Upper Mustang: Adventure in the Forbidden Kingdom (Nepal)

Fourteen nights and around 735 miles on a Royal Enfield into Upper Mustang, which goes considerably further than the operator’s original Nepali route: this one reaches Lo Manthang itself.

Patan opens it at the UNESCO listed Durbar Square, then Bandipur on an off-road climb with the Himalaya ahead, and Pokhara on the lake. Tatopani follows, where the tarmac ends at Beni and the Kali Gandaki takes over, with Annapurna more than 8,000 metres above the valley floor.

Chuksang comes next below Nilgiri, through Kagbeni, which is the gate between Lower and Upper Mustang and where the restricted area begins. A separate Upper Mustang permit costing 500 US dollars per person is required, which is why so few people go and why the place still looks the way it does. Dhakmar follows for red cliffs and cave hikes, then Lo Manthang, the walled capital of the old Kingdom of Lo, where the monasteries hold Buddhist painting several centuries old and the whole settlement sits high on the edge of the Tibetan plateau.

A full day there covers the surrounding valleys and villages, a hidden monastery and the high-altitude golf course, which is among the highest in the world and not the main attraction. The return runs through Tange with its well-preserved chortens, Samar, Marpha and the temple at Muktinath, then down to Pokhara through terraced farmland and on by backroad to Kathmandu. Bike rental is included and the price is quoted per person. This is a high, dry, cold and genuinely remote trip, and the riding above Kagbeni is as rough as anything in the operator’s Asian range.