Ghale Gaun Tour

West along the Prithvi Highway and then north to Besisahar in Lamjung, four to five hours in total, followed by a rough climbing road up to Ghale Gaun at about 2,100m which takes another two. The last stretch needs four-wheel drive. On arrival you are allocated to a host family - this village runs one of the oldest community homestay programmes in Nepal, started in the late 1990s, and the households take guests in rotation so the income is shared across the village rather than going to an outside operator. You stay in a family house, in a room the family keeps for guests, and eat what the household eats. The welcome on arrival is formal and genuine, and the afternoon is spent settling in and walking the village lanes.

A morning walk up to the viewpoint above the village, forty minutes or so, where Manaslu at 8,163m, Himalchuli, Buddha Himal and the Annapurnas stand in a line along the northern skyline with the Marsyangdi valley below. The rest of the day is with the household - the terraces, the livestock, the kitchen - at whatever level of involvement you want. Ghale Gaun is Gurung, and the village keeps its traditions actively rather than for display: the dress, the language, the dances, and the Rodhi houses where young people traditionally gathered in the evening to sing and court. There is a cultural evening after dinner, put on by the village, and it is not a performance laid on for a coach party.

A last breakfast with the family and the descent by jeep to Besisahar, which takes about two hours on the same rough road. From there it is four to five hours back along the highway to Kathmandu, arriving in the evening. Anyone continuing west can go on to Pokhara instead, which is closer - about three hours from Besisahar - and makes Ghale Gaun an easy addition to a Pokhara itinerary rather than a there-and-back trip from the capital.