Mustang Trek

Mustang District – an ancient Forbidden Kingdom is one of the best touristic area among seventy-seven districts of Nepal. It covers an area of 3,573 km² (1,380 square meters). According to census 2011, 13,452 people live in this area. Jomsom is the headquarters of Mustang which itself is a famous place in touristic view.

The place Mustang lies in the Dhaulagiri zone with an elevation ranging from 1,372 to 8,167 meters occupying part of Gandaki Pradesh and extends up to the Tibetan Plateau. Different mountain peaks above 7000 meters including Dhaulagiri (8167m), Annapurna (8091m), Manaslu (8156m), Lamjung Himal (6983m), Machapuchhre (6993m), Tukuche Peak (6920m), Tilicho Peak (7134m) and Nilgiri (6940m) attract most. The deepest gorge of the planet Kaligandaki passing between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri also lies in this region.

The entire region consists of Annapurna conservation area also known as the largest protected area of Nepal. Presence of Conservation area, different developmental programmes, tourist management and Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) make the place more attractive and make us to visit the place once in our life time. It is relatively wealthy district as compaired other districts with GDP per capital US $2,466, Because of its natural resources and development on tourism sector.

The region Mustang is the wonderful place with red mountains at almost 4,000m elevation instead of White Mountains. It is known as desert of Nepal where no rainfall occurs. It is a magical place without effect of tourism and modernization.

Due to presence of very remote and rough paths, very few people visit Upper Mustang area in Nepal. Buddhist culture, distinct landscape and non-green natural beauty give an experience beyond our imagination. The whole place is filled with wonderful sight and definitely makes you busy on capturing the beauty of the place on every step of the way.

Why Mustang is popular?

  The main reason behind popularity of Mustang among Nepali and foreigner are as follow:-

• Presence of Sky burial - funeral with maintaining ecosystem
• Amazing caves and ancient monasteries with distinct history
• Because of being the highest Buddhist kingdom in the world also known as forbidden kingdom 
• Due to the presence of the Kali Gandaki George also known as the deepest George of the world
• Habitat of 210 million years old ammonite fossil
• The major holy place of pilgrims – Muktinath which remain as a dream land of every Hindus. Also believe that they should visit this temple once in their life time.
•  Ancient trade route between Nepal and China
• Having the best temperature and climatic condition for growth of apples and available of finest apple wine in the world 
• Discovery of "Dal Bhat" which is a national food of Nepal

You can get opportunities to view and feel all these beauties after the visit of  Lower and Upper mustang.

Jhong cave

 Lower mustang

 Lower Mustang is the Buddhist kingdom. We can see the whole region facinated with Tibetan culture. The major attractions of this place are Kagbeni, Muktinath and Jomsom. Different mountains and the deepest George of the world - The Kaligandaki passing between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri make the place more beautiful.  Also the yellow, red and brown traces, barren moonscapes of eroded sandstone are special feature of the place which attracts us and make us photogenic as well.

To travel on Lower mustang, we have to explore Lower Mustang trek. In general, Lower Mustang trek is a moderate short trek. During the trek you will visit the advance pass and expensive permits to trek towards lower Mustang. It consists extensive protected area with wild biodiversity. The oldest monastery and unique lifestyle of peoplegives us great Feelings like we are on different world of the Earth. Aso, we will have  amazing experience on seeing the unpredictable life on such place.

 [caption id="attachment_2739" align="alignnone" width="4288"] view from Muktinath Hotel[/caption]

 Upper Mustang

Upper Mustang, the ancient trade path between Nepal and Tibet occupies two-third of northern region of Mustang district. The beautiful places Lo-manthang, Dalome and Baragaung Muktichhetra are main munciplities of this place. These places are best place to visit and explore the Gurung culture and lifestyle of Tibetan Buddhist.

It was originally formed from unification of a number of small kingdoms. Among all those kingdom Lo mathang was the royal Kingdom and becomes a part of Nepal since 1790.  This is also the most preserved region of Tibetan culture with Tibetan language as major language.

The upper Mustang is the hidden paradise of Mustang and offers fabulous tour on which you can experience best holiday ever you had in Nepal. It provides an opportunities to know about the last forbidden kingdom in Nepal. Also, it was just opened for foreigners in 1992. Before then it was restricted for foreigners.

To have a great experience in your life, mission summit suggest you to have a trek on Upper mustang.

When is the Best time to do Upper Mustang trek?

Desires are the major part for making any trip success. Eventhough if we can choose the best time then we can make our trip sucessful without difficulties.

April, May, June, July, August, September and October are the best months on which we can enjoy with the nature of Mustang.

What is the Permit process for the Mustang trek?

Before starting a trek, it is very important to know about the permit process. So that we can plan our trip and manage ourselves economically. We should have minimum of two trekkers including Nepali guide having a valid license issued by the government of Nepal for a permit. We are not allowed to go independently on this trek.

 It costs USD 500 for the 10-days per person for Upper mustang trek. Even though we have to pay USD 50 for each extra day per person, if we stay more than 10 days on this trip.  Then, we also need about USD 29 per person as NRP cost allowance for entering ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Project). We do not need a TIMS card for Upper Mustang Trek.

We also need TIMS for lower mustang Trek. It costs 20 USD for TIMS and 29 USD per person per day and no day limits are there.

Permit Cost for Mustang Trek 

Mustang Permit Fee list for Indians and foreigners according to the Government of Nepal