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: Of course, you are right. Again... Both the film and the book refered to Dolpo. : : : Mustang on the other hand, having been made popular by Mathiassen, has been enhanced by movies like Himalaya, etc. It is safe for them to promote it. Marketing bullshit of course. : : : : Actually Peter Matthiessen went to Inner Dolpo, not Upper Mustang (he makes only a few references to Mustang). The film “Himalaya” was also shot in Dolpo. : : It was Michel Peissel who first popularised Mustang : he was the first foreigner ever allowed to reside in Lo (1964) and wrote one of the finest books on Himalayan exploration. Mustang was Peissel’s forbidden kingdom, his “lost horizon”. : : To a large extent it still is – regardless of the “hype”, less than 10.000 Westerners have ever been there (the register in Kagbeni gives the yearly statistics, around 700 permits issued at most… 30 per cent to Frenchmen, probably because of Peissel’s book). Of those tourists, very few got to spend more than a day or two in Lo Mantang itself. Compare those figures to the numbers around the AC every year. : : I disagree with the Nepalese government’s policy (fees and restrictions) but, although I’ve never been there (having, like many, only taken a few steps beyond the “border” at Kagbeni), I’m convinced that Upper Mustang remains one of the great Himalayan adventures. The cultural wealth is immense, the scenery grandiose… and there’s Lo Mantang : a city of myth, a Jaisalmer of the Himalayas. : : Christophe

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