5 Night 6 Day Mardi Himal Trek

We have just returned from a 5 night 6 day Mardi Himal Trek and wanted to share our experience on this fantastic option for those looking for an adventure in Nepal.

We originally planned to do the Poon Hill Trek but were put off with the idea of 500 others starting the route every day and opted for a quieter route.

Overall we were delighted with our choice but as there isn’t a great deal of information online we decided to share our findings.

Planning

As I said above we had initially planned to do a Poon Hill trek as there was lots of information about it and it sounded perfect for first time hikers such as ourselves.

Things changed when we arrived into Pokhara and were told about the numbers of people doing the trek and that a better option would be the 5 night 6 day Mardi Himal trek. We were a bit worried as we thought this might be an attempt to sell a more expensive package but from speaking to many people, tourists and guides, it became clear that a number of the villages on the trek were packed and we wouldn’t get a fully authentic natural trip.

As we had planned to go to Poon Hill we had read that there wasn’t a huge need to do much training and preparation as it was quite an easy trek. Mardi Himal was sold to us as a slightly more difficult route but given our ages (29 and 23) it wouldn’t be beyond us despite our lack of experience.

So in the end we jumped into the Mardi Himal trek with very little planning and just information given to us by the guides.

Equipment

As novice hikers we had very little specialist equipment so decided to hit the shops of Pokhara to add everything our guide suggested. Below you will find the complete list of what we took with us on this trip.

Sleeping bag(-5 degrees)

Wash bag with basic toiletries

2 pairs of shorts

3 quick dry T-shits

2 pairs of hiking socks

Hiking boots

Gore-Tex Jacket

Sandals

1 fleece

1 pair of sports pants

1 long sleeved T-shirt for wearing in the evening

5 pairs of underwear

water bottle

power banks

mobile phone

book

small snacks (chocolate etc)

Microfiber towel

Overall I felt we took too much and our bags were too heavy which was probably due to the snacks and extra toiletries we took. Also our rucksacks were probably not the best which made things a little uncomfortable. You can get snacks at all locations on the trek so in reality you can leave the snacks out of your pack and buy them as you go.

Also don’t worry about bringing a lot of toiletries as you will still smell bad and won’t have an opportunity to use them everyday.

Guide

We had initially decided to do Poon Hill as we could do it without a guide but it became clear very quickly that we would need one for Mardi Himal.

I was rather skeptical about hiring a guide as we didn’t really want someone we didn’t know too well hanging out with us all day. A guide would also mean extra costs and although the amount wasn’t an issue on our budget it would be something we hadn’t planned for.

In the end we discussed the Mardi Himal trek and the benefits of this route outweighed having to hire a guide. However by the finish of our trek my idea and opinions of guides changed as Santos, our guide, truly proved himself necessary and a great guide to have along on our trek. Click here for Santos’ Facebook page to contact him. Alternatively feel free to contact us and I can give you his phone number or email if you prefer.

Without Santos we would have been lost after the first day. Hidden paths in the forest, fork roads without signs and river crossings were all things we couldn’t have done on our own. Around 90% of the people we met along the way had a guide and all agreed they couldn’t have done this route without one.

Santos was also able to do many things for us which added great benefits to our trek. The first was he always got us a private room, even when the lodge was full. Other people had to share rooms or sleep in the living area but he made up stories (it was our pre wedding trip or something similar!) to get us a private room. This was a huge thing for us as we didn’t really fancy sharing with strangers. He also called ahead and booked all of our lodges and did little things like bring fruit and snacks for us to eat each day free of charge.

It was also evident pretty quickly that the quality of other guides was very questionable. One couple who we met on a couple of nights of our trek were often left without their guide at night as would go off to local villages and drink with his friends. Another couple seemed to be having arguments with their guide as to what they could eat from the menu. Little things like this left us very happy to have paid a bit more and gotten a top guide.

Porter

We were set on carrying our gear and the only people who seemed to employ a porter on this route were older couples (50+).

I would suggest if you are healthy and are just taking the essentials on the trip then you don’t need a porter. We left a large amount of clothes and bits and pieces at our hotel to look after for us and in the end our packs were 8kg and 12kg.

At 12Kg I felt mine was a bit heavy and some of the route involved large uphill sections with big steps which was difficult. I developed a shoulder ache pretty quickly but this is probably more down to the low quality bag I was using.

Our guide told us that porters regularly carry 20-25KG on this route but those I saw seemed to be carrying much more than that. If you are going to use a porter then please keep the weight of your pack down to the suggested 20-25KG as I can only imagine it would be hell to carry much more.

Cost

A 5 night 6 day Mardi Himal trek needn’t be expensive but there are a variety of options out there depending on how you want to do it. I’ve put below our costs and related expenses to give you an overview. I would say that our cost is towards the average, maybe a bit higher as our guide was one of the highest rated by the company we used and more expensive than using a lower quality guide.

Total Package Cost for 2 People – 78,000 Rupees – c. 780 USD

Includes:

All permits and passes done by guide (we didn’t need to go anywhere, just gave our pictures)

Transport to / from the start point (30 minutes from Pokhara)

5 nights Accammodation (private rooms)

3 meals a day (breakfast with tea coffee etc, lunch, dinner)

Private licensed guide for 6 days

Hot shower and electric changing fee where applicable

Not included:

drinks and snacks

tips etc

Overall we spent around 5,000 rupees on drinks and snacks so our total cost was around 83,000 rupees (c. 830 USD) One thing I will say is that we stayed off the alcohol as it was quite expensive (500-800 rupees a beer).

$415 each over 6 days works out at $69 a day which we thought was reasonable. Whilst on the trip I kept note of some of the prices and listed them below to give you an idea what you would pay if you paid individually for each part.

Accommodation: 300-500 Rupees per night

Food 250-600 Rupees per dish

You can see by taking the most expensive option you would spend around 500 on accommodation and c.1,800 a day on food.  This is around $23 a day but then you will need to add on the extra costs of the guide, transport, permits, snacks, hot water showers, electric charging and potentially a porter.

By my reckoning you could do this trek for around $40pp a day (based on 2 people and not using a guide) or add on an extra $15 – 20 a day each if you want a guide. Based on this we could have saved around $10-15 by using a cheaper guide or by doing things ourselves but as mentioned above in the guide section Santos did many things for us which saved us time and hassle and provided great value.

Accommodation

Before heading out on the trip we had researched the type of accommodation we could expect. We were ready for the basic rooms, cold temperatures and some scary bathrooms!

Overall I would say we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of things and there was only one place (rest camp) where we felt the quality of accommodation was worse than expected.

One issue was the availability of hot water for showers. Only the first two days gave us the opportunity to have a hot shower as a lack of power, or a lack of sun to charge solar cells, meant we had to make do with a cold shower.

As part of this trip we decided to do a homestay in a local village on the last night. We got to watch them cook and talk about the local culture. It was quite interesting to see how the people live but it felt a bit like being a zoo in that they would all just watch us eat and constantly talk about us. I guess you could swap this out and just stay in a normal lodge at the end.

Food

As mentioned above our package included all meals but not drinks. We were aware there would be a limited menu but it turned out there were many different options and a wide variety of choices in both food and drinks. The further up we went there were less options, especially for fresh fruit and drinks but we never went hungry and always got something we liked.

The above pictured Dal Baht was a staple at every stop but you could also get pasta, pizza, curry and a variety of breads at every stop. Meat was difficult to come by so we ended up going veggie for the trip which wasn’t too difficult for us. Most places also make a cracking apple pie which we were happy to have most nights to warm us up!

Breakfast was normally a pancake or local bread which filled us up. You could also order soups or noodles at breakfast time too.

Water

Researching online it seemed one big decision to make was whether to use bottled water or to buy purifying tablets and make safe our own from local taps.

In the end this turned into a non-issue as bottled water was available pretty much everywhere we went and at a reasonable price. Most places charged around 100 Rupees for water apart from closer to the top were it was closer to 250. In the end $2 a bottle isn’t going to kill your budget if you are worried about getting sick from the local stuff.

We used our water purifiers 3 times and bottled water the rest.

Difficulty

We are 29 and 23 years old and, although not in prime condition, do play a bit of sport and try to be active a few days a week. Even so we found a couple of days of this trek really quite difficult. It never got to the point that we wanted to give up but there were certainly times where we found things tough.

Day 2 was by far the most difficult day for us. Walking uphill in the forest for 4 hours took almost everything we had. Carrying heavy packs didn’t help but neither did having to drag yourself up 50-70cm steps for hours on end.

The same problem happened when we came down, not such the effort of climbing but the stress on our knees trying to stop ourselves from running down the hill was immense. I had to almost carry my girlfriend the last 500 meters as she had lost control of her legs.

The other days, although not easy, were fine for us. On the trek we saw people of all ages doing the trek. There were a group of children aged around 8 years old with one party who made it to the top. Also, rather crazily, one woman had brought a baby less than a year old. Even our guide said this was a bad idea as so many things could go wrong.

All in all I would say if you have reasonable fitness, or you can dedicate some time to practice hiking at home before you come, the Mardi Himal trek is possible for you!

What You Can See

I’ll be honest and say the main reason we decided to do a trek was to see the amazing scenery, not because we enjoy walking. For this reason I was glad we took the option of a 5 night 6 day Mardi Himal trek as there was a huge range of things we saw which aren’t in our country (Thailand).

There are a number of alternative routes on this trek but below I’ll give you a quick overview of what we saw. I wont include the most spectacular pictures as I’ll leave it for you to see when you get there!

The first day saw us walking up the valley with amazing views down to the white river and walking through small Nepalese villages. Within an hour of walking we had our first real mountain views.

The second day gave us closer mountain views and after around an hour we hit the forest area. The forest was fantastic and provided shade from the sun as well as the chance to see many different types of trees with the odd clearing where you could glimpse the mountains.

The third day was a more rugged terrain which reminded me a lot of the Scottish Highlands. We had many steep steps and winding paths to traverse which led to high camp. It was also on this day that we saw the first of many yak grazing on the grass.

The fourth morning started at 5am and we hiked up to the Super View Point to get a panorama view of all the mountain range. It is truly spectacular. The rest of the day followed the path back down from day 3.

Day 5 we were heading back down and although the mountains were still viewable  it was the valley taking center stage again.

The final day was a 4 hour walk along the rice terraces to our final destination. We walked across a few streams and past tea plantations.

All in all there were many different views and experiences which I really enjoyed.

Tips and Advice

Finally a few pieces of advice to help you if you are planning a Mardi Himal trek.

We went in April (16-21st) and a lot of the rhododendrons had fallen off the trees so it wasn’t as beautiful in the forest as it could have been. If you want to see them then maybe you should go a little earlier than we did.

The weather in April is quite hit and miss. We were told that the week before we went there was almost constant rain and people didn’t see a lot of the mountain views. We certainly had issues with clouds and at the Super View Point we didn’t see a whole interrupted panorama which was the only slightly disappointing part. It was still magnificent to see all the mountains but we just didn’t get them all at once. Our guide told us if you want a better chance of a crystal clear view then November is the time to go.

There is a huge range in temperatures on this trek. The first day was really hot (around 25 degrees) whereas the 3rd night the temperature got close to freezing. Make sure you have suitable clothing and make sure you use lots of sun cream.

If you have done this trek let us know about your experiences below or give us some other tips!