Trekking to a mountain desert in Nepal is just like visiting ancient Tibet

During the trek, the writer encountered the longest, most colourful mani wall of prayer stones that she had ever seen in Nepal.

The “lost and forbidden” kingdom of Upper Mustang, tucked away in northern Nepal, is an arid and ancient land, like a flashback to the Tibet of the 1950s, when the Dalai Lama still reigned in Lhasa.

Virtually untouched by modern civilization and isolated by rugged mountain terrain, the old way of life of the Lobas (people of Mustang) still exists, while its ancient Buddhist monasteries are still intact.