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Trekking in Nepal round Manaslu

 General information

This travellogue is about one of Nepal’s most beautiful treks, on this page you can find some general information .0 klick grosse  photosP125

Most of the pictures a just shown in a small sizze. Klick into the upper left corner to see them in 750 Pixel width and the lower right corner for 1050 Pixel.

 

 

Round Manaslu

Normaly this is a regular 2,5 -3 week trek, where you end in Besisahar of the Annapurna round trek. With my friends we continued to manang, crossed the thorong la an walked till Beni. it took us 32 days.

screenshot google earth manaslu Übersicht groß P750 Kopie
  screenshot Google Earth, adapted by Andrées de Ruiter

The Manalsu massif lies around 100 km west of Kathmandu between the Ganesh and Annapurnamassif.

In the beginning one is driving beside the Trisuli River in the direction of Pokhara. There are two starting points for the round manaslu trek: Gorkha or Arughat Bazar.
 

Some travel companies take the route from Gorkha over the Rupina La with wonderful sights obver the Ganesh himal. But this means several days with tents and your own food so we choose the route from Arughat  along the Buddhi Gandaki.

As there are just a very few an very basic Lodges we also had to bring tents and food with us.

Permits:

Trekking permit: For the Manaslu you need a special atrekking permit which cost 90 USD per week and person. You will need two weeks so it costs in total 180 USD. you must go throught an registered trekking agency and be at least two persons.

Manaslu Conservation Area Permit: Like in the annapurna area there ist the Manaslu conservation Area Project MCAP and you must get a permit from them as well for 2000 Rupies

Maoistensteuer: Gorkha area is a maoist stronghold. We were warned that the “donation2 could be as hight as 200 USD. Fortunately we didn’t met any of them so we could spend the money drinking beer with many toast to the invisible maoists. After the maoist are in the governement now, athere should not be any donation anymore.

Checkpoints: In theory there are checkposts in Gorkha, Arughat ,Jagat and Dharapani. When we trekked in the after season, there was noone at all. The checkpost of Jagat was blasted 3 years ago by maoists. The checkpost have been rebuilt meanwhile.

Is it possible to do Manaslu Round without tents ?

To get the permit, you are supposed to go throught an agency which will organise porters, tents and a Kitchen crew. And on the MC you will find many camping grounds. When we trekked in 2005 we stayed already often in little lodges and could get regulary dals bhat or noodles. We had 25 liters of kerosine and plenty of food with us, which appeared to be not necessary, as we could have bought it on the way. In athe last years, many new lodges have been build so that MC starts to be feasable without a tent. Only the last camp in Daramsala just befor larkya la has just a shelter with no windows or doors. The german Marc S. evern succeded to get a official permit by an agency without a guide or any porters and could do the whole circuit without a tent.

But dont expect lodges like on the Annapurna circuit. Often it’s just a private house where you get some basic food and can slep on the smokie first floor on basic beds with no matrasses.

Conclusion: For trekkers who like a very basic stile, the manaslu trek is feasable without a tent. But you will utterly need a own matrass and a good sleeping bag. It is rather probable that in the peak season lodges will be often completely full. For this reason I would still carry my own little tent. I still thing that for this trek a guide and a porter are to recomend. But one can organise this trek as a basic teahouse trek with very few camoping days, when necessary.

Overview over lodges and teahouses (2008)

Ort

Art (Stand Dez 2005) 2010

Bemerkung

Arughat Bazar

2 lodges, shops, Phone, Kerosine, Electricity

 

Arkhet Bazar

lodge hotel manaslu, shops

 

Armala

private tea house

no sign board, dorm is very smoky

Liding

possible to stay in private houses

 

Lapubesi

tea houses, dormitory

 

Macha Khola

basic lodge, bed bugs in the upper sleeping roomeinfache Lodge, Matratzen im Oberen Schlafsaal mit Ungeziefer

there is a small hot spring 20 min further

Tatopani

Tea house

Excellent hot shower

shotly after crossing Yara Khola

/Dhoban

campoing site with bamboo hut

in Dhoban two basic lodges

when we reached the camping site, the owner stayed the night and we had a good dinner and breakfast

Jagat

Checkpoint, basic Lodge Camping site, Teahouse, shops, Kerosine, Telefon

 

Sirdibas (Tara)

Teahouse and shop

The Tea house is on the end of the village, one can get also Dal bhat or noodle soup

Philim

Checkpoint, Camping site , Geschäfte, two basic lodges electricity, phone

 

Nyak

possibility to camp on private ground

The next two hours there is no camping possibility

zwischen Nyak und Deng

on the north eastern side of the river in middle of the forest there is a fantastic overhanging rock with flat sleeping places

 

Between Nyak and Namrung the map from Neplmaps is not accurate at all.

Deng

lLodge and camping site

 

between Deng and Bihi

Teahous

 

unterhalb Bihi

nice Camping site and Teahouse )

Above the campingsite there is the awsome old village of Bihi. it is absolutely worth to climb up, even when it takes one hour!

Ghap

Lodge and camping site. On the opposite riverside two mor basic lodges


 

Namrung

Checkpoint, Lodges, Camping site and shops Campingplatz und Geschäft, Eletricity

 

Lihi

Camping site and basic lodge

beautiful little village
 

Sho

Privat tea house, lodge under construction
 

kein Schild, lecker Kartoffeln

Lho

big confortable lodge with very soft matrasses. The lodge is expensive. Shop Kerosine and Electricity. On might be able to sleep in the new big monastery on the hill where one can find also a phone.

 

Samagaon

at least 3 lodges and a camping site, shops, Kerosine, Phone , weak electricity.

This is the starting point for the mansalu expedidions. The lodges ar all at the end of the village.
 

Samdo

Checkpoint, 3 new lodges an a camping site. electricity

A very good place for an acclimtisazion day, one can make a day hike to the tibetan boarder
A few people start from Samdo in the night a nd cross Larkya la without staying in Daramsala. I would not advice this.
 

Daramsala

shelter with no windows or doors, water, camping site

There is now a new lodge with around 15 rooms (2010)

shelter can be very crowded

Bimtang

at least 5 basic lodgesshops,Geschäfte

 

 2,5 hours after Bimtang

single tea hous in the middle of the forest

absolutely cute boihinis.

Surki

lodge

 

Tilje

two basic lodges

 

Dharapani

the luxury of the AV

wonderful, hot showers ad big menus. All you were dreaming of. But after a very few days you will dream of the basic manaslu lodges again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have newer informations about the lodges on MC please send me a email to
 namaste(at)nepal-dia.de

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Photos: the pictures of the manaslu pages are from me and my friends. You can see the respective autor in the filename of the photo: HH = Hans Henninger, HPS = Hans-Peter Stupp, MJ = Manfred Jeckel und AdR = Andrées de Ruiter

For the search engines, Trekking in Nepal, A travelogue of the manaslu trek, Round manaslu, Pictures of manaslu trekking, Photos of manaslu trek , Trekking in Nepal - round manaslu .