Trekking, Nepal

Favorite thing: HI,
I just returned from Nepal two weeks ago. We did the Manaslu 20 days tenttrekking and it was fantastic. We had everything organized by a Nepali guide from Kathmandu, Palsang Tamang, and he was very friendly, helpfull, honest and reliable. I would certainly recommend him. (Palsang Tamang, e-mail: palsangtamang2003@yahoo.com, cellphone: +9779841506950). He will do everything for you: pick you up from the airport, book you a good and cheap hotel, arrange the trekking permits, etc. etc. He also has a group of reliable porters, cooks, etc.
Anyway, you'll certainly have a good vacation!
Bert

Favorite thing: HI,
I just returned from Nepal two weeks ago. We did the Manaslu 20 days tenttrekking and it was fantastic. We had everything organized by a Nepali guide from Kathmandu, Palsang Tamang, and he was very friendly, helpfull, honest and reliable. I would certainly recommend him. (Palsang Tamang, e-mail: palsangtamang2003@yahoo.com, cellphone: +9779841506950). He will do everything for you: pick you up from the airport, book you a good and cheap hotel, arrange the trekking permits, etc. etc. He also has a group of reliable porters, cooks, etc.
Anyway, you'll certainly have a good vacation!
Bert

Favorite thing: Perhaps, you could do 7 days Everest trek to Tengboche, starting from Lukla. You have to take flight to lukla and then start trekking from there. As you do not have 14-16 days, I suppose you would have 7 days. As I did the trek in 6 days, though the plan was of 7 days. You can see the beautiful view of Mt. Everst from tengboche too. Since, you are planning to do trek in the end of July, it will be humid, and due to the humidity your trek would be quite difficult but not impossible. I guess it would be rather challenging and fun. There is high probability of getting AMS, only if you are use to living near sea-level.
And there is no vehicle in Lukla, rather it is not possible.

All the best for your Trek,

Favorite thing: Please enter the single most important activity or site you would take someone, if they had never been to Nepal before.

Fondest memory: Please share your best memory of Nepal or what you miss the most when you are away from Nepal.

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Favorite thing: Our trip was possible due to a great group of people including guides and porters. Joel who is apart of Project Himalaya has been in the trekking business in the Himalayas and India for years and his experience is invaluable. His Nepalese right hand man Lapka was my shadow and ensured that I was not only on the right track but warm and comfortable. His hospitabitality extended as far as his own home and we were lucky enough to visit his village, his home and have some fab potato pancakes made by his wife. Also, on the trip were our porters, who happen to be the niece and nephew of Lapka. The strength of these people was amazing and sitting by the fire with them at night was good fun. His niece had the best smile and her husband was quite experienced and had been up to the South Col and was aiming for the Summit next climbing season. Her brother, Nuro (excuse the spelling) was happy young man just starting out as a porter. He had great fun climbing at the head of the pack with Mike and the two could be seen sprinting down the mountain at a racing pace.

Fondest memory: Its hard to pick one best thing about Nepal, the whole package of views, people and trekking is pretty hard to beat.

Favorite thing: Taking into consideration the time, hassle and expense of applying for a visa before you leave it is not worth it. You can buy your visa at the airport in Kathmandu on arrival. it costs 25 euro or $35 dollars, so it is nominally cheaper to pay in euros at $1.3000. Well, in any case, bring a passport photo along with your passport. Depending on the line it will take 15-30 minutes to pass through both passport control and get your visa. The sign also indicated that you could pay in a variety of currencies, all the major ones in any case? There is a currency exchange there where you buy your visa just in case. In general, I found all the exchange booths similar in rates and commissions. Maybe the hotels a little more.

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Favorite thing: Nepal is a poor country. Income earned from tourism is important for the local economy. But visitors also mean related problems. Nepal is also a high, alpine country with almost one-third of the country what I would consider mountainous. Although technically there is no shortage of water there is a lack of water and sewage treatment infrastructure.

Also, parts of Nepal have a shortage of trees used for cooking and heating, so they either use dung or are now part of the electric grid. However, in this respect tourism, especially large lodges designed for foreigners, although they bring in needed income, also compete with the locals for existing electric capacity.

The more lodges that are built, the fewer Nepalese homes that are connected to the power grid and the more they have to rely on wood as a source of fuel. Of course, this means that in a high, dry climate that de-forestation is also a serious problem that can lead to soil erosion as well. Therefore, always be mindful of how much water you use and please do not waste power. Thank you.

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Favorite thing: In planning our trip to Nepal for hiking and trekking we are in the process of choosing our travel company. We have hiked with ASI before in Mallorca and in La Reunion. Our experience with them has been good, but as always it depends on who you get for a guide and in which group you end up in. This time we are also considering Wikinger as we have friends that have hiked with them before and were satisfied. Comparing the trips side by side, they are very similar in their basic routes, itineraries and in cost. It will come down to availability and whether we trust ourselves to try a new company for a change.

ASI

Asi is the largest trekking & adventure company in Austria. Their groups are primarily aimed at German speaking hikers. ASI as it is a little more expensive tends to attract a slightly older clientele, but it depends on whether the trip is light, medium or strenuous in terms of terrain, altitude, technical difficulty, number of meters climbed and distance per day.

ASI describes their Nepal trip as middle to strenuous (mittelere bis anspruchsvolle), but this is the first year they are choosing this new route, so they make changes to it in years to come. This typically means you will cover 500 to 800 meters per day and hike on average 3-4 hours not counting any lunch breaks or pauses.

In this particular trip they will hike a total of 122 km over 8 hiking days. The trip itself is a total of 16 days including flights and 2 nights in Katmandu. In total you will climb 5150 meters and the trip will cost 2.725 euros or $3.434 using today's exchange rate of $1.2600.

The one disadvantage of using an Austrian or German tour company right now is that the dollar is quite weak and the euro fairly strong, so you may pay more for your trip regardless of whether local costs in Nepal stay the same or change.

ASI flies from Vienna to Katmandu with Austrian Airlines direct.

www.asi.at

Fondest memory: Wikinger

The trip by Wikinger is remarkably similar. About 40 hours of hiking over the same distance of about 120 kms while covering slightly less vertical, only about 4300 meters versus 5150 meters. But the overall trip is at a higher altitude, from 2900 to 4550 meters, or about 1000 meters higher than the ASI trip.

The Wikinger trip is slightly less expensive, and this is why they typically attract a slightly younger crowd. However, this particular trip is billed as a comfort trekking trip, which means hotel rooms with bathrooms instead of huts and tents with the barest of the essentials in terms of luxury. As we are going quite late in the year, November, this may be a bonus, as if we hit inclement weather, it will be nicer to be in a warm hotel instead of a cold hut.

This is Wikinger's first year with this comfort trekking tour in Nepal as well. Their other hardcore trip is 22-days instead of 17-days with a few more actual hiking days that are longer and higher and end at the base camp at the foot of Mount Everest.

Despite being a comfort trekking tour, Wikinger is slightly cheaper than ASI. The trip costs 2.148 euros or about $2.706 using $1.2600 as a euro exchange rate against the dollar. That is about 20% cheaper than ASI and would go along way to making up for spending money during the trip. Of course, they may be economizing elsewhere, so it is hard to compare, unless you know the standards of each hotel, meal, transfer, etc.

On disadvantage is that Wikinger fly from Frankfurt am Main to Katmandu via Doha, which naturally makes the trip longer, but also if you come from anywhere else in Germany or Austria you also have to pay an extra 250 euros for the connecting flight. As we will be flying from Cyprus, we will try to catch a flight directly to Doha and then join the group from there? If we do not end up paying double for the airfare that is.

www.wikinger.de