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Trekking in Nepal
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Nepal is generally a quite commercial trekking
destination. I knew that before going there and only confirmed
that. I
postponed trekking there and only decided to go because total number of
tourist should be still lower due to past Maoist activities (well, not
so true nowadays). But the fame of it's unique highest mountains is
justified anyway, so it's
worth of going there at least once
and judge by own eyes. After such trip, less commercial (and
even not that
spectacular) destinations will be more appreaciated again. Plus if one
avoids Everest and Anapurna areas, evertything else should be much less
commercial (e.g. no lodges) - e.g. Lower Dolpo, Kanchanjunga.
To
me, the commerciality of Nepal
mountains was in the end characterized
much less by the number of trekkers somewhere, but much more by the
money for so many fees (National Park fee, Trekking permit fee,
postoponed hopefully forever Trekker's registration certificate,
Climbing permit fee, Maoist
'progressive tourist tax' fee, Durbar square visitor fee etc.) and even
recent introduction of at least theoretically compulsory Nepali staff
on the trek.
But I must state here, that local people in trek
areas are generally all friendly,
willing to help you and ask your questions without thinking about money
in the first place.
Background to 2006 trip
The decision to go to Nepal finally
was for a
difficult and rarely undertaken Makalu
to Everest area trek (alias
3col trek). But later after my girlfriend's injury, I still wanted to
go there with her, so decided for something not that difficult as 3col
trek to do with her. It was first Lower
Dolpo area and then shortly to Everest
area
(Gokyo). I was supposed to meet with the group of 6
people, originally formed by me for Makalu-Everest trek near Island
Peak in Everest area. The trek was changed to unusuall opposite
direction as Everest-Makalu trek because of me (which is possible if
you have spare time to acclimatiosation in Everest area). But that
meeting did not happened. That group planned to manage to climb
self-supported Mera and Island Peak in Everest area during 2 weeks
before starting the main trek and had problems in Mera peak area
resulting in their early return to Kathmandu eventually. Left alone
with in then end 10 days of spare trekking time only and without tent
already and after problems burning Nepali petrol in my stove,
my only choice was commercial Annapurna
region. My favourite would be Kanchendzonga area (semi
restricted as Lower Dolpo) or Makalu one classical trek, but both
required tent and for longer time. As far as Annapurna area, I could
decide either for the east part of the
circuit (finish in Jomosom) or west part together with Annapurna
Sanctuary
trek (begin in Jomosom). I decided for second option as this
could be prolonged easily by Annapurna Sanctuary trek.
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Lower Dolpo region |
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This was as
expected most rewarding trek of my 3 treks in Nepal in 2006. The
other treks, although by photos maybe more spectacular, were more or
less results of circumstances and limited time to go elsewhere. Dolpo
area
is inhabited by people of Tibetian origin and one can see both Tibetian
like dry plains and Nepali green forests here.
It is technically
quite easy trek, the 5000m+
passes of Num La and Baga
La are quite flat, locals go with horses over them. The passes are
without snow, at least till middle od October. It is quite rain
shade area, so best time is approximately September. We were there it
the first half of October, great time, not snow (that year). It is
possible to go in July-August as well, but it rains often, as the rain
shade is not 100%, but still possible to go I think.
The only generally
available map of Lower Dolpo is not very precise, but there are
not
many side paths here, so if one know approximate direction, it's easy
to choose the right from 2 paths. We were even given an interesting
hand drawn map by local guide
from Dunai named Chandra (chandraguide@hotmail.com). Although it was
usefull as an addtion to the
official map, we could safely go without it as well in the end. The
map is scanned in pieces here, 1
2 3 4 although I doubt it is much
usefull without compete redrawing and comments. But I thank Chandra
very much and could only recommend him if you want good guide a
pleasant comanion as well. Having guide would enable you to eat more in
local houses, where English is not understood. There are more guides in
Dunai, all seemed quite friendly, so no need to pay expensive KTM
companies, flight tickets for their guides etc.
This was a semi-restricted
area, even before TRC
rules, trekking only
with travel agency group. But 1 of 10 travel companies is usually
willing to give you trekking permit without additional services for
e.g. 50 USD / person. This was Maoist stronghold, only the airstrip of
Juphal and part of Dunai were controlled by former royal goverment. Non
negotiable fee of 50 USD / person for Lower Dolpo (or 100 USD / peson
for more restricted Upper Dolpo) was strongly required (1 year ago fees
were twice more). What happens with such fees after Maiost are in
goverment (Nov 2006) is a question of future, I'm afraid they will stay
for some time. I personally paid fees to Maoists only in Dolpo, they
were not so strict an tough in Annapurna or even Everest area (but I
heard of people who met tougher guys there as well).
During the 12-day
circuit we met 4 tourist
groups only, mostly French.
Locals were friendly but did not speak English at all ! (compared to
Annaurna and Everest where everyone speak English). Only tea
and dalbhat food (and sometimes chapati bread) was understood (but we
did know know anything else too), if you wanted. But even agreement on
price was big problem.
I think one should take own food for about 8-10 days (I
would take 10 as I prefer to be more self sufficient than less) of
the 12 total trek days. We ate dalbhat food only in Dunai,
Tarap,
Ringmo/Phoksumdo, Chepka, Juphal. Apart from one time meal,
people would be able to prepare good chapati as bread, but sometimes
they don't have very much flour to spare I think. And it's generally
difficult to agree the price as they don't know English at all. They
had quite tasty
biscuits in the would be shops in all major villages mentioned above.
There was no problem to
buy
kerosene/petrol for the stove in Dunai. In contast to commercial
regions of Annapurna and Everest, there is no phone connection outside
Juphal-Dunai, so sattelite phone is quite usefull for emergency etc.
There's no internet even in
Dunai and Juphal, that have phone service (going over satelite I
think, but rates quite very cheap). Dunai and Juphal have electricity,
school above Dho Tarap has very big roof solar panels (I guess for 120
or 220V). Local people tend to have smaller solar panels often, but
they lack connectors for camera batteries of course and are not very
reliable, better to take own small solar panels and charge during the
day on backpack etc. There's a lot of water (apart from ascent to Num
La from Dho Tarap), no need for any water filter I think.
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Everest region |
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The most
commercial region of Nepal probably. I was surprised that most people
there go with porter, guide or porterguide (in was even not
required by
TRC rules at that time) when there are lodges with everything you need
(except from medium warm sleeping bag) every 2 hours or so. Well,
another suprise was, that maybe half of people there were 50+ years
old, signoficant part of them even 60+. They were almost all
going with porterguides and I admire them for deciding to go anyway.
Just the strange age statistics was very surprising.
Another suprise - most people tend to finish trek
3 or 4 pm, although
there were next lodges safely e.g. just 1 hour away. But walking times
in LP guidebook were correct, one could just walk more hours a day then
they recommened. Most lodges offer charging of batteries, but required
1-3 USD per hour usually. Phone wires are nowhere in Everest area, but
calls are reasonably prices from Namche (2-3 USD for international),
more expensive from sattelite phones in lodges up (up to 5 USD per
minute). Call to Kathmandu is very cheap only from Namche (quarter of
USD per minute).
I can only confirm what a friend told me, if you
don't have time to go
to both Gokyo and Everest BC (or even if you have), go to Gokyo
definitely. Views from Gokyon are better than from Kala Patter
(more
mountains, nicer glacier in the valley, lakes!), for Everest peak
itself quite same.
The area of
Chukung (and under Island Peak) -
just
2 hours off the main Lukla-Everest highway, has very good mountain
scenery (as can bee seen for my photos). It's possible to rent
crampons, ice axes and even plastic mountaineering boots in Chukung
lodges for the ascent of Island peak. My stay was very limited by
time and planned continuation to Makalu area (did not happen). It
should be very rewarding to go from Thame over Renjo La pass to Gokyo,
not many people go this route.
There was new (and onlyl one) Maoist post at the
bridge in Phakding,
half way between Lukla and Namche. Most peole I know did not pay them
anything, as they were not much demanding. But I heard of people who
had bigger problems with them here as well. They originally wanted 100
Rps (about 1.5 USD) per day.
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Annapurna region |
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Probably a
bit less commercial than Everest, but there was a rough road (but
narrow, only for motorcycles) from Jomosom to Muktinath up and Lete
down. On could go by motorcycle e.g. one way and walk back as I
did to
save time (even with larger backback). In a few years, ther will be
such road all the way form Beni to Muktihath and at that time, charging
of batteries is free, no one cares. I would not trek there at all by
the road, but it will be great for mountain biking. There is
electricity even now all the way from Beni to over Jomosom to
Muktinath.
Phone
calls, even international, are quite cheap and available in many
lodges on Muktinath-Beni route (but not above Chomrong for Anapurna BC
route I think) - less than 1 USD per mitute to the world as phone wires
go together with electricity.
I was told by other trekkers doing full Annapurna
circuit there, that
the eastern part (Besisahar to Manang over Thorong La pass to Jomosom)
was
better according to them - more spectacular mountains and no so much
civilization (motorbike road etc.). That could be well true as the most
valuable area on my Jomosom-Beni western part was Muktinath-Kagbeni-Jomosom
with Tibetian like dry area (as you can see from photos) and this would
be included in Besisahar-Jomosom part as well. But the by itself boring
Jomosom-Beni offers good connection to Annapurna Sanctuary trek on the
other hand, which
I found rewarding, so I don't regret this choice.
But it's worth to mention, that with more than my
10 days at disposal,
Besisahar-Jomosom (or full circuit) offer new possibilities and
extensions in newly opened valley of
Phu trekking area, which makes
this part probably even more interesting in comparison.
For Annapurna BC trek, hours on boards at loges
tent to
exaggerate time to next lodge by about 25% , probably in order to
persuade you to stay at that lodge (but was true only for Anapurna BC). |
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Other
usefull info |
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I
had problems burning petrol
form Lukla in my Optimus petrol stove although it was filtered through
a coffee filter paper. Same with Primus stove. Well, I started to have
smaller problems even with petrol in Dolpo after 10 days. I would
seriously consider gas cartridges next time, in fact I recommend them
for commercial Everest and Annpapurna areas definitely (if one takes
stove at all there). They are sold even in Lukla and Namche and I even
think (but not sure) they would allow them for local flights.
If you drink a lot of tea, you may consider to take small stove and pot even
for lodge to lodge treks in Everest and Annapurna areas, as you
could save about 2-4 dollars that 1 liter of tea costs (depending on
altitude and remotness of the lodge). It's not worth to take own food
for in case of lodge to lodge trek I think - food costs 1-3 dollar per
meal.
Travel
company that I can recommend is Green Horizon, owned by 2
brothers, we were mostly dealing with Govinda. They have a lot of Czech
trekkers as clients so there are used to that like me, who
wants to go without guides and porters and there are very flexible in
this way. Govinda is always ready on his mobile if you need to change
tickets, new
tickets, helicopter rescue. Their office if very near to the famous
'Kathmadu
gesthouse' for orientation and just against the back entrance of the
famous
'Pumpernickel bakery' as well. Generally, there are hundreds of other
companies
in Thamel on every corner.
- Govinda Dahal
- Green Horizon Tours & Travels (P) Ltd.
- P.O.Box 20217
- Thamel, Kathmandu
- Tel: 4255622, 4254213
- Mobile : 9851034482
- Fax: 00977 1 4252238
- Email : greenhtt@ccsl.com.np,
dgovinda@hotmail.com
There's so many cheap hotels to stay in Thamel. I
quited liked the hotels in the side street very near to second office
of Green Horizon and stayed
either in very cheap and not very clean but usable hotel Lotus (220
Rps, about 3 USD for a room with 1 big bed) or once in a more
comfortable
Imperial hotel just the next building to Lotus (700 Rps, about 10 USD).
Thamel area is quite expensive for food (generally 2-3 USD Rps per
meal), I liked Indian food at small mostly locally visited restaurant
on the crossing of
Jyatha and Tridevi streets,
just next to supermarket
- that was for 1-2 USD. I'm not sure if these places are listed in LP
guidebook, probably not.
Thamel district - first place in
Kathmandu for most of people coming in and the place where most
people end up staying. It's within walking distance to most
travel agencies (big advantage), but it's culturally quit unoriginal
part of Kathamdu, with outdoor and souvenir shop one next
to each other. My favourite area of Kathmandu is Tibetian quarter of
Boudha - around Boudha stupa.
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