Mustang Trek - September 2005

This summer's Mustang trek was terrific! I wrote 125 pages in my journal and took a few hundred pictures, but they don't do complete justice to the experience. According to my rough calculations we walked about 140 miles from place to place over the 17 days. My dominent sense of the landscape is that it's huge! Because it's desert and mountains, there's nothing to block your views in any direction. It seems like the Grand Canyon would tuck nicely into one corner or another.

Except for one night up in the mountains we stayed in villages, camping in courtyards and taking our meals in the adjoining house. The local people are warm, quick to smile and hard working like mountain folk everywhere. Our crew was great and even the mules seemed good-natured.

We visited more than a dozen monasteries, most of them full of life or coming back to life. There's a lot of repair and rebuilding going on, much of it funded by the American Himalayan Foundation. We lucked into services of one sort or another a few times and the Monk at Luri Kabum presented us with blessed Kata Scarves to take home; he assured us they would bring good fortune if we hung them in our homes.

We got an audience with the King of Mustang, an affable older gentleman who served the best hot apple cider in the region.

My other lasting impression is of how hard everyone works in the course of their daily lives. All the villages, temples and terraced fields have been built up mostly by hand. The trails we walked have the most amazing stone foundations, mud and timber bridges and carved rock passages. All of this without the benefit of machinery we take for granted.

We were also surprised to find a road coming down from Tibet, past the capital of Lo Manthang and heading slowly south into the region. In fact, we were in town when the Chinese trucks (about 30) came on one of their twice-a-year trading expeditions. The "Forbidden Kingdom" isn't standing still.

The "Mustang Tour" here on the web site is based on the journal I kept during the trek. If you'd like to read through the actual journal offline, you can download the PDF version:

The images on the web site are "snapshot" format, about 1/4th the size of the originals. If you have a particular favorite, I can send an original by email.

Let me know what you think, and enjoy the tour.

If you'd like some background information on the country, the region and the travel required to get there, follow this link:

Click on any of the days below to take the tour.