Matti Munnukka : Nepal Langtang

The book describes author's second journey to Nepal in February-March 1985. He first travelled to India and Nepal in the summer of 1984. That was a hair-raising trip which included a great deal of trouble and hardship. Half a year after returning home, in the winter of 1985, he coudn't hold himself back any longer and impulsively bought airplane tickets to Nepal in the middle of university semester. A week later he was already in Kathmandu and went trekking in Langtang for two weeks.

Langtang was an unkown valley to Westerners until 1949, when H.W. Tilman's small expedition visisted there. In 1985, it was still customary to begin the trek to Langtang from the valley of Trisuli. However, the road being built to Dhunche and Ganesh Himal destroyed the mountain area's natural beauty, and already in the following year the trip to Langtang had been shortened by a couple of days.

Since then, Nepal has turned from paradise into a country of political unrest, murder of a royal family and a decade-long civil war. However, these did not stop the flow of tourists to Langtang and Nepal. It was only stopped on 25 April 2015 by a powerful earthquake in Nepal, which destroyed large mountain areas including the Langtang Valley and killing half of its population and many foreign hikers.

Matti Munnukka is a map expert at the National Library of Finland and a travel writer. He writes in his books about his travels to Nepal and Himalaya and describes nature, culture, history, and geography. He has written several articles, two academic final thesis and six travel books of the region. In 2016 his book "India and Nepal - Truth is stranger than fiction" was published in English, followed by "Everest, Nepal and Jimmy Carter" in 2018. In 2015, his book "Nepal Langtang" was published in Finnish and now "Nepal Langtang - Paradise Lost" is his latest and third travel book published in English.