Lo And Behold

Lo Manthang in Mustang, Nepal, is a city stuck in time. A group of bikers battles the elements to find the capital of a lost kingdom.

- Vir Nakai

“HOW HARD CAN IT BE? Over the last 10 years, we have seen some tough trails in Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh on our motorcycles,” I said to my companions. It didn’t take long for me to find out how wrong I was. At one point, I found myself huffing and puffing, pushing my friend’s motorcycle over a rock. I then watched him precariously navigate a 400-metre stretch of rocks peppered with boulders.

We were not on some backwood trail in the Himalayas, but on the road to the fabled Lo Manthang in Nepal. Lo Manthang was the walled capital of the Kingdom of Lo, which once controlled the trade route between the Himalayas and the plains of India. Today, most people know this area as the Mustang district of Nepal, and the legendary walled city is but a village. I had been drooling over the thought of riding to this historic area on my Royal Enfield Himalayan for years. And I was finally on my way, albeit very slowly.

The journey started when the six of us landed in Kathmandu. After a wait of two days to get the three permits we needed to enter Upper Mustang, we headed to our first stop, Pokhara. Crossing many a village en route, we made it just in time to watch the sunset over Lake Phewa. Pokhara is a city full of activity, but we were all itching to ride. So, we left early the next day, and sped through the next 90 kilometres to the town of Beni. Here, we refuelled our bikes as well as ourselves, before kissing the tarmac goodbye and heading out towards Kalopani. The roads here have never seen any semblance of tar, but that may soon be a thing of the past. As we rode, we noticed development work in full swing. In fact, a stretch of the road remained closed for a better part of the afternoon.