Four Days Walking, Five Days Getting There

Shey Phoksundo at 3,611 metres: two night buses, four jeeps, one that quit on a cliff, and water bluer than anything else in Nepal.

By Ujjwol Kayastha · November 6–14, 2021 · Dolpa, Nepal

Four Days Walking, Five Days Getting There

Bhai Tika, and we leave anyway. The tika is barely dry when the bus pulls out of Gongabu at 17:30, Rs 1,800 a head, nine of us with the specific optimism of people who have not yet met the Dolpa road. What follows is the arithmetic of getting to Shey Phoksundo: five days of buses and jeeps to earn four days of walking. Nobody tells you that part. They show you the photograph of the lake, that impossible blue, and leave out the 1,300 kilometres and the vehicle that dies on a ledge above the Bheri. Both halves are the trip. This is the whole of it, in the order it happened.

days door to door: 9
high point · Rigmo: 3,635 m
days actually walking: 4
jeeps that gave up: 2

Out of Kathmandu on the night of Bhai Tika (Day 01 · Nov 6)

GONGABU → JYAMIRE GHAT → MUGLING

17:30 leave Gongabu, Rs 1,800
20:50 daal bhaat, Jyamire Ghat
21:17 Mugling

There is a version of this trip where we leave the day after the festival like sensible people. In the version that happened, the tika is still on our foreheads when the bus pulls out of Gongabu at 17:30. Rs 1,800 a head. Nine of us, five days of road ahead, and the particular confidence of a group that has looked at photographs of a lake and not at a map of how far away it is.

Dinner is daal bhaat at Jyamire Ghat at 20:50, eaten fast because the driver is the kind who counts minutes. Mugling at 21:17, the highway town that exists entirely so that buses can pause in it. Then the long dark, the seat that will not recline, and the slow understanding that this is only the first of two nights we will spend upright.

Down to the plains, then up again (Day 02 · Nov 7)

KAPILVASTU → KOHALPUR → NEPALGUNJ → KHALANGA → RADI JYULA

03:00 leave Kapilvastu after tea
06:23 Kohalpur chowk
09:15 leave Nepalgunj, Rs 1,000
14:24 Chheda Bazar
16:30 Khalanga
19:18 Radi Jyula
21:26 bed

Tea at Kapilvastu at 03:00, which is a sentence that only makes sense on a bus. By 06:14 we are putting fuel in at Chappar Gaudi in Banke, by 06:23 at Kohalpur chowk, and by the time Nepalgunj arrives the Terai has done its trick: it is hot, it is flat, and it is very hard to believe there are 3,600-metre mountains at the end of this. A milestone by the road says Nepalgunj 0. Another, hours later, says Jajarkot 67 km, which sounds like nothing and takes the rest of the afternoon.

A white stone milestone reading NEPALGUNJ 0 beside a road — Zero kilometres, in case you doubted it · 08:50

A stone milestone reading JAJARKOT 67 km in Nepali and English — 67 km, most of a day · 13:22

We leave Nepalgunj at 09:15 for Khalanga, Rs 1,000 a head, and the road starts climbing in the way roads do here, which is to say without ever quite committing. Baashgadi in Bardiya at 10:46. Chheda Bazar at 14:24, roti for most of us, Chinese for the vegetarians who have made peace with menu roulette. Khalanga by 16:30, and then the small triumph of the day: we reserve a bus to ourselves for Radi Jyula, Rs 500 each, and arrive at 19:18 to a plate of rice good enough that somebody writes daaaami in the notes with three extra a's.

21:15. Looked at the stars. Eleven minutes later, bed.

Four wheels, one river, and a very long afternoon (Day 03 · Nov 8)

RADI JYULA → TALLO BAGAR → TRIBENI → KHADANG → TRIPURAKOT

05:00 up, bazaar, chiya
07:50 leave for Tallo Bagar, Rs 500
10:00 Tallo Bagar
12:10 on to Khadang
14:21 Tribeni
15:50 Khadang
20:05 Tripurakot
22:30 dinner

Awake at five and fresh, which will not last. We walk the bazaar, drink chiya, eat a local samosa, watch some football, and leave at 07:50 in a four wheeler for Tallo Bagar, Rs 500 each, two hours estimated. It takes two hours and ten minutes and the estimate was the only honest thing about it. The road is a suggestion scratched into a cliff, and somebody films the whole descent on a GoPro because you cannot explain it afterwards without the footage.

A turquoise river running through a steep brown gorge under blue sky — The Bheri, showing off already · 10:24

Tallo Bagar at 10:00. We play monkey in the road like children while the food is made, wait at Thapa Hotel from 10:36, wait for a jeep to be assembled out of parts and optimism, and leave at 12:10. At 14:21 at Tribeni the jeep gives up briefly, which is how we end up on the bank of the Bheri with our feet in the water for exactly ten seconds, because that is all anybody can stand. Khadang at 15:50. Then two and a half hours of waiting for onward transport, spent on chau chau and a long conversation with some locals and two police officers who want to know why anyone would come here in November.

We leave for Tripurakot at 18:41, reach Kanchhi Bajaar at 19:46, walk the last stretch in the dark and are in Tripurakot by 20:05. Then the hotel hunt, which takes until 20:30 and ends well: one room for all nine of us at Rs 1,000, food at Rs 200 a head. Somebody walks back to the bazaar for water bottles. Dinner lands at 22:30, daal bhaat tarkaari achaar and an egg, and it is genuinely one of the best meals of the trip. Bed at 23:02.

687 steps, and then the walking starts (Day 04 · Nov 9)

TRIPURAKOT → TRIPURA SUNDARI → SULIGAD → KAGENI → CHHEPKA

05:00 up, an apple
06:10 Tripura Sundari, 687 steps
10:20 jeep to Suligad
11:10 Suligad, trek begins
13:10 Kageni
14:30 on to Chhepka
17:15 Chhepka, 2h45
20:00 dinner

Up at five, an apple each, and out at 06:10 for Bala Tripura Sundari. It is a short hike in the way that things are short when they are vertical: 687 steps, counted, because at that hour counting is easier than thinking. The temple at the top has red banners strung above it and a row of snow peaks behind, and at 06:57 the light does the thing it does exactly once a day. Back down by 08:00, chana pakauda and chiya at 08:15, which is the correct order of operations.

A temple roof with tall red prayer banners against snow peaks at sunrise — Tripura Sundari, 06:57 · 06:57

Then the morning does what mornings in Dolpa do. We reach the jeep stand at 08:50 and wait for it to be made. At 09:23 we are still waiting, this time for Kushalay's bottle, Suman's shoes, and a Nepali flag for the jhulunge pul at Tripurakot. The flag is never found. Sudeep falls over filming a video of a bike, which is recorded in the notes without comment and does not need any. The jeep arrives at 10:00, we leave at 10:20, and at 11:10 we are standing at Suligad where the road finally, definitively stops.

A long suspension footbridge over a river gorge with a figure crossing — The jhulunge pul, minus one flag · 09:16

The trek begins. Kageni by 13:10, where we wait for food long enough to learn everyone's order. Out at 14:30 for Chhepka, two hours forty-five minutes of walking beside water so clear it looks staged, and in at 17:15. Fresh by 18:35, by a fireplace, waiting for tea. Food at 19:27, dinner at 20:00 with bhaang ko achaar on the side, and bed at 21:00 with, the notes record, a little jhwaikatte.

A rough timber bridge over fast turquoise water between rock walls — Suligad. The road ends, the walking starts · 11:24

A yellow sign reading Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints, keep nothing but memories — The park puts it plainly · 11:35

Chhepka to Rigmo, the day the valley opens (Day 05 · Nov 10)

CHHEPKA → SIDAK → RYACHI → JHARANA → RIGMO

05:20 awake
06:40 leave Chhepka
08:10 Sidak tea house
10:15 Ryachi
11:45 Samjhana hotel
13:30 on for Rigmo, 4 hrs est.
15:40 Jharana
16:30 Rigmo
22:10 bed

Out of Chhepka at 06:40 into a valley still deciding whether to be cold. Sidak tea house at 08:10, ten minutes and gone at 08:20, tea and khaajaa taken standing up. The board outside says Phoksundo is five and a half hours away and Chhepka an hour and a half back, which is the first time the lake has appeared on a sign rather than in conversation. Two mules are tied between the pines outside, entirely uninterested in any of it.

A brown and a grey mule tethered between pine trees — The morning shift · 08:15

A hand holding a glass of black tea in a patterned tumbler — Ten minutes of tea · 08:17

A painted signboard reading Sidak Tea House with walking times in Nepali — Phoksundo 5:30. Chhepka 1:30 · 08:17

Ryachi at 10:15, the tourist information centre at 11:30, Samjhana hotel at 11:45. The network comes back a little higher up, briefly, the way it does here. Jharana hotel at 12:17. We leave at 13:30 for Rigmo with four hours estimated, hit the thaado ukaalo at 14:15 and are told twenty-five minutes, then fifteen, then fifty-five from the second person, which is the standard exchange rate for trail time in Nepal. Jharana again at 15:40, and Rigmo at 16:30.

You arrive through a stone kani, and then a blue signboard tells you where you are: Welcome to Upper Dolpo. Rigmo (3635). Phoksundo Lake, ten minutes. Kangla Pass, sixteen hours. Shey Monastery, twenty. We do the ten minutes. At 17:29, with the light nearly gone, the lake is a flat dark sheet between two walls, and it is holding back everything it will show us in the morning.

Coming into Rigmo, 16:30 · 16:30

A blue signboard reading Welcome to Upper Dolpo, Rigmo 3635, with distances — The sign that does the bragging · 16:33

Still lake water at dusk between dark mountain walls — First sight, last light · 17:29

There is free WorldLink at Phoksundo Lake, which is a sentence nobody expected to write, and it is good enough for a video call home. Dinner is excellent. There is a Tunga, local dancing, and a guest who turns out to be somebody's mama. Bed at 22:10 in an insulated room, which at 3,635 metres in November is worth more than any view.

The lake, from above and then from the shore (Day 06 · Nov 11)

RIGMO → LOWER VIEWPOINT → UPPER VIEWPOINT → PHOKSUNDO → CHHEPKA

05:30 awake, insulated room
06:30 out for the viewpoints
08:00 lower viewpoint
09:17 upper viewpoint
12:00 leave the lake after a bath
15:44 Jharana
17:15 Ryachi
20:25 Chhepka

Out at 06:30 towards the viewpoints. The lower one at 08:00, the upper one at 09:17 after an hour of climbing that your lungs will itemise for you at that altitude. And then you come over the last of it and the argument is settled. Phoksundo from above is not blue the way water is blue. It is blue the way a mineral is blue, flat and saturated and completely uninterested in whether you believe it, ringed by peaks that look sharpened rather than eroded.

The blue lake seen from a ridge in early morning light — Walking out to see it properly · 06:31

Deep blue Phoksundo lake ringed by jagged brown and grey peaks — Upper viewpoint. Nobody said much · 09:09

It is blue the way a mineral is blue, and completely uninterested in whether you believe it.

Wide view of Phoksundo lake, intensely blue, surrounded by steep dry mountains — The whole of it · 10:29

The blue lake seen from a descending trail with pine trees — Leaving, badly · 12:07

Back down to Rigmo by 09:30, out again at 10:00 for the lower viewpoint, and into the water for a bath at the sort of temperature that makes the decision for you. We leave Phoksundo at 12:00. Then the day turns into the longest walk of the trip, because the plan is to undo two days in one: Rigmo at 14:00, the first resting place on the ukaalo at 15:05, Jharana hotel at 15:44, Tapriza at 15:55, Samjhana at 16:05 where we leave behind some medicine and take a photograph of the people we are leaving it with.

Ryachi at 17:15, Sidak tree house at 18:25 where Sujal is waiting, and Chhepka at 20:25 in full dark. Sujal cooks. We eat late and sleep in the kitchen, nine of us around a stove that is still ticking at 23:19, which is the warmest room any of us have had all week. Off to bed by eleven, technically.

A wood stove burning bright orange in a dark kitchen — Chhepka kitchen, 23:19. We slept in here · 23:19

Down the gorge, and the jeep that quit (Day 07 · Nov 12)

CHHEPKA → KAAGENI → SULIGAD → TRIPURAKOT → KHADANG → TALLO BAGAR → RADI JYULA

05:50 leave Chhepka
08:05 Kaageni, breakfast
10:30 Suligad
12:20 Tripurakot
14:30 Khadang
17:30 the jeep quits
19:00 Tallo Bagar
22:05 Radi Jyula

Out of Chhepka at 05:50, through the stretch the group has already named weed heaven by 07:30, and into Kaageni at 08:05 for roti, honey, achaar and coffee, which is the best breakfast of the trip by a distance nobody bothers to argue about. Dapchyana on the way out: seven households, counted, because by day seven you count things. Somebody pays 400 for two vb and 50 for a song, and the songs go on for the rest of the walk.

The last of the walking, 09:55 · 09:55

Two white horses in red patterned saddle blankets on a village path — Better dressed than any of us · 09:23

A dirt road carved into a sheer gorge wall above a river — The road back, cut into the side of it · 13:22

Suligad at 10:30 and the walking is over, which nobody is quite ready for. Tripurakot at 12:20, waiting again while a jeep is assembled, Khadang at 14:30, and out towards Tallo Bagar at 15:00. At 17:30, on the kind of road where this is a genuinely interesting development, the jeep dies. Properly. The note says gaaadi bigryo, patttaaa gayooo and the extra letters are doing real work. Another vehicle comes at 18:20, we ride the rest of the way to Tallo Bagar hanging off it, and get in at 19:00.

Then the last indignity of the day: we leave for Radi Jyula at 19:40, except we do not, because the driver has not eaten. We wait for the driver's dinner. We leave at 20:05, reach Radi Jyula at 22:05, and go to bed at one in the morning after food and a beer that has been earned several times over.

Back down to the heat (Day 08 · Nov 13)

RADI JYULA → KHALANGA → CHHEDA → CHHINCHU → NEPALGUNJ

07:25 leave Radi Jyula
10:30 Khalanga, Jajarkot
13:00 Chheda
16:20 Chhinchu
19:30 Nepalgunj
21:45 leave for Kathmandu

Breakfast at 07:07, gone by 07:25, and the whole of Day 2 played backwards. Khalanga at 10:30. Chheda at 13:00, where lunch is roti, machha, chicken and dahi and everyone eats like the walking is still ahead of them rather than behind. Chhinchu at 16:20, Nepalgunj at 19:30, and then two hours of waiting for a ride in a town where the evening air is 25 degrees warmer than the kitchen we slept in on Thursday. The night bus for Kathmandu leaves at 21:45. A break at Banke at 23:30, for machha, again.

The rewind (Day 09 · Nov 14)

DAUNNE → NARAYANGARH → MUGLING → KATHMANDU → BANEPA

08:00 Daunne, breakfast
11:00 Narayangarh
12:00 Mugling
16:30 Kathmandu, Gongabu
16:45 off to Banepa

Two or three hours of sleep, in pieces. Daunne at 08:00, breakfast and a wash and out again by 08:40. Narayangarh at 11:00, Mugling at 12:00 for the second time in nine days, Chumlingtar at 12:15 for khaana, and Kathmandu at 16:30, at Gongabu, at the exact spot where the whole thing started with tika still on our foreheads. Off to Banepa at 16:45.

Nine pairs of boots and trainers toe-to-toe in a circle on gravel, seen from above — Nine pairs, and the work they did · 15:11

The ledger, honestly: nine days, of which four involved walking. Two night buses, four jeeps, one reserved bus, and two vehicles that stopped being vehicles partway through their job. If that sounds like a poor ratio, it is the ratio Dolpa charges, and it is the reason the lake still looks the way it does. Nothing that easy to reach stays that colour.

Opinions, since you stayed this long. Do not try to make the road part comfortable, because you cannot; make it funny instead, and take the seat by the window. Eat wherever the driver eats. Carry more cash than you think and fewer clothes than you packed. And when the sign at Rigmo says the lake is ten minutes away, go immediately, even at dusk with nothing left in your legs, because the first look and the morning look are two different lakes and you want both.

Five days of road to buy four days of walking. Worth it, and we would do it again.

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