Allyson Johnson

Tips for Travellers in Nepal – Food, Shelter, Communication

My basic tip is: don’t worry about it. If you are doing the Annapurna circuit you will not be far from a roof or a kitchen;  BUT

in the high season you WILL need reservations or risk sleeping on the dining room floor.

Other thoughts:

1. Set expectations realistically for communicating with family and friends during the trek. Let me first dispel the myth that “there are cybercafes everywhere”.  There was rumored to be one in Tadupani, but as I walked down the narrow twisting street suddenly everything went dark – power outage.  By the time I returned to the guest house it was aglow with candles on every table – evidently power outages are common – but internet connections do not run on candle-power.  Somehow, though, our guides’ cellphones never seemed to be out of reception range.
2. Don’t worry about the food. This is not Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayas.  The tea houses/hotels are governed by regional associations which set standards and offer an established menu of dishes with familiar names such as pizza, spaghetti, and eggroll.  The fare is largely vegetarian, and might include fried rice, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and cornbread.  Although the pizza may be like no pizza you ever ate before, and the cheese may be yak cheese, you will discover some reliable choices.  The vegetable soups (tomato, pumpkin, carrot) are consistently excellent, and the dal bhat platter is a nutritional powerhouse. Our guides ate this at least twice a day and their slogan was “Dal bhat power – good for 24 hours!”  And for your daily laugh, be sure to check the menu for typos.  (Would you like to try the Greed Salad? Or the Chocolate Crap?)
3. Don’t worry about the beds.  The trekking trade is a key part of any upward mobility story in Nepal;  each teahouse must meet minimum standards for accomodations, and most will exceed.  Some of the teahouses are downright lovely, taking every advantage they can of the views and environment.
4. Take time to check your room completely before starting out each day – including under the bed, under the blankets, in the corners.  It is amazing what slips to the floor when you are tired and not looking. I managed to leave my favorite Biffie on the bed in Kalipani (fortunately I had a backup); my backup glasses/sunglasses never made it out of Pokhara, and DM rescued my favorite jade necklace from under the bed in Marfa. If you are traveling with a team as I did, check for each other.

Trekking in Nepal – Day 8 – Kagbeni to Jharkot

This day we again put DB on a jeep – this time first thing in the morning – and DM and I set out on foot for a four hour trek partly along the bus road (DB and Bina waved at us as they passed) and partly along the old trekking road.  We had the three assistants as guides – nice young things with big smiles and minimal English – and we had a fine time walking through a series of small stone-built villages, over stone bridges, along an amazing series of conduits for flowing water (the actual river was way downhill from us).  We shared trail mix and granola bars and rested frequently, but still made our destination in the four hours allotted.

Jharkot is just a smidge(3500M)  down the hill from Mulktinath, the high point of the trek (3802M according to my new hat).  Since we arrived before noon, we had a leisurely lunch on the veranda looking at Nilghiri Peak across the valley, then explored the town, including an ancient Buddhist monastery dating back to the 700s, with some fascinating paintings and artifacts.  We are amazed still at how cavalierly the Nepalese treat their history – no hesitation about touching a fragile old canvas, or allowing flash photos of an ancient wall mural.  The town was very Tibetan in feeling, according to Dianne, who has been to Tibet, all gray stone and low doorways leading into dark corridors or bright courtyards; lots of Buddhist elements mixed in with ancient animist totems – very alien to us.

We also had an impromptu tour of a women’s collective engaged inproducing seabuckthorn juice concentrate for the local market. (If seabuckthorn replaces the acai berries craze, you read it here first!) The women do everything from gathering, crushing, and simmering the berries for juice to scalding, labeling and filling recycled bottles for the market.  The space for the seasonal operation is provided by the local Buddhist monastery;  the proceeds are used to assist poor families in the village.  (The catch is that much of the money goes back to the monastery to pay for religious services)

In the evening we gathered around the table under which a charcoal brazier radiated warmth, and after dinner ended up playing a Nepalese version of gin rummy with our guide Bina; assistant Bandana; Katharine, a Dutch management consultant who was trekking solo with a guide, and a charming Italo-French skydiving instructor named David who had just come over the Thang Lo pass solo – no guide, no porter.  We had a lot of inter-generational, inter-cultural laughing and silliness, and at 8:30 the three of us decided it was past our bedtime and left the younger folk to it.

I was amazed at the ability of a battered deck of cards to erase boundaries – we need to play  more often!

Tips for Travelers in Nepal – Equipment

Here are some suggestions regarding equipment you will need for the Annapurna circuit trek, and my recommendations for the best way to manage it.

1. If you are not a frequent and dedicated backpacker hiker with your own tried and true equipment, and you are doing a tea-house trek with someone else carrying most of your gear, consider a rental option for items that are necessary but not size – related.  Why schlepp a down sleeping bag, back pack, down jacket, and trekking poles half-way around the world if you can rent them from your trekking guide group at a total charge of less that $2/day? These necessary items can be rented in Thamel or Pokhara and save you a lot of baggage bulk on the way to and from those locations.  Some necessary rentables:
   1.  1. Down sleeping bag – you may hike all day in a T-shirt but the temperatures plummet when the sun goes down, and there is no central heat in the guest houses.
   2. 2. Trekking poles.  They will save a lot of wear and tear on knees and hips, as well as saving you from a fall here and there.  The extra security – priceless.
   3. 3. Down Jacket – I needed mine three times in 12 days of hiking – but oh, when I needed it, it was lovely to have!
   4. Large back pack – Remember – it’s not you that will be carrying this pack, it’s the assistant guide assigned to you, so it doesn’t matter how well it fits you. It will hold your sleeping bag, extra clothes, and everything else you don’t need during the day, as well as a small amount of the guide’s gear. Instead of traveling with a backpack as my main piece of luggage, I took an expandable suitcase as far as Pokhara, stashed it at the guest house, and had lots of room for gifts and mementoes.
2. Bring a silk liner for the down sleeping bag – it will add extra warmth at very little weight and if you are renting it is nice not to worry about who last used the bag. I recommend sewing a bright strip of bias tape across the top opening edge of the liner so it is easy to find when you need to slither in after dark. (thanks to a customer comment on the REI site for this tip!)
3. Take good care of your feet.  This includes
   1. Good hiking boots, well broken in
   2. Several pairs of wool hiking socks
   3. Silk liners for the hiking socks to wick away sweat and help prevent blisters
   4. Dr. Scholls’ Blister Prevention pads, because you will get “hot spots” despite the good boots and the silk liners. (mentioned already in “Sanitation“, but worth saying twice)
4. Bring a headlamp.  If you are getting up early to see the sunrise, by definition you will be hiking in the dark.  You will need both hands free for your hiking poles, so an ordinary flashlight will not do.  You will be pleased at how useful it will also be if your roommate in the guest house wants to sleep while you want to read about next day’s route, or if you need to find your way to that outside toilet in the middle of the night.
5. Bring a deck of cards.  In the evening, a game of cards around a charcoal brazier bridges all culture gaps –French, Swiss, and Dutch and American guests joined by our Nepali guides with the common language of gin rummy.
6. Bring a long-sleeved cotton shirt with a front breast pocket into which your camera will fit.  Your camera should be on a lanyard around your neck so that if you drop it, no harm. The pocket will take the weight off your neck.