Dilmaya Treks & Expedition Pvt Ltd.

Dilmaya's Hidden Annapurna Trek

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A unique opportunity to avoid the normal Annapurna tourist trail and find a forgotten and unspoilt area of Himalayan Nepal principally occupied by the Gurung people and rarely visited by outsiders

http://dilmayatrek.com/

Your guide will be the founder of Dilmaya’s Bikash Gurung who will lead you amongst the hilltop villages of his youth under the snowclad Annapurna mountains and show you an agrarian way of life that has changed little over the centuries – no tractors, no chainsaws, no fertilisers: just the traditional practices of ox-drawn ploughs, handsaws and recycled manure.

You will stay in Gurung homes and receive a simple but very warm welcome around the traditional open hearth – eating as they do rice, dal and a variety of fresh vegetables and local breads washed down by tea and the occasional glass of millet whisky: and sleeping as they do above the family water buffalo and chickens.

Anyone who likes a good walk and can live without some of the modern creature comforts will find the inconvenience of hole in the ground loos and hard beds more than compensated by the spectacular scenery, the friendliness of the Gurung people and the sheer experience of seeing a thriving agrarian community unspoilt by modern developments.

TOUR FORMAT

Dilmaya’s Hidden Annapurna Tours deliberately offer only a limited number of tours in order to preserve not change the villages visited. Dilmaya’s have four village circuits each of which is visited only half a dozen times a year.

Tours occur between October and mid May before/after the rainy season.

The tours last 8 days and are offered to groups of minimum 1 and maximum 8 people.

The tours are offered at an ‘all in’ price, please, mail us.

The price includes jeep transport to the trek area, guides, porters, all board and lodging, ( TIMS ) fees, (ACA) entry permit fees and an evening’s ‘mother group dancing’. (It does not include flights into Pokhara and any nights in Pokhara before/after the trek).

RECOMMENDED CLOTHING

Temperature is temperate and rarely cold. It is recommended you bring:

comfortable walking boots
casual clothes
a light fleece for evening wear
flip flops
in October and May you should bring a light waterproof
a sleeping bag liner (you will be sleeping in village homes with basic bedding)
toilet paper

THE GURUNG PEOPLE

The Gurungs are a Sino-Tibetan people who migrated into the Annapurna valleys in the 12^th century. Today there are about 800,000 Gurung hailing from a cluster of villages north and north west of Pokhara.

The Gurung are pastoral and arable farmers growing principally rice, maize, millet, lentils and potatoes on hillside terraces. Nearly all households have chickens and a water buffalo stalled by the house for eggs and milk.

The heart of the Gurung home is the hearth in the centre of the earthen floor.

The Gurung are renowned for their warmth and for family values and interdependence.

Despite the advent of the ubiquitous mobile and in most places micro-hydro generated electricity and rough roads the Gurungs retain most of their traditional culture and way of life. Like other areas of Nepal they have traditionally supplied Gurkha soldiers to the British and Indian armies, but today the pressures on the villages come from young men leaving to work abroad typically in the Middle East and Far East and in a drift of people out of the villages to Pokhara and Kathmandu in pursuit of better education for their children. It is hoped that improvements in village schooling and other facilities and the efforts of ACAP will reverse that drift.

For further information on the Gurung see the website of Professor Alan Macfarlane of King's College, University of Cambridge.

THE ANNAPURNA CONSERVATION AREA PROJECT (ACAP)

The tours are all within the Annapurna Conservation Area which covers a 7600 sq kilometre band of country some 30 miles north of Pokhara from the foothills to the peaks of the Annapurnas. It is Nepal’s largest protected area.

ACAP was set up in 1986 and is a non-profit making organisation operating a highly devolved model under which decision making is as far as possible vested in the village development committees of the 55 villages in the conservation area. ACAP aims to achieve a balance between nature conservation and socio-economic improvement and aims to promote sustainable economic development, natural resource conservation, re-forestation and the preservation of the environment. The area has 1226 plant species, 30 mammals and 456 birds.

DILMAYA’S BUSINESS VISION

Dilmaya’s goal is to delight our customers. And thereby to become the leading trekking company for visitors interested in experiencing traditional Gurung village life whilst exploring the unsurpassable Himalayan landscape.

And we will achieve our goal sustainably – employing local labour and putting money back into the Annapurna environment and the sustainable development of the traditional Gurung way of life.

CONTACTS

To book or learn more please contact Bikash Gurung
(visit :- www.dilmayatrek.com).
Tell; 0977-61-526896, Mobile; 9846198454,
E-mail; dilmayatreks@gmail.com,
bsm_grgt@yahoo.com,

English spoken

Who is Dilmaya Gurung?

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Professor Alan Macfarlane of Cambridge University

I first met Dilmaya Gurung in 1969 when she was a teenager. I was adopted into her family, so she became my younger ‘sister’. When I returned again and again to Nepal from 1986 with my wife I lived with her and her family in the mountain village of Thak. She became my best anthropological informant and the subject of many hours of my films.

I came to admire her life and character, her mind and spirit, more than that of almost all those I have known from far more privileged backgrounds. Natural intelligence and indeed wisdom, a sense of fairness, organizing ability, intuition and sensitivity to the feelings of others, all of which Dilmaya had in great measure, have nothing to do with going to school, with travel, with worldly experience or with wealth.

I deeply respected and admired her extraordinary ability to use her body and the simplest of tools to wrest a living and to provide for and nurture her growing family of four children and her husband. I also found in the give and take of everyday life, the jokes, the zest, the curiosity, the exchange of information and the desire to share and explore the world together, a basis for a sustained and growing friendship.

Dilmaya was a very good companion, a person whom Sarah and I enjoyed spending hundreds of hours with through long days and evenings as she cooked us rice and uncomplainingly added responsibilities for an extra pair of people to the load of her other five close family members. She was never angry or exasperated with our mistakes and blunders (that we noticed), she did not use or manipulate our relationship for her or her family’s purposes, though there must have been great temptations to do so.

Dilmaya acted perfectly naturally, explained things clearly to the camera, and was aware of the needs of angle, light and distance in an intuitive way. She basically treated the camera and me as she did her own children. She expanded our worlds and guided us towards a deeper understanding in our parallel lives.

Dilmaya died suddenly of a heart attack on 7th April 1995 at the age of 42, probably from over-work. We heard the same evening in the U.K. and the shock and sadness at her death was worse than even that of my own father who suddenly died young at the age of sixty. I am therefore delighted and honoured to be associated with her again through her youngest son Bikash, who has named his trekking business in her memory.

Our Services

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We provide the following services:

Trekking:
Annapurna Region

Round Annapurna Trek (22 days)
Annapurna Base Camp Trek (14 days)
Jomsom-Muktinath Trek (12 days)
Ghorepani/Poonhill Trek (07 days)
Sikles Trek (08 days)
Ghalegaun Trek (09 days)

Langtang Trek

Dhaulagiri Trek

Mustang Trek

Kanchanjunga Trek

Jumla-Rara Trek

Dolpa Trek

Other Activities:
Jungle Safari
Paragliding
River Rafting
Ultra Light Flight
Hotel Booking

Ticketing
Expedition

Photos

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Some of the photographs taken during my treks

Round Annapurna

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This route is considered as one of the most popular and classic treks in Nepal. It passes through villages inhabited by a wide diversity of people. The trail offers spectacular mountain scenery that passes through the Northern Himalayan range and Tibetan plateau. Gurungs, Magars, Chhetris, and Newars heavily settle the Southern slopes of Manaslu and Annapurna ranges except higher regions, which support thick forest of rhododendron and fir trees. There are small fields of millet and wheat and small flocks of sheep and goats seen as one passes through Manang valley. The Manang people are Tibetan by origin and Buddhist by religion considered as a trading race. As a result, their life style is quite different to those tribes on the Southern slopes. Thakali and Mustang tribes control the busy trading and pilgrimage trail along the Kaligandaki and Muktinath Temple until more through the gap between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. This trek is recommended as one of the top twenty trekking trails all over the world.

Trekking highlights:

Crossing the Thorung~La Pass (5416m), the pilgrimage town of Muktinath, views of Dhaulagiri icefall, the world's deepest gorge in the Kaligandaki river, hot spring at Tatopani, and sunrise and mountains view from Poonhill.

                                                        To book or learn more
                                                  Dilmaya treks and Expedition Pvt.Ltd
                                                             pokhara, Nepal
                                                  contact; +977-61-526896,mobile,9846198454
                                                  E-mail,dilmayatreks@gmail.com,
   http://www.dilmayatrek.com

Annapurna Base Camp

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This route is rich with spectacular view of White Mountains. This is not a difficult trek though it has some steep climbs. This trek avoids altitude sickness or flight problems. It is advisable to have two weeks to fully experience scenery. Gurung tribe heavily settles the region.

Trekking highlights:

Typical Gurung village at Landruk, Ghandruk and Chhomrong, Machhapuchhre Base Camp, spectacular mountains view from Annapurna base camp, sunrise and mountains view from Poonhill, hot spring at Jhinudanda.

To book or learn more
                                                        visit :-www.dilmayatrek.com
                                                  Dilmaya treks and Expedition Pvt.Ltd
                                                             pokhara, Nepal
                                                  contact; +977-61-526896,mobile,9846198454
                                                  E-mail,dilmayatreks@gmail.com,

Jomsom-Muktinath Trek

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The Jomsom-Muktinath trail is often covered with trains of donkeys and ponies traveling to Mustang and other areas in the north of Nepal. Some major attractions include typical Mustang villages such as Tukuche, Marpha and Jharkot with its medieval King's Palace and Bonpo Gompa. The deepest gorge, Kaligandaki is another attraction of this route. Muktinath is a popular sacred place for Hindu, Buddhist Pilgrims and ascetic Sadhus. The temple is situated with 108 water tapes emerging from sacred water springs.

Trekking highlights:

Sunrise and mountains view from Poonhill, typical Magar village in Ulleri, natural hot spring at Tatopani, world's deepest Kaligandaki gorge, typical Thakali village in Tukuche and Marpha, monasteries in Tukuche, Marpha, Kagbeni, Jharkot and Muktinath, eternal frame in Muktinath, shaligram, the stone Vishnu available on the Kaligandaki valley.

Suggested Itinerary:

Day 01: Kathmandu to Pokhara (200 km/ 6-7 hours): Drive by bus/car or fly.

Day 02: Pokhara to Jomsom and trek to Kagbeni: Fly and trek.

Day 03: Kagbeni to Muktinath (3817 m): Trek.

Day 04: Muktinath to Marpha (2709 m): Trek.

Day 05: Marpha to Ghasa (1970 m): Trek.

Day 06: Ghasa to Tatopani (1189 m): Trek.

Day 07: Tatopani to Sikha: Trek.

Day 08: Sikha to Ghorepani: Trek.

Day 09: Ghorepani to Tadapani via Poonhill: Trek.

Day 10: Tadapani to Ghandruk: Trek.

Day 11: Ghandruk to Pokhara via Birethanti (1040m): Trek, drive for one hour.

Day 12: Pokhara to Kathmandu (200 km/ 6-7 hours): Drive by bus/car or fly.

(Adapted from Visit Nepal 2011 website)

Ghorepani-Poon Hill Trek

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There are a number of options for short treks in the foothills to the north of Pokhara. Most of these variations will visit Ghandruk and Ghorepani. Poonhill is the best viewpoint for panoramic view of Annapurna Himalayan range, can be reached easily from Ghorepani. Ghandruk is a large traditional Gurung village while Ghorepani is the settlement below the famed vantage point of Poonhill. The itinerary suits for those who want to see and feel within short period of time, a beautiful panoramic mountain view from the elevation of 3210m along with some traditional villages and their culture.

Trekking highlights:

Typical Magar and Gurung villages at Ulleri, and Ghandruk, sunrise and mountain view from Poonhill, rhododendron and alpine trees.

To book or learn more,

visit :-www.dilmayatrek.com

Dilmaya treks and Expedition Pvt.Ltd.

Pokhara

contact:061-526896, mobile;9846198454.

E-mail, dilmayatreks@gmail.com

Ghalegaun trek

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Suggested Itinerary:

Day 01:Drive by Bus to trailhead Bensisahar (760m) - Khudi (790m)

Day 02:Khudi - Ghalegaun

Day 03:Ghalegaun exploration Day

Day 04:Ghalegaun - Baghungpani

Day 05:Baglungpani (1595m) - laxmi Bazar

Day 06:Baglungpani (1595m) - laxmi Bazar

Day 07:Laxmi Bazar - Begnas Lake drive back to Pokhara

Day 08:Rest in Pokhara

Day 09:Pokhara to Kathmandu by Bus

(Adapted from Nepal Independent Guide website)