Kathmandu & the Muktinath Trek, Nepal

Met at Kathmandu airport and driven to your hotel, then the old city in the afternoon. Tradition credits King Gunakamadeva with founding Kathmandu, and its heart is Kathmandu Durbar Square, around the Hanuman Dhoka palace — the royal residence until the nineteenth century, named for the statue of Hanuman, smeared red and shaded by an umbrella, that guards its gate.

Across the square stands the Kumari Ghar, the house of the Kumari: the living goddess, a young Newar girl chosen as the embodiment of Taleju, a form of Durga. She sometimes comes to a carved window above the courtyard, and she may not be photographed.

Then Swayambhunath, on its hill west of the city, the oldest Buddhist monument in the valley. The eyes of the Buddha are painted on all four sides of the gilded tower above its dome, prayer flags stream from the spire, and the monkeys that give it its nickname, the Monkey Temple, patrol the worn stone steps. The whole of Kathmandu lies below you.

The morning in Patan — Lalitpur, across the Bagmati from Kathmandu, and long the valley’s city of craftsmen. Patan Durbar Square holds more temples to the square metre than Kathmandu’s or Bhaktapur’s: the stone Krishna Mandir, the royal palace, one of whose courtyards now holds the Patan Museum and its bronzes, and a few lanes away the Golden Temple of Kwa Bahal. Patan’s metalworkers still cast images in the old way.

Then the Tibetan refugee settlement at Jawalakhel, where carpets are still woven by hand on tall upright looms. The afternoon is yours: rest before the mountains, browse the bookshops of Thamel, or take tea on a rooftop above one of the squares.

An early flight to Jomsom (2,720 m), the headquarters of Mustang district. The small planes fly only in the morning, before the wind rises in the valley, and the route runs up the gorge between Dhaulagiri and the Annapurnas. At Jomsom you meet your trekking guide and porters, and the loads are shared out for the trail.

Just out of Jomsom you cross a suspension bridge and follow the Kali Gandaki north along its wide, stony bed. The going is easy and mostly level, through bare rock and sand that already look like Tibet, with Nilgiri, Tukuche Peak and Dhaulagiri over your shoulder. The Kali Gandaki is where shaligrams come from: black ammonite fossils that Hindus worship as a form of Vishnu, and that pilgrims carry home from Muktinath.

About four hours brings you to Kagbeni (2,810 m), where the stream from Muktinath meets the Kali Gandaki: mud-brick houses built close together, narrow alleys and tunnels, irrigation channels, green fields of wheat and barley, and a large red gompa. North of the village lies Upper Mustang, a restricted area this trek does not enter.

Now the long descent begins, through country in the same dry rain shadow as Tibet. Back down through Jharkot and Khingar, then along the valley floor — and in places the jeep road that now runs up it — most of the way to Jomsom, spread along both banks of the river under the Nilgiri peaks. After midday the wind blows hard up the gorge; it is why the planes fly early.

Below Jomsom is Marpha (2,667 m), a Thakali village of whitewashed stone houses and flagstone lanes, with its drains running beneath the paving and narrow passages that shelter you from the wind. Marpha is known across Nepal for its apples, eaten fresh or pressed into cider, and for rakshi, the local spirit, distilled from apples, apricots and peaches. The Nyingma monastery above the village looks down the length of the valley.

A steep descent through the forest to Rupse Chhahara, a waterfall that comes down the cliff in a long white ribbon beside the path. You are in the Kali Gandaki gorge: Dhaulagiri I and Annapurna I face each other across it, both over 8,000 m, with the river thousands of metres below — by some measures the deepest gorge on earth.

Then on through Dana and the villages of the lower valley to Tatopani (1,189 m), warm and green after the high desert, and more than 2,500 metres below Muktinath, where you slept three nights ago.

South along the Kali Gandaki towards Tiplyang, on footpaths and in places the road, through farming villages one after another, with the river loud below you and the snow peaks now behind. The day ends at Galeshwor (1,170 m), whose Shiva temple on the riverbank, Galeshwor Dham, draws its own pilgrims; many bound for Muktinath stop here on the way.

Back to the airport for the short flight to Kathmandu — sit on the left for the mountains this time — and met on arrival for the drive to your hotel. The rest of the day is free: for the shops of Thamel, a last circuit of Boudhanath at dusk, or a long, slow lunch.