Nar Phu Valley Trek Day 5: Nar Phedi Monastery or trek on?

Nar Phu Valley Trek – Day 5 of 9

For me a great trek is a trekking route be a loop, never crossing the same stone twice. Enter in one place, leave in another. In my Kathmandu Valley Heritage Walks book, I made it a point of pride to design routes that never repeat. It makes any independent trek or walk more interesting, and better value in terms of time or money. Up in the mountains of Nepal, things are less forgiving. To reach Nar from Phu, you must retrace your steps down the canyon to the Jhunum junction. Yes, there will be online gurus who say there’s another way … but it’s not worth it without an expedition style trek which will cost you even more. On the Nar Phu trek, things are a little different though as the views change considerably.

Gautam was already in good spirits when we set off, watching the morning sun work its way up the valley walls. Unlike the dusty trek back from Everest Base Camp, the descent from Phu is genuinely different on the return. The light hits the canyon from the opposite direction, revealing cliff-side dwellings and high-altitude cave openings we had moved past too quickly on the way up. The tree line reappears gradually as we lose altitude, a reminder that the world below Phu is a different ecosystem entirely. It is, if anything, the more interesting direction to trek!

This retraced section is also where the Annapurna North Circuit (I’m leaning towards the Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit) logic holds up under scrutiny. A route that runs Koto to Phu and back to Nar, then over the Kang La Pass into Manang, uses this canyon twice but gives you different views both times. I for one, prefer this over the Chame to Pisang or Manang route for the classic Annapurna Circuit, so we are winning in terms of better views at least.

Phu to Nar Phedi: The Route

• Route: Phu to Nar Phedi
• Distance/Time: 12km / 4-5 hours
• Starting Altitude: 4,130 m
• Ending Altitude: 3,500 m
• The “Long Day” Option: 8+ hours (continuing to Nar)

The Phu to Nar Dilemma: Stop or Push Through?

A question I get regularly from readers of my Trekking in Nepal guidebook is whether you can go directly from Phu to Nar in a single day. Technically, yes. It is a long, 10+hour day with a brutal, tiring, final climb. If you stayed in Kyang, and wanted the extra day in Phu, this is were you could make up for it – going Phu to Nar. However, we are still on time and on course so …

One other point: Phu to Nar by skipping Nar Phedi is 10+ hours, while you may be up for it, your trekking guide may not want to – just because they are a trekking guide doesn’t mean they will want to work a 10-12 hour day! Again, all those snazzy online trekking company websites fail to mention things like this. It’s the reality of life vs selling the dream. I prefer to write about the reality of the dream – which is this. Or, for even better information in my guidebooks.

After two nights in Phu at 4,130m plus side treks pushing towards 4,730m, dropping to 3,500m for a night gives us a genuine recovery window before climbing back above 4,000m at Nar and then facing the 5,320m Kang La Pass. The rest alone feels good. But there is more to it than that. Stopping at Nar Phedi monastery means a long lunch at Kyang on the way down, an afternoon to visit one of the most historically significant sites in the valley, and the one thing every trekker eventually needs desperately: an afternoon for laundry. You won’t read that on trekking agency websites either!

Sartek Thrangu Choepel Ling: A Monastery Worth Staying In

We stopped for an early but extended lunch at Kyang on the way down – the same wide pasture we passed through on Day 3 – and arrived at Nar Phedi Monastery in the early afternoon. The full name is Sartek Thrangu Choepel Ling. It’s believed to date all the way back to the 8th century, though the dedicated trekker lodge attached to it has been receiving visitors since 2003 with several renovations since. I am not generally enthusiastic about monastery stays. They can be dark, drafty, and short on basic facilities. This one is an exception. The rooms are clean and well-maintained, and the monastery itself has been recently repainted, its white, reds and golds sitting sharply against the light-brown rock face rising directly behind it.

I asked Gautam a hypothetical question. “If you had to stay in one place for a week, would it be the ancient, worn-out citadel of Phu or this clean, new monastery?”

For Gautam, the choice was instant, the “new and clean” of Nar Phedi won hands down. He preferred the modern upkeep, while I still felt the pull of Phu’s remote, crumbling history. It was a classic debate between the comfort of the present and the soul of the past.

This is something that reverberates with many trekkers from overseas. They come for the opposite of where they live. Meanwhile, the local people often long for exactly the same: the opposite of where they are. It’s one of the big battles of heritage in the Kathmandu Valley and the mountains, concrete vs traditional build. It happened along the Annapurna Circuit where old teahouses were torn down in favor of bland concrete ones that locals preferred as being more modern, yet visitors are unimpressed by. Couple that with “roads” and you have decreasing numbers. Or at best, dissatisfied visitors. There’s also another side to things.

The Tech-Clash in the Hidden Valley

While waiting for our laundry to dry in the thin mountain sun, I had a strange moment of “cultural whiplash.” I turned on my phone to check for an NTC signal. For a fleeting second, three bars flashed on the screen, a stunning occurrence this deep in the canyon, before vanishing into the canyons bouncing rock void. There was wifi though, and in that moment, a cached video on my phone began to play. It was an AI-enhanced advertisement, filled with CGI-perfect faces, lighting, and “plastic,” unreal colors.

After days of staring at the raw, honest stone of Phu and the weathered faces of the Khampa descendants, the “unreal” world of the outside felt repulsive. It was like an allergic reaction to a digital fever dream. I looked over at Gautam, expecting him to share my disdain, but he was glued to his screen. He wasn’t looking for news or signals; he was deep into a mobile game he’d downloaded weeks ago. The “Hidden Realm” was right outside the door, but he was in a digital forest. His battery died 30 minutes later and he went away muttering about trying to find a charging cable. The “real” world of washing socks and watching the clouds roll over the monastery roof resumed shortly afterwards. It all hinged on when I wrote an popularly unpopular article about when Nepal lost it’s innocence.

I had seen a tumble of messages pile in to my phone when it briefly connected and I felt that new-world urge to check them to be sure I wasn’t missing anything. I’d let people know I’d be offline. I couldn’t help but still wonder about an emergency or the like. I scanned over the headings determined not to open them up. A small win. A strange feeling of being responsible to at least check for emergencies, but also a slight feeling of disdain for letting the new world enter the old – just a personal thing. I wondered if the trekkers from yesterday in Phu, Martin and Debs, would be thinking the same.

Is Nar Phedi Worth it?: The Jhunum Junction

When you reach the signpost at Jhunum, take the right-hand fork toward Nar. Maps and details for Nar Phu in my Trekking in Nepal Guidebook. The trail becomes steep and forested from here. We went slow on the descent, and at the river, using the new metal suspension bridges only. The old wooden ones are worth photographing but only the new ones are worth crossing. If it was monsoon season, I would avoid any crossing that was close to any bridge in terms of water lines. The rivers in Nepal are much more powerful than they look. One look at Missing Trekkers near rivers and you’ll see the relation. It’s something I try to explain in my guidebook to people on the Manaslu trek as they also try to drive further up – it’s Nepal, sometimes the road is there, other times it’s washed away. The latter can ruin an entire trek unless go prepared.

Is a stay in Nar Phedi and the Sartek Monastery worth it though? Yes, I would say. If time is on ones side than why not. It’s more enjoyable than many other monastery’s for me. And certainly not commercial despite the trekking teahouse addition. Yes, it’s possible to trek on to Nar. But we didn’t come here for non-existent records. We came here to enjoy, and document. Tomorrows first couple of hours will remind me how tough the start to Nar is. So for now, I’ll take the break, and wonder why monks need so much wifi.

Next: Day 6 – Nar Phedi to Nar: the remote village and a look at the different trekking seasons.

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