An evening in Phungling bazaar

Phungling is the district headquarters of Taplejung, a ridge-top town of offices, shops and lodges, formed as a municipality in 2014. It is where pilgrims arrive before Pathibhara and where trekkers buy last supplies for the Kanchenjunga region: batteries, snacks, cash and the odd forgotten glove. In the evening, when offices close and the day's buses and jeeps have arrived, the bazaar is at its liveliest.

We walk the main streets with our guide and stop at small kitchens. Kinema, made from fermented soybeans and cooked as a curry or pickle, is a Limbu food you rarely find outside the east, with a strong smell and a rich, savoury taste. With luck you will also find tongba, the warm millet brew sipped through a bamboo straw, and seasonal vegetables from the hill farms around town.

It is a simple, unplanned evening rather than a show. It gives you a feel for a working hill town that most visitors to Nepal never see, where shopkeepers, students, soldiers on leave and farmers in town for the day all share the same few streets. Our guide translates and helps you order, and the evening usually ends early, since the next morning starts before dawn on the trail to Pathibhara.