Early morning today the trek from Samar was quite different from the rest of the morning we experienced so far in Upper Mustang, in which the whole sky was super cloudy, with very little of sunlight. It make the scenery looked quite moody but still spectacular and special. The environment colder a bit but I still enjoy the walk without too much exposed to the damaging sunlight! Further more, the changing of the atmosphere make me forget that I am actually taking on the same route back, until the moment I saw Chele village, and Kali Gandaki river bank! It might also mean that it was almost close to the end of this amazing trekking adventure.
The misty morning on the road.
The mist covering the peak where Chungsi La located.
Good bye beautiful Samar village.
A view back toward village of Samar direction from Taklam La.
The misty view on village of Ghyakar in the morning.
Descending journey from Taklam La.
Probably the crookedest path throughout whole Upper Mustang trek.
Familiar path with moody atmosphere.
Start to get more sunlight piercing through the clouds.
Some heaven light ray bright up village of Chele.
Familiar Kali Gandaki river bank as seen from the cliff.
We have reached Chele village in less than 2 hours of trek today, and was having a minor break at Mustang Gate Hotel once again for some drinks. We supposedly able to make it directly to Kagbeni today based on the distance and condition, but since we want to optimize our time spent in Upper Mustang special district, we decided to have a stay in Cchhusang instead, although it was just afternoon when the time we reach the village. Well, probably it was a great decision to have more rest and relaxing time today!
There was mountain of apple and corns was there at our stay today, Prakash Lodge & Restaurant! An old lady was peeling the corns skin, hence we were trying to help as we were quite free when we reach there. I wished to try these shining corns here as corns was my personal favorite. The hotel owner helped to grill some for us and we tried with high expectation, but once again it wasn't taste good at all. When ask about the primary usage of these corns, they then told us that it mainly use as food to the animal they owned, especially pig. Now I wonder why, nobody prepare corns for us throughout the journey, until I wish for it, which probably a huge mistake, but a valuable experience still!
Oh yeah, on the positive part our lunch prepared by the family in was even served us some Korean Kimchi that their son learned from the city, what a surprise!
The distance covered today was short one, just about 10 KM.
Entering village of Chele.
The destination for the day, Cchhusang village.
Saying bye to Chele village after the steep descending.
I can assume, there was no more drastic climb from now till we back to Kagbeni.
Passing through series of Mani Stones and Stupas before entering the village.
Truly mountain of apples and corns on the ground here!
Very yellowish looking corn.
Grandma was busy peeling off the skin from the corns.
Everyone offer their helps here to ease the job for her.
Our stay today, Prakash Lodge & Restaurant.
At the dining hall, awaited our lunch.
In fact, these corns was not nice at all, after comparing I realize the sweet corns in Malaysia was superb!
This was pure surprise able to taste some unique Korean Kimchi here in Upper Mustang!
During the free time in the afternoon, I staring at the Kali Gandaki river bank and think about the fossil stone that we bought from the lady in Dhakmar, and keep on wondering wasn't that easy to go and just hunting those gems by myself there, free of charge? Mandy wish to just laying comfortably on the lodge, hence the rest of us head our way into the river bank to start our treasure hunting! Initially I thought that we might be able to get a lot of those fossil stone easily, but in fact the only way to know whether a stone was the one we want, was to break it up by hitting it strongly on the bigger stone on the ground! We get lucky for some but unfortunately the impact of the hit damage the original fossil, and throughout the long exploration, we basically found nothing worth collecting. Well, I guess the money was well the other day!
The only down part of the day was again I made a mistake which causing my trekking session auto save during dinner time, which ended with 57 total hours of walk, with distance of 176.5 KM, and elevation gain of 8084 meters throughout 11 days!
Crossing the water by stepping on big stones threw by Kumar.
Time to hunt for some treasures!
Walking alongside Kali Gandaki river.
The river flow was surprisingly rapid when we observe up close.
Sudden sand storms that flew through the river bank occasionally with consistent frequencies.
Closer view on these caves from the river bank.
Any of these stones might potentially be the treasures that we were looking for, but which one in exact?
Ramzee demonstrate how we smash the stone that we suspect contain what we were looking for.
Praying flag hanging on the bridge.
If we were to take the route to Yala, we would exit from that direction, passing the village of Tetang. That remains as a mystery for us about Upper Mustang.
The hanging bridge in Cchhusang.
Tonight will be the last night stay in Upper Mustang for us.
Cchhusang - Nepal
November 2018
