“I really want to go on this hike,” my wife said as she pointed to an article in the in-flight magazine she was reading. I looked at the title, Hiking Nepal’s Forgotten Trail, and my first reaction was nervousness. Hiking in Nepal? Wouldn’t we have to spend a lot of money getting outfitted with tents, warmer clothing, ice picks, oxygen masks, etc? And what about this “forgotten trail” business? Is the trail so remote that we might get lost and forgotten and our mummified bodies be found decades later? However, after reading the article, I too was intrigued, and we decided to take the trek. It turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of our past two and a half years of full-time travel.
About the Indigenous Peoples Trail
The trail is a relatively low elevation trek whose focus is walking through villages and enjoying the sights of the local people and the natural beauty of the area. The most popular treks in Nepal, Everest Base Camp and Annapurna Circuit Trek, are high elevation treks. I can understand why people might want the challenge and accomplishment of hiking to the Everest Base Camp, or doing a strenuous high-altitude trek, but we really enjoyed the Indigenous Peoples Trail and for us, I think it was much more enjoyable than one of the more popular treks would have been.
The trail was first implemented and publicized in 2011, but never really grew much in popularity. When the devastating earthquake hit Nepal in 2015, it damaged or destroyed many of the community halls and homestays on the trail, further hampering the growth in traffic. Our guide estimated that only about 100 people per year travel the trail. By comparison, about 40,000 people hike to the Everest Base Camp every year and the Annapurna Circuit sees around 22,000 per year.
You can hike the trail independently, but we chose to book a package from Nepal Environmental Treks http://www.environmentaltrekking.com/. We are very glad we did. The package advertised an English-speaking guide and a porter, but we were fortunate enough to get two very experienced guides, each with over 20 years of experience. We are very glad that we booked the package as the guides were very helpful in helping us meet and communicate with villagers along the way and also answered my wife’s seemingly endless botany questions, “What kind of plant is this? Can you eat it? When does it bloom?” The guides really added to the experience.
The trek can take anywhere from 5 to 9 days depending on the exact route you take, your pace, and how long you take stopping and looking at things along the way. You stay overnight at homestays and your morning and evening meal will be taken there. On the trail, there are a few villages where you can get tea or a mid-day meal. Many times, our guides would simply stop at a house and ask if they could prepare some tea or a meal for us.
The homestays will provide a bed, pillow, and blankets so you don’t have to pack a sleeping bag or anything. Accommodations are basic by western standards but safe and comfortable. A couple of the places we stayed had a cold-water shower, but most will just have a bathing room with a bucket of water. The toilets are porcelain squat toilets with a bucket of water for cleaning yourself after use.
Trail Route
Finding specific information about the trail was very difficult. I am used to going to the web and finding numerous articles, maps, tips, etc. about just about anything we try to do. I was able to find a Wikipedia article and a few other posts about the trail. The only maps I could find were very general. Even after booking the trip and getting a day by day agenda from the trekking company, I could not find all the destinations on Google Maps, Maps.me, or Google Earth. One of the challenges is that the place names have variations in spelling and, for quite a few of them, there are multiple places across Nepal with the same name.
While on the trek, I used Maps.me to drop a pin at every location we visited and was able to recreate a rough idea of the route we took. See the table below for our daily destinations along with GPS coordinates. I also show a rough idea of our daily route using a screen print from my Maps.me app. Please note, that the route will not be the exact route shown as there were many times where our guides took short-cuts or took us a little further off the trail to view a particular site. With these GPS coordinates and other information in this blog, you should be able to navigate the IP Trail on your own.
It is definitely possible to make the trip independently, we met a young couple from Argentina on the trail doing just that, and the author of the article we read in the airline in-flight magazine also made the trip independently. For us, we are extremely happy that we booked a guided trek and feel that we got a lot more out of the trek by having a couple of guides.
About 100 km (62 miles) east of Katmandu is the Indigenous Peoples Trail. The most popular way to take the trail is to start in Mudhe and travel south to Nepal Thok
Day 1 – Katmandu to Deurali
The first day was a combination of a bus ride and trekking. One thing I have learned about travel in Nepal is that you need to have patience, but your trips will almost always end up being an exciting adventure. Most of the roads in Nepal are unpaved, quite narrow and have no shoulder. If someone breaks down or has a flat tire, it almost always turns the road into a one-way affair and slows traffic considerably.
We met at the trekking office in Katmandu at 6:30 AM. From there we took a taxi almost all the way to the bus station. I say almost because the taxi broke down and we ended up walking the last few blocks to the bus station. On a good day, the bus from Katmandu to Mudhe takes about 5 hours. However, I think our trip took closer to 7 or 8 hours. First, about two hours into the trip, there was a traffic jam. I am not sure what happened, but the bus was stopped in a long line of traffic for about 45 minutes. About an hour later we made an unscheduled stop to change out one of the rear tires. This set us back another half hour to 45 minutes.
By mid-afternoon, we reached Mudhe, left the bus, and began our trek. Most of the trek that day was along a dirt road leading to Dunghe. In the articles I read, it looks like Dunghe is the official start of the IP Trail. However, we spent the night at the Deurali Guesthouse and Restaurant, a few miles before Dunghe.
The guesthouse was the most “hotel like” place we stayed. A multi-story concrete building with a restaurant on the main floor and one shared bathroom inside.
Before dinner, we wandered a little around the small village. Two things that struck me on our first day of trekking were the terraced farming and the earthquake-related reconstruction. Eighty percent of Nepal is mountainous. This makes farming very difficult and farmers create terraces to have a little flat ground to plant crops. For our entire trip, we were treated to breathtaking views of farming terraces. In the region we traveled, crops vary by season, but potatoes seem to be the main crop. We also saw corn, cabbage, wheat, and some rice at the lower elevations and near rivers.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia. The homes in this area are primarily made of rock held together with mud or clay. The 7.8 magnitude quake in 2015 claimed 6200 lives in Nepal and damaged or destroyed many homes and other buildings. We saw numerous projects funded by the EU and US Aid offering assistance to rebuild using more earthquake resistant methods.
One of our first views of the terraced farming and villages
An example of some of the damage done by the 2015 earthquake. Some buildings are being torn down and repaired. Others are simply abandoned. For many years the population in the large cities is increasing as people move out of the small villages in search of a better life.
One of the many people we met along our trip. This woman is sorting millet. It seems that there is no retirement age, we often saw people in their eighties engaging in sometimes very heavy physical labor.
Our first-night accommodations
Day 2- Deurali to Kholakarka
After leaving the guesthouse, our first stop of the day was in Dunghe, the official start of the IP Trail. We stopped for an early lunch since our guide told us there might not be any other places to get lunch on the way. We enjoyed the food on the trek. It was mostly vegetarian and quite simple, usually, lunch or dinner consisted of rice, dal-baht – which you pour over your rice (people not familiar with dal would call this a lentil soup), potatoes, and often some sort of boiled or fried greens. The food is always made fresh and so we learned that from the time you ordered a meal until the time it was ready would take forty-five minutes to an hour to prepare. A lot of the time any of the greens or other vegetables would be picked directly from the garden specifically for that meal.
Near the end of the day, we reached the highest elevation of the entire trek, Sailung – 3146 meters (10,322 feet) above sea level. At the peak, there are a number of Buddhist memorials that we were told were a few hundred years old. There was a viewing tower and another Buddhist building under construction. It was here that we also saw our first yak/cattle hybrids. They graze the hills during the day and then head back to be milked and housed for the evening.
Just a little way on the other side of the peak is the small village of Kholakara, where we spent the next two nights. It was on this descent that we saw one of the most amazing sights that we have ever seen. As we came across a small hill on the way down to Kholakara, we were greeted by the beautiful rhododendron forests in full bloom. Some of the trees were 20 meters (60 feet) tall. It was truly an incredible, and almost surreal, experience to see the hills covered with red, pink, and white bloom. Susan was literally moved almost to tears at the sight. It did look like something you would see in a fantasy movie about an imaginary utopia. They were truly breathtaking. Rhododendrons are only in bloom for about three weeks per year, so we felt extremely fortunate to be there while they were in bloom.
It was late spring when we made the trek so there were many baby goats and other animals along the way. Susan loved holding and stroking the babies, some only a day old.
A lot of the people we met along the trail were quite shy, particularly the children for some reason. However, this lady hammed it up for us.
We are used to people wanting to take pictures of us depending on which country we are in. However, on the trail very few people had cameras or cell phones so when we took a picture of people, we always made sure to show them the picture.
The path on the trail varies. Since the earthquake in 2015, a lot of basic dirt roads were built, many following the existing footpaths. A lot of the trek is on these dirt roads, very little to zero traffic, but other sections are simple footpaths, or like in this photo, more developed stone staircases.
Another view of the terraces and villages. In the foreground, you can see construction of houses using earthquake resistant methods.
A fairly typical kitchen and stove. This is where we stopped for lunch in Dunghe. Some of the places we stayed used gas for cooking, some just cooked on an open fire indoors with no chimney – very smoky! Fortunately, this kitchen had a chimney and was well ventalated.
The first official sign we saw on the Indigenous Peoples Trail.
At the top of Sailung. These monuments are a few hundred years old.
These women spend the day carrying rocks for construction projects on the top of Sailung. I estimate that they each carry at least 70 pounds of rocks in the basket a couple of miles uphill.
The amazing rhododendron forests. We were fortunate to see them in bloom, they typically are only in bloom two to three weeks a year.
Day 3 – Kholakara
We spent two nights in Kholakara. During the day we hiked the short distance back up to Sailung and explored the area a little more. On a clear day, we are told, you can get some great views of the Himalayas, including Mt Everest. Unfortunately, it was not a clear day. (Our trip was in April, hazy season. We rarely had any long-distance views.)
After lunch, we headed the other direction to check out some other Buddhist religious sites when we got caught in a hail storm. Fortunately, we were not far from our guesthouse. We made a quick dash to a small building and shared about 15 minutes with a bunch of goats waiting for the worst of the hail to be over.
At the top of Sailung peak, the highest elevation of our trek. Behind us is the Nepali flag. With us are our guides, Karma on the left, and Krishna on the right.
We went back to the peak of Sailung and explored a little. The weather was a little clearer than when we first made the summit the previous afternoon.
One of the many yak/cattle hybrids we saw on the trip. They graze the hills during the day and come down at night.
Some more of the beautiful rhododendrons.
This is the owner of the guesthouse where we stayed in Kholakarka. A number of the places we stayed put a white scarf around our neck when we departed.
Day 4 – Kholakara to Surkey
Thankfully, the hail and rain had stopped overnight, and we made our way from Kholakara to Surkey in excellent weather. The trip to Kholakara was mostly uphill, in contrast, it was mostly downhill to Surkey.
Surkey is another picturesque village set on a mountainside surrounded by terraced fields. Walking into town, we heard music and later learned that there was a wedding going on. We passed a number of people dressed in their best clothing carrying gifts on their way to the wedding.
We spent the night at the Newar Guesthouse. This was one of our favorite places that we stayed on the trek. The rooms were nice and comfortable. The window opened to magnificent views of the valley, and there was an electrical outlet in the room where we could recharge our camera and phones! The hosts were wonderful and very friendly. Dinner was taken sitting cross-legged Nepali style in the traditional kitchen. I wish I spoke Nepali because one of our guides, Krishna, is a real comedian and always joking. Our hosts and Karma, our other guide, were laughing quite a bit at Krishna’s stories.
On the trail again
There are many monuments, temples, or stupas along the way
Susan usually asks permission before taking someone’s picture and always shows the people their photo on her phone.
This woman made us tea for a mid-morning break. It is just her and her husband now on the farm. The children have all moved to the city. Many times our guides would just stop at a house and ask if they could prepare us tea or a meal and give them some money to do so. I think this couple liked the company and having someone to talk to.
This is the local secondary school principal. In many of the larger villages, we would meet the teacher at the school of the village. I think word got around pretty fast that there were foreigners in town and the teachers usually spoke some English and I think sought us out to greet us and practice their English.
We crossed a few suspension bridges like this during our trip. They are very sturdy and well constructed. Our guides told us that many of the bridges are just a few years old and had saved many lives. Previous to the bridges being there people had to cross the river by wading through. In the rainy season when waters are high, this is very dangerous.
Our hostess and her daughter
The view out the window of our guesthouse bedroom
We ate our meal here, sitting on the floor cross-legged. The kitchen was very well organized and clean.
Day 5 – Surkey to Doramba
When we left in the morning we passed by the house where the wedding had taken place the night before. The bride and groom were leaving in a four-wheel drive truck, however, since the ground was a little wet, they were stuck. Thankfully, with the help of a dozen or so wedding guests, they were able to get on their way.
In Doramba, we had another fantastic stay at a really nice place, Hyalung Tokari Tamang Guesthouse. The host spoke very good English, his wife, not so much, but boy did she ever cook some delicious food and was very kind. We had tea that afternoon and breakfast the next morning at a table and chairs outside in their beautiful garden. It was a really comfortable stay. https://www.facebook.com/HyalungHomeStay/
Where the wedding was held the night before
Family at another tea stop
This is a pretty typical method of carrying things. The items are placed in the upside down conical basket. A strap goes over your head. I would think that this would put quite a bit of strain on your neck.
The village of Doramba where we spent the night
Susan admiring the view from the garden of our guesthouse
Day 6 – Doramba to Khadadevi
We never seemed to tire of the spectacular views of the mountains, villages, and terraced farmland. Every day we would get these views. We also enjoyed meeting people along the way. We found the people friendly, although they were often quite shy. The older people seemed to be the most willing to talk with us and this is where having Nepali speaking guides really helped and added to the experience. It seemed to be the custom for them to tell us how old they are and they often told us about their health. It was amazing to see people in their late seventies and early eighties still engaging in strenuous physical activity like carrying firewood or fodder on their backs.
Our last incline of the day took us to Khadadevi Temple. Although most of the people in this area of Nepal are Buddhist, the Khadadevi Temple is Hindu. It is an important Hindu temple and people from all over come to the temple, many from Katmandu, and we were told that people from India even make the trip to the temple. They still perform animal sacrifices there and we were excited to learn that the next day was an important day and that there would be many people gathering to worship and make sacrifices.
Breakfast in the beautiful garden of the guesthouse in Doramba
Farewell from Doramba, with our hostess
A roadside cave altar where we took a mid-morning break
We had lunch in the relatively large town of Galpa. I was able to get internet on my phone for the first time in days and even found a place to get a charging cable for one I had misplaced. I just found this building interesting, this is not where we had lunch.
This gives you some idea of the construction methods used to rebuild. It is a combination of traditional methods and modern methods to improve earthquake resistance. The walls are constructed of stone in the traditional fashion, but every 18 inches or so a layer of reinforced concrete is poured. This photo also illustrates the manual labor and the fact that everyone gets involved. Many times we saw people breaking rocks with hammers to make aggregate for the concrete.
In this area, there is a fair amount of logging. We saw and heard many chainsaws, but a lot of logging is still done with axes. The other interesting thing is that often the log is processed right there on the spot. Using chainsaws or axes the fallen log is shaped into lumber.
It often amazed me how much labor is still done by hand and done by elderly people. This woman is carrying leafy branches to be fed to animals.
Two baby goats at once. Double the fun!
The Hindu temple on the hilltop. It would get very busy there the next morning.
This shows one of the most uncomfortable things for us on the whole trip. At a couple of the homestays, the cooking is done in the kitchen over an open wood fire. There is no chimney, no ventilation. The smoke is just left to escape out the window or open door. The upper parts of the wall and the ceiling are black with soot. I guess you must get used to it, but we found it harder to breathe, our eyes watered. It can’t be healthy for you.
Day 7 – Khadadevi to Sunapati
Day 7 was very exciting and most exhausting day of the trip. Exciting because in the morning it cleared up enough for us to get glimpses of the Himalayas, and we got to experience the ceremonies and sacrifices at the Hindu Temple. Exhausting because we got up at 5:00 am to see the sunrise and look at the Himalayas and didn’t start trekking until about 11:00 because we stayed around to watch the sacrifices.
There are pluses and minuses about the times of the year to visit this region of Nepal. In March and April, you have the benefit of seeing the rhododendron forests in bloom. However, during this time the weather is quite cloudy and hazy. October and November offer the clearest skies, but you won’t get to see the flowers blooming. Even in April, you can get some days where you can catch a break in the clouds and get some views of the Himalaya mountains. For the past few nights our guides had told us that they will keep a look out at sunrise and if it was clear, they would wake us up to look at the mountains. If it was not clear, they would let us sleep. We were pleased to get the early knock on the door to look at the mountains. It still was fairly hazy and cloudy, but we were able to catch glimpses of various mountains in the Himalayas.
After breakfast, we walked up to the temple where people were gathering to worship and make sacrifices. This was a very interesting experience. There were many family groups and people were dressed up. We met several people who spoke English and wanted to talk with us.
I know some people would be disturbed at watching the animal sacrifices. We didn’t mind and found it fascinating. First of all, the animals are killed quickly. Second of all, only the blood is offered on the altar. The actual animal is eaten by the family, nothing goes to waste. If you eat meat, at some point in time the fried chicken or steak you are eating was killed, it is just that most people don’t see the actual killing part.
There are five different altars and each one is specific to a particular animal and the god it is sacrificed for: pigeon, chickens, ducks, goats, and water buffalo. There were two water buffalo, about 20 goats, about 20 chickens, a few ducks, and a few pigeons sacrificed. It was a colorful, interesting experience.
We waited around until the first water buffalo was sacrificed. One of our guides, Karma, had never seen a buffalo sacrificed before.
The trip was one of the longer days, about 14 km and had quite a bit of elevation change, both up and down. By the end of the day, I was the most exhausted I had been on the trip and welcomed getting to bed after dinner that night.
The celebration and sacrifices at the Hindu temple was certainly a family affair. Families were dressed in their best clothing and gathered for many pictures
This group of ladies wanted their picture taken with us. The Young woman on the right is going to be studying in Japan. We talked for quite a while with her and her boyfriend. They live in Katmandu.
The young lady in blue and white is from a nearby village. She spoke excellent English and told us she enjoys meeting tourists and practicing her English. Those are her sister and brother with her.
The custom is to circle around the temple area and ring the many bells as you walk by. Most people do this carrying the animal they are going to sacrifice, although they did not do this with the water buffaloes.
This particular family was doing an extensive amount of activity. They sacrificed pigeons, chickens, goats, and a water buffalo. The man on the right with white hat and orange scarf is the priest. They made many food offerings and performed a lot of other rituals.
Another family circling the temple area.
The smaller of the two water buffaloes being offered. In the background, you can see the other water buffalo already on the ground with its feet tied.
Back on the trail we saw a number of people plowing with water buffalo.
Just a little ways off the trail was this guy cutting logs into lumber with a chainsaw. To me, it looked like he was just eyeballing the cuts and dimensions. Susan said she saw him use another board as a template..
This man is 82 years old and out gathering firewood. Our guides talked with him a little and he seems like a lively, feisty character.
Day 8 – Sunapati to Nepal Thok
Since it was quite late when we arrived in Sunapati the night before, and I was exhausted, we didn’t have a chance to explore the area before going to bed. Before breakfast, we took look around the area near the homestay. The homestay was right next to the Dongme Gompa, or monastery. It turned out that our host was a monk. We learned that there are different types of monks. Our host was a monk that could marry and lead a relatively secular life. I had only been aware of monks that were celibate and never married.
At a number of the homestays, we were given a white scarf as a parting gift when we left. At the guesthouse in Sunapati, we had something extra – a blessing from the monk in addition to the scarf.
Just a little ways from the homestay we climbed one more hill to get some great views of the surrounding area and again were able to get a few glimpses of the Himalayas. From there we could also see Lubughat, where we’re planning to spend the night – emphasis on the planning, it didn’t quite work out that way.
It was mostly downhill, but a fairly long day. As we came up upon a place to have a morning tea, we noticed a loom set up on a covered roof-top porch with a rug that had just been started. After tea, we approached the house and asked if we could take a look at the rug. The woman was more than happy to show us and mentioned that she had a rug that was almost finished that she would be willing to sell. Susan fell in love with the rug and Karma and Krishna helped negotiate the purchase. Since it was the last full day of trekking and we were only supposed to have a few more hours to go, we didn’t feel too bad about carrying the rug. We insisted on carrying the rug rather than having one of the guides carry it and after some arguing, we compromised and I ended up taking Krishna’s backpack and he carried the rug.
When we arrived in Lubughat, we were unable to find a place to stay for the night, so we crossed the river and made our way to where we were going to pick up the bus the next day. It was only another hour and a half or so.
The monk and us after he said his blessing for our journey. By now we are used to getting the white scarves. The way you can tell that this monk is the kind that can marry is by the yellow shirt he is wearing. Monks who are celibate would be dressed in all red. I have noticed that people rarely smile in photos. I noticed this especially in Myanmar, but also a lot of people in Nepal do not smile for pictures. I tried acting like a local for this picture. It is actually hard not to smile for a picture. I think we are so conditioned as Westerners from a very young age that you need to smile for the camera.
This is the inside of the small Hindu temple at the top of Sunipati Hill. On just about every tall hill or mountain peak, you can find some sort of temple, altar, or memorial. Depending on where you are they will either be Buddhist or Hindu.
View from the top of Sunipati Hill. In the distance, you can see the river. We are heading to the river today.
Another person plowing the field.
Once we crossed over Sunipati Hill, you can notice the difference in climate and vegetation, much drier, except tor the area irrigated by the river.
Our incredible rug find. The weaver is putting the finishing touches on the rug, trimming the edges.
Almost there! One of the last suspension bridges into the rice fields. In the rainy season, this must be very beautiful with all the green rice plants.
Looking back on Lubughat.
We saw very little wildlife, besides birds, during our trek except for these wild monkeys that we saw in the last few hours.
Some of this group of school children practiced their English on us. “Hello. How are you? What is your name?”
I could not get Maps.me to give me a route to Nepal Thok, our final destination of the day. It would only get me as far as Lubughat.
Day 9 – Back to Katmandu
The hotel we stayed in our last night was actually about 1 km from where we were supposed to catch the bus. However, since this was the start of the bus route for the day our guides were able to make a call and get the bus to come over and pick us up.
As we made our way back to Katmandu, I reflected on the incredible trip we had just completed. It was truly a unique and very enjoyable experience. I highly recommend this trek as a great way to experience the natural beauty and the life of the people in this area of the country. I must admit though, I did also think about how nice it was going to be to have a hot shower for the first time in nine days after we got to our hotel in Katmandu.
Personalized service! The bus came and picked us up at our hotel before heading to the first official bus stop.
One interesting thing about buses in Nepal, especially the local ones (i.e. non-tourist buses) is that in addition to the driver, there is a guy that stands at the door for almost the entire trip. In addition to shouting out the destination of the bus at bus stops and collecting money from passengers, he signals to the driver by thumping on the door to signal when to stop and start and whistling. I never did quite figure out the whistling, but I noticed that he typically did it when the bus was very close to the edge of the road or very close to another vehicle that they were overtaking. I think he was letting the driver know that they were close to the edge or the other vehicle.
Looks like an weakme adventure! Where are you going to keep the rug?
It was a very awesome adventure. Susan’s sister in the Seattle area is keeping the rug for us, we already shipped it to the States. Susan has a love and weakness for handwoven fabric and rugs and we have also shipped back some handwoven fabric that she has picked up in our travels. The thought is that one day when we are old and feeble, we will settle down somewhere.
What an experience! It was awesomw reading you! 🙂
We feel blessed we got to do it too, and to meet you along the way.
Safe travels!
Thanks, Constanza and Dante! Glad to meet you. We hope to make it to Argentina some day and will look you up.
What an awesome writing of your trek! The pictures are so professional, colorful, eye-opening, beautiful. I was fascinated and so glad you wrote about it. ❤
Glad you enjoyed it. It was a great experience.
You have done trek on right season and passing dense rhododendron forest. Sorry to heard have not see mountains from the Sailung viewpoint. I’m happy to ready your travel diary and got lots of information of Indigenous people trail. In my experienced this trek completely different than other trek in the Nepal because the cultural of generous and friendly people as well as get picturesque view of cultivate terrace and hardly meet other tourist in the trail.
Thanks for your comments. We really enjoyed the trek. Meeting people, seeing daily life, and enjoying the natural scenery were our goals for the trek. The Indigenous Peoples Trail has definitely been one of our top experiences as we travel the world.
Thank you for this awesome blog post….complete with maps–hooray! It is so hard to find detailed information about this trek. Hopefully, once this COVID thing is over, we will get to Nepal to do this trek.
It has been one of the highlights of our nomadic journies these past five years. I hope you will be able to experience it.