When planning our trip, we had decided to link the Langtang Valley trek with the Gosainkund trek to enable us to see even more of the diverse mountain landscape north of Kathmandu. This meant that we had to descend much of what we had already climbed in the Langtang Valley and then traverse over to the next mountain range to begin another ascent. On our fifth day, we began to do just that. We left Lama hotel in the morning only after relishing in our first shower in about four days.

The first part of the walk was retracing parts that we had already walked up but after an hour or so we began to cover new terrain. We shared the trail with porters and mule trains carrying supplies up to the various villages along the way.

We caught sight of a langur monkey family and stopped and watched them swing through the trees.

The trail frustratingly continued downwards until we came to a dizzying bridge that signaled the real beginning of our Gosainkund leg.

We then began the first segment of the steep 1000m climb for the day. About half way up, there was a mercifully placed teashop where we could take a little break. Both the woman weaving and the adorable puppy at her side were welcomed distractions to the aching in my tired thighs.

After a little reprieve, we continued the climb to where we would be spending the night, the adorable village of Thulo Syabru. 

The elaborately carved wooden and stone houses were perched on a ridge overlooking a lush valley.

We stayed at a cozy guesthouse operated by a sweet Tibetan lady. She was an excellent cook and sourced most of the food from her garden. She served up some pumpkin soup that night (after we saw her pluck the pumpkin from her patch) that rivaled that of my step mum Glenda's near perfect recipe. 

While they may not have all had such a nice view, below is what a typical room looked like out on the trail.  Two beds in a wooden room. It was always a bonus if they had such things as a light or hooks on the wall to hang our dirty clothes that got dirtier by the day.

Luckily for us, we chose the guesthouse that had the only washing machine in the village. We were able to wash some of our quick dry clothes which we'd been wearing everyday for the last five days and this made us both extremely happy. And so with clean hair, clean clothes and nutritious food in our bellies, we set off the next day (day 6) for the second half of our trek.