Mardi himal trek is quite a famous trekking destination around Pokhara. The trekking here started before 50 years but it is not getting sufficient light for international visitors. It is gaining popularity but in a very slow pace.
The trek starts from Lumle or you can take a shortcut from Siddhing but Lumle is the most famous starting point and almost everyone does that. After 3 to 5 hours of trek depending upon your speed you will reach Australian Base Camp which is an pretty amazing place to view Pokhara Valley.
After 30 minutes of trek from ABC you will reach Pothana. Which is where most of the people rest but there are equal number of trekkers who move on and rest only in Pitam Deurali. Pitam Deurali is where you start to feel you are very near a mountain. Then when you have your food then it will be finger licking good.
After that Forest Camp is the next destination. Forest Camp is mostly taken as a place to eat your morning meal , rest and leave. The destination for that day is Low Camp. The staffs of Forest Camp Hotel were very much polite and the service was awesome for a hotel at about 2550m altitude. As we start to go up people start to be more and more polite and helpful. Foreign Tourist you meet there are also awesome. Low camp is where most of the people live that day. There is a bonfire in the lowcamp and there people from different part of the world sit together and talk. That is an awesome experience.
Then the destination is High Camp which takes around 3 to 5 hours from the low camp. High camp is a special place. The high camp brother is the most amazing guy I met in the trek. There are around 3 or 4 high camp hotels and most of them are always crowded.
The most amazing thing was we need to book our rooms from low camp. The high camp Brother told that one day the hotel was so much crowed that he slept with a lady foreigner in the kitchen. The lady cried the next day and when asked why she cried, She replied "This is heaven here and I don't have many days to live here."
The next day to reach the Mardi Base Camp is really the busiest day. You need to wake up around 5 'o clock in the morning and pack some food for you and leave. The trek to the base camp takes around 3 to 4 hours from the high camp and on the way we have a Yak farm. Where most of the tourist drink Yak milk and take some Yak Butter, Ghee, Cheese and "Churpee" with them. There is no hotels in the base camp and there are not even anyone living there. The temperature falls significantly and you will start to feel very cold as most of them won't be prepared for such an temperature difference. Sometimes the fogs block the View of the mountain and you need to return being a little bit upset. You need to return the same day as there is no hotels in base camp
The path is very scary as the path is very slippery and you have around 80 Centimeters wide path and if you fall then you will go about an mile down and your chance of surviving is almost none.
Overall the trek is full with beautiful scenes and difficult path. The joy of being in the top (4550 m) is incomparable.
It takes almost Rs 10000 ($100) per person for the whole trip. But the cost can be reduced to almost Rs 2500 ($25) if you take a shortcut from Shiding which will take you directly to low camp in a single day.