REGENERATIVE TRAVEL IN THE NEPALESE HIMALAYAS: LIFE & LEISURE

The renowned mountaineer SIR EDMUND HILLARY rented this former sherpa's HOUSE for decades. Now a refurbished hotel, you too can hire it AND ESCAPE FROM THE WORLD.

At the end of the long stone pathway, lined with towering pines and prayer flags snapping in the wind and located in a secluded, little-known Nepalese village up in the clouds, sits one of the Himalayas best-kept secrets: a traditional stacked-stone Sherpa dwelling called The Happy House.

I’ve arrived here with a sense of awe, having had it on my bucket list after reading an article by British travel writer Sophy Roberts in early 2019.

Her story was so evocative that when Australia’s borders reopened in November 2021, it was one of the first places I planned to visit.

Late last year, I finally stepped off the helicopter in Phaplu village in Solu Khumbu district, north-eastern Nepal - only to bump into Roberts standing by the helipad, waiting to board the same chopper for the return 30-minute flight to Kathmandu. I took it as a sign I was meant to be here.

I proceeded to gush uncontrollably about being a huge fan of hers. She remained warm but composed and professional, lightly touching a staff member’s forearm and whispering conspiratorially, “Take special care of her, won’t you,” before tossing her camera over her shoulder and climbing into the chopper, blonde hair flying. 

That Roberts was revisiting the Happy House should have come as no surprise. This place, located a five-minute walk from the village airstrip, has long been a “salon for the mountain literati”, as its website puts it.

Sir Edmund Hillary rented it on and off for almost 30 years while overseeing his Himalayan Trust projects and called it his “happy house”, thus unofficially naming it. (From 1973 to 2018, the property was formally known as the Hostellerie des Sherpas, before being renamed The Happy House five years ago).

The explorer and author Levison Wood has stayed, as has the British novelist Laura Beatty and fellow Briton, photojournalist Sir Don McCullin. Look closely at the collection of photographs lining the stairs, and you’ll even see a rumple-haired Richard Gere.

Our small group of five, including three Americans and one Brit, are greeted on the front law by Ang Tshering, the handsome, softly spoken 33-year-old grandson of the original owner (high-profile Sherpa named Ang Tawa Lama). Tshering now runs the show here.

Beside him is Christopher Giercke - a German filmmaker who once worked on Apocalypse Now, and today produces cashmere for Hermès. For the past few decades, Giercke and his Mongolian wife have been part-time caretakers of the Happy House (when they are not at their Mongolian adventure camp, Genghis Khan Retreat, that is).

Dressed in a black linen knee-length frock coat and plus fours (knee-length trousers), purple ribbed stockings and a white Panama hat, Giercke is as eccentric as the house.

The Happy House was originally built by Tshering’s grandfather Tawa Lama - then upgraded by an Italian count, Guido Monzino, who led the first Italian expedition to Mount Everest in 1973, enlisting the help of more than 6000 porters and guides carrying everything from gambling tables to sofas and silver service.

Monzino passed through Phaplu during this expedition and fell in love with the house. When he met Tawa Lama, he offered to upgrade his house, in exchange for making it his part-time abode when he was in Nepal.

The result of this collaboration is a space that feels somewhere between a film set and a Buddhist monastery.

Downstairs in the combined lounge and dining room, colourful Buddhist thangka paintings - depicting Buddhist gods and demons that are meditations to both undertake and behold - adorn every wall and beam. Hand-sewn Tibetan curtains cover doorways, pendant lamps hang low over the dining table, while Nepalese masks, figurines of deities and butter lamps line the shelves.

There are European touches, too: Monzino’s Edwardian gambling table from his Everest expedition sits outside the small library, and Giercke’s thick cashmere blankets - all spun, woven and dyed in Nepal - cloak every armchair and couch. The overall effect is equal parts reverential, celebratory and homely: somewhere you could just as happily pray, party, or take a nap.

In 2015, after the devastating earthquake that killed almost 9000 people in Nepal, the Hostellerie des Sherpas (as it was named then) was taken apart then rebuilt with stabilising metal beams; it was done piece by piece, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.

As Giercke quips, “You want to have a safe house, not just a happy house.” Tshering and Giercke refurbished the first and second floors, which accommodate the 10 spacious en-suite bedrooms, and in the autumn of 2018 reopened it as The Happy House.

The house now functions as a hub for Tshering's Himalayan adventure company Beyul Experiences, which is opening up this little-visited area of Nepal in new and interesting ways. Beyul’s bespoke itineraries include everything from overnight camping expeditions and mountain biking trips, to private high-altitude helicopter flights to important Buddhist monasteries.

For visitors seeking a more meaningful holiday, Beyul is staffed entirely by residents of Solu Khumbu, and is actively involved with several social projects in the district. These include providing mountain bikes to local children to encourage them to stay at school; distributing smokeless stoves to homes (open-fire cooking is the leading cause of child fatalities here); and funding the Phaplu hospital and Chiwong monastery.

Our first Happy House brunch is eaten under wide white umbrellas on the lawn while we’re attended to by the gracious staff. It’s a smorgasbord of traditional cuisine, served in copper dishes that ring like singing bowls when in contact with cutlery.

Sautéed greens sourced from the guest house’s organic vegetable gardens, are served up with a spicy dal bhat lentil stew that’s enlivened by the house-pickled garlic, plus morel mushrooms mixed with the tendrils of young tree ferns plucked from a nearby forest.

The food is so good that the staff say Sophy Roberts is currently working on a cookbook with head chef, Mingma Sherpa.

The afternoon unfolds at a leisurely pace, with daily massages (included in the price) offered in the Mongolian ger tent on the back lawn, and singing bowl therapies or private meditation sessions with the in-house yoga teacher.

Two of the staff lead a gentle hike through the mountains behind The Happy House for altitude acclimatisation - not that that’s too much of a worry here at 2400 metres. Giercke describes the area as “the beginning of the end of the world”.

Later, we curl up by the fire sharing stories over glasses of Italian red, before eating what we all agree is the world’s best pasta puttanesca.

But one mustn’t get too cosy. Because as marvellous as The Happy House and its characters are, it is really meant as a base for high-altitude adventures.

The following morning, we hike for three hours through rhododendron forests dotted with waterfalls and thickets of wild raspberries to Chiwong monastery, built by Tshering’s great-great-great-grandfather Sangey Tenpa Lama in 1923.

Buddhism is only practiced by about 11 percent of Nepali people, but the Sherpas, who originally migrated here from Tibet 500 years ago, regard Solu Khumbu as a “Beyul” or sacred valley, and so the district is home to an abundance of Buddhist monasteries.

Chewing clings dramatically to a cliff edge surrounded by pine-covered mountains. We are greeted by the 57 saffron-robed monks who live here, the majority of whom are children; the latter receive us with shy giggles and pressed palm namastes.

Today is Giercke’s birthday, and the monks celebrate with chanting and cake, tinsel-edged party hats perched on their shaved heads.

On the hike back down to the Happy House, we pass mani stones that tower over our heads, boulders carved with devotional mantras that are a “call to awareness” for trekkers climbing the mountain trails. Stupas are strung with colourful prayer flags, fluttering their messages of compassion and goodwill out into the world.

It is as fulfilling a travel day as I can remember and, hungry for more, I plan a hike up to Beyul Experiences’ ridgetop camp the following day. The capricious Himalayas, however, have other plans. A storm arrives overnight, bringing with it thick mist and heavy rain, and I have no choice but to bunker down at the Happy House.

I spend the day reading books about Himalayan architecture and Tibetan Buddhism, sipping cups of tea laced with house-made honey while wrapped in cashmere blankets, warming my bones in the sauna, and indulging in yet another massage. The thwarted plan turns out to be a gift, and a chance to slow down and adopt the Sherpa mindset.

“We Sherpas never make plans,” says Tshering over dinner that night. “Everything just happens as it happens.”

Good things come to those who wait: I get my overnight camping experience on my last night. The storm finally passes, and I hike for two hours in the late afternoon light through the aptly named Magic Forest, filled with 200-year-old trees and wild mushrooms and dense mosses, as our Sherpa guide whistles out for bears.

We arrive at camp, set on a cloud-shrouded ridge, as twilight descends. Red wine and steaming bowls of Sherpa dumpling soup are our immediate reward. We sip both by flickering candlelight inside the main ger tent while the Sherpas enchant us with stories about their Everest expeditions.

When I retire to my tent, I notice a hot water bottle has been slipped into my bed. At dawn, I zip my tent flap open just in time to see the sky momentarily clear and the distant Himalayan peaks emerge. The morning sun glances off the snow caps, the crisp mountain air catches in my throat, and time stands still for a moment. Then the breeze picks up, the clouds shift - and just like that, the peaks are gone.

Nina Karnikowski travelled courtesy of Beyul Experiences, with assistance from Qantas.


NEED TO KNOW
STAY
The 10 ensuite rooms at The Happy House can be booked individually for $US600 per person per night, or the entire house can be booked for $US6000 a night. The spring season runs from March through May (the best time for flora and fauna), and autumn from October through December (best for clear skies and mountain views).

INCLUSIONS
Rate includes all meals, drinks and laundry, treatments including daily massages and yoga sessions, and activities including overnight treks. See beyulexperiences.com

FLY
Qantas flies non-stop from Sydney to Bengaluru four times a week, then connects to Kathmandu via Delhi through codeshare partner IndiGo. The Happy House is a 30-minute helicopter flight from Kathmandu. See qantas.com

FOR MORE
Visit the Nepal Tourism Board at ntb.gov.np

This story first appeared in print below and online here.