Serang Gompa Trek

Welcome to Nepal. You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Your guide joins you for the briefing: the twelve-day plan, the restricted area permit and the passport photographs it needs, and the etiquette of staying at a working monastery — how to behave in the temple, when photography is and is not appropriate, and what an offering to the kitchen normally is.

We check your kit against the list; anything missing can be bought or hired within a few minutes' walk of the hotel. The rest of the day is free. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A long day in the jeep, and the only way into the Budhi Gandaki.

We leave early on the Prithvi Highway, turn north at Dhading Besi, and follow an increasingly rough hill road through Arughat and Soti Khola. The valley narrows steadily and the last three hours are on a single track cut into the gorge wall with the river far below.

It is spectacular driving, occasionally alarming, and it saves a full day of walking on the old trail.

Machha Khola (870 m) is a line of lodges along the water at the end of the road. Around 8–9 hours including stops. Overnight at Machha Khola.

The first walking day, up the Budhi Gandaki through a gorge that tightens as it goes.

The trail crosses to the west bank and climbs over a ridge to Khorlabesi, then reaches the hot springs at Tatopani, where water runs warm straight out of the rock into a stone tank beside the path. It is worth the twenty minutes.

Beyond it the valley narrows and the route is cut into the cliff, crossing the river repeatedly on suspension bridges strung high above the water. Staircases are carved into the rock in the tighter sections.

Jagat (1,340 m) is a neat village of flagstone streets and stone houses, and the checkpoint where your restricted area permit is inspected.

Around 6–7 hours. Overnight at Jagat.

A shorter day through the narrowest and most dramatic part of the gorge.

From Jagat the trail climbs to Sirdibas and crosses the river on a long suspension bridge. Above it the canyon closes in until the path is bolted and cut into the rock face, with the water white a long way below.

This is the finest stretch of trail in the lower valley, and it is well built despite how alarming it looks from a distance.

Philim (1,570 m) is a substantial Gurung village on a wide terraced shelf, with a school, shops and lodges, and some of the most productive fields in the valley. The Tsum Valley trail branches north just beyond it.

Around 4–5 hours. Overnight at Philim.

North up the main Manaslu trail to the junction with the monastery valley.

The route climbs through Ekle Bhatti, where the Tsum Valley trail turns north, and continues west into the upper Budhi Gandaki. Bamboo and subtropical growth give way to pine, and the first mani walls appear beside the path — the boundary, in practice, between Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist Nepal.

The trail passes through Deng and follows the river with the valley walls stepping back.

Bihi Phedi (1,990 m) is a small settlement below the village of Bihi, at the mouth of the side valley that leads to Serang. This is the last place on the route with a proper lodge.

Around 6 hours. Overnight at Bihi Phedi.

The hard day, and the one the trek exists for: 1,600 m of climbing into a valley with nothing in it but a monastery.

The trail turns north out of Bihi Phedi and climbs steeply through mixed forest — oak and rhododendron first, then fir — on a path used by monks and supply porters rather than trekkers. It is unrelenting and there is no village between bottom and top.

As the forest thins the valley opens into a hanging basin with cliffs on three sides, and Serang Gompa (3,600 m) sits at the head of it: a compound of white and red buildings with chortens on the approach and prayer flags along the ridge.

The monastery is a Nyingma retreat centre, and there are meditation caves in the cliffs above where practitioners spend months and sometimes years in solitary retreat.

Around 6–7 hours. Overnight at Serang Gompa.

A full day at the monastery, which is the point of coming this far.

Mornings at Serang start early with practice in the main temple, and visitors are generally welcome to sit at the back if they arrive quietly and stay still. Your guide will make the introductions and explain what is happening.

The walk up to the retreat caves in the cliffs above the compound takes two to three hours and gives the best view of the valley — the monastery below, the forest dropping away south, and the Manaslu and Ganesh peaks on the skyline in clear weather.

The rest of the day is deliberately unstructured: tea with whoever is willing to talk, a walk round the chortens and mani walls, and the considerable quiet of a place that exists for exactly that.

Overnight at Serang Gompa.

Back down the forest trail, losing in four hours what took six to gain.

The descent is steep and continuous on the same path, through fir and then rhododendron and oak. It is hard on the knees and poles earn their keep — the ground is soft with leaf litter in places and slippery in others.

Going down gives you the forest properly: on the way up most people are watching their feet, and on the way down there is time to notice the birdlife, the moss, and how completely the valley closes behind you.

Bihi Phedi (1,990 m) in the early afternoon, with a lodge, a hot meal and a bucket of hot water.

Around 4–5 hours. Overnight at Bihi Phedi.

South down the Budhi Gandaki, retracing the main Manaslu trail.

The walking is steady and mostly downhill, through Deng and Ekle Bhatti with the mani walls and chortens now behind you and the valley opening as it drops.

This section shows the transition in reverse: Tibetan Buddhist upper valley to Gurung and Hindu lower valley in the space of a day's walk, with the architecture, the crops and the shrines all changing as you go.

Philim (1,570 m) arrives in the afternoon with its terraced fields and its school.

Around 5–6 hours. Overnight at Philim.

A long final walking day back through the gorge to the roadhead.

The trail drops to the river and runs south through the canyon section — the bolted ledges and rock staircases you came up on day three, which look different heading downstream — then past Jagat and Tatopani.

The hot springs are worth a second stop, and most groups take one. Below them the valley widens into subtropical country and the walking is easy on the river flats.

Machha Khola (870 m) is where the road starts and the walking finishes. This is where the porters leave the group and tips are given.

Around 7 hours. Overnight at Machha Khola.

A long day in the jeep back to the capital.

The first three hours retrace the rough gorge road to Arughat, a single track above the river with blind corners taken on the horn. From Dhading Besi the road is paved and the run into the valley is straightforward.

Around 8–9 hours in total with a lunch stop. The Prithvi Highway section gives a last view of the middle hills before the Kathmandu valley rim.

You arrive in Kathmandu (1,400 m) in the late afternoon and transfer to your hotel, with the evening free for a hot shower and a proper dinner. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your last day in Nepal. If your flight leaves later there is time for Boudhanath, which after a week around a Nyingma monastery is the obvious place to finish — the community that walks the circuit there comes largely from the valleys you have been in.

Our representative collects you from your hotel and transfers you to Tribhuvan International Airport around three hours before departure.

Serang is one of the few places in Nepal where trekkers are guests of a religious community rather than customers of a lodge. If that is what you are after, the Tsum Valley next door has the same character over a longer route, and the Mu Gompa at its head is the natural next step. Safe travels.