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In May, 2018, my wife and I had a great trek to the Mustang region with Adventure Connexion. I will review first the Mustang/Tiji Festival Trek and then review Adventure Connexion. However, I will state that I strongly recommend Adventure Connexion and if we return to Nepal for a trek they will be the company that we will use. In 1980 my wife and I did the circum-Annapurna Trek. At the time we passed through Kagbeni and we looked longingly up the Kali Gandaki valley towards Mustang which was closed to foreigners (until 1992). It took us 38 years of waiting but we finally made it back and we are glad that we did return. The trek starts in Jomson, and takes about 4 days to reach Lo Manthang. The trek has spectacular scenery and is more rugged that one might think. There are many side streams that feed the Kali Gandaki all creating deep gorges that need to be crossed. After the first day the entire trek is above 10,000′ so the hiking is difficult but the effort is well rewarded with fantastic views of the Annapurna Range, dramatic cliffs, ancient cave dwellings and traditional Tibetan Buddhist villages. While the trek was strenuous in our group of 7 we had 4 people over 60 and one person over 70 and we all made it. There are various routes to Lo Manthang and we took the higher route via Lo Gekar Gompa which I highly recommend. That route is a bit more scenic and has less road than the route via Tsarang (we returned via Tsarang). We timed our trek to attend the Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang which is a great cultural experience even if a bit tiring. The dancing goes on for many hours and at times the weather was windy and cold so stamina was required. Make sure that you stay for all three days of the festival (some groups left after two days). I thought that the last day was the most interesting of the three and is the climax day. One morning visited the caves and gompas of the Choser area which is north of Lo Manthang. Highly recommended because you can actually enter some of the caves and hike itself has great views. There are many options on how you return to Jomson and we chose to hike to Muktinath over the Gyu La (Gyu Pass) from Chuksang. This was a great route with wonderful scenery and no roads. A word about the road from Jomson to Lo Manthang…the road is now complete and is the trekking route for about ⅓ of the trip. The road is pretty rough so is mainly used by jeeps and no trucks or busses. So, it is not really a issue, however, there is a lot of work being done to improve the road so at some point the traffic will increase and the types of vehicles will change from jeeps to busses and trucks. On our trip in May of 2018 the road was not a negative but in a few years it might be so don’t delay. The lodges and food on the trek were certainly different than in 1980. Private rooms, some with baths and at time hot showers. A wide selection of food and drinks at every stop. For those of you who, like us, were in the Annapurna 30 or 40 years ago you will notice many changes such as electricity in every lodge (mainly solar), bathrooms instead of the field in the back and cell phone coverage. While this minimizes the adventure of the treks a bit it has clearly improved the living standards of the locals and is in general a good thing. Our trek was handled by Adventure Connexion and they were awesome! They are a Nepalese company which means the costs were a bit lower and since they are local, and know the ins and outs of trekking in Nepal, they were able to provide a sublime experience. They took care of us from when we arrived in KTM until we left and that included time in their hotel in KTM (a quiet respite from a hectic city). All of the lodges and arrangements for the trek, including transportation from KTM to Jomson, were well planned and went off with no issues. They were even willing to make some changes to the itinerary to accommodate our desires. For example we flew to Pokhara from KTM instead of taking a bus. Our gear was carried by ponies instead of porters and the guides were fantastic. For 7 of us we had two guides which meant that if someone was having a slow day we could split into two groups. Our guides made sure that we were well taken care of in each lodge (not easy during the Tiji Festival in Mustang). They were also knowledgeable about what we were visiting and made sure that we did not miss any of the important sights on our trek. A trek to Mustang for the Tiji Festival is a great experience no matter how you go but Adventure Connexion made it even better. Note that to trek in Mustang foreigners must have a guide. For those who want more information on the trek itself search on you tube for “Mustang Tiji Festival 2018 Trek Atwood”.