The next morning we headed up further north-east to visit Garphu to admire the red monastery and it’s caves.
Monastery in Garphu
The monastery is built into a cave and painted from the outside in a terracotta type of red. You are able to enter the caved monastery and a Buddhist monk will welcome you. We used the beautiful and spiritual scenery for a photoshoot of some handmade pullovers, ponchos and scarves made of wool / cashmere which were given to us by Pravin, the shop owner of “Yala” in Patan / Kathmandu who asked us to take images for his product brochure.
A bit further up the “dry river” you will find the Garphu caves, one of the over 10,000 man made caves dug into the side valleys in Mustang. They are also called the Sky Caves of Nepal, since they are mainly located in upper half of the hillside.
This area was the most North we got to and the closest to the border of Tibet, and then we started our drive back to the South.
Cashmere poncho by “Yala”
Our drive was then quite adventurous driving down into a valley, with a very tiny and narrow road. The dirt road was rocky and at times the car was drifting in the curves. Some of us decided to hike down taking the shortcut, but I had no choice but than going down by car, unless I wanted to risk falling down with my hurting knee and my crutches. We then reached the riverbed Kaligandaki and we realized we needed to get across to reach the local village Thangchung Chambaley, our next overnight stay.
View of riverbed Kaligandaki
Two of us decided to walk across the river, as they wanted to do another hike in the afternoon, whilst the rest of us waited to be picked up by the locals with a tractor. To kill time we opened our bottle of vodka and enjoyed the beauty of this stunning valley. To my surprise the locals, also called Loba, were worried it may be too bumpy for me on the tractor and someone came with a horse. So I had the honor to cross the river horse back riding and continued the ride until reaching the village Thangchung / Tsambale. I was riding a female horse that was being followed by her foal, which was continuously tempting to drink her mother’s milk.
When reaching the village I noticed that the young girl who had joined our car ride the previous day was there as well, and realized that this was her home village where her parents live.
This was definitively a special evening because we interacted with the locals who cooked a traditional Dinner for us with Yak meat. Additionally, we set up a traditional yak leather tent which is used by the locals. We set a small bonfire inside the tent, keeping us warm and cozy and we spent the evening listening to the stories of the locals and traditional songs. There was no electricity in the village and for the first time we spent the evening outside and noticed the starry sky… it was magical! There are no words to describe this!
It was a late night for all of us because it was too special to end.
The following morning a part of the group managed to get up early and went for another hike a bit further up in the Himalayas. I stayed in the village and enjoyed the view of the mountains whilst sitting in the dry riverbed. I used the time to wash my face and brush my teeth using the ice-cold waters of a little stream and simply enjoyed this moment of peace.
Brushing teeth in the icy clear waters
After breakfast we started our drive down south, thesame way we came up to Upper Mustang, and had to reach Jomsom before sunset. It was a long drive ahead with the same obstacles as we had on the way there like changing cars, crossing rivers. We reached Jomsom however at twilight and we still had to cross over the big Kali Gandaki River, which actually had a quite strong stream. Our driver searched for a spot where the river was narrow and not too deep, but since it was already getting dark we had some difficulty to find the right spot. Eventually, after several attempts we crossed the river with 1 meter of depth and made it through to the other side. We decided not to stay in Jomsom overnight, but rather continue the drive for a bit, which would then shorten our journey for the next day. We stopped in Marpha and found an accommodation in the old town. One of the hotel staff even came to pick me up by motorbike so that I do not have to walk all the way to the hotel.
We were so tired when reaching the town in the night, that we didn’t realize how beautiful and unique this little town was. It was a shame we couldn’t stay there a bit longer and explore the center. The streets are quite narrow, and the entire center of town is a pedestrian walk. Besides some motorbikes there are no cars driving through, but instead have to be parked outside of town.
We had a long drive ahead to Pokhara, and I enjoyed the landscape change from the dry, rocky Upper Mustang region to the more green alpine like climate. The narrow road along the mountains took us through fir forest and at times I had the feeling to drive through the black forest in Germany. The closer we got to Pokhara, the climate and landscape changed to a subtropical one and we eventually reached our final destination in the late afternoon.
Incredible to experience 3 so different sceneries in one day by just driving along one road… The last night in Pokhara was a great night to reflect on our trip, our impressions, our personal views and our feelings that this was a true once in a lifetime travel experience that would leave a mark on all of us.
I considered this travel journey just like a teaser for many more trips to follow and explore Nepal more in detail.