I am a travel writer working on my first book about Upper Mustang, Nepal.

I learnt about this area about five years ago when I was researching Nepal before my first trip there. That’s when I came across the mediaeval walled city of Lo Manthang. That there was a walled city on the Tibetan plateau, built in the Middle Ages, still in existence, still occupied by descendants of the original inhabitants, still with its own royal family, was mind-blowing.  I had to go there. I looked for books about it but the only one I found was a book written in 1965 by a Frenchman, Michel Peissel, called Mustang: The Lost Tibetan Kingdom, but nothing since. I tried to get a copy, but it was long out of print. Copies went for as much as $400 on the Internet, but I persevered and finally found an affordable copy.

After reading his book I decided to set out on horseback for Lo Manthang in the footsteps of Mr. Peissel, fifty years after his journey, to see what he saw, what was the same and what had changed. It was a journey into north-western Nepal, but in reality a journey into Tibet as it was before the Chinese occupation; it felt like going back in time.

Come back and visit and I’ll tell you about it.