Nepal 2025 - Day 4: Exploring Shyala

 Exploring Shyala

Shyala is one of the biggest villages on the Manaslu circuit and since our teahouse was at the end of the village, we got a glimpse of all the teahouses, shops, school and the monastery on the way in. I was looking forward to stunning views of Manaslu, Himal Chuli, Gurung Chuli and several other unnamed peaks as promised by Jangbu but the clouds thought otherwise. This gave Sonam and I a chance to explore the village and the monastery which looked very enticing on our way towards the teahouse.

We heard a lot of kids making substantial amount of noise from the school building, however, it was already 5 in the evening. Turns out, they use the school as a playground once their classes are over. We could see them just enjoying themselves playing badminton with tennis racquets, 2 man football, some hide and seek and just simply having fun. What I really liked was how oblivious they were with tourists entering their facility. Generally, kids tend to be shy around strangers but not them. They were too used to us strangers.

After spending some time with the kids, we decided to move to the Monastery which was right behind the school. As we moved up towards it, a huge open field opened up and out of the blue, we witnessed some very high skill, high intensity football at that altitude. It was incredible to watch as everything about it was very professional with a referee and replacement balls if one rolls down the slopes around the ground. Dedicated ball boys were present in each direction to ensure the continuity and tempo of the match. It was just incredible to watch.

We walked further up to monastery and were greeted with young girls giggling and trying to start a conversation in English. They were quite bright and did very well in the conversation. They were very surprised when I told them that my wife, Sonam, spoke Nepali. They started a separate conversation with her and all I could understand was them giggling and then getting shy and then giggling again. They led us to the Monastery which was 80% complete, however, the interior was still under construction and closed for public. It sat pretty above the village gave a bird's eye view of Shyala and the surrounding peaks, still under clouds, unfortunately.

After watching the football match with these kids, we decided to head back to the teahouse and get some food. We had an early start the next day to the Pungyen Monastery at an elevation of 4100m. This would be the first small test of the circuit yet because of the cloudy weather and the slow pace of our group. We had to be quick to get back before the weather went south after the afternoon. Before we reached the teahouse, we came across the cutest construction crew of Shyala. Toddlers playing around in mud trying to mimic the construction happening around their houses. Their facial expressions were so genuine and cute that we had to stop for some pictures. The girls following us couldn't understand why we were so fascinated with them but hopefully the picture below explains it. We bought all the kids some candies and sweets from the local shop which they really appreciated.

Our teahouse had a great dining hall with a large stove which kept everyone warm. They also had multiple charging points and the food we got was one of the best we have had so far. People experimented with different food and everything was done vey well. I had the TingMo with potato curry which was an excellent substitute for the Dal Bhat. This was a good point to end the night on and rest up for tomorrow.