Off the Beaten Path pt 1: from Baglung to Bertibang, Nepal
May 04, 2016
This trip we decided to try a new direction for our month-long trek into the mountains of Nepal - heading up to Dhorpatan. We did this with no guide, but we did have a map of the area. We planned to circle through Baglung up through Bobang to Dhorpatan and out through Myagdi via Darbang and Beni.
We started our trip in Pokhara at the Baglung bus station, sharing a taxi with a Nepali man. The fare for the taxi was 2400 NR or 800 NR each for the 3 of us. The photo above is of a shop in Baglung, the capital of the Baglung District. After a delicious snack of fresh samosas, we continued on our way in a jeep, jam packed with people, arriving at the town of Burtibang only after dark.
The roads are actually pretty good from Baglung to Burtibang, considering! The jeep fare was 700NR each, making it an expensive and long day of transport.
After a short rest stop we all piled into the car for more dusty, bumpy jeep time.
The traditional architecture in Baglung is as pretty as the new is unattractive. As the road is built, un-traditional materials encourage behemoths such as that clunker above.
This is what is more common along the trail. This pretty Nepali home is practical and lovely. By the way, we are in
Western Nepal, not in an area that was effected by Nepal's ruinous quake on April 25, 2015. The buildings are intact.
We arrived tired and in the dark, about 8:20 pm - 40 minutes early. Bertibong was already closing up, but we managed to find a nice hotel (300NR for the room) and an okay (truck-stop) dinner of chowmein. Unfortunately, our chef decided to make it tourist style and forgot to add flavor! It was pleasant nevertheless.
Our room came with brand new, heavy curtains, attached by the cheapest hardware they could find. There was an attached toilet shower room included in this bargain price.
The next morning, I touched the curtains and down they came!
There was almost a full moon that evening as I looked out to the city scape from those curtains. I am certainly glad they did not fall down until the morning, so we could have some privacy!
This man's Tiger Truck was a beauty.
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This post is part of a series of posts of our adventures (without guide) through a rarely visited part of Nepal. We started in Baglung, went north to Burtibang, through Bobang and up to the ex-Royal Hunting Reserve in Dhorpatan. Then we walked through the lovely Jajala pass and out through Myagdi province. This year was unusually hazy, so the Himalayans were not out - not even a single glimpse of Dhalaghiri or the Gurja Himal! But the magnificent bloom of Nepal's national flower, the Lali Gurans made up for that. Known in the West as Rhododendrons, these flowers ranged from a fragrant white to lilac and many shades of pink and red.
Hotels are not posted with signs, but you can trust the Hotel symbols on your map and just ask a lot of people until you find the only hotel in town! Prices were 100NR per person a night and Dahl Baht - the only food you are likely to get - is 150NR per plate. The food is simple and tasty and clean. Water is available in every town from the local spout and is safe and delicious. Bring along some bottles for the long treks between hotels. We enjoyed eggs every morning for breakfast, sometimes with chapatis.
Even the locals here have supply problems, which is why we could not always get chapatis.
Along our way, we did not see any other foreigners until the 2nd to last day when we met a pair from South Korea who were on their 6th trip to Nepal. They did have a guide.
For parts of the trip, buses and/or jeeps were available, but their schedules were erratic and they were never comfortable.
The highest point of our trek was 3400 meters (11,000 feet) and it was about 1100 NR each day. Prices were never posted and there were no menus, but that was food and drink (including local wine aka roxi) for 2. Millet roxi was 50NR for a Tuborg bottle full or 660ml.
In May, 2016, there are 105 NR to one US Dollar.
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