Nepal Travel Advice from Usenet

I sent the following post to rec.travel, now rec.travel.asia when I began thinking about a trip to Nepal, and received these replies. The information I obtained via Usenet was a great help in planning the trip, and convincing myself that I could safely do it independently. I also made a later post about a political situation which developed the summer before I went.

Responses have been slightly edited and identifying information has been removed.

My first post

I am trying to plan a trip to Nepal this fall. I would appreciate any suggestions on arranging treks, etc, without spending too much. I would like to hear from anyone with experience in this. I will probably go independently, unless I find a sufficiently budget-oriented tour from a reputable US company. I am not interested in luxury, but want to do a lot of hiking.

Responses

It depends on what treks you want to do, but many of them (Langtang, the Annapurna circuit, Everest trek etc. ) you can do easily on your own. Since there is lodging and food available on the way, you can travel lightly. Guides are not necessary on these treks, the route shows itself, and besides, there will be more trekkers. Expenses will be low.

Have fun, try to stay a long time, since it will take one or two weeks to acclimatize culturally.

I spent 6 weeks in Nepal in Oct/Nov, and hiked independently in both the Khumbu and Annapurna regions. There really isn't much you need to do to "arrange" a trek. You arrive in Kathmandu, spend a day standing in line at the Ministry of Interior office to get your trekking permit, fly or take a bus to the trailhead, and start walking. All the major treks are full of teahouses where you can get a bunk and food, so all you need to carry is a sleeping bag, warm clothes, camera, etc. My pack was around 25 lbs. Cost was around $5/week for the trekking permit, and around $5/day for food and lodging on the trail (more in Kathmandu). The only thing you might want to arrange in advance is the flight into Lukla, assuming you're planning to hike in the Everest region and don't want to hike in. The flights tend to fill up, so it doesn't hurt to make reservations a month or so in advance.
The best information about independant trekking in Nepal can be found in the book called Trekking in Nepal by Steven Bezrucha (sp?) If you have any specific questions I will be glad to help you.
My first suggestion would be to get a copy of Steven Bezruchka's book, Trekking In Nepal. He really knows his stuff and the trail descriptions are very accurate. Also, his info on the country is quite good as he is a doctor and spent time in Nepal as a Peace Corps worker. He has lots of climbing experience, too, and has served as a team doctor on at least one Everest expedition.

I would recommend planning on doing the trip yourself. You don't need a company to help you set this up. If you do your research and give yourself enough time, you can save a ton of money and have lots more fun. Time is important because it means flexibility. I have trekked in the Khumbu region and in Langtang valley and around the Annapurna circuit. I liked Langtang because I had it to myself (I saw about half a dozen other trekkers in ten days) but the scenery in the Khumbu is unbelievable. The standard Khumbu trails are very busy at peak season (and this can be nasty) but if you are prepared to get off the beaten trail a little, you can easily avoid the hordes.

Glad to help. The Khumbu region is MUCH nicer for trekking but time and money become an issue because while you can take a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara and start an Annapurna trek the same day getting to the Khumbu is not as easy. You can trek there and acclimate that way but it's not really interesting country (relatively speaking, that is) and you'd walk for many days just to get to Lukla. You can fly to Lukla but this adds expense and can give you grey hairs because the planes are small and the landing strip at Lukla is ...ummm.... interesting. Also, Lukla flights used to get cancelled all the time due to weather and this meant that trekkers would pile up in huge clots, waiting for planes, sometimes for days. The other drawback to the Khumbu is that it gets very crowded with all the trek groups going to everest base camp.

However, if I had to pick a destination, I'd go to the Khumbu in a second. The scenery is stunning, the Sherpa people are great, the crowds are avoidable, and the planes are survivable. If you have the time, you can get off the main artery and into some of the side valleys, described well by Bezruchka. I forget the names of the valleys but several of them contain beautiful high-altitude lakes. The drawback is that you need to be a little more self-reliant on these trails because there aren't many "lodges" or places to get fed.

Also, it's quite simple to find trekking partners in Kathmandu. I haven't been there in a few years but the bulletin boards in Thamel used to be full of ads for partners based on where you wanted to go and how much time you had. You can also hang out in any of the "cool" spots and meet dozens of people who might help you out. There are also smaller trekking outfitters that can fix you up with a guide/cook/porter or any combination of the three, depending on your pocketbook and your destination.

I hope this helps. I know how confusing this can be. I went with a friend in 1982 and ended up staying for almost 2 years, working as a river guide / trek leader. I went back in 1988 for another 8 months and did some more trekking. The most important advice is: give yourself time. I'd allow at least a month and six months is better.

Once you get to Kathmandu it is pretty easy to find out about all of the trekking options. When I was there (a year ago), I didn't want to bother with the cold so I just went on the Helambu trail north of Kathmandu. It took about 5 days, I went with my friend and we stayed in tea-houses each night (cheapest one was about 15 cents per person - but it had rats). You will probably want to do something more exciting than that one. I suggest you get a Nepal travel guide (Lonely Planet, or whatever). They will have a section on all the different trails available and what not.

I would not join up with a trek from an American tour company cause they will charge you a bundle and a half. If you want to go with people, then you'll have plenty of opportunities in Kathmandu or over near Anapurna.

You can either meet people in Kathmandu and go with them, or go to one of the many tour agents there and pay them to go with you and take along people to carry your bags, and cook your meals, put up your tents, etc. There really is a wide range of possibilities.

If you do go alone, it is even possible to rent eveything you will need when you get to Nepal (jackets, tents, sleeping bags, etc.). Anyhow, get a travel book if you haven't already, and don't worry about it, it is easy to trek and you can pretty much do whatever suits you - the options are endless.

Replies to Follow-Up Posts

I would like to fly to Lukla and trek in the Khumba region. I have heard that this flight is somewhat unreliable. Could this be a problem?

Yes, the Kathmandu-Lukla flight is very unpredictble. This is mainly due to weather conditions. The mtn. landing strip at Lukla often gets "socked in" by clouds. There is radio-contact between Lukla and Kathmandu (KTH). Early flights often get in/out but afternoon flights sometimes get delayed or canceled. Be sure to build some flexibility in your schedule to account for this. (The organized treks build in extra days at beginning and end of trips for this). I went on an organized trek in Oct. '92. We waited a couple hours at the KTH airport before they canceled all flights for the day. We did make it out the next day.

Our return flight (3 weeks later) left Lukla on time. Flights have been known to take-off for Lukla and turn-around if they find the conditions bad.

I get the impression that sometimes organized trips get special treatment. (The local trekking companies build up friends and partners with some of the airport personel. Bribes and the "buddy-system" is not uncommon.) That is, they probably get preference in booking flights. I'm really not sure how easy/hard it is to book these flights on your own. A lot of people do it so it can't be that difficult.

The flight is about 45 min. It is absolutely incredible. You fly over the terraced hills and then into the big mtns. As you near the Khumbu, you fly up a valley (down in the valley) with mtns. on either side. You keep thinking "where is there a landing strip?" Then you spot it, a short little plateau on the side of a mtn. You land up-hill on a very bumpy, rocky dirt strip. It's very short, with a couple hundred feet difference in elevation on either end. (Land up-hill to slow you down, take-off down hill to "fling" you off the end of the mtn.) These flights are run by RNA (Royal Nepelse Airways), a government run airline, and use Twin Otter plancs. These planes are designed for flights such as this (short strip, fast descent).

When I was there, a second company had just started flights to Lukla as well (don't know the name).

Also, can you recommend a good airline to get over there?

I flew on Thai airways through Bangkok. Thai is absolutely the best airline I have ever flown on. Great food and service. Of course, it was rather expensive (~$1800 round-trip Wash-KTH). There are probably cheaper alternatives but I really liked Thai. You can fly east or west but the better connections are flying west. I flew Washington-LA-(brief stop in Tokyo)-Bangkok(overnight)-KTH.

I think all flights west-bound require you to stay overnight in Bangkok (logistics, time). I stayed overnight at the airport hotel (late arrival, early departure) but it was expensive. On the return flight, I stayed a few days in Bangkok.

Bangkok-KTH is about 3 hours. You can get great views of the Himalyas. If you have a choice, sit on the right-hand side of the plane on the flight to KTH.

You will have a great time. I am definitely going back someday. I'm including an account of my trip at the end of this message (a standard file that I send to people).

Have fun!

Trip Report

I did a 4 week trek in the Khumbu (Everest) region of Nepal last fall (Oct. '92) and had a great time. There were 10 people in our group (9 + 1 guide) + a Sherpa staff, yaks.

Brief itinerary:

I don't consider myself an experienced backpacker but I do enjoy day hiking and wilderness trips. Taking this into account, I decided to use an adventure travel company. A friend of mine did a similar trip the previous year so I was able to get some info from her. The main tradeoffs are time/money. You are paying for the company's experience and organization efforts. Instead of going into all the nitty gritty details, I would like to refer you to 2 books which do a great job of describing all aspects of trekking in Nepal. (There are also books available on trekking in Tibet.) These books describe solo trips, adventure travel company-sponsored trips, and all ranges in between.

  1. Stan Armington, "Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya", 5th edition, Lonely Planet Publications, Berkely, CA, July 1991.
  2. Stephen Bezruchka, "Trekking in Nepal: A Traveler's Guide", 6th edition, The Mountaineers, Seattle, WA, 1991.
There are many other books but I think that these are the best. These are both available at REI and many other places. In addition, there are many Adventure travel companies if you decide to go that route. Here is a list of a few: 
       **Mountain Travel-Sobek  800-227-2384
	*Wilderness Travel      800-247-6700
	 Himalayan Travel       800-225-2380
	 Journeys               800-255-8735
	 Above The Clouds       800-233-4499
	 Himalayan Trekking     800-777-TREK
	 Inner Asia             415-922-0448
Everyone has told me that the first two (*, **) are the best companies. I went with ** and had great experience. I would highly recommend Mtn. Travel. (I did their "Ultimate Everest" trip.) My friend went with * and also had a very positive experience. There are many ads for these companies in the back of magazines like Outside, Backpacker, etc. If you call them, they will send you a catalog.

No one in my group had any major problems with altitude. Everyone experienced mild symptoms which is to be expected. The first couple high altitude day hikes seemed pretty tough but we quickly acclimatized. Anyone in reasonable shape can do it. However, the better shape you are in the more you will enjoy it. One good thing about traveling with a good travel company is that they have strict guidleines and expereince with alitude acclimatization.

I would be happy to answer any specific questions you may have. However, I think that the 2 books that I previously mentioned are very good at answering most of your questions.

When, how, and why you go doesn't matter that much; JUST GO!!!

It is a trip of a lifetime that you never will forget.

Hope this helps,

Namaste

  1. I felt 100% safe hiking alone in the Khumbu (and just a little less safe by Annapurna). Once you get above Namche, everyone is on the same schedule (due to acclimatization), so you usually wind up hiking with the same folks you met at the teahouse the night before. The only time I didn't want to walk alone was when I got off the normal tourist route to cross Chola pass; I wasn't sure that anyone would come along if I fell and broke an ankle or something.
  2. A friend of mine had a Sherpa friend who had just started a trekking agency. I contacted him (via FAX) before my trip and had him make the Luklas reservations for me. I'm guessing that any of the agencies in the states that run treks to Nepal could make similar arrangements.
  3. My pack was an Osprey Finesse, which is just a little bigger than the Dana Bomb pack (around 3000 cubic in). I limited my pack weight by not carrying a tent, stove, pots, water filter, or pad. I did carry an emergency bivy sack, and bought an ensolite pad to carry over Chola pass. The thing you have to remember are that this isn't a wilderness backpacking trip - it's closer to inter-railing around Europe. I carried a sleeping bag, one change of clothes, extra warm clothes, and incidentals like first aid kit, camera, film, etc. I never carried more a day's worth of food (for emergencies), since teahouses are only a few hours apart. Another thing that helped me keep the pack weight down is that I own high quality equipment. My sleeping bag is down and goretex, rated to +5 degrees, and weighs under 3 lbs. My pack weighs around 3 lbs, vs. almost 7 for a Terraplane. I was able to get away with just one change of clothes by carrying using capilene shirts and supplex nylon pants, which dry in just a few hours (no cotton). I've still got my packing list, and can type it in if you want.
  4. I never used a tent, and was always able to find a place at teahouses. Generally, you want to be on the trail early and arrive at your destination early. A couple of times I wasn't able to find space at the teahouse I wanted and had to stay someplace more rustic, and on one occasion I had to sleep in the kitchen.
  5. The coldest temperatures I experienced (at 18k to 19k') were in the upper 30's during the day, dropping to 0 at night at 16k' (according to someone who was sleeping in a tent and had a minimum registering thermometer). Inside the lodges I don't think it ever got down below freezing (I never saw ice in my water bottle).

I can really only think of two reasons to bother taking a tent:

You say that you're planning to fly in to Lukla; what elevation do you live at? If it's near sealevel, plamn on taking an extra day or two before getting above Namche to acclimatize. I got a prescription for diamox (acetazolamide) and used it the whole time I was above 14k'. I would guess that at least 50% of the people not taking diamox suffered from headaches, loss of appetit, insomnia, and other symptoms of AMS.

Sigh. Flights are always iffy in Nepal, though some seasons are worse than others. I'm planning a trip back to Nepal myself to play tourist this fall--I was with the Peace Corps there in '82-'84.

We volunteers, who by that time had abandoned any Western sense of time, couldn't understand why anyone would book international flights and expect to fly out of Lukla on time. After all, the world is nothing but impermanence, and attachment to expectations is the cause of suffering. Om.

Now, given that I only have four weeks of vacation, am trekking with someone who's never been to Nepal before, and have no idea of what kind of shape I'm in, planning my trek is an exercise in redeveloping a Buddhist worldview, learning to let go of my Silicon Valley time-sense, and just going with the flow. I decided that flying out of Lukla was not a good idea for us, in part because of the question of reliability of flights.

If you're in good shape, you can get out of the Everest region on foot in four days or so--it's mostly downhill--and you could probably make better time if you hired a porter (or a couple of them to spread out the load). When I was a volunteer, planning to walk out if the plane didn't arrive was a strategy I used, especially at the beginning of monsoon, when a missed plane meant you wouldn't see another one for three months. If you're ready for this contingency, flying out of Lukla isn't a bad strategy; just leave a big enough buffer to allow for having to walk instead. If your flight turns out, great! You get an extra four or five days to explore the Kathmandu Valley. If not, great! You get an extra four or five days to take the beautiful walk out to Jiri. (And two cheese factories on the way! Nothing like Gruyere cheese in the Himalayas.)

There are a couple of other airports in the region (loosely speaking), but they aren't very easy to get tickets out of. Phaplu is in the south of Solukhumbu District, about halfway to the roadhead (by Ringmo or Junbesi on your Everest trekking map). When I was there, though, it was a small airport and most of the seats were pre-reserved for officials flying in and out of the district center (Solu-Salleri). I don't think I ever flew out of there. There are two other airports to the south, about one or 1-1/2 days farther (Rumjatar and Lamidanda), but by that point, you might as well walk out to Jiri--it's only two days from Phaplu, then the eight-hour bus ride to Kathmandu.

All of these distances in days are what it used to take me when I was a volunteer and in shape. Your mileage may vary (as will mine this fall, now that I'm ten years older and unused to attacking 3000-foot passes).

Because of all the variables I can't predict from here, I'm trying to make our plans with maximum flexibility. We're planning to approach the Everest region from the east (up the Arun River valley, through the Salpa Pass), go up towards Everest, then turn around and exit towards the roadhill in the west at Jiri. We're going to fly into the hills and bus out so that we don't have to worry about facing sudden surprises late in the trip. If for some reason the flight out to Tumlingtar gets cancelled, it'll be at the beginning of the trip, and we can decide whether to (1) wait and see if it'll go the next day, (2) try to fly to somewhere else nearby and expect another day walking, or (3) try to take a bus out there or (4) complete bag the original plan and do something completely different. If, once we're on the road, it turns out that we're walking far slower than expected, I'm ready to hire porters to lighten our load, or to cut shorter the portion of the trip up into the mountains. One can turn west after the Salpa Pass and head immediately out to Jiri--that would make it a nice high hill walk instead of a mountain walk. Either would be nice. And if it turns out that we're making especially good time, we can either go higher towards Everest (my plans are only to go to Tengboche), or dip south of Solu-Salleri and visit my old village, or take an extra couple of rest days, or just get back to Kathmandu and plan a quick side trip to the national park in Chitawan in the southern plains. Maybe even leave Nepal early to spend a couple of days sunning on the beach in Thailand.

Flexibility and being prepared for anything is usually the key to headache-free travel in Nepal.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the big Nepali holidays fall in the autumn. One of the customs of Dashain is that everyone must receive a blessing from each of their superiors (parents and grandparents, bosses, old teachers, etc.) and hence when Dashain arrives, travel in the country gets crazy. Everyone is trying to book plane tickets and get out on the next bus. Dashain usually coincides with the height of tourist season. This is why we're booking our domestic RNAC ticket well in advance.

Flights in and out of Lukla aren't affected by this (since the people who live around Lukla are all Buddhist and don't celebrate Dashain [a Hindu holiday] anyway), but other kinds of travel gets just a little bit more iffy, as does trying to do things at official offices (change money, get visas, clearance stamps for objects to export, etc.).

Trekking without an agency is probably more fun - you get closer to what's going on - but let me give you the unsolicited advice to hook up with a travelling companion (what the Nepalis call a "hi~dne saathi": friend for walking) once you're in-country. This may just mean chatting with someone who sits next to you in a restaurant in Kathmandu, finding out they're also going to Khumbu or Langtang or whatever, and deciding to travel together. There are times when you need someone to watch your backpack, like when giardia strikes and you have to run off the trail or when you get to a teashop; one of you goes in to order the tea while the other retightens the straps holding your sleeping bag on the pack. There are lots of practical advantages to having an extra set of hands or eyes.

There are also safety issues, whether natural - you turn your ankle coming down a path or slip off the trail - or artificial - the incidence of violent crime seems to be increasing around trekking routes. As a Western man (I assume from your name) you're probably taller and heavier than most Nepalis and hence probably not a likely target of violence, but on the other hand, alone in the hills is not the place where you want to have to deal with it.

This isn't a big deal, but one ought to be aware of it. Nepalis rarely ever walk alone and if they run into someone travelling alone, would usually reply with great surprise, "hi~dne saathi chhaina?!" - "you don't have anyone to walk with?" When I was a volunteer, I would rarely trek alone, and then usually only locally, but I was fluent in Nepali and could pick up a Nepali "hi~dne saathi" travelling my way if need be.

Besides, it's nice to have someone to chat with. Six weeks of walking is a long period of time, unless you're naturally a real hermit or are working on a solution to Schroedinger's equation in multiple dimensions in your head.

Re: crime, again. While I've heard that violent crime is increasing in Nepal, it still doesn't strike me (as a 205 lb, 6' man) as a big danger. (My advice to a woman would be entirely different.) But petty theft is rampant. Not that Nepalis are dishonest people, but leaving good things unwatched there is like leaving your keys in the ignition of your Ferrari as you go into the shopping mall for an hour. It's just too much of a temptation. Finding someone to walk with is really really useful just to watch things - it's a pain to have to carry your backpack with you when you go to the bathroom. (Besides, I could never get my water bottle out of my backpack without taking it off. A friend is useful at such a time.)

I agree that organized tours are gross (wait until you have the delight of, having just passed dozens of porters weighted down under incredible loads, running into a French trekking group reclining in folding chairs on the side of the trail while their cooks, having bought up every single egg in the surrounding five villages, are whipping up the morning omelettes). But just latching up with a companion who happens to be going your way is extremely easy enough (hard to avoid, sometimes) and quite worthwhile.

Back to work for me...

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Scott A. Yost | Contact Scott | A Visit to Nepal