The town of Marpha from the road
Our favorite city in Nepal, although we only spent a short time there, was the town of Marpha. Marpha is an amazing town, it is built with rocks and set up on the hill side. No cars can drive in the town because the walkways are too narrow.
The dining area at our guest house
It is a smaller rural town that has many apple orchards and specializes in apple products.I do not even like apple juice, but the apple cider I drank in Marpha was incredibly delicious! We arrived late at night and luckily our driver knew some friends who run a hotel/guesthouse in the town. The man who owns the rooms walked the mile down to the road to lead us back to his place, which we never would have found in the dark! He was even gracious enough of a host to start the fire back up in his stove and make us a late night, utterly delicious, spaghetti dinner.
Marpha street
Marpha Nepali bo
Marpha trees
Marpha- our room was the one in bottom left corner- this is the view from the courtyard.
Our rooms in the hotel were much better than we anticipated. They had two small twin mattresses/pads set up on a raised box platform with on-suite bathrooms. There was even “hot” water. Hot being a loose term, but when the air temperature gets down to 20 degrees at night, a little better than luke warm feels just fine. After we slept (cuddled in our sleeping bags cause it was cold!) we woke up to a beautiful Himalayan day.
We were told that the hike up to Jomsom (the town with the airport), was only about an hour hike. Maybe this was a fair estimate for really awesomely intense Neplai hikers, but it took us nearly 3 hours. Granted, we did stop a lot, as usual, to take many photos and it ended up being a fairly warm day. The hike was fun, maybe a bit dusty if cars drove by, but the mountains were stunning so we really could not complain.
Random small town between Mapha and Jomsom
View while hiking from Marpha to Jomsom
more river view
Dusty, kind of yucky local bus. It was CRAZY crowded
Once in Jomsom we talked to the airline people to try and get tickets and then we grabbed lunch at a small hotel or guesthouse. It was a nice relaxing day, but we decided not to hike back, so we took a local bus instead. The bus was insanely crowded, very dusty, and quite uncomfortable. This is when I knew that Tony and I would be finding Dhan again the next day if we could not get a flight (No way was I spending over 10 hours on the slower, more unsafe, way more uncomfortable bus to get back to Pokhara).
Jomsom- an expedition just coming through town
Jomsom- the main road through town.
Tony decided to hike back to try and get some sunset pictures with the mountains. I was worried when it took him so long, but he was stopped on the way back by a little group of kids that just loved getting their photos taken. Tony said that the kids thought it was the coolest thing to get their picture taken and then be able to look at it on the LCD screen.
Nepali kiddos
Annapurna area, small town between Marpha and Jomsom– close to sunset
Cute Nepali girl Tony saw on his hike
Cute girl in Marpha
While Tony was gone I of course did some shopping. I was able to talk to this woman who lived in Marpha and handmade jewelry to sell. I watched her work on a piece and it was pretty incredible. The jewelry was made out of bone and horns from mountain goats. She would shave and cut the horn into beads and then hand paint each one. It was really nice to buy something 100% authentic and not “made in China”.
As I said, we did not get nearly as much time as we wanted in Marpha, but I will let the photos of this area and this quaint town speak for itself. Tony and I can’t wait to go back to Nepal. Next time, however, we will have more than just 10 mere days and we will get some real trekking in. :)
Annapurna
cameras and carry-ons 