October/ November 2018
Nepal, hikers land, just there between two strong nations, Big India and China.
In Nepal there is a stunning landscapes that defiantly will change your life, Himalayan Mountains, tell me who needs more than that? Endless of trails some are even covered by snow, deserts, jungles and tones of culture.
Nepal is so different from the western world – between Kathmandu the noisy capital to the silence of the beautiful summits you will discover villages and rice fields, endless of options in the simplicity of Nepal.
I arrived to Nepal in the end of September – just the peak of the season in Nepal, the best time of the year to go and conquered the mountains of Nepal by hiking.
The seasons in Nepal are pretty short, if you want to hike in the mountains there is two seasons that are safe to hike – end of March to May and the other season is October to December.
In this visit I been in Nepal for 6 weeks, I arrived with the knowledge that I want to do one long and one short treks, but which one should I chose? There is so many options and everything is so tempting.
After I thought a lot I decided to split my time in that way –
Kathmandu – 6 days
Annapurna trek – 12 days
Pokhara-7 days
Langtang trek – 7 days
Kathmandu valley – 6 days
And the rest dedicated to one road time… the roads in Nepal I don’t know if you can call them that way but… you have to pass them anyhow 🙂
Important concepts:
- “The Deal” – I don’t like to use in this concept but it’s pretty common in the mountains, the deal actually means that if you are staying in some place you don’t need to pay for your stay but you have to eats at lease few meals in that place.
Porter – *since April 2023 you have to hire porter or a guide in all Nepal trails* the porter he is a local man that carry your lagguge, you need to pay for him for every day that he his with you and also transpotation.
for a day its 15$ for porter that don’t know a good English, if you want porter guide (English speaker) you need to pay more usualy around 18-20 per day.
- Pay attention porter cannot carry more than 15 KG
- You can hire one porter for more than one but remember the limitation of the weight that he can carry
Highly recommend porter – Arjun
+ 9779849735857
- TIMS – certificate that you are in the reserve
In some reserve in Nepal you have to buy TIMS – this certificate documented by them and if you are not going out of the reserve long time they will detect where your last check point, so it’s after all to your own safe.
- Altitude sickness – Super super impotent to be aware to your body.
While you are traveling in the mountains its means that you are climbing, when you are going up in the altitude you have less oxygen – lack of oxygen hurts your body and you sense of mind.
Each person can react to climbing different but most of the syndromes starts around 3000 meters above sea level.
There is few stages altitude sickness –
Stage 1 – you may cause headache and some dizziness but not more than that, its not supposed to affect your trip and you don’t need to go down in this stage but it’s better to stop and to stay another night in that altitude and to be more aware to your body, don’t think what the others think– your partners should understand you.
Stage 2 – this stage is much more dangers you may cause stress in your neck or you chest, in this stage you have to stop and do not climb any more, to stay another night in the same altitude and even if its possible to go down around 400 meters and to lets your body to adjust.
Stage 3 – you don’t want to be there – this is life and death situation – stop and go down if Stage 2 is not over.
Lecture about attitude sickness – In Manang (around 3000 ASL) there is clinic and they explain about the sickness and check your Oxygen level in your blood.
- Satellite Phone – I really recommend to the Satellite Phone when you are on the way to the mountains or remoted places.
- Dal Bhat – the national dish of Nepal – if to be honest I really like it. It’s a rice and lentils and more greens – in some places you even get free refill.
- Momo – another great local dish, dumpling with different options.
- Sleepers – night bus, sometimes even with beds.
- Local – Local bus, much cheaper from every other option and its defiantly experience you can find yourself sitting next to chicken, I used most of the times in this option.
Kathmandu
Nepal capital, so different from the western capitals, busy and noisy and very dusty but although all of this there is a magic in the air, from the temples to good restaurants old cities and so.
Actually in the past Nepal was split to 3 cites – patan, bhaktapur and Kathmandu, today this cites are part of one city – Kathmandu.
In each old city there is the durbar square – durbar square was the culture centre of the city, covered with a lot of mystery temples.
Kathmandu attractions –
- Swayambhunath Temple, the monkey temple – you literally cannot miss it, Swayambhunath Temple located on one of the hills around the city and it is one of the special one.
the name monkey came because there is a lot of monkey that living there sometimes it’s a madness I really recommend don’t go with cameras around or something that they can stole from you – especially food.
The entrance fee is 200 rupee – if you entering from the other side (Buddha park) its will be free.
View this post on Instagram
- The Thamel – the tourist quarter of Kathmandu, all the backpackers are there, and it’s better to stay there but I really recommend to go around and to get lost our of the Thamel, to look for local markets and see other sides of the city.
- Rock Climbing Wall – next to the coffee place Sudeeksha bakery café just in the middle of the Thamel you will find Rock Climbing Wall.
- Pashupatinath temple – one of the interesting temple in Kathmandu – not for the faint of heart – this is the place that the local comes to burn the bodies of their relatives. If you want to go to there its 20 minutes of taxi and the price is around 200 Rupee, the entrance fee is around 1000 rupee.
- Durbar Square – the centre of the old city. Entrance fee is 1000 rupee.
- Patan – the old city next to Kathmandu – 20 minutes and 600 rupee taxi
- Bhaktapur – another old city – bus from the central station costs 20 rupee and 1 hour of driving.
- English cinema – just next to the great Indian restaurant western Tandoori &Naan house you will see big and pretty new mall, in the fourth floor there is cinema – every week different English movie.
Good Restaurants –
Roadhouse – really nice luxury restaurant with great pastas and pizza and really great meat dishes – if you like it don’t pass the Roadhouse of pokhara city.
Dolce vita – nice Italian restaurant – not like Italy 🙂
News Momo restaurant – best momo place in Kathmandu, a little bit hidden in one of the alleys, this one is really local one and there is also cooking class.
You have to try cheese and spinach momo !
Or2K – Veg restaurant with middle eastern food and Israeli food – under that restaurant you will find also great falafel and shawarma place
Pumpernickel – my breakfast place, over 40 years of perfection, you have to order the muesli
Where to stay?
Shree Tibet family guest house – in the center of the Thamel 1200 rupee and you will get twin room with privet bathroom – really nice place
Wanderthirst – really cool dormes 350 rupee for bed
View this post on Instagram
Pokhara
Pokhara attractions –
1) Paragliding – if you likes heights you have to do paragliding in Pokhara 50$ for 3 hours total, 30 minutes of paragliding including video and pictures.
*Avoid eating before if you are sensitive
View this post on Instagram
2) Rafting – from Pokhara there is few different option to go to do rafting in few diffracts levels and rapids.
There is one day option to 5 days option, the common one is of one night for 75 $ including 5 meals (camping, 4-5 rapids level)
3) Peace Pagoda – if you want to get beautiful view over the city go to peace pagoda. You can reach the pagoda from the lake of Pokhara by boat and hiking or with taxi.
View this post on Instagram
4) Phewa Lake – nice place in the city to relax and to read a good book.
View this post on Instagram
5) Begnas lake – next to Pokhara there is big lake, the begnas lake – this is a nice place to relax for a few days and to eat some good fishes from the lakes.
Really nice place to stay there is the “hakuna matata” don’t miss the hallow the queen Deseret!
Good restaurants in Pokhara –
The juicerycafé – in the end of the shore of the lake you will find a really nice place for breakfast
The godfather pizzeria – good pizza place
Be happy Restaurant – local and good restaurant
Marwadi – good Indian restaurant
Where to stay?
MOUNTAIN COUNTRY LODGE – privet room in 500 rupee for two
Langtang TREK
Langtang trek is the second trail that I’m going to talk about in this post. After I get rest from Annapurna trek I went to reach more peaks.
The mountains called me.
In my opinion, Langtang trek is one of the best treks in Nepal, much nicer then Annapurna circuit – but this is only my opinion.. some will disagree with me.
Why did I choose to do this trek?
After a long trek of Annapurna I wanted “short trek” and Langtang is 5-7 days trek.
The route that I took –
Sybarobensì – Lama hotel – Langtang -Kyanjin Gumpa- Gumba- Sherpagaon – Sybarobensì
The start and the endpoint of this trek located in sybarobensì, you can continue in this trek to more trails and to get attached to Gosaikunda trek and also to Katmandu valley..
Where is Sybarobensì and how can I get there?
- Easier option –Jeep – 6 seats jeep costs 2400 rupee for person, may take 5-8 hours
- Local bus – 700-1000 rupee, my take 7-10 hours
The bus and the jeep to stop in the office of the reserve to let you by TIMS
Difficulty of Langtang trek –
Because this trek is back and forth trek, you basically climb in 3 days 3900 meter, its means that there is hard climbing and a lot of walking each day but this is considering to pretty “low trek” in the terms of the Himalayans.
Even that this is back and forth trek we chose to go back from lama hotel back to Sybarobensì in the higher trail through Sherpagaon and to get “fresh” landscape and not to go back from the exactly the same place.
In Sherpagaon we stayed in really nice guesthouse with nice family and perfect view for the last morning of the trek.
View this post on Instagram
Our guesthouse on the way –
- Sybarobensì – in the first night before the trek I stayed in Hotel Mala for 400 rupee (agreed to eat there). In the last day before we came back to Katmandu we slept at Buddha guesthouse same price.
- Lama Hotel – this is village but if to be honest its just 4 hostels so its very impotent to finish this day early and to get a room for the night otherwise you will sleep at the dining room. I stayed in Friendly guesthouse this guesthouse belong to really nice Tibetan family and its costed 100 rupee for night – actually most of the people that live in this area are Tibetan originally.
- Langtang village – I stayed in Chommo village belong the family from lama hotel and they send us to this place, it was nice and we ate there all our meals and didn’t pay for the bed.
- Kyanjin Gompa – I stayed in Hotel mountain view belong to really nice family we great view J and there is really close bakery there and coffee machine!
- Gumba – I stayed in Hotel view point
- Sherpagaon – I stayed in Tibet Guest House you have to stay there it’s a really nice village
How to continue to Gosaikunda trek ?
Go back to lama hotel and there is continue trail, don’t forget to take map to each trek, this is for you own safety!
View this post on Instagram
Katmandu valley –
Actually it was my last visit in Nepal, 6 days in the valley, it was a great experience for me and I met a lot of nice locals.
My trail cross the villages was like that –
Bhaktapur – Nagarkot – Dhulikhel -Banepa – Namo Buddha – Panauti – Dhunkharka
And I stayed in 4 different places –
Nagarkot,Banepa, Panauti,Dhunkharka
Bhaktapur – one of the old cites that aassembled Katmandu in the past, by 20 rupee bus and 1 hour of driving you will be in Bhaktapur, after you seek the city you can take the next bus to Nagarkot for another 50 rupee.
Nagarkot – in Nagarkot we stayed in some homestay that belongs to really nice women who own a big garden, we stayed in her house with more backpackers from the world and we paid 600 rupee for everything in there, the lady name is Permila and she is so nice!
Her Facebook page –
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000804583382
View this post on Instagram
After 2 nights in Permila place we went to our next spot, Dhulikhel, in Dhulikhel there is not much to see, but the way to there is very nice.
It is a long way from Nagarkot to Dhulikhel, when we arrived to Dhulikhel we took the bus to Banepa (in Banepa there is the bus to Namo Buddha) and there we choose cheap and close to the central station hostel, we stayed in black and white hostel, the bus to Namo Buddha costs 60 rupee.
At night we didn’t stayed in there because it is very expensive option – 3000 rupee per night to sleep inside the monastery.
View this post on Instagram
After that we continued to Panauti – the trail from Namo to Panauti was so 
great, with beautiful fields, it is a long way but very easy – don’t miss this way.
Panauti – Panauti is one of the oldest cities in Nepal and the old city is so nice.
View this post on Instagram
We stayed there in Hotel Panauti that costs 600 rupee per night – it was a great option.
After Panauti we went to a nice and remoted village that called Dhunkharka, we took the bus from Panauti for 70 rupee, we drop off next to the local school and took the trail to Bethanchowk a small village in this area.
This is a traditional village, very nice and unique with amazing views of the Himalayas.
I stayed there 2 nights and lived in some local house with “my family” I even got a Nepali name, Dulma 🙂
Contact information of this homestay –
Bethanchowkhomestay3@gmail.com
View this post on Instagram
Annapurna circuit or Everest base camp?
This is the most common question of the backpackers in Nepal, after long thinking, I decided to do the Annapurna circuit.
Annapurna circuit duration is 12-21 days trek it depends if you want to do also the way to Tlicho lake and if you want to go all the way down after the pass by foot.
Why did I choose Annapurna circuit?
- This is one-way trek – you don’t need to go on the same trail on the way back – in EBC you need to do it.
- Easier then EBC – not easy at all but easier then EBC take good equipment with you and good shoes.
- Shorter then EBC
- Gradual altitude climbing.
The route of the Annapurna –
Besisahar-Tal-Danague-Chame-Upper pisang–Manang-Tilicho base Camp -Churileader-Thorungphadi-Thorung High Camp
Where to start ?
Besisahar is the place that you start your trek, you can take van from Katmandu or Pokhara to there through the agencies.
In Besisahar you need to sign up to the trek and to buy the TIMS to the trek (20$ or 2200 rupees) Remember you need to get another permission from the agencies that costs also around 20$.
After you have finished with all the documents you have a few options –
1)Stay in Besisahar for the night
2)Start walking
3) To the jeep to Syange, this is the optimal village to start
I took the third option and I stay over in Syange, we took jeep that costed 1000 rupee (3 hours driving).
View this post on Instagram
First day – from Syange (1160M) to Tal (1700M)
Moderate climbing day, 540M climbing over 12 kilometers in the jungles.
This day took for us 8 hours with a few stops. The last climbing to Tal was pretty hard but when you will arrive to there you will enjoy from the great masala tea and a nice view.
View this post on Instagram
Second day – Tal (1700) to Danague (2300)
Moderate climbing day, 600M climbing over 12 kilometers, in this day the landscapes start to change.
Third day – Danague (2300) to Chame (2670)
There is climbing of 400 meters in that day over 11 Km, this is a pretty short day with a few hard climbs, after that day I really recommend to go to the hot springs in chame.
View this post on Instagram
The fourth day – Chame (2670) to upper pisang (3300)
From chame there is two options to continue – one is the lower way and the other is the upper way, I want through the Upper way to Upper Pisang, I chosed that way from two reasons –
- This is more beautiful way
- It is a better to adjust our body to the climbing already in here, if you are feeling ok its better option.
View this post on Instagram
The fifth day – from upper pisang (3300) to Manang (3550)
This day is really hard, with hard walking and the altitude start to affect your body.
View this post on Instagram
The sixth day – Rest day in Manang
This day is super impotent to your body don’t underestimate this stop over.
In that day go and discover Manang, there is few options:
- Gangapurna lake – a beautiful lake 20 minutes from the village
- Ice lake – hard climbing, to the strongest between us : ) – this is 1000 meter climbing and then all the way down, there is there a nice impressive lake
The seventh day – Manang (3550) to Tlicho base Camp (4200)
Usually, people continue from Manang to Tlicho basecamp, 1000 meters climbing day with a lot of walking, I decided to not go all the way up in that day, because some of my group didn’t felt good, so we did the way from Manang to Khangsar and we the altitude of 3700M.
View this post on Instagram
The Eight-day – Khangsar (3700) to Shreekharka (3900)
If to be honest in that day we started our way to Tlicho but I felt very bad, with a chest stress and my group decided that we will climb tomorrow all the way to the lake , and we stopped at Shreekharka, Shreekharka usually used for people that go to the Tlicho they are leaving the unnecessary luggage in there,
The ninth day – Shreekharka (3900) to Tlicho Lake (5100)
Very long and hard day, after you left the unnecessary luggage in Shreekharka you will start your day before sunrise when its crazy cold and there is a little bit of sun.
After we reached the basecamp we climbed to the lake.
After this day we decided to go back down and I felt so satisfied that we didn’t push our body more.
The tenth day – Tlicho base camp (4200) to Manang (3550)
5 hours down
The eleven-day – Jeep day from Manang to Besisahar
This jeep costed to us 5000 rupees per person,8 hours of very hard way.
If for you everything is ok and you are feeling good you need to continue like that (with or without Tlicho lake) Churileader-Thorungphadi-Thorung High Camp.
The height altitude in this trek is 5440 Meters and after the pass you need to go down meters all the way to Jomsom and there there is an option to take jeeps.
Where we stayed ?
Syange
Anjuguest – guesthouse, the nice place just above the river with attaced bathroom
Tal
Peaceland,-I really liked that place, simple rooms, but so nice.
Danagu
New fullmoon – defiantly my favorite one, we also had hot water.
Chame
Hotel nurbuling – small but nice
Upper pisang
Trick horse hotel- wood rooms, with nice view to the summits.
Manang
Hotel Manang – the first of the village, was really perfect (considering to the situation)
Shreekharka
there is only two in the village – just chose one
Tlicho base camp
there is only 3 in there – try to get room in advance
View this post on Instagram
What to pack?
- Most important, do not come with a fresh new shoe, come with shoe that you used to, good hiking one.
- Good bag – my recommendation to you is don’t come with big bag, remember that you need to carry your bag unless you are taking porter. I took small bag of (32L)
- walking sticks – individual for your own comfort
- Thermal clothing – cold very cold when we are climbing
- Hiking pants/leggings
- Micro fleece
- Rain cover
- Sunglasses – super important against the sun especially when you are hike in the snow
- Pills against altitude sickness, Plaster,
- Liner cover
- Sleeping bag
- Sunscreen
- Good gloves
- neck warmer
- stocking cap
- towel
- Bathing utensils
Local sim
Namaste – good for the mountains
Ncell – also good but better in EBC then AC
The price is around 3500-4000 rupee for one month with 5 GB, there is also a cheaper package in 1000 rupee.
When to go? Good seasons?
There is 2 short seasons, October to December and March to May
Costs:
In the backpackers budget its around 500$ for month.
Important to know:
- In the mountains you need 2500 Rupee per day, usually its will cost 1500, but take always extra to the mountains
- ATM – Nabil Bank, this bank with low commission of 500 Rupee and the max of the withdrew is 35,000 Rupee
- I highly recommend to use the app Maps me – I also marked some destination in that post
Enjoy!