Nepal: Mardi Himal Trek
Date: Oct 5th to Oct 11th, 2026
After completing the Annapurna Circuit Trek, I planned to do the Manaslu Circuit Trek. However, due to landslides, I had to postpone it and instead consider other hikes near Pokhara, such as Poon Hill, Khopra, Mardi Himal, and Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). Initially, I thought of doing Mardi Himal, Khopra, and ABC in one go, but since Khopra coincided with the Dasshera festival and seemed too close to the festival, I decided to focus on just Mardi Himal and ABC.
The hike is typically completed in 3-4 days, depending on the stops, but I took 5 days, allowing an extra day for rest since I experienced some diarrhea at the end. This was my first hike in Nepal without a guide, so I felt a bit anxious.
Day 1: Began the day in Pokhara, taking a local bus to Khande, an hour's drive away. I didn't see any other hikers on the bus, which made me feel I might be alone on the trek. I arrived at Khande around 7:30 AM and immediately started the hike. The trail begins with many stairs, passes through tea houses, and leads to the Australian Camp. The view from here is beautiful, with Mt. Fishtail (Machapuchhre) and the Annapurna mountains visible in the distance. I rested for about 20 minutes, having brought along 6 boiled eggs and lots of dry nuts for snacks. I ate one egg and shared another with a Nepali fellow. I met a nice Indian couple camping at the Australian Camp—a great spot for it. Afterward, I headed to Forest Camp, my first stop.
Forest Camp, at 2550m, is about 10km from Khande (at 1770m). It took me around 6 hours to reach Forest Camp. There's a permit check post at Pathan, and from there, the trail is not stairs, and goes through thick vegetation with no wild animals. I was alone for the first couple of hours, but then I started hearing some Nepali hikers, picture to the left. It was a lot of fun hiking with them as they were young and energetic. We matched our pace, shared snacks, and had interesting conversations, making the time pass quickly until we reached Forest Camp. They had booked a hotel, which I shared with them, although, unfortunately, two of them snored in my room. We arrived around 2 PM, and at 3 PM, there was a heavy downpour, so I was glad we reached early. After having Chicken Dhal Bhat, I rested and went to sleep.
Day 2: The next day, we aimed to reach High Camp at 3580m, roughly a 1000m elevation gain over 12km. I usually start my day early, around 7 AM, but because of the fellow local hikers having breakfast (I usually skip breakfast), we started around 8:15 AM. The hike is gradually steep, passing through Rest Camp, Low Camp, Badal Danda, and then to High Camp. The day was mostly clear with good views, I met more hikers along the way, and there's a tea house before the Badal Danda spot where hikers stop for tea, photo below from the top view. I encountered a large group of Bangladeshi and Calcutta hikers here. I was surprised to see many Indians come to Nepal for hiking.
I had to leave my local hiking companions behind as they wanted more rest and tea time, and I headed to High Camp. I reached the camp around 1 PM, which is my usual pace. I shared a 4-bed room with two other hikers—a tall young Swiss guy and an older man, Richard, from the Netherlands, who interestingly had a picture of himself and his daughter printed on his T-shirt.
At 3 PM, it started to rain heavily with hail, which worried me because snow makes my hands extremely cold, frozen, and painful. After my regular one-day meal, I went to sleep around 7 PM as tomorrow will be early hike day.
Day 3: Today was the Viewpoint day, which meant getting up at 3 AM and heading to Mardi Himal Low Viewpoint at 4220m over 4km. I couldn't sleep well as our room was next to the toilet, and hikers, guides, and porters were making noise going in and out. Despite not liking early morning hikes, I started at 3:45 AM, following fellow hikers with headlamps on. The trail is a steep hill with no flat trail.
We encountered many sheep eyes glaring at us, above picture of the sheep while coming back, in the dark at one section. I spotted Richard wearing skin-tight thermals, unique as no other hikers did that. We hiked together until I saw the Swiss guy passing us at twice the speed uphill due to his long legs and fast pace. We reached the viewpoint around 5:15 AM, and it was cold. Fortunately, there are tea spots where you can warm your hands. I did this a few times to get warm and took lots of photos. The views are breathtaking, showcasing Annapurna and Mt. Machapuchhre, as you can see in the photos.
Photos of the Annapurna South mountains at various times:
Annapurna south
Photos of Mt. Machapuchre (Fishtail) at various times:
Around 7:30 AM, it started to get cloudy, so I decided to leave. While many guides and hikers stopped only at the low viewpoint, I could have easily proceeded to the high viewpoint. One woman guide said it wasn't safe, but I saw a few hikers, including the Swiss guy, heading to the high viewpoint. I'm generally slow downhill, met Richard, and we packed our stuff and left for Low Camp. Richard was super fast downhill, but I took my time and reached Low Camp around 1 PM.
At Low Camp, it started pouring heavily, so I waited at a tea house to find shared accommodation. Unfortunately, most tea houses prefer not to offer shared accommodation to sell expensive packages, even with many empty guest rooms. So, it's best to ask around multiple tea houses before settling. Fortunately, I found one and met Maggi, Magdalena, a young Polish woman doing a solo trek. She was completely wet as she arrived a bit late. We were the only two people in the tea house, and good to have some one to talk to.
This is my go to healthy snack which I got from india and refill whenever I run out. It has lots of flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chick peas, ground nuts and resins. I generally take 3 to 4 handful of it while I am hiking. I highly recommend everyone to pack these on the hike instead of eating unhealthy stuff.
Dog relaxing overlooking the Annapurna mountain
Day 4: My plan was to go to ABC, while Maggi planned to do Khopra since there are fewer tourists, as ABC is full of hikers. Anyway, both of us had to go through Landruk, from where she would divert towards Ghandruk, but I stayed there. From Low Camp to Forest Camp, the trail was mostly nice, but from Forest Camp to Landruk, it was a steep downhill of stairs, taxing on my knees. Maggi was fast downhill, and we had some good conversations along the way. The elevation loss is around 1600m, so you can imagine how steep the downhill was. We started the day around 7 AM and reached Landruk at 11 AM.
Yak blocking our way
On the left side you can see Landruk and on the right side one can see Ghandruk Villages.
After some conversation, Maggi departed towards Ghandruk, and I stayed back. Met some locals who are busy having some drinks and food, picture to your left. I had my lunch around 4 PM, negotiating to have a full whole country chicken. Nepali people aren't great cooks beyond dhal bhat, so they added a lot of spice and oil. I should have cooked it myself. The chicken was good, but it gave me diarrhea the next day. I stayed another day to relax and ease my burning issue and visited a local school the next day. The school has a few students up to the 5th grade; I met the teachers and students, which was a good experience.
School children:
Lot of flowers in the village
Food, yummy:
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