Travel Day 1010 – Extended Langtang Trek, NEPAL
01/15 – Kathmandu via Shyaphru Besi to Goljung La (2300)
After a pretty hectic day yesterday and a night of last-minute packing, we were finally off to our Extended Langtang Trek at 6 am in the morning…
Hilltop Views from Goljung La, Nepal
Well, we were off in the Super Deluxe Express Bus to Shyaphru Besi to be honest and it wasn’t really until the afternoon that we even reached the start point of the trek. Luckily we had invested some money in the express bus which was supposed to make the 10 hour bus ride only last for about 6 to 7 hours. Judging by the distance on the map, Syaphru Besi wasn’t even that far away from Kathmandu, but once we saw the road winding up and down the mountains, it was pretty obvious while this would be a lengthy bus ride…
Luckily we found ourselves in the express bus which meant that the driver took all the hairpin bends in the road with the highest possible speed the bus was capable of driving at and it obviously left us flying through the bus as well as my stomach strangely sick after the first 30 minutes of the ride. While I started urgently looking for my motion sickness pills, the bus kept seemingly driving on two wheels though all the tight curves for the next hours to come…
First Lodge of our Tamang Heritage Trek
Needless to say that I was not able to read my book or even enjoy the views of the mountains that kept flying by the window between every other turn of the road. At the half time pit stop I was seriously debating to either get some food into my tummy or rather throw-up and empty it out in preparation for the rest of the ride. I decided for the food alternative and luckily the second half of the journey wasn’t quite as bad as the first had been which meant that I actually kept the food inside of me…
When we finally arrived in Syaphru Besi, I was exhausted and hungry while at the same time itching to get started with our walk. Per the regular walking schedule we should have spent one night in this faceless junction town, but since it was only about 2 pm, it seemed early enough to first get some lunch and then get going with the hike to at least the first village on the map. That was a great plan and worked out perfectly well, until rain started to pour down and we needed to seek shelter in one of the local houses…
Sunset Views of Langtang in Nepal
After the rain ended we managed to hitch a ride for the remaining bit of the mountain road in the only bus that was coming along just in time to help us out. We literally jumped on that opportunity and in this case we jumped on the bus, which meant that we rode the last bit of the road on the roof of the local bus. This was much better than the ride in the Super Deluxe Express Bus and it left us at the only hilltop lodge in Goljung La with an amazing sunset view over the valley and the Langtang snow mountains. What a great end of the very first day of our trek… : )
Find all Day 01 – to Goljung La Photos here.
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