Nepal. Langtang-Gosainkund-Trekking Tour: A travel report by Peter Gebel

By Peter Gebel

The Himalayas is a dream destination for mountaineers all over the world.
Accompany the author on his trekking tour through the Langtang, one of the most pristine areas in Nepal.
Along the way you will be confronted with many personal experiences, detailed information, advice on hiking in the Himalayas and 49 impressive colour photos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Feb 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9783738675511

Peter Gebel

Peter Gebel is enthusiastic about mountaineering, traveling in the Asian cultural sphere and photo­graphy likewise. Time and again he is drawn back into the Himalayas for trekking and mountain hikes. Peter Gebel, born in 1955, lives in Erding close to Munich with his family.

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Glossary

Kathmandu

We fly from Munich to Doha in Quatar on the Persian-Arabian gulf with Quatar-Airways. After several hours in the Duty-free area of Quatar, we are called to our connecting flight to Kathmandu in Nepal. It’s Check-in Time!

A couple of hours later we find ourselves flying over the Himalaya, level with the icy giants – an incredible view. Its late afternoon and the biggest mountain chain on earth is passing us outside with a smooth red shimmer. I reach for the envelope Gerda gave to me at the airport whilst saying our Goodbyes. But don’t open it until you are sat in the plane! she says to me. Inside the envelope I find a picture of my wife with our children during our family holiday in Morocco. She has written a couple of very nice lines… Yes, my thoughts will definitely be with them and I am already looking forward to my return…

In terms of my fitness, I have been preparing intensively for approximately six months. I also went to the mandatory medical check-up, which is recommended as a part of this journey. My training plan comprised of jogging 10km three times a week (6.2 miles) and visiting the gym two to three times a week, plus several challenging mountain tours which I absolved during the months. Additionally I completed a beautiful climbing tour in the Dolomites with a group of people from our alpine club. This also included climbing Marmolada. In this sense the Langtang trekking shouldn’t be a conditional problem for me.

All of a sudden I am ripped from my daydreams. The pilot is announcing the landing approach to Tribhuvan International Airport/Kathmandu. Tension is rising. What is awaiting me? A long-cherished dream is about to come true. The landing is decent but a little bumpy, probably due to the need for runway repairs.

Nepal’s capital lies 1355 metres above sea level and has approximately 850.000 citizens. The geographical location is 27°43’N; 85°19’O; It is already late afternoon and the time difference is 4 ¾ hours.

Tribhuvan International Airport/Kathmandu

The bus takes us to the terminal and inside there are already hundreds of mountaineers and hikers waiting. The visa formalities are handled rather quickly. We are carrying our passport photos with us, unlike others who left them in their luggage which is currently still in the cargo compartment. The customs of the Nepalese are precise but unproblematic and I’m done in an instance. After waiting some time at the baggage belt I finally grab my expedition bag, made of abrasion proof and water-resistant material. The ideal bag for trekking and for sure the best that can currently be found. I wonder what would happen if my luggage went missing? It contains all my hiking equipment, especially the down sleeping bag for extreme temperatures down to minus 30 degree centigrade, and not to forget my well broken in and light mountain boots. I have heard stories of mountaineers wearing their shoes during their flight out of fear of losing them. Nothing causes more problems when hiking than new blister producing boots. Good mountain boots - can one even find some in Kathmandu? If so, then only in Thamel, the touristic hotel and shopping area of Kathmandu.

No risk, No fun. With all my photo equipment in my hand luggage, which consists of a day tour rucksack, I wouldn’t have been able to fit my boots in anyway. And it isn’t quite my taste sitting on a plane for 11 hours wearing hiking boots. I can imagine one wouldn’t dare taking them of after some time, but that is of course left up to oneself.

By the start of my next trip, I had revised my opinion on this subject.

Stefan, another hiking participant, wasn’t so lucky. His kit bag with all his equipment is not on the baggage belt and has vanished without trace. It isn’t delivered to our hotel in Thamel until the late afternoon two days later. Luckily we won’t be making a move until the morning of the third day. But for now it’s time to go, where is my group and who are the other participants? Outside on the forecourt of the terminal, we are already being awaited by the agency Lama-Tours, the partner agency of Hauser-Expeditions in Nepal. The junior chief of the agency whose name is Deab will be accompanying our group. Our trekking group consists of two women and nine men. I had already noticed the two middle-aged women in Munich and guessed that they would be part of the group. Also I had made friendly contact in Munich with Florian, who has travelled to Nepal several times and was once again on his way and also belonged to the group.

The way across the road to the parking site is like running the gauntlet. All of a sudden we are surrounded by dozens of Nepalese who are offering us their services. One of them grabs my luggage and carries it the short way to the bus. Slightly irritated I manage to wrench it from him. The bags are loaded through the open side windows. Everyone who touches my luggage even for a split second, even when unsolicited, expects one Euro for his service. One of them seems to think I am totally stupid and asks for ten Euros. Once inside the bus I try with all my strength to close the windows, but too many begging hands are in the way. Loudly and with great gestures they are all claiming their supposedly entitled sum. Finally I manage to close the window without squashing one of the Nepalese’s fingers. Okay, I’m sitting, the window is closed but don’t you dare look outside now. Stay cool.

The aggressive approach of the touts at the airport was an absolute exception and I didn’t experience anything like it later, especially because several guidebooks tell you not to give any tips at the airports.

The 8km drive to our hotel in Thamel takes about half an hour. Approximately 850.000 people live in and around the capital of Nepal, although the details on the exact population vary. My first impression is that the existing infrastructure was probably built for maybe 100.000 inhabitants. Kathmandu has grown explosively over the last couple of years. The smell everywhere is incredible. Garbage is piled up on every street corner, some of it is even burning. The road is packed with people. Cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, mopeds, buses, tuk-tuks – the typical three-wheeled vehicles – cows, heavy loaded single axle ageold hand barrows which are moved through the never ending chaos by physical strength only and thereby preventing an organised progression. The left-hand traffic, a relic of the British, seems to be the slightest evil. Blaring car horns and continuous backward and forward shunting in the hopelessly jammed streets. I am glad to be sitting in the bus and not driving myself. Fascinated I watch the helpless chaos crawling past my side window. The backstreets are even worse. To the left and right of the road there are unmarked conduit gutters and drainage channels which lie 50cm below the level of the road. The streets are only sparsely illuminated, if at all. Axle breaks are inevitable. I can’t believe my eyes when I realize that in this road even the sewer cover is missing. I imagine myself wandering through the streets at night and all of a sudden vanishing into the canalisation of Kathmandu for ever. I can already see the headlines of the newspapers: Peter Gebel missing in Kathmandu and no one would know what tragic fate had stricken me.

The cable tangles are also very fascinating, just as the power lines running across house facades and forming great tangles at their junctions. The sewage system in Kathmandu, I am told, is totally ramshackle. The drinking water pipelines, which were installed in the time of the British, are all crumbling, making the water in Kathmandu undrinkable. It should not even be used when brushing your teeth. One should preferably use originally sealed plastic bottles with mineral water for this purpose. Not a problem at all, if one knows.

Kathmandu has got me tight in its grip already. Within a short time I have forgotten all about home. In every street, I see new and interesting things and just can’t stop gaping. Delicious smells from the little food shops come through my now open window. The scent of joss sticks lies between them. Once twilight falls, colourful luminous advertising in unknown letterings begin to glow.

We arrive in our Hotel Thamel in the same named district of Kathmandu.

Thamel

It lies north of the city centre in a small back alley and is therefore rather quiet. We carry our luggage for the last thirty metres up to the hotel entrance. The Lobby is very neat and the employees are friendly. A huge room with three beds awaits me on the third floor. It is very clean by Nepalese standards. On the beds with the ridiculously thick and very soft matrices, we find heavy bedding and a filthy old bed cover. I decide to sleep in my sleeping bag tonight. It is relatively quiet, because the ceiling fan is defective and only the air conditioner which is attached to the wall underneath the window is making any noise. Downstairs in the entrance hall Jens, a German who has been living in Kathmandu with his Nepalese wife and kids for nearly twenty years, is expecting us. He tells us that he originally came here as one of the first rucksack tourists and then just got hung up on Kathmandu. Proudly he talks about one of the first modern European sport cars he used to drive in his early days in Kathmandu. He also had close ties with the prince of the royal family. The two of them used to tour the pubs and amusement arcades of Kathmandu, whilst celebrating extravagant and alcoholic excesses. At that time smoking weed wasn’t forbidden. It seems that in the meantime Jens has squandered all his money, to me he looks more like a notoriously broke ex-hippie. He earns his living by working for a local travel agency and advising tourists about hiking and life in Kathmandu itself, whilst working as a teacher on the side.

Jens gives us a couple of good hints on where to get good dinner in Thamel. No diarrhoea caves, he tells us. Also we should be careful at night. It still happens that someone whispers hashish? into ones ear while walking by, those people are often spies. Drug-related offences are punished severely in Nepal. The prisons are said to be forerunners of hell with incredibly disastrous hygienic conditions. But I don’t see a problem that is most certainly not the reason for my coming to Nepal.

Additionally Jens advises

Reviews for Nepal. Langtang-Gosainkund-Trekking Tour

[MarkCunliffe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice brief account of the authors trek enlivened by some photo's. As I am consudering doing this trek myself the book was of interest. A map showing the trek route would have been nice to see and refer to.