Day 01 :

Drive or fly from KATHMANDU (1200m) to POKHARA (900m).
It is 200 km and takes 7 hours by tourist bus. If you intend to fly, you get to POKHARA just half an hour later you see off KATHMANDU. POKHARA itself is a beautiful city as second largest tourist destination in Nepal. POKHARA offers you its natural and cultural beauties.

Day 02 :

Fly from POKHARA to JOMSOM (2713m).
The half an hour flight takes the route into the KALI GANDAKI valley between DHAULAGIRI ranges and ANNAPURNA ranges. The view of morning sunray touch to those mountains is excellent and makes you feel that you are in the world of SHANGRILA.

Day 03 :

JOMSOM – KAGBENI (2810 m)
Follow the narrow main street past several hotels to the school and a statue of King Birendra at the northern end of town. The trail follows the broad river valley, sometimes above the river but mostly along the rocky bank of the river. When you arrive at EKLE BHATTI (alone hotel) 2730m, the direct trail to MUKTINATH leads straight up the hill but the trail to KAGBENI follows the river.

KAGBENI is beautiful with a green oasis at the junction of the JHONG KHOLA and the KALI GANDAKI and looks like a town of the medieval past, with closely packed mud houses, dark tunnels and alleys, imposing CHORTENS and a large ochre-colored GOMPA perched above the town. Many people still dress in typical Tibetan clothing.

KAGBENI is the northern most villages in this valley that foreigners may visit on a normal trekking permit. The police check post at the northern end of the village fastidiously prevents tourists from proceeding towards LO-MANTHANG, the walled city of MUSTANG, without the proper documentation.

Day 04 :

KAGBENI – MUKTINATH (3710m)
The trail to MUKTINATH starts at the southern end of KAGBENI. It makes a steep climb up the JHONG KHOLA valley and joins the direct trail to MUKTINATH from EKLE BHATTI. Along the way you will see hundreds of small piles of rocks erected by pilgrims to honour their departed ancestors. Then the walk to JHARKOT is a delightful walk amongst meadows, streams and poplar and fruit trees. The trail here is high above the JHONG KHOLA as it climbs to JHARKOT, an impressive fortress-like village at 3500m. The village itself is worth exploring.

Across the valley you can see the ruins of DZONG, the ancient capital of this region, and the smaller villages of PURANG and CHANGUR.

Climb over some walls, treks past the village mule stables and up a steep barren hillside. The first part of MUKTINATH that you reach is RANIPAUWA, the side of large rest house for pilgrims, and host of hotels and camping places. There is a police check post.

Day 05 :

AT MUKTINATH (Optional)
The temple and the religious shrines of Muktinath are about 90 m in elevation above RANIPAUWA. There are no hotels and the temple committee does not allow camping here. MUKTINATH is an important pilgrimage place for both Hindus and Buddhists. Situated in a grove of trees, the holy shrines at MUKTINATH include a Buddhist Gompa and the pagoda-style of VISHNU MANDIR, containing an image of VISHNU. Around the temple is a wall from which 108 waterspouts, cast in the shape of cows’ head, pour forth-sacred water. Even more sacred is the water that issues from a rock inside the ancient Tibetan-style JWALA-MAI temple a short distance below the pagoda. Inside this Gompa, behind a tattered curtain, are small natural gas jets that produce perpetual holy flame alongside a spring that is the source of the sacred water. This auspicious combination of earth, fire and water is responsible for the religious importance of MUKTINATH. It is often possible to see Tibetan woman, with elaborate turquoise-embedded headdresses, engaged in devotions at these shrines.

Day 06 :

MUKTINATH – JOMSOM
It’s an easy walk back to JOMSOM, though it becomes tedious if there is a strong wind. Instead of going back to KAGBENI, the direct trail to EKLEBHATTI descends from below KHINGAR through country that is arid and desert-like, in the same geographical and climatic zone as TIBET. The striking yellows of the bare hillsides contrast dramatically with the blue sky, white peaks, and splashes of green where streams allow cultivation. The views of DHAULAGIRI and NILGIRI are tremendous.

From EKLEBHATTI, it is the same trail that is used to come from JOMSOM.

Day 06 :

Fly back from JOMSOM to POKHARA then continue to KATHMANDU or stay few days in POKHARA.