My friends and I were using two different travel books on the Annapurna Circuit. Both mentioned the Shangri-la guest house in Kagbeni. My book, "Trekking in the Annapurna Region", published by Trailblazer, calls it an "eyesore". I think that's a bit unfair and fairly indicative of how crappy the book is in general.
I thought the facility was outstanding. It's big and clean. The downstairs common room is cavernous but surprisingly cozy at night.
There's a dining area upstairs as well, with a fantastic view of the Kali Gandaki valley and Nilgiri.
All of which is nice, but what makes the place so special is the people who work there. We had stopped for lunch at another restaurant in town. Kasia and I offered to find rooms for the group. We started here. I mentioned in a previous post how much it disgusts me to hear hikers haggling over room prices. Without any prompting from us the owner offered us a break on the room cost. Apparently business had been slow and she didn't want to pass up the chance to rent three rooms. For less than $2 I had my own room with an actual hot shower.
We didn't look any further. The owner is on the right.
My best guess at the English spelling of her name is Zindin. Her sister Kumari is in the center holding Zindin's daughter. Kumari's name I can spell because it's the name of the "living goddess" who lives in Kathmandu.
I won't even make a stab at Zindin's daughter's name. On the left is (again, best guess) Zundan, who, if I understood correctly, is a cousin. They all work nonstop from before sunrise to long after the tourists are asleep, and yet they are unfailingly cheerful and friendly. When she's cleaning up at night Zindin will strap her daughter to her back with a shawl. The child sleeps like a log with her body in the craziest positions as her mother bustles around the inn.
Take a look behind them. The kitchen is unusually large for Nepal, but, that aside, look how clean and orderly it is. I don't mean to criticize other lodges. It's miraculous how much food (and good food, at that) they can crank out of tiny kitchens, but it's not surprising that they always look in a state of disarray.
Zindin's kitchen is as busy as any of them but unlike other kitchens I've seen it doesn't look like burglars came through and trashed it. It's also well-stocked. One member of my hiking group is a Welshman named Tom who works as a chef in Paris. Zindin gave him a tour of the kitchen. He was impressed not just with how professional it looked. I'm willing to bet there aren't many kitchens on the trail with fenugreek on the shelf.
The food was amazing. I don't mean amazing by trail standards, I mean amazing, period. Tom said the chop suey was the best he ever had. The baby potatoes in sesame cream sauce are deservedly famous. I had gone to Kagbeni in part to visit the famous YakDonald's, but after trying the food at the lodge I had no desire to eat anywhere else.
Most lodges have gardens and raise chickens, so vegetable and egg items are cheap. Meat dishes are more expensive for them to make because they must buy the meat. Zindin asked us if we had any ideas for new dishes she could make using existing ingredients.
In Nepal they eat an unleavened flour bread called a chapati, essentially the same thing as a tortilla. I stumbled across the idea of a breakfast burrito. We were surprised when we realized we hadn't seen it on the menu anywhere. We pitched the idea to Zindin. She seemed interested. As I was the only one who was staying a second night she asked if I would show her how to make it.
The next day I wrote down the ingredients, instructions and even made a drawing of possible serving options: prewrapped, make-your-own, etc. That night I had dinner in the downstairs common room and, as usual, I chowed down. Yak steak and fresh apple pie with hot custard (pudding). There was a lively group of tourists so I got in the spirit and even had a big bottle of Everest beer.
I thought I was done for the night but as the rest of the hikers were heading off to bed Zindin asked me to join her in the kitchen to show her how to make a breakfast burrito. I felt wildly out of place and sorely wished Tom the chef was there to do the honors. I mostly tried to stay out of the way as she made the bread and sauteed all the ingredients together.
She tried it and seemed to like it. It's entirely likely that she was simply being polite, of course. I said it tasted the way it should but suggested that she could use her culinary skills to improve it. So there it was, a giant breakfast burrito sitting there on the plate... Hmm...
I had to eat it.
Don't get me wrong, it was excellent. But I had already eaten a huge meal. It would have been in incredibly poor taste to refuse. Normally I would have already been asleep. But there I was at 10:30 pm wolfing down yet another enormous plate of food.
The next morning she asked me if I wanted breakfast. She laughed when I told her I was still full from "breakfast" the night before. I mentioned that I don't eat breakfast. I made the mistake of saying that if I eat anything in the morning it's usually fruit. Zindin said she had apple trees, from which she made her otherworldly apple pie. Oh no, I couldn't -- but it was too late.
Great, I thought, I'll take an apple with me and eat it a little ways down the trail when I need an energy boost. Imagine my horror, then, when she handed me an entire shopping bag full of apples. She refused to accept any money for them.
I used this photo in a previous post but I'm using it again to illustrate the final bit of kindness guests at the Shangri-la guest house receive. Hotels in Nepal give guests a white scarf as a gift and blessing. It is not common for guests to receive these scarves on the trail. This was taken the morning my friends departed. They're all wearing the scarves they've just been given. I would receive mine the next day.
I've stayed in dozens of lodges on the trails in Nepal and this is the only one that has provided this courtesy. Most hikers stay one or, at most, two nights in Kagbeni. The owners have to pay for these scarves and receive nothing in return. In fact, they give them out after the bill is paid.
From what I gathered Kagbeni is becoming a casualty of the road building in the Annapurna region. It was a regular stop on the Circuit, but now that more and more tourists on this side of the trail are traveling by vehicle, they either pass through Kagbeni for a few hours, or not at all.
Though the village marks the southern boundary of the restricted Upper Mustang region, there's a road on the ridge above with a constant stream of vans and jeeps conveying tourists from Muktinath to Jomsom or vice versa.
Kagbeni is one of my favorite villages in Nepal. So many stops along the trail are there purely for the use of tourists, but here is a place that existed centuries before westerners invaded. It has personality, charm, and lots of nooks and crannies for hikers to explore. It is the jumping-off point for the day hike to the village of Tiri, perhaps the best day hike I've ever done.
It is also home to one of my favorite lodges in Nepal. If you go to Nepal and hike the Annapurna Circuit, do yourself a favor and spend some time in and around Kagbeni. While you're there, stay at Shangri-la, try the sesame potatoes and see if my breakfast burrito made it onto the menu after all.
I thought the facility was outstanding. It's big and clean. The downstairs common room is cavernous but surprisingly cozy at night.
There's a dining area upstairs as well, with a fantastic view of the Kali Gandaki valley and Nilgiri.
All of which is nice, but what makes the place so special is the people who work there. We had stopped for lunch at another restaurant in town. Kasia and I offered to find rooms for the group. We started here. I mentioned in a previous post how much it disgusts me to hear hikers haggling over room prices. Without any prompting from us the owner offered us a break on the room cost. Apparently business had been slow and she didn't want to pass up the chance to rent three rooms. For less than $2 I had my own room with an actual hot shower.
We didn't look any further. The owner is on the right.
My best guess at the English spelling of her name is Zindin. Her sister Kumari is in the center holding Zindin's daughter. Kumari's name I can spell because it's the name of the "living goddess" who lives in Kathmandu.I won't even make a stab at Zindin's daughter's name. On the left is (again, best guess) Zundan, who, if I understood correctly, is a cousin. They all work nonstop from before sunrise to long after the tourists are asleep, and yet they are unfailingly cheerful and friendly. When she's cleaning up at night Zindin will strap her daughter to her back with a shawl. The child sleeps like a log with her body in the craziest positions as her mother bustles around the inn.
Take a look behind them. The kitchen is unusually large for Nepal, but, that aside, look how clean and orderly it is. I don't mean to criticize other lodges. It's miraculous how much food (and good food, at that) they can crank out of tiny kitchens, but it's not surprising that they always look in a state of disarray.
Zindin's kitchen is as busy as any of them but unlike other kitchens I've seen it doesn't look like burglars came through and trashed it. It's also well-stocked. One member of my hiking group is a Welshman named Tom who works as a chef in Paris. Zindin gave him a tour of the kitchen. He was impressed not just with how professional it looked. I'm willing to bet there aren't many kitchens on the trail with fenugreek on the shelf.
The food was amazing. I don't mean amazing by trail standards, I mean amazing, period. Tom said the chop suey was the best he ever had. The baby potatoes in sesame cream sauce are deservedly famous. I had gone to Kagbeni in part to visit the famous YakDonald's, but after trying the food at the lodge I had no desire to eat anywhere else.
Most lodges have gardens and raise chickens, so vegetable and egg items are cheap. Meat dishes are more expensive for them to make because they must buy the meat. Zindin asked us if we had any ideas for new dishes she could make using existing ingredients.
In Nepal they eat an unleavened flour bread called a chapati, essentially the same thing as a tortilla. I stumbled across the idea of a breakfast burrito. We were surprised when we realized we hadn't seen it on the menu anywhere. We pitched the idea to Zindin. She seemed interested. As I was the only one who was staying a second night she asked if I would show her how to make it.
The next day I wrote down the ingredients, instructions and even made a drawing of possible serving options: prewrapped, make-your-own, etc. That night I had dinner in the downstairs common room and, as usual, I chowed down. Yak steak and fresh apple pie with hot custard (pudding). There was a lively group of tourists so I got in the spirit and even had a big bottle of Everest beer.
I thought I was done for the night but as the rest of the hikers were heading off to bed Zindin asked me to join her in the kitchen to show her how to make a breakfast burrito. I felt wildly out of place and sorely wished Tom the chef was there to do the honors. I mostly tried to stay out of the way as she made the bread and sauteed all the ingredients together.
She tried it and seemed to like it. It's entirely likely that she was simply being polite, of course. I said it tasted the way it should but suggested that she could use her culinary skills to improve it. So there it was, a giant breakfast burrito sitting there on the plate... Hmm...
I had to eat it.
Don't get me wrong, it was excellent. But I had already eaten a huge meal. It would have been in incredibly poor taste to refuse. Normally I would have already been asleep. But there I was at 10:30 pm wolfing down yet another enormous plate of food.
The next morning she asked me if I wanted breakfast. She laughed when I told her I was still full from "breakfast" the night before. I mentioned that I don't eat breakfast. I made the mistake of saying that if I eat anything in the morning it's usually fruit. Zindin said she had apple trees, from which she made her otherworldly apple pie. Oh no, I couldn't -- but it was too late.
Great, I thought, I'll take an apple with me and eat it a little ways down the trail when I need an energy boost. Imagine my horror, then, when she handed me an entire shopping bag full of apples. She refused to accept any money for them.
I used this photo in a previous post but I'm using it again to illustrate the final bit of kindness guests at the Shangri-la guest house receive. Hotels in Nepal give guests a white scarf as a gift and blessing. It is not common for guests to receive these scarves on the trail. This was taken the morning my friends departed. They're all wearing the scarves they've just been given. I would receive mine the next day.
I've stayed in dozens of lodges on the trails in Nepal and this is the only one that has provided this courtesy. Most hikers stay one or, at most, two nights in Kagbeni. The owners have to pay for these scarves and receive nothing in return. In fact, they give them out after the bill is paid.From what I gathered Kagbeni is becoming a casualty of the road building in the Annapurna region. It was a regular stop on the Circuit, but now that more and more tourists on this side of the trail are traveling by vehicle, they either pass through Kagbeni for a few hours, or not at all.
Though the village marks the southern boundary of the restricted Upper Mustang region, there's a road on the ridge above with a constant stream of vans and jeeps conveying tourists from Muktinath to Jomsom or vice versa.
Kagbeni is one of my favorite villages in Nepal. So many stops along the trail are there purely for the use of tourists, but here is a place that existed centuries before westerners invaded. It has personality, charm, and lots of nooks and crannies for hikers to explore. It is the jumping-off point for the day hike to the village of Tiri, perhaps the best day hike I've ever done.
It is also home to one of my favorite lodges in Nepal. If you go to Nepal and hike the Annapurna Circuit, do yourself a favor and spend some time in and around Kagbeni. While you're there, stay at Shangri-la, try the sesame potatoes and see if my breakfast burrito made it onto the menu after all.
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