Cycle in the upper Mustang region in one of the most far-flung locations in the world. Rocky trail with steep hills makes this a thrilling ride full of adventures.
We will be there to receive you at the airport as you land into Kathmandu and take you to your hotel.
Representatives and guides of Mountain Kick will meet with you at your hotel. Your journey starts the next day so we will run you through the itinerary. We begin our trip with visiting different heritage sites in Kathmandu and stopping at some of the popular tourist hangouts. Kathmandu is rich in culture and the ancient parts of the city have not changed for hundreds of years.
We ride to the famous tourist town of Pokhara in a tourist bus. It is a seven hour trip through serpentine roads carved into the hills with stops for lunch and snacks in villages along the way. At Pokhara, the lakeside area offers an amazing nightlife to relax you ahead of your trekking trip.
A less-than-twenty-minutes flight takes you to Jomsom, a tourist town which lies on the either side of the Kali Gandaki River. Vegetation cease to appear further from here and it is all rocky and barren terrain. We begin our first day of cycling by going uphill to Kagbeni, a village made up of mud houses. The beautiful Mustang Valley below and the Himalayan range above are clearly visible from Kagbeni.
You can ride all the way up to Muktinath. The Muktinath Mandir is one of the holiest shrines for both Hindus and Buddhists as is believed to be the home of the god of liberation, Lord Muktinath (Lord Shiva). A lot of devotees, including holy Sadhus, make the pilgrimage to this place.
We ride downhill today to Chele (Tshele) making our way through the Kali Gandaki River Valley. It takes a couple of hours through a rocky trail to reach Chele.
We ride along steep slopes constantly changing between downhill and uphill. Cycling here is tough but the exotic scenes of the Himalayas will provide us energy.
This is another day for high-altitude cycling with big cliffs to cross. Reaching Charang, you can visit the 700-year-old Khar palace and the monastery within it.
A very rocky terrain takes you up to Lo Manthang, the capital of the legendary kingdom on Lo, which was built in the 14th century. Structures from those times, like the royal palace, monasteries, temples, other buildings and walls are still standing in this city. The city has also preserved its tradition and culture which remains unsullied. Foreign tourists were allowed into the kingdom only 25 years ago.
There are four main and several other monasteries in Lo Manthang. We will visit these cultural monuments and also meet with the ethnic people of this kingdom. Rest and acclimatization is also very important at this high from the sea-level.
Another day for rest and sightseeing.
The first part of the journey is uphill till the Pangla Pass at 13,419 feet and then it is downhill till Dhakma. Three quarters of the rocky trail is ride-able. You will treated with beautiful views of the Upper Mustang landscape throughout the trip.
We have to ride up to Nyla Pass at 13,156 feet and then downhill to Syangboche. The remaining path is very rough and you will have to carry your bikes. But the final part of the trail to Samar is smooth and will be easy after a tough day’s ride.
We start getting back from this day. We lose more than 2,000 feet in altitude as we make our way down to Chheusang.
We get back to Kagbeni, the same place we were at on the fourth day of the trip.
We make a heavy descend today all the way from the Himalayas to the lowlands. The whole road is ride-able as most of it is either cobbled or graveled. The Annapurna massif will be on the background throughout the trip as we pass through several forests and villages to reach Tatopani. It takes a little less than seven hours to get here. “Tatopani”, translates into “hot water” in Nepali, and you will spend the evening in the natural hot water spring here that will heal your body of all the pain of cycling so much.
The road is very gentle and moves alongside the river as we move downhill to Beni for two hours. From Beni, we will drive to Pokhara in a tourist vehicle. We reach Pokhara in three hours and the beautiful city on the bank of the Phewa Lake offers an amazing nightlife to relax you after spending more than two weeks cycling in the Himalayas.
Pokhara is the most beautiful city in Nepal and that is why tourists from all around the world come here. Major tourist attractions are the Devi’s Fall, the Mahendra Cave, the Bat Cave, the World Peace Pagoda and the Phewa Lake. The lakeside area is a great place for tourists to hangout and the nightlife here is amazing.
Having trekked in the Upper Mustang region, we return to Kathmandu. Mountain Kick will host a farewell dinner for you to culminate your vacation.
We will drop you off to the airport but we are sure that you will want to come back again.
In Kathmandu, you will stay in a three-star hotel while you will be staying at standard guesthouses during your travel. There will be electricity, internet, laundry and hot showers in all of the places you stay. You will have to share your room with a fellow traveller in our typical package. Single supplement will be served on request and will cost an additional USD 50.Also note that single rooms is easily available in Kathmandu and the trekking regions at lower elevation but it might be difficult to find them at higher elevations.
We never force our customers to follow our set itinerary.You can customize your itinerary exactly the way you want. Please share with us your ideas.
As one of the core guiding principles for Mountain Kick, we always give back to the mountain community in any way we can as a means of gratitude. The people who live in the Himalayas and share their homes with us deserve to have all their little problems fixed which seem very basic for outsiders but are commonplace in rural Nepal. The people lack proper access to healthcare, sanitation and education but a little effort from travellers goes on a long way to solve these issues. Mountain Kick has made it its corporate social responsibility to help improve the living standards of the local community. We make donations to their cause, organize social campaigns and programs and also have a few trips designed to mix a little volunteer work in your holiday.
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