Head In The Sky

There are things that you need to tick off your bucket list. But, there are places that still haven’t made it to most lists yet. Lo Manthang is that, amongst many other things, and that just makes this big tick sweeter.

- Debabrata Sarkar

Sitting outside a coffee shop in the ancient walled city of Lo Manthang, at a rather dizzying twelve-and-a-half thousand feet above mean sea level, a slice of apple pie was the last thing I expected to be see at the store window. Especially given the fact that the last couple of hours, on the road to Lo Manthang, had everything from water crossings, to deep sand, with a few steep inclines thrown in. My riding suit is far from presentable in this spotless little village and there are distinctly crunchy bits stuck between my teeth. While I do my best to contain my surprise about the apple pie, a piping hot cup of espresso was being shot out of a very elaborate Italian machine. There isn’t a drop of tarmac for days, in the direction of Nepal, and cellphone coverage can be termed sketchy at best, but the people of Lo have the good life sorted out. This spotless kingdom has streets lined with slate and mudhouses painted a brilliant white. A tall wall keeps the palace and the city protected. You may want to imagine it does so from advancing armies, but my guess is, it keeps them out of the far more treacherous wind.

It has taken us the better part of a week, while we maintained a casual pace, to ride up from Pokhara. That’s five days of slush, rocks, water and sand, all dealt with from the saddle, and sometimes off it, a Royal Enfield Himalayan. There weren’t necessarily showers after each of those days and the comfort of four walls had also been missing for the last couple of days. Am I glad I replied to that email, it’s been every bit of the Mustang Adventure that was promised.