TREKKING IN NEPAL

Why I chose to trek in Langtang with my 5 year old.

Wayfarers on the high road to Langtang

"....... the rain was coming down in sleets making the treacherous steps cut into the cliffside look like a nightmare of loose rubble, soggy mud and shifting sand on which we had to test the agility and tenacity of our feet and muscles.My guaranteed non-slip Clarks soles were certainly taking a beating as I stumbled and slithered on the tricky slope. The sound of waterfall crashing off the 800 foot cliff which we were ascending, would under normal circumstances been beautiful but was in this instance more of a threat and did nothing to soothe my jagged nerves. I was fighting a head cold, a bad throat and a raging fever equivalent to the raging heavens and torrents. Some fool traveler had described this part of the trek as 'a walk through a pleasant gully' The brochure's description of 'an almost vertical cliff, 800 feet in height' was more accurate but still wide off the mark in this foul weather. Guilty pangs mulled with fearful ones as I thought of my 5 year old somewhere ahead perched perilously on the shoulders of Klipa our cook......."

from an excerpt in my diary describing the misadventures on the fourth day of our trek to Langtang in the northern corner of Nepal.

Why I wanted to trek in Nepal, especially with a five year old in tow was one of those difficult to answer questions.Nepal can sometimes be viewed as an unsafe destination full of dreaded diseases, perils and unknown dangers to which you certainly didn't drag your 5 year old. But if the truth be told I was really inspired by this gusty Irish woman D. Murphy who had taken her 6 year old on a three month winter odyssey in the mountains of remote Baltistan. Her book Where the Indus is young was what really started me off.

In trying to emulate this adventurous stalwart, though on a very small scale (my trek was only of 12 days) I had gravely overrated myself. A citified Singaporean like me cannot quite measure up to the likes of Ms Murphy. I also did not bargain for falling ill, the incredibly punishing terrain, or the vast and daunting distances to be covered. My little boy however had less problems. He was certainly well entertained chasing all the chickens, goats and kittens that we came across in the villages. He had a fun time too, playing peek a-boo with the Nepalese crew though usually by mid afternoon black moods and tantrums were not uncommon.

Intrepid Hans, age 5

Our family of three and crew of nine included a guide, a sherpa, a chief cook, a sub cook a kitchen boy and 4 porters to carry our loads. Compared to Ms Murphy team of 2 we were indeed a pampered lot !

We had opted for the Langtang route because of it's nearness to Kathmandu, the acceptable number of days and because the Upper Langtang Valley had been billed as offering one of Nepal's most spectacular scenery. Langtang is a narrow valley which lies south of the Tibetan border sandwiched between the main Himalayan range to the North and slightly lower range of snowy peaks to the south. Langtang Village at 11,500 feet is just below the foot of the Langtang Himal at 23,776 feet. This high and isolated valley is inhabited by people of Tibetan origin.

Our Langtang trek was of 12 days duration. We took 6 days to walk to Langtang, including 4 hours of jeep ride to the trail head at Betrawati (this was before the days of the motorised road which now connects Kathmandu with Syabru) had a free day in Langtang and took 5 days to do the return journey.