the map yesterday morning, and I was pretty certain that this plan was
doable and not too Crazy. The plan was to go from laurabina to Gosaikunde And
then leave the trail and Head north. The High Mountains north of Gosaikunde were
not too steep and it would maximally be 50% steep if you took the right route,
according to the map.

So I started at 9am and went up but I went north a little bit before reaching
Gosaikunde because I looked at the Mountains and the map and it would likely be
easier and shorter. I reached a Hill of about 4600m Just above Gosaikunde at
about noon. It was beautiful. After that I kept staying High (above 4200m) for a
couple More hours. There were beautiful flat valleys , some with rivers. And
mostly Grass to Walk on. But it became harder and harder.

After 1pm I had to Walk over a lot of Big Stones. Then, at about 2pm I started
to go Down. I had to go Down at least 2000m and I had only about 4 hours before
darkness so I already was a little worried. I had to Walk through High Grass,
then bushes of 0,5m High and then Came the Forest, which was sometimes really
easy and sometimes hard because the steepness or because it was densely grown
with a lot of Bamboo like plants and Small Trees. Then, at about 3:15pm, when I
was almost sure I would never make it today, I found an old trail that went
Down, so walking down was a lot easier. I was so happy. However, the trail faded
away after 30 minutes... Shit! However a Long time it went pretty fast in the
Forest, it was easy walking. At 4pm I again found another trail and some Huts to
keep animals in. But unfortunately I Made a big mistake. I trusted my gps too
much and after the trail faded away I didn’t care and went on Straight to
Bamboo. However it became steeper and steeper and the Sun started to set. In the
End at 5’30 I was Just sliding Down a Dry river and sometimes it was 80% steep
or something which was Crazy! But the Trees and bamboo prevented me from
falling. I was Just sliding Down and grabbed the Bamboo All the time to slow
down. But then it became really dark and I had a light but I could sometimes not
see how steep it was. I decided to stay here for the night, about 300meters from
my destination Bamboo, but also about 2 or 3 hundred meters Down. It is too
dangerous to do this at night. If I fall I could break something or even die. I
am now looking forward to a night outside and will continue at 6am again. I have
a sleeping bag, which May save me from a very cold night. I think it will be
around 0 to -5 degrees tonight (its 22 november and about 2200m altitude in
nepal) I am gonna Sleep on a steep place (70% steep) but there is a little flat
piece, Just enough for half a sleeping bag and the Bamboo will hold me here so I
will not fall down. Good night!

23-11-2016
I slept very well under these circumstances. I was not cold at all. At 7 o’clock
I left. Further Down was too steep so I had to go back up to find another way. I
spent the whole day looking for a less steep way Down but I could not find a
save way. At 4pm I had given up Hope and accepted that I would have to sleep in
the steep Forest again and go All the way Back up tomorrow (I also had No food
left). So I started walking Back up. But then…. I saw it! It was the perfect
gorge, going Down as steep as neccesary but still doable. I started going Down
again and before 5pm I was on the road! I was so happy I screamed and had to
Kiss the trail. Within an hour I walked to Rimche and had 4 plates of Dal Baht
there. What an adventure! I would not recommend this however I don’t regret it
either somehow.

24-11-2016
Wooh! In 6 hours + 1 hour break, I walked from Rimche to Kiajin Gompa. 20,5km
with 1600+ hight meters!

25-11-2016
Today I walked the whole Lang Tang Valley till the end. 30km+

26-11-2016
Today I did Tsergo Ri in +-2 hours. That’s quite fast because that’s 570hm per
hour. That’s a record! Nice for sure on this altitude. Everybody that I met told
me ‘woah, you’re so strong’or ‘you are fast man’. So funny how much progress I
made in 2 months of walking. After Tsergo Ri I tried to do Yala peak, but it
seemed to dangerous to do this alone. I went until a hight of 5150 meters. After
that I tried to go down in a creative way, but it didn’t work out. I ran back. I
walked a lot today. In the evening I made myself ready for tomorrow. The last
day! or is it????

27-11-2016
Today my plan was to go to Tarke Ghyang. About 1600+ hm and 30+ km. That’s why I
woke up at 4AM! Early, but I still had 8 hours of Sleep, so No problems. After a
Tibetan bread with jam, 3 cups of tea and a cup of coffee, All prepared the
evening before, I left at 4:50 to climb the pass Ganja La.

> My view from near the Ganja La

> Beautiful shot I have to say. Well done, sir.

After 13:20 I finally reached it. It took so Long because it was really hard to
find the trail and I had to Walk Back serveral Times. Thanks MapsMe! The last
bit was very steep, there even was a ladder. But then I was finally there. I
should at least smoke one bit of Ganja at the Ganja La, right? So I did! Ha!

> Near the Ganja La it became super steep and tricky

> Very unconfortable to walk here, but very rewarding after I made it to the top.

> Finally... The other side!

After the pass, the First few hundred meters Down where very steep and hard
because all Stones were loose and falling All the time. After that it became
easier, and I walked Down fast. At about 4500hm there was a tentcamp with 7
Frenchmen. They told me it was possible to sleep and get water at Keldang. So I
did that because I was tired. It is a stone house with open door where I went to
sleep in, at 4300hm! All my clothes on and in my borrowed sleeping bag. No mat.
I went inside at 4pm and waited until it got dark. Hope its not too cold!!!
Tomorrow I will Walk to the bus and hopefully be in KTM the same day.

28-11-2016
This was a cold night allright. But it was managable. I slept some because I had
some dreams. At 2am the water next too my bed was not even frozen! So inside the
hut it was >0°C. Still cold though. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. At 2:30 I gave up
sleeping and packed up everyting. I started 2,45 so I walked in the dark for 3,5
hours. Not really comfortable nor comforting views or anything. The stars and
the mountain silhouets were Nice though. Also in the morning I had the most
amazing sunrise ever.

I arrived quarter to 10 despite having almost no breaks and walked really fast.
So it was still 7hours! It’s always longer than you think. I got invited by a
school owner to have some food when i arrived. Nice because I was incredibly
hungry. He said to me that the last bus would go at 9AM but when I finished my
food we heard a horn! Wow, the bus was late today! At 10:30 I sat in the bus and
it instantly left. Unfortunately the engine of the bus was really bad and, of
course, after 10 minutes bumping around the engine stopped. DAMN. After 15
minutes it worked again but at 11am it stopped again. The chauffeur also drove
like an idiot so I was kind of glad to start walking to the next village: 3
hours walking. I was planning to go with the next bus but it never came so I
hitchhiked to a next town 2 hours down the road with the only car that came
along! Nice people here. I had a nice conversation about Nepal Politics, Dutch
companies in Nepal, the Netherlands and other interesting topics. He spoke
english really well! After that I went to a hotel, and acted like I didn’t have
more money so I got a room and food for 1000 Rupees. That’s more than enough!
After a nice shower I went to bed early.

29-11-2016
At 6AM I took the first bus to KTM for 150 Rupee for a 4 hour busride. After I
arrived, I fixed my camera, had nice lunch and chilled in Sara’s backpackers
hostel. Carl is also coming tomorrow, and the 3 germans I met at Gosaikunde were
also here! Awesome, party tonight! At 5PM me and Suraj (the hostel owner) killed
a chicken. I’ll never forget this experience. The chicken was still moving 2
minutes after his head got cut off. After dinner we drank beer and partied.
After 2 weeks of walking I was super drunk after 2 beers. It was an awesome end
of an awesome country! Definetly coming back soon to Nepal