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Published: February 13th 2008
Tyre Change
This tyre went back on the busGeneral Impressions
Nepal is a fantastic place to visit, even if for some reason you don't like mountains or trekking. There are temples and palaces to explore, whitewater rafting and safari trips. A lot of people say it is like an easier version of India and I agree with that to some extent, it is definitely easier. The Kathmandu valley has similarities to India but is still distinct. Once you get into the mountains it is something very different. I have read about a few Himalayan mountaineering expeditions so it was fascinating to visit the places mentioned from the bars and hotels of Kathmandu to the base camps where you could trace the climbing routes up the mountains.
People and Culture
There is a great diversity in the people of Nepal but everywhere I went I found the people incredibly friendly and welcoming. In Kathmandu valley where most of the population live the people are mainly Hindus and not too dissimilar to the people in India if a bit more relaxed and less intense in their attempts to get you to buy stuff. Further into the mountains there are a large number of different ethnic groups of a
much more Tibetan origin. The most famous of these are the Sherpas. They are based around the Everest region so I didn't meet any of them as far as I know. In Langtang most of the people are Tamang and also of Tibetan descent. I really liked the Tamang. They seemed to work very hard and couldn't do enough to make you feel comfortable. The kids were wild and tough. On a couple of occasions I saw kids trying to goad their youngest siblings into throwing rocks at them or hitting them with sticks. Everyone had to work and it was common to see kids having to carry heavy loads of firewood up the valley. You could see a real difference in the people of different regions. Different clothes and different customs and behaviour. Around the Annapurnas many of the people are Gurung. They are most famous for providing many of the recruits for the Gurkha Regiments of Britain and India.
Cities, Towns and Villages
Kathmandu- What you think about Kathmandu will probably depend upon where you have just come from. When we arrived from India we were amazed by how clean it was compared to the cities
Heading up the Langtang Valley
With our guide for the day Trin Tamang in India. It was a lot less busy and hectic than Indian cities too. Even Thamel the tourist ghetto seemed comparatively chilled out. Coming back from treks though felt very different. Beeping horns, having to dodge cars and bikes, fending off hawkers and squeezing past pedestrians felt like a world away from the quite mountain valleys. One of the great strengths of Kathmandu is that you can get food from every corner of the world. The quality is very good and the price cheap. Fire and Ice make great real Italian pizza. The Northfield Cafe do fantastic breakfast quesadilla.
Patan- Just across the river from Katmandu. Patan's Durbar square is far superior to the one in Kathmandu. The architecture is better in my opinion, there isn't traffic passing through the middle of it, the "guides" are a lot less aggressive in trying to sell their services and there is a beautiful museum to visit. I only really saw the square and the surrounding area so can't say much else.
Pokhra- The lakeside resort of Pokhara is noticeably more relaxed than Kathmandu. There are some really nice guest houses around here. Although there are lots of restaurants I don't
think they quite matched the quality of those in Kathmandu.
Villages- The higher up the mountains I got the more I liked the villages. Despite being very well maintained they looked like they had barely changed in hundred of years. Upper Pisang was a village I especially liked. It was very traditional but it was just the first of a whole series of similarly interesting villages.
Accommodation
Guest Houses- Usually are of a good standard with friendly staff and good value for money. We had problems finding places with reliable hot water but we were maybe just unlucky. Pokhara is better value for money and we found a really nice place.
In Kathmandu the first and the best place we stayed was the Hotel Encounter Nepal. It is out of Thamel but still very close. It has a lovely peaceful garden to relax in and you won't get a lot of noise at night. Only two problems. There is a very busy road to cross to get to Thamel and we never managed to get any hot water when we were there. Other people did so we must have been doing something wrong.
In Pokhara
we stayed at the Sacred Valley Inn. It was really nice, cheaper and better than Kathmandu. The rooms were big and comfortable, the staff very friendly and there was a very nice balcony where we could eat the excellent chocolate brownies that they made.
Tea Houses- I was surprised by how good they were. They are usually made of wood. The dining area usually has a stove. The rooms are small but comfortable but the wood panels often don't meet so they can be a little drafty. There are always some kind of facilities for washing. Sometimes a bucket of hot water, sometimes a solar power shower. I preferred the bucket of hot water as it was more reliable and you could use the left overs for washing clothes. The shower facilities were more reliable on the Annapurna trek than on the Langtang trek but I think that is because Langtang is less developed.
Prices are negotiable outside the main season. We didn't even have to haggle. As there were a group of us we would discuss what we thought once we saw the room. That discussion was often enough to drop the price. Just asking in advance
how much something costs will result in a lower price as people often don't bother to ask and it makes you seem particular. Lynne and I once started to bicker about something entirely unrelated to the place we were looking at and fully intending to stay in. The price was suddenly dropped as we snapped at each other. We should maybe have felt bad about saving pennies on accommodation but we always made up for it by ordering huge amounts of food. We always spent many times more on food than for our room. Word was maybe passed ahead of us to alert people how much we could eat which resulted in our low prices.
Some of the best teahouses we stayed at:
Ghora Tabela - The Peaceful Lodge - great food and friendly people
Ghunama- Woodland lodge - good food and very friendly owners
Upper Pisang- The Yak and Yeti - great food, brand new lodge, excellent location, eccentric owner
Bragga- The New Yak - very professional but still friendly and restaurant standard food
Kagbeni- Shangrila lodge - really wonderful food and really nice place to stay with a nice sunny top floor restaurant.
Tatopani- Dhaulagiri - excellent
Langshisha
A room with a view food, as good as Pokhra, maybe better. The lemon chicken tasted great especially as it was so different from standard trekking food.
Bamboo- Buddha Guest House - The best shower on any trek I have done in Nepal, That alone should sell it but they also do good food and are very friendly.
Travel and Transport
Local Busses- Crazy drivers, very loud Hindi music, blaring horns, poor maintenance, bald tyres, dust over everything, thefts, tiny seats, absolutely no leg room, overcrowded with people, goods and animals, rough dirt roads crossing mountains, pot holes, subsidence, poor suspension, banging off the roof, the window and random bits of sharp metal that fill the busses, huge drops, floods and landslides are just some of what you have to look forward to when you travel by bus in Nepal. After our 12 hour journey from Kathmandu to Langtang we all agreed that it was the most dangerous thing that any of us had done. We didn't talk about it at the time but we all spent the journey looking down into the valley and calculating our chances of survival if the bus left the road at each point. On our way back
My sister
We weren't going to lose her when she was dressed like this to Kathmandu our bus blew a tyre and then hit two trucks in small bumps when trying to make up for lost time.
We decided to try out roof top travel on a two hour journey through a fairly flat region when it didn't seem likely to rain. This was a lot more comfortable than being inside and you get to keep an eye on your luggage but it has its own problems. You get a constant breeze so it is much cooler but you are exposed to the sun for the whole journey so need lots of sunscreen and to hope it doesn't rain. You have lots of room to move but you are sitting on metal bars so you need to have something soft to pad your seat. If you sit up you have to be very careful. You have to keep a look out at all times as tree branches and wires frequently pass just above the bus. The only thing that clears the branches away from above the road are the heads of people who didn't duck fast enough. We saw one guy get caught around the neck by a wire. Lucky the bus was
Holy Man
and business man. He makes his living by getting tourists to pay for photos. going slow and the wire was loose so he didn't get too hurt but he did almost disconnect someone's power supply. I quite enjoyed roof travel and soon got to sleep. Stuart Kleboe fidgeted the entire way though.
Greenline buses- They do a luxury tourist service between Kathmandu and Pokhara and it is worth the extra cost. You get to travel on an air conditioned bus and every passenger gets a real seat without sharp bits of metal to jab into you. All the luggage is stored securely in the boot with luggage tags attached. Included in the ticket price is a bottle of water for the journey and lunch at a very nice resort. We also stopped at a nice restaurant for coffee in the morning. After our journey to Langtang we thought it was bliss. We had a real laugh when we heard people complaining to each other that it was a bit bumpy and they would like a little more leg room.
Taxis and Rickshaws- They are cheap and everywhere. All the usual scams apply so make sure you sort out the fare and destination in advance.
Food and Drink- Trekking Food
The
food while trekking was surprisingly good. The ingredients are restricted so after 4 weeks it gets a little repetitive but it is normally tasty and substantial. In the Langtang valley I found the food was always good. On the Annapurna trek I found it got better as you got higher into the mountains. This seemed strange but it's how it was. The tea at the start of the Annapurna was sometimes awful and not like the great Nepali tea I had elsewhere. What is available will depend on the season. Fruit like apples will be readily available in autumn but you could only get a few of the last years stored crops in Spring.
• Beer- It suffers from the same problems as the beer in India in that the additives often make you ill. I think it is even worse in Nepal than India so it really isn't the place to go for a drink.
• Mustang coffee- I wasn't too sure what this was but decided to try it on the Langtang trek on what happened to be Nepali New Year. It is coffee with a splash of local spirit. I think New Year may have resulted
in me getting more than a splash. It didn't taste great but I drank it. Stuart Kleboe poured his away. I only had one but the next day I suffered from 10 minutes of explosive vomiting.
• Nepali tea- This stuff is addictive. Lynne and I especially, drank gallons of the stuff when trekking. Black tea, lots of sugar, lots of milk and spices. Lynne doesn't like milk in her tea and takes only a little sugar but she was soon converted.
• Dahl Bhat- Great trekking food. You get rice, a lentil broth, curry (often curried potatoes) and sometimes pickle and a popadom. When you finish your first large serving they come around and offer you more of everything. It is very tasty and different in every tea house.
• Momo- Dumplings that look like Korean mandu. I only tried them once and found them dry and tasteless but other people have told me they were great so I think I must have been unlucky. I'll try them again on my next visit.
• Yak Curd- Sour yogurt available only at certain times of year.
• Veg noodle soup- A lunchtime staple when trekking. Instant noodles and whatever veg
is available.
• Spring rolls- Always tasty when trekking. They always looked different and they were filled with whatever was available.
• Chips- Fresh homemade chips which we often ate with spring rolls.
• Mixed fried rice- Rice with veg, tuna and yak cheese
• Mixed pasta- Pasta veg, tuna and yak cheese
• Bread- The local style bread Tibetan or Gurung will always be fresh but European style white bread where available is often a bit past it.
• Chocolate pudding- Don't get excited, it's America style i.e. chocolate sauce.
• Veg- Potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage.
Shopping
There is a lot of shopping available in Kathmandu and Pokhara.
Books- Kathmandu is the best place I have ever been for secondhand books. There are dozens of shops with a big stock. It is a great place to stock up on mountaineering literature with cheap printings of every title imaginable. They will refund half the purchase price when you return a book you have bought. This is a much better deal than you will get in other places.
Souvenirs- khukuri knifes (not cookery knives as my sister thought), Thankas (religious paintings, very nice actually), rugs, fabric, prayer
flags, jewelry and other bits and pieces.
Trekking gear- Huge range available, some of it is even genuine. There are dozens of shops stocking all sorts of stuff. If you are after something specific or slightly obscure you may have a long search but it is probably out there somewhere. There is a small store where they have the gear made to their own specification. They don't put fake labels on the gear and give good advice to anyone who asks. It is a good place to buy a down jacket or sleeping bag. It won't be as light as the big brands but it will cost a fraction of the money. (I'll add the location once I track it down)
Food- There are lots of mini supermarkets in Kathmandu and Pokhara. They stock a pretty big range of stuff that you could take to snack on while trekking.- Crisps, chocolate, biscuits, dried fruit, nuts, drink powders etc. They also have enough stuff for you to put together a few camping meals.
Pharmacuticals- You can buy all sorts of antibiotics and other drugs normally only available on prescription from supermarkets in Kathmandu. Diamox for assisting acclimatisation is
also readily available. Check the best before dates.
Wildlife and Livestock
Marsh muggers- Large aggressive crocodiles that are known to attack and eat people.
Gharial- Even bigger crocs with a bulbous nose that only eat fish.
Rhino- You can see them at Chitawan National Park.
Tigers- You can see them at Chitawan National Park if you are very lucky. If not you will still see signs of them.
Snow leopards and Clouded leopards- You would have to be extremely lucky to see one of these.
Himalayan Griffon Vulture- large mountain raptor.
Lammergeier - large mountain raptor
Monkeys- Lots down in the Kathmandu valley but not too many to see when trekking.
Lizards- All over the place.
Creepy crawlies- Big spiders and big long legged centipede things but I don't think any of them are poisonous.
Yaks- High in the mountains they are very aggressive if you get too close. Lower down they are cross-bred with cows and very docile.
Snow Pigeon- Self explanatory. They are bigger and whiter than most pigeons.
Highlights and Memorable Moments
Kathmandu and Patan • Monkey Temple- Lovely, highly photogenic temple with great views and a few monkeys.
• A fantastic diversity of
great food.
• The crazy "guide" who tried to secure our patronage by insulting us and becoming aggressive.
• Patan's Durbar Square- It is much nicer and much quieter than Kathmandu's and also has a great museum.
Langtang Valley Trek • A long tough bus journey to get there.
• A running battle with a rat on my first night. Stuart wakened up to see me standing in my underpants holding my trekking pole like a spear.
• Acquiring a local guide for a day. A local girl of 10 called Trin Tamang.
• Climbing higher than I ever have before, just under 5000m.
• A very narrow rickety bridge that no one wanted to cross. Stuart Kleboe led the way.
• Camping at Langshisha far from the nearest village.
• Fighting off the high mountain yak in search of dung to burn.
• Lynne coming down with altitude sickness and having to get her down the valley.
• Trying a single mustang coffee on the Nepali New Year and suffering explosive vomiting the next day.
Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary • Riding on a Greenline bus on the first leg of our journey, real luxury.
• Riding on the roof of a local bus for the second leg- ducking wires and
Fields near Ngadi
The valleys are very fertile branches.
• Stuart Kleboe and Lynne acting like babies when confronted by a spider. Lots of screaming and things being thrown around.
• Coming across a group of Maoists marching towards us (a group of school kids with a communist flag).
• Reaching Upper Pisang and feeling like I had really arrived in the mountains. It is a beautiful traditional stone built village with a great tea house the Yak and Yetti. There are fantastic views of Annapurna II. The following days walk to Braga was one of the best on the trip.
• Checking off Lynnes symptoms at the Altitude sickness lecture.
• Crossing the Thorung La with a fresh coating of snow on the ground.
• The highest toilet in the world, probably. No hole, just a big pile.
• Trying to run a race with Stuart Kleboe at 5416m and not being able to breath for 5 minutes afterwards.
• Eating fresh yak steak in Manang. We hadn't eaten meat in a long time and loved it.
• Walking into a village during the middle of a funeral ceremony. We were made welcome but tried to leave as quickly as possible.
• Crossing a raging mountain river on a snow bridge
• Annapurna Sanctuary surrounded by stunning mountains.
Tal
It was a welcome sight after a steep climb and looked more tropical than Himalayan Tracing the route of Chris Bonnington's expedition.
Chitwan National Park • Getting repeatedly thrown off an elephant into a river. The best thing I have ever done for 50 pence.
• Watching an Osprey catch a fish from right in front of us while canoeing past a crocodile.
• Surprisingly good cultural show put on by the local village.
Hard Times, Dangers and Annoyances
• Mule trains- They try to flatten you against rocks or push you over the edge of cliffs. Watch out!
• Road works on the Annapurna Circuit- Unsightly, noisy when they use dynamite, dangerous when they drop rocks on you.
• Leeches- As the monsoon approached at the end of May the leeches came out in force. They were a real nuisance when it rained as they would close in on you if you stopped to rest. Salt or tiger balm proved to be the easiest way to remove them. We all got bitten but Stuart Kleboe and Lynne completely freaked out whenever they were bitten.
• Travel on local busses. See Travel and Transport.
• Thefts- The Kleboes had 2 cameras and an ipod stollen from their bags which were on the roof of our bus from Langtang to Kathmandu.
The steep trail above Danagu
Watch out for mule trains. The trail has been blasted straight out of a cliff and is quite narrow. When to go
We were there in April and May. April and the first part of May gave us great weather. Cloud would come in in the afternoon but it was usually dry and clear in the morning. As May wore on the weather got worse and the last few days of our trek gave us almost constant rain. It was usually hot during the day but became cold at night especially in April. The advantage of going trekking in Nepal in spring is that it is a lot quieter than the main season in Autumn. You have more room in the tea houses, more choice and you get better rates.
Tips and Advice
Guides and Porters- If you are doing a tea house trek and are reasonably fit there is no reason why you should need a porter. You don't need to carry food so your pack shouldn't be too heavy. That doesn't mean you shouldn't get one if you want. It will make your walking very easy if you do. I just like to be independent. The same goes for guides. If you have a good guide book you will be fine. A guide
will be able to explain all aspects of Nepali culture whenever you want and you will have the chance to really get to know them but they also act as a barrier between you and the local people. The guides I met when trekking were all really nice friendly guys but they seemed to feel like they had to act as an intermediary between the lodge owners and the trekkers. The guides often helped out at the tea houses where they were staying and even though we weren't their clients they would help to look after us.
Acclimatisation- If you have never been up to 3000m then you will have no idea how your body will respond. There are loads of unpleasant side affects associated with altitude sickness and you are likely to experience at least one of them. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll survive.
We were a group of 4 and we responded very differently to increases in altitude.
I luckily suffered only light symptoms. I had a great appetite and slept well every night unless I got a bit cold. The main difference I noticed was that my strength and stamina were reduced by quite
a bit. The more I acclimatised the less this affected me but big height gains really took it out of me at the time. I always recovered quickly enough though so it wasn't something that built up on me. I didn't suffer from dizziness but I did get an occasional head rush when I stood up too quickly. The time I really noticed the effects of rapid height gain were on the top of Thorung La at 5416m. We were well acclimatised to Thorung Pedi at 4450m but you have a very large height gain in one day before dropping back down into the valley. We left after almost everyone in the morning but got to the top before most of them as we had spent more time acclimatising and had done an acclimatisation trip to the Ice lake. At the top of the pass I tried to run a race with Stuart Kleboe. We both nearly collapsed after 30m and couldn't breath for 5 minutes. It was like asphyxiating and it was an interesting insight into what would happen to you if you over extended yourself without acclimatising. This was also the only time when I felt a bit
Upper Pisang
My favourite village of the trek squeamish. I had a cup of tea in the hut at the top of the pass but struggled to drink it.
The Kleboes responded fairly similarly to each other as family members are supposed to. I think they both suffered a range of minor symptom such as occasional headaches, nausea and sleeplessness. Their strength and stamina seemed to be less diminished than mine though. I can usually climb hills much faster than Kathryn but on the way up Thorung La she could easily keep ahead of me. I had the heaviest pack and I think that may have added to the difficulties of adjusting to higher altitudes.
My sister was the worst affected but thankfully I don't seem to share whatever genetic characteristic makes her slow to acclimatise. She had a host of symptoms. Nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite, headaches and sleeplessness. She was also the most weakened by altitude gain and lost a lot of her strength. When we camped at Langshisha it was the highest we had slept at (200m higher than Kyangin Gompa). We thought we would be well acclimatised though as we had spent two nights at Kyanjin Gompa and had climbed to between
Annapurna II
seen through the cloud 4800-4900m the day before. We were wakened up by Lynne leaving her tent in the middle of the night to throw up. She was repeatedly sick throughout the night but we didn't realise how bad she was until the morning. She was like someone who was seriously drunk and she seemed to have trouble functioning. We realised we had to get her down as quickly as possible. We packed up her back and I ran a kilometer down the track with it while everyone else packed up camp. I doubled back and Stuart Kleboe passed me and carried her bag another kilometer. Once on her feet she seemed happy enough to walk along in a daze. Most of her heavy stuff had been transferred to my bag so she was able to carry her own sack. After her first spurt of energy she wanted to stop every 5 minutes. If I let her sit down for too long then she would try to sleep. It seemed a long way back to Kyanjin Gompa but we actually managed quite a good time all things considered. Lynne went straight to bed. The next day she was improved but not fully recovered. We
Annapurna II in the morning
Seen from our tea house the Yak and Yeti dropped down a long way that day and the following day she was back to herself again. She still can't eat tuna and tomato pasta though.
On our second trek we knew what to expect and knew that Lynne was slow to acclimatise so we had to take it easy. If I was planning another trek I would walk as fast as I liked up to around 3000m. You may start to feel symptoms at 2500m but most people will adjust okay. From my first night above 2800m I would want to take things a bit slower and only gain a few hundred meters of height each night. During the day it is a good thing if you climb higher than your sleeping height as it gives your body a chance to adjust to higher altitudes but you will still be able to rest at a more comfortable altitude at night.
If you start to suffer from minor symptoms spend an extra night in the same place to allow yourself to adjust. Take a walk to a higher altitude during the day. If your symptoms are bad get lower as quickly as possible. It is guaranteed to make
you feel better.
If you have a day coming up where you have an unavoidable large height gain then make sure you do acclimatisation trips beforehand. Take side trips as high as you can. It lets you leave your big pack behind for the day and lets you see something different.
It isn't possible to make a plan in advance that is set in stone. If you do you will end up suffering. Build as many spare days into your itinerary as you can afford. That way if someone is suffering or you discover an interesting side trip or a beautiful spot where you would like to stay for a couple of days then you have the time available.
What to take trekking
• Spare camera batteries. There won't be any opportunity to recharge them.
• Laundry soap
• Nail brush for scrubbing clothes
• Sandles for wearing in the huts
• Warm clothes and warm sleeping bag. It is cold at night and sometimes during the days.
vSunscreen
• Snack food- If you like chocolate then buy it before you leave Kathmandu as it will become more and more expensive. Half of the chocolate you but in Nepal is inedible. I
don't know if it is seriously out of date or if the heat has gotten to it. There is no way to tell until you buy so try a bar before you stock up. If one is good the rest probably are too.
• 3 pairs of socks- One to wear, one dry to change into and one drying.
• Evening wear- I carried thermals and a pair of shorts to wear in the tea houses and when I slept. I wore the shorts when I went to wash. I also had a down jacket and softshell to use when it was colder.
• Spare clothes- I only carried 2 sets of clothes. As you can wear one set for a few days you have time to let your clothes dry. This sometimes meant wearing slightly damp clothes if the weather had been too wet to dry things fully.
• A book to read in the evenings
• A head torch to find your way to the toilets at night and read after dark.
• Trailblazer guide book, Lonely planet's trekking guide is also quite good except for the walking times.
Links
All my photos from Nepal Journal entries from my trip around Asia including Nepal Altitude Sickness
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