Links: Nepal Travel Blogs (all) | Nepal Travel Photos | Nepal Travel Forum | Nepal Facts | Map of Nepal

Nepal Travel Blogs

In 1951, the Nepalese monarch ended the century-old system of rule by hereditary premiers and instituted a cabinet system of government. Reforms in 1990 established a multiparty democracy within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. A Maoist insurgency, launched in 1996, has gained traction and is threatening to bring down the regime, especially after a negotiated cease-fire between the Maoists and government forces broke down in August 2003. In 2001, the crown prince massacred ten members of the royal family, including the king and queen, and then took his own life. In October 2002, the new king dismissed the prime minister and his cabinet for "incompetence" after they dissolved the parliament and were subsequently unable to hold elections because of the ongoing insurgency. While stopping short of reestablishing parliament, the king in June 2004 reinstated the most recently elected prime minister who formed a four-party coalition government, which the king subsequently tasked with paving the way for elections to be held in spring of 2005. Citing dissatisfaction with the government's lack of progress in addressing the Maoist insurgency, the king in February 2005 dissolved the government and assumed power. To be updated

Highlights
• To be updated • • • • • • • • •

Tips and Hints

To be updated

Nepal

Map of Nepal

Nepal's Flag

Recommended Books:

Hostels in Nepal
Latest Nepal Blog Entries
Nepal Photos

By Wherearetheynow
June 5th 2006

Stranded!

Asia » Nepal » Lukla

Day 1 and counting...
Jim, Manuel, Kerryann, Manuel's Nepali guide, and Karim (who I accidentally cut off, sorry)

We finally walked into Lukla in the late afternoon, exhausted and needing showers. It was foggy and the town was quiet. We found a guesthouse and decided to treat ourselves by getting rooms with an attached bathroom. Wow! A sink, shower, tiles AND a non-squat toilet that flushed! No going outside for bathing or using the toilet! What luxury! Sita Air was closed, so we asked the hotel staff to call the airline for us. That was when we found out from the hotel staff and other guests that there had been no flights from Lukla to Kathmandu for the past [View Full Entry]

By Wherearetheynow
June 3rd 2006

Descent

Asia » Nepal » Phortse Tenga

Woman tending her garden in Benkar

After several weeks in the mountains, it was time to come back down. It was a much easier walk on the way down than it was on the way up. That bastard of a climb to Namche wasn’t so bad on the way down, though all those downhill switchbacks can be tough on your knees. When your lungs are accustomed to such thin air and you are at lower altitude with more oxygen, you suddenly have this amazing energy. The landscape had changed since we ascended the trail a few weeks before. Spring had arrived in the valley and everything was [View Full Entry]

By mad dog mo
June 3rd 2006

"Same, same"...but different! ( Eh?!!)

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamal

Smoking pig- Durbar Square, Kathmandu

This is now my number one favourite Asia saying, spouted by any tradesman/vendor who thinks he can pass off any old rubbish as the stuff you are looking for....the 'but different' clause is often added by myself when it becomes obvious the black-and-2-sizes-larger equivalent of the red top one's looking for isn't quite the same. Nevertheless, the sellers look truly confused and affronted when you don't want the totally inappropriate product they are touting, as if you are mad for not wanting to wear a tent in the wrong colour!!!'Good price, good price', they mutter. 'I no want- it not right', [View Full Entry]

Preparing body for funeral pyre- Kathmandu

Clothes washing in river - Dhulikel, Nepal

By Some kind of Animal
June 1st 2006

The Himalayas

Asia » Nepal » Pokhara

The North Face
Morning View from Mount Everest Base Camp in Tibet.

Regarded as the 3rd pole of the Earth, its no surprise that the magnetism of these mountains has kept me here so long. I gave Lhasa and its environs a long soak before setting off to see the crowning beauty of Mount Everest's North Face on the Tibetan side. Known to the rest of the world as Everest, the Tibetans call it Qomolongma (Mother of the Universe) and Nepal refers to her as Sagarmata (Forehead of the sky). The range that boasts the world's 14 highest peaks is far more than just a wonder of plate-techtonics and continental collision. "Uplifting" is [View Full Entry]

By corbandkel
June 1st 2006

Kickin it in Karkavitta

Asia » Nepal

Another ass crack awakening and hot dusty bus ride and we had arrived in Karkarvitta, on the Indian Border. Luckily this time we got a clean room with a kick ass fan, in a clean hotel that did some pretty damn good cooking considering the location. We feasted on curry, fruit and curd and the best Nepali Thali ... .it was delicious. We also tried masala coke... it was ... well spicy, but I think we'll both stick to regular coke from now on! There wasn't much to see or do for our afternoon in Karkarvitta, so we ate, napped and [View Full Entry]

By Wherearetheynow
May 31st 2006

Back on the Trail

Asia » Nepal » Phortse Tenga

Rickety old bridge
Fortunately, we did not have to cross over this bridge. I took this photo from the new non-rickety bridge.

After recovering from the post-Everest Marathon festivities, we continued to the Gokyo lakes area. Originally, we were going to cross the Cho La pass, but the Cho La pass would have taken us to an even higher altitude than Gorak Shep, which was not a good idea since I had problems with the altitude there. In addition, other trekkers and Nepali guides reported that the weather conditions were not good and that there might be snow in the pass. That settled the matter, and we decided to go back to Namche for the marathon and take the scenic route to Gokyo. [View Full Entry]

By corbandkel
May 31st 2006

An anniversary in Janakpur

Asia » Nepal » Janakpur

So we left Kathmandu at the ass crack of dawn one morning, spending over 12 long hours on a hot, dusty bus on the way to Janakpur. Well so we thought. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere we were turfed out of the bus, and onto another that rumbled along, this one bound for Janakpur. Janakpur is a holy pilgrimage site for Hindus, being the location of the marriage of Rama and Sita. So despite being a popular place for tourists, it is not exactly made for Western Tourists and the accomodation refleccted this. We stayed in a pretty grotty excuse [View Full Entry]

By torn
May 30th 2006

Team Tayto in Nepal!

Asia » Nepal » Pokhara

Team Tayto with guide Yuba

Well well, don't know where to begin...it's been ages since the last entry here....so much has happened....guesss i'll try to fill in the gaps from then til now: From Dharmasala Em&i took a bus ride to Rishikesh to do some white water rafting and maybe some yoga; we did the rafting which was great fun on some class 3 rapids but who the hell wants to do yoga in 45+ heat in a congested&smelly town??? After a couple of days we left Rishikesh and headed for Delhi to await Em's sister Nikki's arrival from Ireland. Can't say we found much to [View Full Entry]

By Wherearetheynow
May 29th 2006

Everest Marathon

Asia » Nepal » Namche

Water stand by Tengboche monastery
The runners were happy to see the monks and locals waiting for them here. It's a really steep climb up to Tengboche.

As we trekked up the trail, we kept meeting Nepali and foreign runners who were training for the Everest Marathon. This is a grueling, high altitude race over the uneven terrain from Everest Base Camp (5300 meters or 17,390 feet) back down to Namche (3440 meters or 11,290 feet). I found it hard enough to walk this trail, and I can’t believe that anyone would be crazy enough to run it. Our first encounter with the runners was a group of English fly boys (Royal Air Force-RAF) staying at the same guesthouse in Namche. We also met Ally and Rory, the [View Full Entry]

By corbandkel
May 28th 2006

Whiskers on Kittens

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu

These are a few of our favourite things about Nepal: (In no particular order) 1) Elephants!! Especially the cute baby ones at Chitwan 2) Indian Food - curries, naan, chapati, indian sweets and masala tea... it's all great but all the overlanders from India say it will only get better! 3) Cake - the bakeries of Kathmandu pull of pseudo-German quite well and all have discounts after 8pm. Then there's Snowman down in Kathmandu who always has cheap, delicious chocolate cake 4) Mountains - from the tree covered kind to the high Himalayas, they are all really beautiful and we can't [View Full Entry]

Links: Nepal Travel Blogs (all) | Nepal Travel Photos | Nepal Travel Forum | Nepal Facts | Map of Nepal

Travel Blog » Asia » Nepal