Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 3 | Page 23

Manaslu Trek

by Jess Tyler

Mt. Manaslu. Photo: Igor Kulishov.

In May 2013 my father, Richard Tyler and I hired a guide and
a porter and undertook the Manaslu trek. We’d already been to
Everest Basecamp a few years before and were hungry to get
out and see more of the beautiful mountains of Nepal. However,
Everest Basecamp had been very commercial and very busy
with other tourists, so we decided that rather than going for a
trek like the Annapurna circuit we’d look for something a little off
the beaten track. We chose to do the Manaslu trek.
We had an eight hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Arughat,
a bus we almost missed after my father overslept. We arrived
at the bus park just as the bus was starting up to leave. On
reaching Araghat, we crossed the river and got another bus to
Soli Khola where our Manaslu adventure began. There were
several parts to the trek that made it such a memorable walk:
the scenery, the tourists and the locals we met and our guide
and porter.
First though, it may be worth talking about the accommodation
and the bugs!
The accommodation was good on the whole, even if basic.
Several of the tea houses we stayed in appeared to be newly
built and were comfortable even if cold. One place we’d stayed
they’d moved the stove out of the dining hall into the back room
where the staff, guides and porters went, leaving us freezing in
the dining hall. Even so there are good memories of this place.
We were huddled around a table with our guide and porter,

These blood suckers are slightly creepy
though and let’s face it, really gross to
look at.
and the other four trekkers doing the trek at the same time
with their guide. We played a card game called ‘cheat’ while a
thunderstorm carried on around us outside. There was a lot of
laughing as we all cheated our way through the game. The other
thing I shall not forget are the bedbugs I encountered in one
of the early teahouses: adult bedbugs that left me with several
big bites. Happily I managed not to take any away with me. My
father also had an encounter with a flea jumping merrily around
his bed in another teahouse. Wrapping it up in his bedding, he
took it outside and let it go. The blood suckers are slightly creepy
though and let’s face it, really gross to look at. But it’s worth
being aware of them as so to try not to carry them on to the next
place. And yes, giant cockroaches and massive spiders were seen,
but they are all harmless, especially when left alone.
The scenery was fantastic, the lush green lower parts of the
trek with forests of flowering rhododendrons., the