Waking up in Phu is a strange experience, after days of walking and pushing yourself to your limits, you open your eyes and here you are! We decided to spend the morning exploring Phu on our own. The town is said to be 800 years old, founded by people from Tibet, the current border is only about 20km away (as the crow flies) over very extreme mountain passes. This region was closed for 50 years, in an attempt to stop people getting in and out of Tibet, but in 2002, the area was reopened to Westerners, as long as you have a Nepali guide and you pay for a special permit. The town is so remote it has no phone reception (there is a satellite phone only for the locals and emergencies), no TV, cars or motorbikes. Everything is either made locally in the town or needs to be brought in by pack animal or porter. There is no machinery, all work is done by hand. Up until a couple of years ago there was no electricity, now there is limited solar for daytime and a newly built little hydropower plant that gives a basic service of a night. There is no heating other than the kitchen fire. Food is basic, but mostly fresh (no refrigeration) or dried goods. There are no shops or stalls of any kind at all, the only place to eat or buy drinks is the teahouses, and of course the prices are very high, because it all has to be carted in along the trail.
The people all look more Tibetan than Nepali, and you can tell they live a very hard life. It took sometime to realise it, but there is not a dog, cat or chicken in Phu, the place is too cold for chickens and life is too raw to feed any non productive animals like pets. There are goats, sheep, yaks, cows and of course the ponies and mules. All seem to spend the night in stables above the stone huts, ideal to keep everyone warn at night. Phu is like a maze of tiny walkways, most would not be a meter wide and the wind around the hillside, no street signs of course, because everyone knows the way around. The highest point of the town is a collection of burnt out and crumbling ruins, it might have been a palace or headman's home at some point, but now it's slowly being used as place to get building materials from.
People nod and say "namaste" as you pass. Most of the people of Phu are older, the young ones have go down out of the valley looking for work. We climbed out of the town and made our way up the terraced fields above, a great spot to get a perspective of the town, only the grazing cows for company.
Phu from fields above
Path to high pasture
Phu ladder
We returned to the teahouse for lunch (nowhere else to eat anyway) and a bit of a rest. By now, my altitude sickness had eased to just no appetite, no more headaches or tingling. Across the river on an opposite hill is Tashi Gompa, a Buddhist monestery that I think is as old as Phu. It's across a swing bridge and up another very long and steep path (there is always another steep path in Nepal!). It seemed to take forever, but with each step, we were rewarded with better views. The monestery is very peaceful and spiritual. After poking around we found a very bent old nun, with no English. She gestured toward the temple in the heart of the gumpa. She unlocked the door and showed us in, we knelt in front of the shrine while she performed a blessing over us. The shrine was full of ancient writings and religious artifacts. It was a very moving experience, to be in such a remote location being blessed by this tiny nun with not a word of English, our life experiences split by a vast gulf.
Goat bridge
View of Phu from Gompa
Gompa gate
Glacial valley, Himlung behind, Tibet somewhere over there!
Phu below center, Gompa just below
Yaks on the move
Above the Gompa, the mountain climbs to a chorten that sits on the tip at about 4200m. From here, the views are a true 360 degrees. Far below us sat Phu on it's hill top, to the north east a glacial moraine filled a valley, behind which, just out of sight was the Pangri Glacier flowing down from Himlung. To the north, we could see a tiny path that led over the mountains to Tibet. All around us, hemming us in were barren, scarred mountains, and behind them in the 6000 and 7000's were snow and ice covered mountains.
Jules and I sat here with our 360 degree view and absorbed the fact that we had come to the edge of the world, once beyond here, you truly need to be a mountaineer with a fully equipped expedition. This is as far as it goes, there are no further paths, no "I wonder what's around the corner". This was truly a journeys end. In many ways, it was the reason for all travel, the "let's go beyond" philosophy. The road ended here for me, there was to be no more, because it was pointless. I realised that from childhood, this was what I was looking for, the place beyond. The sort of place that explorers discover, go through hell to reach. Well, in 2015, this is as good as it gets I think.
Sitting on this mountain top, Jules and I decided it was time to go home.....
Journeys end
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