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See below the latest Great Himalaya Trail posters being used to market the trail. They’re almost ready to be printed and hopefully will be available in Nepal within the next few weeks. For any of you overseas, they’re 120cm x 80cm and we can offer you the original hi-resolution files so that you can print locally and negate substantial postage costs. If you wish to have a download link, please contact us.
“Will Wi-fi Ruin Mount Everest?” asks Jeff Greenwald, author and long time resident of Kathmandu, in Salon online magazine. It’s an interesting article dwelling on how Ncell’s addition of eight 3G base stations might affect the ‘magic’ of the area. The Salon editor who gave the article it’s title could have put a little more thought into it – how could Wi-fi ruin a large chunk of rock? But it is clear what’s meant. The only thing that is certain is change, and change has pros and cons, and it’s a common human trait to get nostalgic for the time before the cons when things were simpler.
The reader comments are interesting (and watch out for a little bad language) and as usual show that many commenters didn’t actually read the article properly. The author is under no illusion that there is “… no rational downside to the arrival of broadband on the flanks of Everest.”
Many commenters point out the great potential for benefit in the area. Think of all that can be done with reasonably fast internet.
“… I can easily see the potential for a base camp doctor, or a doctor in a local area being able to email a slide to a lab.”
Trek and work
And additionally, the ability to get online cheaply, easily and effectively might have eased the tensions recently at Lukla airport where days of delays led to tempers running high. People needing to catch international flights to get back to their lives at home could have conceivably got a lot of ‘important’ email answered under Lukla’s temporarily clouded sky.
Of course Wi-Fi or 3G or just mobile phone signals need make no difference whatsoever to a trekkers experience to basecamp. Don’t take your phone with you, don’t be tempted to check our email and just keep calm when you hear the infamous Nokia ringtone while gazing at sunset over Everest from Kala Patar.
Others have pointed out that the Everest region has already been ‘ruined’ by the huge crush of visitors elbowing their way along the trails during the October peak season. It’s really busy then, it’s true, but the simple remedy is to either visit out of season (by mid December, while pretty cold, you’ll almost have the place to yourself) or just visit one of the other amazing places in Nepal. Dolpa, Mustang, Manaslu? None of these areas have the highest mountain in the world, it’s true, but they have authentic experiences and amazing views in abundance.
Embrace the revolution: getting a sim card in Nepal
Still, if you come to Nepal and wish to connect yourself, it’s really easy and you can join the 10 million Nepalis already connected. If you arrive in Thamel, there is an agent very close to Kathmandu Guest House in the Saurab Music Shop. See the map below. You can get a SIM card for around Rs 500 and you need a passport photo. You can also have your phone unlocked in New Road for around Rs. 500 and more for more complex mobiles. Be careful as it is not unheard of to have original mobile parts cannibalised and replaced with cheaper parts.
3G mobile – internet SIM card
You can buy an NCELL USB + SIM card for around Rs. 2400. This means you can have fast internet most places in central Kathmandu, but also the Solukhumbu from Lukla to Gorak Shep (though your laptop might not like the altitude above 4,000 m, though a solid state netbook will work well)
Thanks to Bidur of Shangri-la maps for giving us an electronic version of their Tsum valley map to put online. He is also the owner of the well-stocked Vajra Bookshop in Jyata (close to Thamel) and a friend among the many anthropologists who visit Nepal.
A map is a great tool for planning a trek and understanding what itineraries really mean. It adds to the excitement of planning and thus the anticipation of the trip.
This map is of quite a wide area and also gives an overview of the Great Himalaya Trail route all the way from Syabrubesi to quite high around the Manaslu circuit trek. You’ll be able to see the villages of the Tamang Heritage Trail, the walk from Trisuli to Arughat, the route of the Tiru Danda (not marked!) as well as the long hidden region of Tsum.
I was following the progress on Lonely Planet’s Thorntree forum of one excited trekker planning a trip to one trekker delighted with the experience. He walked the Manaslu Circuit with a side trip into the off the beaten track Tsum Valley and with great respect for all those who advised him beforehand, he wrote up the highlights from his trek and an edited version is re-posted below with permission. Place them side by side with some photographs from the region and a map, and you have a a very pleasant 5 minutes ahead of you.
Trek Highlights included:
Staying overnight in a local house in the village of Bihi about 20 minutes off the main trek path. It’s a larger, very traditional-looking village. I found in general locals were not able to accommodate us in private houses due to lack of space: lots of kids and food supplies, that is they weren’t soliciting us to stay in their homes and eat their food. They always pointed the local lodge out to us. You have to spend time going from house to house finding someone which is hard during harvest season. One villager did invite us in and I rate it the most interesting experience of the trek. A Tibetan-style house with a stable below and living quarters above mostly taken up by grain storage, pots and pans and family possesions. No furniture whatsoever nor windows. All family time including sleeping is in one room, and the kitchen around a stove on the floor. Dinner was tea and dal bhat with homemade raksi rice wine. I put my sleeping bag and mattress on a tarp between fermenting rice and corn barrels. I could hear the mice scampering around at night.
Staying at Ranchen Gompa as a guest, touring the complex and helping to teach an English class.
Staying at Mu Gompa in a Lama’s room and climbing to a viewpoint high above.
While exploring the village of Samdo I came across an old man sitting on a roof of his house chanting prayers with an incredible Himalayan view behind him. I motioned to him if I could come up and he allowed me to. I just listened to him chant while enjoying the view after which I was invited in to drink yak butter tea (easier said than done). A young girl in the household wanted to give me one of her puppies to keep. I was tempted.
Crossing the Larkye La in perfect weather. Incedible views of glaciers, rock, peaks and lakes.
The remoteness of the trek. Very few other trekkers except at the pass and villages right before it. I saw more trekkers in one hour on the Annapurna Circuit than the entire Manaslu/Tsum trek of 21 days
Volunteering to help some villagers in their field with the harvest. They really laughed and came out to see a trekker harvesting. The next day I started scratching, I think I was bitten or picked up some insects while doing it.
The incredible river valleys with stone staircases climbing high above a river gorge with waterfalls laced with rainbows.
Visiting a turquoise lake with a glacier spilling into it from Mt. Manaslu just a short trek above the monastery in Samo.
…
The trekker in question known as Avsfan and he promises more highlights and pictures soon. You can follow the post here.
For another article recounting the crossing of the Larkya La see: Crossing the Larkya La, Nepali Times Nov 26th 2010. The author says of crossing the pass “…large Himalayan peaks started to appear to the left and right and from the top, I was completely surrounded and indeed emotionally overwhelmed by them.” I have never heard
If you’ve just arrived in Kathmandu and are surprised when the lights go out – well, don’t be surprised any more. The load shedding schedule is a part of life here. The city is divided up into a number of groups and as enforced darkness approaches for your group, candles are lit and a torch is usually already in hand. Very handy are head-torches and you can buy them for anywhere between Rs. 400 to Rs. 600 from trekking stores in Thamel if you don’t already have.
Below you can see the current schedule (effective November 28th 2010 through December 2010) or right click here to download it.
Right now the situation is actually ok (at the time of writing in early November 2010). The monsoon lasted a bit longer meaning the rivers are fuller – that coupled with a few repairs at hydro-electricity plants mean just two hours load-shedding per day. In May 2010, at the end of the dry season when the rivers are at their lowest, load-shedding reached anywhere between 12 and 18 hours per day. That makes life really very difficult – you can imagine running a hospital, keeping traffic signals functioning, lighting streets, doing school work etc. The only nice thing about it is when children cry ‘batti aayo’ meaning ‘light’s come back’ as the power resumes.
Still this has been going on for many years now and many people have generators or battery backups – certainly many hotels and restaurants. Ironically, when you start trekking and head into remoter areas, you’ll find that many village have either reliable solar power or 24 hour hydropower – that’s the case in Simikot in Humla and Lo Manthang has power from 6pm to 11pm as water is needed for irrigating fields during the day.
So at least in Kathmandu, make sure you ask which group you are in. Thamel is split between group 6 and group 3 – so always better to ask to be sure. You can download the current schedule by clicking the image above.
I subscribe to a Google alert email for “Humla Nepal” which comes in every now and again, usually with news about the price of basic goods skyrocketing due to some supply problem of other. Sometimes it’s a few weeks before a new alert comes – most people I’ve spoken to in Nepal only know of Humla as a ‘very remote’ place and nothing more and it is very seldom written about. Its treasures are indeed well hidden.
Today’s Google alert email brought in two news items in stark contrast to each other. The first reported that a common-cold virus had claimed a number of lives among the elderly and the second was of a photographic exhibition that was opened in New York last April. The exhibition was of some stunning black and white portraits of people and life in Humla by world renowned fashion photographer Drew Doggett.
It was slightly ironic that the third picture in his series was of a Dashain swing – the important Dashain festival was cited as the reason for many health post workers being absent as they return home to their families elsewhere in Nepal. Half of the proceeds from prints and books will go to the Nepal Trust which has been doing tireless work in Humla for over a decade in the areas of health services, electricity, education and heritage preservation.
The second slide of the series (click the image above to open) includes Doggett’s testimonial.
The path to Chuksang - day 1 of the Upper Mustang Trek. Click to Enlarge.
If you are a lover of culture, interested in history, fascinated by Buddhism and are curious about Tibet, then this is a place you should have on your list.
It’s $US 500 for 10 days. Those who have not been to Upper Mustang, and so have not yet parted with their money might say it is expensive. Those who have been to Upper Mustang (and so have already parted with their money) would say it is worth every penny, cent or rupee.
And there are three more reasons why you should go soon.
Tea houses
Firstly tea-house trekking is a real option for a round trip to Lo. It’s tea-house trekking of old though – these are family run establishments in traditional buildings. As you sit in the living room or the kitchen (often the same thing) you’ll eat, drink and be merry with extended family members, passing traders and the drivers of mule trains. It’s a far cry from the popular trekking areas which increasingly have modern purpose built lodges. As one Managi owner of a busy lodge near Thorung Phedi on the Annapurna Circuit told, “There it’s travelling, here it’s business.” Tea houses are restricted to the Western side of the valley but there is more than enough to see here in 10 days and it means that without the need for a big camping trek crew, your journey can be very affordable.
Locals benefit from permit fee
Secondly, where the permit fee goes has changed, hopefully. Collectively Mustang’s youth groups threatened to close Upper Mustang to tourists on October 1st, the height of the trekking season, unless the government of Nepal honoured its 1992 agreement to deliver 60% of permit income back to Upper Mustang via the NTNC and ACAP for development projects. On 20th September 2010, an agreement was signed upholding this agreement stating
“60% of the revenue earned by issuing special permits to tourists entering Upper Mustang will be diverted to the area to run activities of Conservation and Development.”
Previously permit fees had gone from the Ministry of immigration to Nepal’s cash-filled shoe box under the bed, otherwise known as the Ministry of Finance. The matter of backdated payments, thought to be around $US 8 million, not including interest, is still being worked out.
So the good news is that the majority of your permit fee will really be going to improve the lives of the people of Mustang.
“In 2008, a total of 2194 tourists visited Upper Mustang. The permit fees would be equivalent to Nepalese 9 crores and more. If at least 60% had been diverted to the area since 1992, the local people wouldn’t be feeling like they were kept in a zoo where life is harsh and the tourists just come to see their way of life, with the entire fee going to the keeper. The way the Govt. is treating the people is totally unacceptable.” Tashi Bista, Jan 2010
The same Tashi Bista is now in much more optimistic mood. He’s a manager with local NGO Community Resource Action Joint Sub-Committee and tasked with improving the lot of Mustangis. He knows very well the priorities there – health, education, infrastructure – what could be achieved with the permit fees and exactly how to do it.
Nyiphuk Namdrol Norbuling monastery
Road building
The third reason to go sooner rather than later is ‘the road’. Road building is ‘rampant’ in many parts of Nepal, to borrow an overused word in the Nepali English language press. Often they’re not more than the track left by a digger and bulldozer heading to a specified village and monsoon rains often wipe out the work done. However, bad transport infrastructure is the single biggest factor to improving the economic performance of developing countries – it’s necessary and roads will continue to creep into remoter areas.
The road in Upper Mustang is a simple jeep track and local officials give estimates of one to two years before a connection is complete between Jomsom and Lo Manthang. Make it three or four perhaps. Nobody expects a black top road within a decade, or perhaps ever, and many people are intensly aware of the potential effect on tourism. Currently there is one jeep in the whole of Upper Mustang which was dragged up the Kali Gandaki river in low season by tractor sustaining ‘a lot of damage’ in the process. The existing road is not good and even this jeep won’t venture past Ghami. The work that has been done does affect the experience of walking there, however, it’s slight, and you just need to keep in your mind how people in Upper Mustang get to hospital. Still it’s recommended to visit sooner rather than later in case progress speeds up.
In short, the Upper Mustang trek is a truly amazing experience and if you are remotely considering committing to the $US 500 permit fee, do it, you won’t be disappointed.
Small monks from Tsarang monastery. Click for larger monks.
This is a brilliant representation of where to go trekking in the Himalaya produced by the Dutch company Himalaya Trekking. It’s a huge wall poster in normal life and we mentioned it earlier but we got the electronic version and this is a great way to view it. There are so many interesting possibilities depending on if you like wildlife in particular, meeting different cultures, physical challenge or a real wilderness adventure. Whatever the time of year or time you have for a trip, there is something amazing to do – Humla in the middle of monsoon, or the Manaslu circuit over Christmas.
With the map below, click the furthest button to the right for a full screen view. Double click to zoom in and use your mouse to drag and scroll around – don’t forget the buttons at the bottom too. Press your Esc to get out of full screen mode. It’s not perfect at high zoom levels, but gives you and idea of the possibilities for your next trek.
Thanks to Paul Boslooper for allowing us to show his cartographic trekking directory in such an interactive way.
It’s not quite yet a full Great Himalaya Trail but this trail running race including some of the lovely trails around Annapurna which lie on the Great Himalaya Trail lower route, from Ghorepani to Birathanti.
Next year is Nepal Tourism Board’s Nepal Tourism Year 2011 and this inspiring international event is due to kick it off.
The main race is 100 km with 75% of it off road. There are shorter versions of 70 km and 50 km. Could be an amazing way start the year!
Lewis Pugh is renowned as the greatest cold-water swimmer in history. In May 2010 he swam one kilometer across Pumori tal, a meltwater lake situated next to the Khumbu Glacier on Mount Everest, at an altitude of 5300 meters, to draw attention to the melting of the Asian glaciers. He completed the swim – the highest any person has undertaken – in less than 23 minutes. “Glaciers are not just ice: they are a lifeline, they provide water to 2 billion people, and we need to protect them,” he says on the TED website.
The video shows him describing his unique experience. He adds a few pearls of wisdom in the video which includes some nice imagery from the Everest region.
“Just because something has worked in the past so well does not mean it is going to work in the future,” he says about his, and our, need to adapt to changing situations. And stating what we all know, but few choose to believe, ”very few things are impossible to achieve if we put our whole minds to it.” Worth watching the video.
Pugh’s mind-shifting Everest swim – Lewis Pugh (2010)
The Great Himalaya Trail is a new way of linking existing trekking routes together to create a long distance walking route in Nepal and the Himalayas. By showing the trail’s colour-coded line on a map, it helps people see that there is more to Nepal than just Annapurna and Everest. Hopefully this will encourage more people to visit off the beaten trail places and hopefully come back year after year to visit or complete different sections of the trail.
While part of the Great Himalaya Trail Development Programme (GHTDP) is to help promote the GHT to trekkers and trekking companies alike, the main part of its work is to make sure that the people of those areas are trained and able to provide services and products to the groups visiting new trekking areas.
The traditional-style self-sufficient camping treks only provide little benefit to the local inhabitants of a region–and make for a more costly trip too.
It makes sense then to help local communities develop local services for trekking groups. This has been happening in various places throughout Humla and Dolpa, where more than 50 small businesses have received training courses over the last 18 months.
They have learned about who tourists are, what is important to them during their visit and what standards they are expecting.
The skills training in lodge management, cooking and guiding has been hands-on. Mr. Narabhum Shahi of Hotel Mount Putha in Juphal, when asked what he will do with income from tourism says: “I’d like to add more rooms and improve the existing ones. I want to invest in expanding this business a little … and of course some of it will go to educating the kids…”
Cook training in Dolpa - How to make a good ommelette!
After the training, the trainees have written action plans stating what are they will do in the coming months to put their new skills into practice..
Linda Bezemer, a tourism expert with SNV who went on these monitoring visits, says: “It is great to see how step by step small businesses are improving: personal hygiene improved, toilets are being built and kept clean, the area around the teashop is well kept and waste is properly separated.”
But training alone is not enough, you learn through practice. The most promising participants will be given a chance to get ‘training on the job’, working in a hotel in Pokhara or guiding a trek.
Guide training in Dolpa - how to make a splint for a broken arm.
In addition to training Entrepreneurs, training has also been given to Tourism Development Committees to help ensure that tourism development is managed properly in the long term.
When accommodation, cooks, locally sourced foodstuffs and local guides are available, everybody wins. Trekking companies see reduced costs, new areas become more accessible to groups and local communities earn income from their services.
To help clarify what services are available in Humla and Dolpa, Agent’s Directories have been put together for both places. While this includes some on the newly trained people, it also includes the experienced and long established service providers.
Hoping to replicate the success of teahouse treks in the Annapurna and Everest regions, SNV and its local partners have been working to develop small to medium enterprises along the trail to provide food, lodging, and other trekking services. In 2009 and 2010, 50 small businesses in the pilot GHT sections of Humla and Dolpa received tourism-related training, covering everything from the importance of boiling water for drinking to dealing with altitude sickness.
If you have ever been trekking in Nepal’s mountains, you’ll know well how cold it can get at night. For his series ‘Himalayan Nights’, travel photographer Alex Treadway spent many freezing winter evening hours getting the shot with the right combination of starlight, clouds, mountains and tent.
This was taken high up on the Manaslu Circuit trek after about 10 days of walking, just before the Larke La pass (5100m). Treadway describes the next day:
“The view from the Larkya La is just astonishing. It looks straight out over four converging glaciers to the huge wall of 7000 m and 8000 m peaks of Himal Chuli and the Annapurnas.”
Flip Byrnes of the Sydney Morning Herald has produced a list of some of the least-known yet most exhilarating hikes in the world and the GHT tops the list.
Well it might not be a definitive list, and not-unbiased: there are some rather strong links with particular travel companies in this article. Still, the result points trekkers in the right direction to the Great Himalaya Trail.
But it is not only World Expeditions who can guide you a long the GHT. For most sections of the trail in Nepal, a large number of professional companies will be able to organise a memorable trek for you.
Where to go walking in Nepal? Which trek to do? It is a question many people ask each year after deciding they want to come and experience everything the Himalayas have to offer.
But how to choose? Evidently people manage, but so often go with the crowds to Everest and Annapurna (as you can see from the touristiness map). It is not hard to find lists of different places and different treks, but much harder to visualise where they all are and how they compare.
This brochure from the Dutch company Himalaya Trekking Wandelreizen (walking holidays) perfectly shows many, but by no means all, of the options to trek in Nepal. You’ll need to click to see the larger photo image of this brochure which was folded out and pinned on a wall, it’s not available online.
Himalaya Trekking has been going for many years now and have a huge range of itineraries – it seems they are not afraid to explore.
If you follow from Kanchenjunga in the west you can see how the mountain sections of so many of the existing treks connect together, almost, to make a long trail across Nepal (compare to this here). Now, wouldn’t that be a good trek to offer Himalaya Trekking?
ps. The GHT has no affiliation with Himalaya Trekking, it is just that this map was too good to not share.
It is not often that you see natural arches in mountains. This is a picture taken by Ed Douglas on a recent trek in remote Mugu, Northwest Nepal. It is perhaps the first picture taken of this phenomenon. While this single arch is not make for an Arches National Park, and perhaps it is not as big as Shipton’s arch near Kashgar, it still looks huge and should be measured!
Ed says:
“This photo is as close as I got, and I’m very proud of myself for spotting it. I thought I was hallucinating because everyone else on our team just walked past. (The peak to its left looks a formidable objective too.)”
“I asked around for any local info but nobody seemed to know or indeed care. It’s easy to find. Just head north a little from Mugu village and then hang a left into the valley it’s in.”
If anybody has been trekking in Mugu and knows more about this arch, please share your knowledge below in the comments box!
If you are going walking or trekking in Nepal you may choose to mingle with other people like you or may decide you want to get away from it all, and get off the beaten trail. But where is busy and where is quiet?
Recently some guys in Estonia came up with a map-overlay which shows where people actually visit in Nepal – well, at least those who use the Panoramio website to upload their trekking photographs. Touristiness is a word that is probably not in the dictionary yet but this is what they have called their map – the Touristiness Index.
On the map below you can see that in Nepal, tourism is focused around Annapurna, Kathmandu, Langtang and Everest. There are some other hotspots around urban centres such as Butwal and Dharan, but this shows you roughly where the beaten trail is! Notice the gaps from left to right, from East to West: Far West; Humla; Jumla, Mugu & Rara; Dolpa. Then there is Manaslu and Ganesh Himal in between Annapurna and Langtang. Towards the far east is Makalu and Kanchenjunga which remain places receiving few explorers.
On the western-most border, you can see a pink line in India – perhaps this reflect the numbers of Indian pilgrims heading to My. Kailash (red dot at the top a few centimetres from the left corner). You can also see the route to Kailash from Simikot in Humla.
Where people go walking and take pictures in Nepal? Click to Enlarge slightly.
For most of the established treks in Nepal, GPS can be helpful, but is not really necessary. If you start getting up into wilds, traversing seldom used cols or crossing featureless terrain, then GPS can be a useful back up, but still not replacement for map, compass and having the good navigational skills to be able to use them.
GPS is very useful however to see where others have been, to be able to plot that easily on maps, show all of the trekking options available on a map of Nepal and perhaps for accurate recording of water supplies, camping spots or places of interest.
A short search on the web reveals just a few GPS files available for download of just a few treks, predictably the Everest base camp trek and Annapurna circuit (GPS file here) but there are also GPS way points for the excellent Dolpa circuit, which the GPS informs has around 9000m vertical ascent over 12-14 days!
There are also further resources here on everytrail.com although, again, few treks. If you have any GPS waypoint files that you think would be useful to share here with others, please get in touch now using the form below.
I have been asking a lot of people where their favourite place in Nepal is as a way of putting some of the less visited places on the map. Many people say somewhere in Solukhumbu, but then that is because that’s the place so many people visit. Chris Bonnington, celebrated British mountaineer loves Khumjung, just above Namche Bazar, because he got wonderfully drunk there in 1961 on Chang and his very dear friend, Pertemba Sherpa comes from there!. Gelinde Kaltenbrunner, loves the Kanchenjunga region because it’s so wild. Kurt Diemberger loves the valleys below Makalu.
I have been asking a number of people where they would most like to visit. Many say Phoksumdo lake, the incredible turquoise jewel among the arid mountains in Dolpa, a few have said the Far West in the undiscovered areas below Mount Api. Another would love to visit Shelmogang, the crystal mountain in Humla and see the Saga Dawa Festival. And yet another would just like to see the rhododendronsHelambu in full bloom.
What about you? Where would you like to go to in Nepal?
There are some wonderful places to discover in Nepal. Unfortunately, most visitors stick very much to the beaten trail. If you find yourself on the lower part of the trail heading to Everest base camp in peak season and you might find that you are sharing it with 300 others.
The Annapurna area is very much similar and that is where most trekkers head to ‘experience’ Nepal. It’s not that these areas are not beautiful, they are stunning. Robin Boustead, a pioneer of the Great Himalaya Trail has this to say on the matter in a recent interview for the German Alpin Magazine:
For the last five years I have received many emails from people asking me where would I recommend to go trekking. I have not sent a single person to either the Everest or the Annapurna Region because I don’t feel that they are authentic trekking experiences. You come to see the mountains here but you come back because of the people. And if you are trekking along trails where there are hundreds of other westerners and you are staying in teahouses that are run by frantic overworked people, who cannot spend any time with you – how authentic is that? Why would you not just go for a walking holiday in Europe. That is something that I feel that is lost here in Nepal. People don’t come away having had a genuine authentic Nepali experience.
So in an effort to uncover where the true authentic Nepal experience is to be found, we’re asking a number of people have a special relationship with the country and who’ve come back year after year, five simple questions.
What is your favourite place in Nepal?
Why was it particularly special?
What is your favourite thing about Nepal or your favourite memory from time spent here?
Which place in Nepal would you like to go to that you have not yet been to?
What advice do you have for visitors coming to trek in the Nepal Himalaya?
Some answers are long, some are short. Here are the people we’ve talked to so far:
The Five Questions blog asks people who are very familiar with Nepal, the Himalaya and trekking some questions about their most favourite places and experiences. Wanda Vivequin has been visiting and trekking in Nepal for over 10 years and has co-authored Lonely Planet Nepal Trekking Guidebook.
1. What is your favourite place that you have visited in Nepal?
My favourite place in Nepal is the village of Sundaridanda located just 15km from Pokhara on the old approach to the Annapurna Circuit (see map of the Royal Trek). This village (name means beautiful hill) is located spectacularly between Begnas Tal and Rupa Tal and affords simply stunning views of the Annapurna Himal, Machapuchare, the two lakes and on a clear day the Ngadi Himal. It also happens to be the place where I have built a community library in honour of my mother. The community is working hard to attract people to visit and stay. There is an organic coffee cafe and guest house, a few small guest houses and if you want to splash out you can stay at Begnas Resort.
Particularly the days trekking between Jang and Hilsa where trails are etched into impossibly steep hillsides and stunning medieval looking villages appear stuck in a time warp.
2. Why was it particularly special?
Many years ago I asked a seasoned sirdar in Nepal his favourite trekking route. He said Limi Valley as he was fortunate enough to have visited the valleys shortly after they opened for trekking. He said he thought it was Shangri-La. In 2005 my father bought me Thomas Kelly’s book Hidden Himalaya. This is Kelly’s account of his time in Humla. I used to look at this book imagining what it would be like to trek there and then finally in 2007 I went there with a group. I went back there again in 2008 and have been fortunate to become connected to some of the
incredible medical work being done there by CITTA, a Health, Education and Economic Development (HEED) organisation: www.citta.org.
Having connections that go deeper than just trekking through an area makes it a whole lot more special. In October 2010 the surgical wing of a hospital in Simikot (the capital of Humla) will open. The surgical wing is the result of a significant donation made by one of my group in 2008.
3. What is your favourite thing about Nepal or your favourite memory from time spent here?
Wanda Vivequin
My favourite thing about Nepal is the pure honesty of the many Nepalis I have been fortunate to meet and spend time with. My friends and family there are a constant reminder that you don’t need a lot to be happy.
The resilience of the Nepali people throughout the democratic crisis that has marked the 10 years I have been travelling there is also incredible.
I love the fact that even though many of my friends and family in Nepal have so little, they still find time and ways of making me feel so special. The country offers me countless reminders of what truly makes the world go around – kindness, compassion, generosity, good humour, family. I have also been reminded on many occasions of how wasteful we are in the west with our resources and our planet.
4. Which place in Nepal would you like to go to that you have not yet been to?
I would like to go back and finish my Api Saipal traverse in western Nepal. In 2008 I trekked to Saipal south base camp in the Bajhang district. I would love to trek west of Chainpur (the capital of Bajhang) district and head to Api basecamp and then head even further west to Darchula and the Indian border.
Western Nepal is simply stunning and the people there have suffered so much. This is an area that is tough to trek but I am sure that the travel here is reminiscent of what it was like to trek in the Annapurna area in the 1970s.
It’s tough going and you have to resourceful and not be afraid of the unknown.
5. What advice do you have for trekkers going to Nepal?
Do not be afraid to get off the beaten path for there are many rewards to be had. Uncrowded trails, cultural interactions like no other, incredible hospitality and a sense of adventure that has been lost in some of the more traditional trekking areas.
No matter where you go in Nepal the country is breathtaking, but if adventure and solitude is what you are after, the more traditional areas like Everest and Annapurna have definitely given some of that away in the name of progress and development.
