Mandala Trek - Kathmandu Valley

Kathmandu Valley is so often said to have a mystical quality, and on this trek you'll understand why. A mere half-hour ride away from the centre of town are villages untouched by the excesses of the modern world. A few hours' walk and you recede deeper into villages where the culture, everyday activities and landscape remain much as they have always been - there are lovely old temples, some simple and some ornate, corn and chilli hanging to dry from eaves, old men sitting in the village squares, women braiding hair, threshing grain or brewing up some potent aila or chhang, lush mustard fields and emerald paddy stocks, silvery rivers and streams glinting in the sunlight old brick and mud houses with wood accents, old tanks with orante stone spouts that bring snow melt down to the Valley sides, children looking wistfully out of schoolrooms at bright skies and upon rolling hills, and any of the countless local and Valley-wide festivals that are always underway or around the corner. The traditional Newar culture, enriched for centuries by trade with Tibet and India as well as the extraordinary fertility of Kathmandu Valley, is rich and multilayered. There is incredible artistry with wood, metal and stone in the Hindu, Buddhist and syncretic temples that dot the landscape and a highly developed aesthetic sense in simplest arrangement of villages and the humblest home. Yet, the Valley's culture is far from monolithic, and woven through the daily fabric are other ethnic groups and castes such as Bahuns and Chhetris who add flavour to the mix. In the villages a little higher up and farther away are also Tamangs, not quite as Tibetan-influenced as their cousins in the high Himalaya, but with their own distinct and discrete mix of traditions and practices. Also ringing the Valley are dense forests of everything from bamboo to oak to pine, home to wild boar and deer. Phulchowki, at 2,760 m the highest point in the Valley, is home to a few hundred species of birds and flowers, and orchids and rhododendrons galore.
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