Trip Testimonials & Reviews

Everything went well and we are very pleased with Nepal Nomad's Organization. They were very professional, We are telling our friends what a great trip it was.

Upper Mustag, the lost forbidden kingdom of the Himalayas.

Upper Mustag, the lost forbidden kingdom of the Himalayas is a unique place and going there is not a trek, is a journey. Just a couple of hours after Kagbeni, the beautiful village just before the beginning of the Upper Mustag restricted area, and you are no more in the modern age but in a timeless place where life is as centuries ago.

The local culture is Tibetan, as pure as in a few other places. And what about the scenery? Just awesome, nothing can be better than this. So, Upper Mustag is essentially two things: a living museum of an one of the oldest and deepest cultures on earth that's dying in its original birthplace, Tibet, and a awesome sculpure on cosmical scale made by nature in millions of years.The trail from Kagbeni to Lo Monthag the main village of Upper Mustag takes 4 full days and runs on the west side of the Kali Gandaki river which flows at the bottom of a canyon as deep as Grand Canyon but wider. The trail is never hard and just in a couple of points reaches 4.000 meters, but the terrain is arid, the sun burns and can be very dusty if it's windy. Alongthe trail you cross ancient villages built close to the rare water sources. Here with patience and ability, an ingenious irrigation system permit to grow barley, maze potatoes and othe basic vegetables. Sheeps provide the other pillar of the local economy. There are many old stupas, chorten and gompas, mostly in bad shape. They are the reminder of an age where the local economy was in much better shape, because of commerce between the south slopes of the Himalayas and the tibetan plateau.

Nowadays most of these commercial routes take other faster routes, but there is still a living small world here. When arrived in Lo Monthang it's mandatory to spend a couple of days there because the walled village is a jewel which must be tasted slowly. Believe me, it's one of the most arcane and beautiful places in Nepal. In Lo every year on May, takes place the Taji Festival one of the most spectacular buddhist festival, with monks dances, old masks and above all the local people all around because this festival is really their and not a touristic affair. After a couple of days in Lo, most trekker just comes back the same ways. This is a big mistake. The trek on the east side of the canyon is even more spectacular of the other. It's a bit harder but runs in such a wild environment that cannot simply be described, it's just one of the most surprising and beautiful places on the planet. Trekking between eroded gorges, crossing lunar landscapes with the white mighty wall of the Annapurnas always in front of you is just awesome. You need an experienced and reliable agency for that, because there are no huts on the trail and the trail itself is very hard to find.

I was with Nepal Nomad which I think it's one of the really few agencies which arrange this trip and was just perfect. Of course, this is an expensive trek, but it's worth the money and more. Because of the roads being built on the south side (the road up to Kagbeni is already completed) and the road which connects Lo Monthag to Tibet (closed because of the well known strong limitations imposed by the Chinese goverment) there's a potential threat to the purity of this culture. This is another reason to go there. So, if you like to go to really unique places, start putting money apart and do a favour to yourself: go to Upper Mustag.