Lantang Valley- Kyanjin Gompa- KyanjinRi Trek > “EAT-SLEEP-TREK : COLLECT S MEMORIES NOT THINGS”

LANGTANG TREK.

View from Kyangin-Ri of Langtang Lirung.

About Langtang.

Langtang is a region in the Himalayas of Nepal to the north of the Kathmandu Valley and bordering Tibet. The Langtang National Park is located in the area holding 4,500 people inside the park, with many depending on it for timber and firewood. The majority of the residents are Tamang.

The park contains a wide variety of climatic zones, from subtropical to alpine. Approximately 25% of the park is forested. Trees include the deciduous oak and maple, and evergreens like pine, and various types of rhododendron. Animal life includes Himalayan Black Bear, the goat-like Himalayan Thar, Rhesus Monkeys, and Red Pandas. There are also stories of Yeti sightings.

The park includes Gosainkunda lake, sacred to Hindus. Pilgrimages, in large numbers, visit here during August. Another spiritual site is the Buddhist monastery, Kyanjin Gompa.

Popular activities for tourists in the park include trekking, climbing, and white-water rafting.

Langtang village has been completely swiped away by a massive avalanche followed by the devastating earthquake in April 2015. The village suffered an approx, 600 deaths, including Langtang residents, foreigners, and army personnel. More than 100 bodies were never recovered.

Motive.

Firstly, our desire was to trek Tilicho Taal, but due to the number of trekkers, we changed our plan to Langtang, which is an easy trek route and will be easy for everyone as well. Our motive was to perform Bhaktapur Rotract Board Meeting in KyanjiRi and to flourish the information that now Langtang is a safe trek. It is because it has already been two years that devastating earthquake completely washed away Langtang valley where approx. 600 lost their lives. Trekking to Langtang, one may view the present conditions of the affected area and can feel or imagine the moments of what the conditions were during the earthquake and what if you were trapped in the incident.
As 2073 B.s. was Ghumphir barsa 2073 with the motive of promoting domestic tourism along with the destinations and it was for every Nepalese citizen. We planned to trek this trekking destination in order to include it as a part of Ghumphirbarsa 2073.

Theme.

“EAT-SLEEP-TREK : COLLECT  MOMENTS NOT THINGS”.

We just modified the theme of our last (Annapurna Base Camp) ABC trek. It was just “eat-sleep-trek”. But in this trek, we have added more i.e “collect memories, not things”. For this trek, we have designed a t-shirt written with the theme, which was designed by Rabi Gorkhali.

Trek members.

Prabina Awal, Nira Karmacharya, Juneli Lakha, Dipika Shrestha, Prabhat Gurung, Parash Prajapati, Kishore Munankarmi, Anzel Chitrakar, Anil Sakhakarmi, Suman Rijal, Anuj Prajapati, Nabin Balla, Dipesh Sangachhen, Aashib Karmacharya, Sajan Man Lakha, Rabi Gorkhali, Kabin Twanabasu, Kiraj Gainju.

Trek Dairy.

Day 1 2016 Oct 2 (Bkt-Ktm-Nkt-Syafrubesi-Khangim)

After two years, I was going for trekking but I did not feel excited as we had already trekked ABC before. For gathering, I woke up early in the morning and headed for Kamalvinayak, where we got into a bus for Koteshwor. While we were moving, we made noise and even forgot that there were other passengers traveling too. Everyone was teasing each other in their own respective code words. One of the passengers, who was sitting beside me strangely looked at me. I felt awkward, even Sajan a.k.a Lakhaa was teasing me (किन चुप लाग्एर बसेको को छ त्या), to which I replied (टेनसन भयो) and he understood that I have got a problem. While we were getting off in the Koteswor, she asked me where we guys were going to. I answered that we were going to Lantang trekking and she said, "Oh! Have a good journey.” I smiled and got off  the bus and from behind, Kishore dai said to me,"Kichey (भन्नु  पर्दैन जहाँ भन्न्यो तेइ सम्म  संगै जाने भनेर )". I answered laughing (आफुलाई टेनसन वैर बेला, ह्या ) and everyone just laughed at me saying ( केरा त केरै रहे६, जैले टेनसन भयो भन्न्६... कती टेनसन   हुन्६ एलाई). We had tea and packed our bag in the van. After traveling for hours, we took a break at the entry point of Nuwakot, We had our lunch at Jambu Hotel, where I was not happy with the owner of the hotel because she wasn’t serving well. My pal, Suman a.k.a Khumlay told me to ignore it. After lunch, I was feeling active because this way was just new to me. I requested Ashib to play my favorite song. Everyone felt bore listening to my favorite song. I was feeling happy whereas the rest of my pals were entertaining themselves by mixing their own tune in my favorite songs. When we reached the Dhunche checkpoint, everyone started recalling their previous trek and then, we changed our van from here.

@Dhunche

In the checkpoint of Syafrubesi, one of the traffic cops furiously came toward us and he asked, "Where are we going?"Among us, Kabin replied, “Syaaaaaafray”. Listening to him, the cop was in a dilemma of whether to laugh or to get angry, which was one of the funny moments of this trek. After traveling for a few minutes, I felt nausea and felt liked somebody was hammering in my head because I sat in the opposite direction. When we reached Syafrubesi, I just slept over the cliffs because of my headache while the rest of my pals were crossing the bridge. Suddenly, two people returned back for informing us that the way was blocked due to the landslides. Consequently, we decided to move in an alternative way.

We were unknown about the way and moved until we found one. At the endpoint, we saw a dozer and eventually, we came to know that the way was under construction. Suddenly, raining started showering. I was feeling extreme pain in the head, so I walked in the last. We even walked for hours lighting our torch lights. Walking for hours, we reached Khanjim where we ended our first-day trek. We had our dinner quickly and went to bed. My pal, Rabi a.k.a Rappa was just teasing and laughing at me for fun. I said," Please! sleep". At midnight, I felt pain in my leg and I heard someone was talking. When I woke up, I found that Aashib was busy on the phone. Everyone requested him to stop the call, and then, we began to talk for the next day. While I was speaking, he started snoring. and I realized that along with him, everyone was already asleep. I also went to sleep.

DAY 2 2016 Oct 3 (Khangim-Sherpagau-Rimpoche-Lama hotel)

Early in the morning, Kabin a.k.a Basi/ Syapray fussed that his phone had gone missing. Everyone woke up saying to get ready for departure. Due to the noise, I too got up and packed my bag. We had our breakfast and snapped some pictures.

After knowing everyone was ready, we decided to march to Lama hotel. I was still having a headache and so, I was walking behind. Paras asked me," Are u okay?" and I replied that I was. He told me that he would be moving ahead and advised me to take rest. He was playing a song (Khai k) in his boombox. Suddenly, I felt afraid of listening  to the song lyrics (jauuuuuuuuuuuuuuu haraauuu) because at that moment, I was alone and nobody was either at the front or at the back of me. I sped up my pace and walked until the breakpoint where everyone was resting. I felt happy that now I was in my group. I distributed my cereals to everyone and told them to have it when they felt tired. After walking for hours, we arrived at the Sherpa Gaun where we had our lunch.

While lunch was being prepared, Sajan showed a concert like act by playing a song with a metal spoon and plate, which was entertaining. During lunch, mistakenly or luckily, my favorite song played in the boombox, which made me happy while having my lunch and it played after the completion of lunch too. I was resting in the room but not again, Ukilili played. I was annoyed due to Kanjong music and I felt like the string was playing in my head. So I decided to go out from there with Anuj, Kabin and Nabin a.k.a Hollow. We kept walking until we reached the Lama hotel and stopped for a while. On the way, one girl was laughing at us but I did not why, I found that Anuj was staring at her but she was just laughing and laughing. Eventually, fog covered the whole area and a loud thunderstorm cracked the atmosphere when she informed us, jokingly (aaba pani parcha). Anuj replied (teso vaye hami laage). On the way, Anuj told me (tyo maiya malai ta Mann paryo). I said that I knew he would tell me about her and said we would meet her when we return.

After reaching the hotel, I asked the hotel owner about the meaning of Langtang but before that, he asked me where my remaining friends were. then, he explained that 'Langtang' is a Tibetan word, meaning “herds having a big stomach after having fodder “. We waited for our remaining pals for a few minutes and again waited for Prabhat, Suman, and Dipika. While waiting, Sajan, Aasib, Kabin, and Rabi were busy playing football. I was feeling fresh after a mixed hot-cold shower. we gathered around and had our tea. I had tea in the room and after that, I moved to the kitchen where I asked Lakhpa hotel owner's son about his feeling of the earthquake. He told me he was one of the survivors from the avalanche. I was shocked to meet with the only survivor from the devastating avalanche. I asked about the situations during the earthquake and he described as: Firstly, he felt like shaking, and suddenly, he saw the avalanche covering over the Langtang valley in seconds. He said he survived because of his ability to move while he was covered by snow. He also informed me that 600 people lost their life due to avalanche. He said that his leg had broken but now, he was fit and fine because it had been two years past the earthquake. After understanding his experience, Sajan aka lakha , Aashib a.k.a Poppy, Parash , Nira and Prabina a.k.a 26 dd/Rashtriya dd and Dipika a.k.a Dipika Padukone joined me in the conversation. We were cracking jokes and sharing experiences of today's trek. The hotel owner informed us to have dinner. Everyone was having dinner with fun because it was too tasty. After dinner, I moved to the room for rest and I fell asleep earlier than others.

Overall, it was a wonderful day and I had some best moments luckily: like to listen to my favorite song, mixed shower and got chance to know the meaning of Langtang as well as knew the real experience about the avalanche moments from the avalanche survivor  Lakhpa.

DAY 3 2016 Oct 4 (Lama hotel-Thansyaap-Langtang valley)

I woke up early in the morning but before that, I found Anuj had already wakened up and he was busy in his work. I was unable to sleep well due to limited bed space. Everyone woke up and began to make noise. We had our tea and moved for the riverside where we had our noodles' break time. Along with us, local residents: Nira and her three children were walking. The way was quite attractive and easy. I could view high hills which looked like animated, due to fog.

Langtang river was flowing on the left side and I dreamt of going rafting in this high rapids. I along with Angel a.k.a Gwara, Anil, Prabhat , Dipika was walking but at the moment I left them and moved forward. I met Anuj, Suman, and Nabin in the horse stable where they were chilling and having junk foods. When I arrived there, I distributed my cereals. Resting for minutes, we decided to move and crossing the uphills we reached the Thanshyapp where we would be having our lunch. While lunch was prepared, I found that one of the daughters of Nira was badly injured during the earthquake and she said her daughter looked prettier than before.

After lunch, everyone packed their bags, took our first ever group pic, and moved for Langtang valley. 

Along with me, Kishore dai, Anil, Angel, Prabhat, and Dipika stayed there for a while in order to walk at last. Before moving, Kishore,Parash, and Angel were talking about Lachhi and I was shocked when Kishore dai told me that Lachhi was also a survivor from the avalanche. She was injured badly but now she is completely healthy. We took pictures with her and headed for Langtang valley.

On the way, we met some friends of Prabhat and he shared with us the reason behind the death of lives but it was just hypothetical because no one can predict what will happen in the future. We moved forward, oh my goddddddddd...... I just felt like shit looking Langtang valley because it was covered with stone and pebbles and we could not even see the whole area due to fog. We saw clothes and other household items which made us heart-broken and I was imagining what the conditions had been during the earthquake. Due to fog, we were wandering in the wrong way which we only knew when one of the local residents told us. When we reached the hotel, everyone was busy in grinding the leaves and even the sisters from there, we're busy doing so, which startled me. We had local wine and began to sing songs. While we were having wine. rest of the pals were watching movies and at the moment, Suman discovered the act of DJing, which was looking like a real one. We had our dinner soon so that everyone could have proper sleep. This time I got a single bed which was a relief. Kishore dai and I were in the same room. We both were praying for good weather tomorrow to have a clear view of the mountain and then slept soon.

Day 4 2016 Oct 5 (Langtang valley-Mundhum-Sindhum-Kyanjin Gompa)

I woke up due to the hustling noise but I was feeling fresh due to proper sleep. While I finished my packing, everyone was having tea and local chapatti. We took our first group pictures. After breakfast, everyone marched on but I and Kishor dai stayed back so as to walk at last. After walking for 30 minutes, we saw our remaining pals relaxing. When we met them, everyone just began to perform flash mob dance. For a second, I performed the dance but soon, I felt awkward because I did not know the full dance step, so I stepped out of the flash mob group.

I think these moments were one of the best moments because everyone was looking too much happier than the past days. During this walk, we took lots of pictures. We were moving to Kyanjing Gompa chilling and videotaping the moments. We flew the kite at the entry point of Kyanjin Gompa, which was my one of the happiest and memorable moment of this trek.

After gathering all the folks, we moved to the hotel where Kishore dai was waiting for us. Resting for hours, we had our lunch and after that, everyone was just in a dilemma whether to climb Kyanjin-Ri or not. For the whole day, we were roaming the local area. Because no decisions were finalized, we decided to move to the pond but we missed the way and so, we returned back. On the way, Sajan found a skull of yak. We took funny pictures with the skull. We gathered around at the wind checkpoint where everyone was waiting for the clear weather to view the mountains. Parash decided to move to the pond, so he alone went there. After a few minutes, Sajan, Anuj, and Juneli also reached the pond. The rest of all returned to the hotel. After reaching the hotel, I, along with Kishore dai, and Suman decided to drink local rice beer. We got trip seed and in order to fresh out, we went to Ganjala pass aka Jangala pass, where we conversed about the trek and the upcoming trek. We stayed there for hours and after the fog covered the whole area, we returned back to the hotel. I found Prabhat sir was enjoying rice beer by himself. We joined him along with the rest of our friends and after hours, I found that everybody was in trip seed and enjoying the time by singing. We had a  nice dinner because everyone ordered the food of their own choices. After dinner, I went to sleep but the rest of my friends, enjoyed the time the whole night.

        Overall, this day might be one of the happiest days for everybody because all of us were happy and enjoying the moments. For me, this was the best day of this trek. Snapping joyous moments, Flash mob dance, flying the kite, drinking rice beer for the whole day and delicious dinner were the best things about this day.

Day 5 2016 Oct 6 (Kyanjin Gompa- KyanjinRi- Thansyaap)

Early in the morning, we woke up soon in order to move KyanjinRi. We had our tea and got ready for the hike. We were just confused about whether to move from right or left and so, we decided to move from the right. The way was uphills and uphills, which was making us hard. I was escorting Juneli because she was walking with difficulty and I told her that I would wait for her. Along with her, Prabhat and Suman stayed back. After that, Rabi and I paced up our walk in order to reach the top. Because of our laziness, we chose uphills, which resulted in exhaustion, and thought to return down but we were getting motivation from the rest of the pals, who were at the top. They were just chilling and shouting with excitement at the top but I thought, most of them may not know that it was 'KYANJIN RI– THE HIGH POINT OF THE LANGTANG TREK'.

We approached there with difficulty and knew Sajan was returning from the other side while Suman was climbing up. Everyone was waiting for clear weather to view Lantang. Consequently, we raised up our national flag and Rotract club banner with respect, at the height of 4700m. Rabi told everyone to take off clothes for performing flash mobs, but I was just stunned because they started to dance by taking off their clothes and they danced like they had not ever danced before.

For Video: https://www.facebook.com/kiraj.gainju

After snapping pictures, we decided to move down where we found Suman, who was still struggling to reach the top but after seeing us, he just sat down. When we marched down, Rabi was videotaping the moments. After reaching the hotel, we had our noodles and soon got ready to move for Thansyapp. I and Kishore dai moved at the first and while walking we were clicking pictures. We waited for the rest of the folks, as well as, waited to have a nice view of Lantang. Waiting for minutes, we found some of them were moving down, so we decided to move as well. We ran like in a marathon but I did not know why everyone one was moving in speed. I  had not visited the site where there was a helicopter, the before yesterday. So along with me, Anuj decided to go to the Helicopter site. Resting there for minutes, Suman, Aaashib, Prabhat, Dipesh, Anuj, and Dipika. joined us and we clicked some pics with funny poses.

After that, we continuously moved on until we reached Thansyap where we spent our night. After resting for hours, we started to drink alcohol. Everyone was enjoying it. Nira, the owner of the hotel, began to share her experience and struggle during the earthquake and after the earthquake. We felt sad for her and realizing the mood, she used to act of fighting with Kishore dai, which used to be entertaining for us. We had our dinner soon, and after that, I went to my room for reserving the bed. I found Kabin was already there, followed by Aashib, Dipesh, Rabi, Anuj, Sajan, and Dipika. I was laughing at the acting of Sajan and Dipesh, which was too funny and full of vulgarity. Aashib, Dipesh, Kabin. Sajan , and Rabi were continuing their same silly acting for hours, which was extremely entertaining for me because I was just laughing and laughing since they began their act. Tiredness made everyone silent and they felt asleep.

Day 6 2016 Oct 7 (Thansyaap-Rimpoche-Bamboo)
Today was our second last day of the trek. I woke up earlier than before in order to be free from the regular disturbances but I was shocked to find that everyone was busy in their own stuff. I was getting a problem to move downhills as my foot trembled with pain. Everyone was just getting ready to move to Rimpoche where we would be having our lunch. Before that, we departed Nira didi who tied a friendship knot, which was a special moment. We exchanged our gifts and everyone hurried to take pictures.

After that everyone went ahead but I, Aashib, Rabi, Kabin, and Dipesh were moving together. They were very surprised to view the beauty of the scene. While we were passing by the horse stable we met a Bangali lady who looked like a boy and so, greeted him by saying, "Brother, where are you from?" She felt awkward and realizing my mistake, I quickly apologized to her. She was happy to converse with us for a minute. We wished her a good day and we carried forward our walk. I could tell, Rabi was having negative thinking about her. He said he would be saved even after doing negative works. Aashib told him that we would not be saved because of the tracking system. He realized his negative thinking and we, on the other hand, got a good joke to laugh at. After that, I moved quickly to rest in Lama hotel as well as to get my glass back. I was having pain in my foot, so I and Suman decided to have cold water therapy in the running tap. Resting for hours, we moved to Rimpoche where our lunch was waiting for us. There was a little bit of misunderstanding between everyone because one party(Kisor, Angel, and Anil) was moving for Sherpa Gaun and remaining were heading to Bamboo. Misunderstanding did not end here. There was one more misunderstanding about whether to move Syfrubesi or not if we reached Bamboo. We concluded to move to Syfrubesi only if everyone was in good condition. After lunch, we divided into two parties and went to our respective destinations. Sajan, Rabi, and I suffered the same pain and so, we ran as far as possible to get rid of the pain, down the hills. We were running as if we were in trouble. We were relieved in the plain roadway and I felt this way, was better than that of Khanjim. We are unable to walk on the first day due to landslide. We reached Bamboo at 4 pm and discussed to move forward or not. Prabhat sir told me that we would rest here and tomorrow we would be moving sooner. Everyone moved to their room and I brought my remaining cereals during the tea session. I was just waiting to check who will play with the cereals. Our Rashtriya didi, Prabina was the first to play with the cereals and I hit her with one. She was terrified by getting hit, which made me think that she got a memorable scary moment and, she would not play with cereal ever again. In order to lighten the mood, I made fun of Sajan teasing him about the Girls who were an attraction for every boy at that time. Aashib added that Parsah had given money for biscuits and warned him to get money back otherwise; saying "kanchi musuka paisa bhusuka". Parash said that he would get back tomorrow. After tea, I moved to my room for rest, and the rest of the guys gathered to play cards. I was enjoying myself having my cereals and their laugh. After a minute, Prabhat sir joined me and we talked about our personal and family matters and conversing for hours, Dipika and Aashin joined us. Every one of us was having the same problem but in a different way. We shared our problems and joys. After that, the hotel owner's son called us for dinner. We went to dining and I was surprised to have a meal with meat after 4 days. Everyone was happy to have such a warm tasty dinner. After dinner, everyone moved to their respective room for sleeping.

Day 7 2016 Oct 8 (Bamboo-Syfrubesi-NKT-KTM-BKT)
I woke up early in the morning for moving to Syfrubesi. I was happy to get my cell charged. We had our noodles breakfast and then we carried our journey to Syafrubesi. Everybody was ready to move on and while marching, Suman sang a tragic song watching Dolma. I was laughing from his funny tragic act. I was getting so much fun but in order to get relief from my leg pain, I moved forward. Same as yesterday, Sajan, Rabi, and I ran down the hills to get rid of the pain. Rabi told me to take a bath and I replied to him to wait for waterfalls. We kept running until we reached the waterfall, and they were having extreme fun but not again, they started to dance in their evergreen (hariyali) flash mob song. Aashib was acting like a lady while bathing, so I told him to stop the act because it made me laugh so hard that I could have died of laughing. I was shooting their dance and bathing moves for them. Parash and Suman passed us videoing our bath dance. Everyone felt refreshed, changed their uniform, and moved on for Syafrubesi. The roadway was much better and easy to walk, where we met a tourist and Parash began his singing and playing his Wookalili song. Everyone was dancing with happiness and wished them for nice a trek. I was recording video of the moments and I could see everyone being happy throughout the walk. I saw the police post where we thought we would be completing our trek. Waking for minutes, we reached the police post. After resting for minutes, I advised everybody to move forward but they were exhausted. I moved forward alone. Walking for a few meters, Aashib was running to get me, then we met Anil who informed us to move in the market where Kishor dai would be receiving us. I was feeling happy to get my cell charged after 5 days. After everyone gathered, we had our lunch and waited for our vehicles. This was the last day of our trek and everyone was congratulating each other for having a successful trek. We packed our bags in the van and moved on for Bhaktapur. Driver dai warned us to throw illegal things if had any. We had our van checked in Syafrubesi and Dhunche's check post. After that, we smoothly headed to Nuwakot, then again, at one place we were inspected. We changed our van and targeted Nuwakot. At one checkpoint, police asked Suman and unintentionally, Kabin replied. I was warning Kabin not to answer back and after passing the checkout, Kabin got angry along with Suman because police dai was suspecting us for wrong things. Driver dai was laughing and watching at us. I told Kabin to calm down by speaking in Newari. Everyone got silent and in order to irritate them, I played my favorites south- Indian songs and after a while, their wilderness returned. However, I was not happy to stop my playing song. We reached Jambu where we had our last tiffin of the trek. Suddenly, Kabin came towards me uttering if he did wrong answering police, to which I replied yes. I told him to forget it. We snicked our last pictures and said no more pictures now.

We had a very delicious meal for many days. Kabin, Prabina dd, and I were having our food with fun and jokes. After this, we strolled straight to Kathmandu. On the way, viewing the flowing river and beautiful sunset, I requested to play my favorite song. Sajan was behind me and he played it for me when suddenly, I was dumbfounded. He just kissed me saying," I love u, Kera", but not again, same vulgarity joke began from back seated members. At one time, we just made an extremely louder noise, due to which we were nearly going to collide with another bus. Suman was telling us to cool down. We got silent for a minute and after a while, I played a song titled Shanti Lukau Kahan. Everyone was dipped inside the song. Then, we sang songs until we reached to the bus park. We were comparing the environment of Langtang and Kathmandu. We were late to get a bus for Bhaktapur and consequently, we booked a van. Everyone was excited to be at home after 6 days. I greeted everyone farewell and got off from the van. I reached home at 9 PM which was an hour late from my predicted time.
                             Thus, I found that this trek was remarkable and easy. Everyone was happy and very friendly towards each other, which was the nicest part of the trek. Like this, we ended our #GHUMPHIRBARSA2073 Langtang trek#.

LANGTANGIsRisingUp.