Helambu Trek – 5 Days with passionate guide ( obsessed by Mount Everest )

Our second trek, with the same agency. On request we did get a new guide and unfortunately our porter from the first trek had to turn back home for private reasons, hence also our porter was new. This time, we did not need a long bus drive to start our trip. After 1 hours by private car we were dropped off near Sundarijal at the border of the Shivpuri Nagarjun National Park. From here the trek started towards Chisapani. The first part this trek follows the pipeline that supplies Kathmandu from water. I had a little concern that this first day would not be so nice for trekking, as just following a pipeline for a couple of hours did not sound as an attractive idea to me, but this was wrong. After all, the pipeline was not that unattractive and after a while it was gone (I can’t exactly remember how long we did follow this pipeline, but it was quicker gone than what I expected). Also the first bit of this trekking was a little hard, as you immediately go steep uphill. At the gate of the national park, we had to pay our entrée fee and to my surprise I saw some signs that indicated that plastic was prohibited in the park, so I had some good hope to no longer walk around surrounded with loads of plastic waste. Unfortunately this hope was quickly killed. Although, I have to say it became better as soon as we left more local villages behind us and the higher we went up to the mountains. Our arrival in Chisapani caused a shock. As soon as you leave the trees behind you from the national park you make a right turn and then a left turn: right in front of you there is an army post and just behind that post you see a couple of buildings that are completely destroyed, leaning heavily forward: here the drama of the 2015 earthquake is still very visible. According to the soldier at the gate, these buildings couldn’t yet be rebuild as they were build on the ground that belongs to the national park and hence they are still there as a reminder of the devasting effect of the 2015 earthquake. We did stay in Hotel Sunrise, which is just opposite of the destroyed buildings. We arrived a little early and did walk a little bit around the remainder of the village. That afternoon was the only occasion during the 3.5 weeks we stayed in Nepal where there was an electricity interruption. Luckily the issue was solved prior to dinner. The second day we continued our trip towards Kutumsang, where we stayed at the Namaste Hotel. On paper, the second day looked to be the easiest, but in reality it was not, as we had to cross multiple valleys. The first two days of this trek had been again very cloudy, luckily this did change the third day. Once above 2800 meters, we were above the clouds and we had splendid views on the mountains, whereas the valleys were filled up with clouds. The third day we also went into the Langtang National park, here again you have to pay a fee. On top of that you baggage will be checked for the presence of drones. Clearly the army doesn’t want you to bring drones to this area. The third night we stayed at the Sumchho Top Lodge in Tharepati (3600 m). If you want you can continue here going North towards Gosainkunda and the Langtang valley, but for this you need more time. Unfortunately, we did not have the time and had to return. The fourth day was a very long descent. In particular the first part was steep and we ended that one having a tea break in Melamchi Ghyang. From this point onwards, we did no longer follow our initially planned road towards Tarke Ghyang. Instead we did follow a very uncommon trek directly towards Timbu. This was a little adventure as this uncommon local road had suffered from a couple of landslides during the latest monsoon. After a very long day we reached our final destination just before dark. So, on our fifth and last day we did return to Kathmandu to pick up our remaining luggage. After that, we continued our holidays and left for Patan, to start our cultural week in the rest of the Kathmandu valley. In order to make our bus trip as comfortable as possible our porter made sure we had the best places on the bus. Overall the trip was very well organized and we had a lot of fun with our guide. He was also very knowledgeable and passionate. Both of us hope that one day he can realize his big dream and that he will show the Nepalese flag on top of the Mount Everest.