Whilst I was looking through my old photographs to choose which ones to feature on this webpage, it brought back such precious memories and a desire to make another trip. I hope this page will also inspire my readers. Bear in mind that many of the photographs I am featuring are pre-digital and therefore not very good quality.
Nepal has always been one of my very favourite countries and with good reason. During my first couple of trips, it was very laid back and you felt like you had been transported back in time. I remember on my first trip in 1989 sitting in cafes and drinking in bars listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival and feeling as if I was one of the “hippy” travellers from the late ’60s / early ’70s. This music I always associate with Kathmandu. It was such a special time for me. Even on the latest trip, in 2009, some bars played their music occasionally, though mostly they had moved forward a couple of decades.
1989
On my first trip, I arrived in late December 1989 and saw in the New Year in Kathmandu. I had just finished an overland trip with Exodus from London to Kathmandu. These trips were common in the 1980s and 1990s. Exodus used converted Bedford trucks with bench seating in the rear for the passengers. They took around 20 passengers plus 2 drivers and camping equipment.
At the time I joined the trip it was not long after the Iran-Iraq war and there was still a lot of unrest in Iran, so we couldn’t travel through the traditional overland route. Instead of travelling through Iran, our route diverted into Syria, Jordan and Egypt, from where we then flew to Karachi in Pakistan to pick up the traditional trail again heading north.
Christmas Day was spent in Kashmir on houseboats on Lake Dal. We were lucky to have had that experience, as Kashmir was closed to tourists just days after. I recall hearing about a bomb going off in Srinigar on Christmas morning, I think it was in a school. I also recall there being a curfew when we were there and we had to be back on the houseboats by 5 pm (or thereabouts).
Anyway, back to Nepal. We stopped off in Chitwan national park en route to Kathmandu. Chitwan has rhino, Bengal tigers, elephants, crocodiles and many more species. During a walking safari, our group was lucky enough to see a tiger – very close up! Our guide shushed us and pointed, and there it was just watching from the elephant grass perhaps 40 foot away. It continued to watch for a short while before disappearing away into the elephant grass. Words cannot describe how exciting that was, especially with how vulnerable we were being on a foot safari! Unfortunately I have no photographs…
Once we arrived in Kathmandu, I had arranged to meet up to continue my travels with a guy I met through an advert I had placed in an adventure magazine (I was very naive at the time, but it worked out ok). I didn’t want to continue travelling alone, so I had placed an advert to find a travel companion. His name was Iain and we met up only once to make sure we would be reasonably compatible (it was for companionship only, nothing more).
So as I had mentioned earlier, back in those days Kathmandu was a laid back place. We stayed in the backpacker area of Thamel in accommodation that cost under £1 a night and chilled out in coffee shops, bakeries and bars. Back then people mostly travelled around on bicycles, there were also some rickshaws, but very few cars, so it was very safe. The air was pretty clean and you could see the Himalayas in the distance. As I had travelled with my Exodus companions for many weeks, Iain and I continued to meet up with them until gradually we all continued on our separate journeys.
Whilst based in Kathmandu, we hired bicycles to get around town and to visit nearby places such as the monkey temple, Bhaktapur and Nagarkot. (Unfortunately, if you were to do that now, you would be taking your life in your hands, so much has changed).
Four of us booked a white water rafting trip, which made for an exhilarating day out.
Once all my other travel companions had moved on, Iain and I went over to Pokhara to do a short trip in the Annapurna region of the Himalayas. We did a few days trekking to Poon Hill and back. Poon Hill is popular for short treks as the views are excellent. However, it’s still pretty hard going, as there are a LOT of steps! (Anywhere you trek in the Annapurna region has lots of steps, once I counted over a thousand in one go!)
Before crossing the border into India, we visited Chitwan as Iain had not yet been there. We travelled by oxcart from Sunali. Although we didn’t see any tigers this time, on the foot safari we encountered a rhino. It was close enough to concern our guide, who had us climb a tree until it left!
1997
From August of 1997 until December of 1998 my husband Paul and I went travelling after having saved hard for the previous few years. We returned just in time for Christmas.
We got to Nepal in October and stayed until the middle of December, so we had plenty of time to do lots of trekking. We ended up doing both Everest and Annapurna.
We arrived in Nepal from India and it was almost time for the Diwali Festival to commence. We had to get a bus up to Kathmandu that night, or we’d be stuck at the border (not a nice prospect) for the next 3 days. During this festival everything shuts down and stops running, so we were desperate to get up to Kathmandu ASAP and luckily we got what appeared to be the last 2 seats on the overnight bus.
I found quite a lot had changed since my first trip in 1989. There were more cars on the roads now, so the Himalayas weren’t easy to see from the city due to an increase in pollution. In the backpacker area of Thamel, gone were several of the places I knew and loved, although fortunately, some old favourites (like Rum Doodle and Tom & Jerry’s) remained. New hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants had sprung up, with many of them showing pirate copies of all the latest movies. The Pumpernickel bakery was great for breakfast and The New Orleans Cafe was a favourite for dinner. My main disappointment was that Kathmandu had finally emerged from its ‘hippie heyday’. Most of the 70s music that, on my first trip, could be heard emanating from the bars, had been replaced by 80s and 90s music. It just wasn’t the same. No more sitting in the bars listening to CCR, although I did hear them once in a while.
However, it was cheap and the choice of food and accommodation was fantastic, so I soon got to like the “new” Kathmandu (though perhaps not quite as much as the “old” one). Thamel was cleaner and more modern, and a few internet cafes had opened (the internet & use of email was just becoming a “thing” back then).
We tended to spend most evenings in the restaurants and bars of Thamel, however, we ventured into town a couple of times to the casinos at the Annapurna Hotel and the Yak & Yeti. We’d been tipped off about the free food and drinks you get whilst playing the tables, so even if we lost we’d have got our money’s worth in freebies. We always set ourselves a limit of £10 or £20 and left once it had run out.
Nepal has lots of options for white water rafting, with the Bhote Cosi, with a descent ratio of 1:4 being at the top of the scale. We opted instead for an overnight rafting trip on the Trisuli River, graded only a 2-3, but within the limit of our travel insurance. We camped out for the night in makeshift tents, held up by the paddles from the raft. (Note the helmets – things were getting a little more safety conscious by then).
TREKKING – EVEREST
We decided that we wouldn’t hire a guide or porter for our trek, but we did fancy the security of having some extra company. We put up a notice on the board of the Kathmandu Guest House, and that is how we met Darren who joined us for three weeks. (The Everest trek is recommended to take around two weeks, but we were all happy to allow an extra week, as we were unsure of our fitness level, especially with me having been ill for several weeks whilst in India).
Organising our trekking permits was time-consuming, but not difficult. Getting seats on a flight to Lukla proved to be more of a challenge, so with the help of travel agent, we instead ended up booking on the Gorka Airlines 26 seater Russian helicopter to Lukla. We decided to travel light with just our small daysacks stuffed full of warm clothes, summer sleeping bags (not the best idea we have ever had – luckily whilst trekking we were able to borrow blankets from the lodges we stayed at), water bottles, goodies such as Mars Bars and luxuries such as toilet paper. My daysack weighed only 6 kilos, and Paul’s was 8 kilos.
The helicopter flight was scary – everyone sat in a circle, backs to the window. The luggage was in the middle and at the rear. It certainly had the feel of an old Army helicopter, and worryingly the door at the back let sunlight in through its hinges. Fortunately, we arrived in Lukla in one piece ready to start our trek.
We found that two weeks would easily have been enough time, including the acclimatisation days, so we added on a side trip to Gokyo Lakes during our three-week trek. We also decided to go up to the top of Kala Pattar, which is just over 5,600 metres, rather than trek to the base camp. The benefit of doing that is that the views are much better. You can see the peak of Everest, which you cannot see from the base camp. You hike from Gorak Shep, which is already over 5,100 metres, too high an altitude for most people to spend more than one night, so it’s better to choose which you prefer to do.
The trek was relatively easy-going, with the exception of the hike up Kala Pattar, which was incredibly hard due to the thin air and lack of oxygen. There were also some scary bridges to cross and often yaks to avoid!
Lodges we generall basic, but comfortable, as was the food. Often there was no electricity, just kerosene lamps and a stove fuelled with either wood or yak dung. Toilets were normally outside with a pit underneath and a hole in the floor and straw to throw down after using it. Some lodges offer buckets for washing and some have makeshift showers. You could get the water heated for a charge (usually more than the cost of the accommodation, but that was cheap anyway).
All three of us did get a little ill during the trek. Paul had symptoms of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), but luckily some people we had met who were on their way down had given us some Diamox in case we needed it. I had “the runs”, while Darren went the other way and was badly constipated (to the point that he went to the nearest First Aid post and got some suppositories!)
We took a flight back from Lukla to Kathmandu and it was nearly as scary as the helicopter flight. It was just a small plane, I can’t recall how many seats it had. The runway was about 200 metres long, and then it just dropped off the end of a cliff!
TREKKING – ANNAPURNA
We were barely back in Kathmandu when we decided to do a second trek to Annapurna Base Camp. To trek Annapurna, you have to head to Pokhara. The road from Kathmandu to Pokhara is one of the scariest roads I can remember being on. At one point there is a sheer drop down one side and there have been several accidents on that stretch over the years. The latter part of the road (at the time) was little more than a pot-holed dirt track. It’s about a 200-kilometre trip, but takes around 8 hours – need I say more?
The Annapurna trek is greener than Everest. It’s not as remote and has quite a different feel to it. Even the toilets aren’t as basic. The mountains are “prettier”, there are not as many jagged peaks. It’s beautiful but not as stark and dramatic as Everest. You trek to MBC first (Machhapuchhre base camp) and then on to ABC (Annapurna base camp).
However, winter is not a good time to do this trek. All the time we were being warned of avalanches that had just come down (a small one even came down next to one of the lodges we were staying at). To be honest we were reckless to continue. We crossed over several fresh avalanches, the valley to Deurali and onwards to Machhapuchhre Base Camp was treacherous. There was lots of snow everywhere.
On our way back down, we heard a big rumble behind us, and when we looked back we saw a “cloud” of snow as another avalanche came down the valley less than a mile behind us.
So take our advice on this and DO NOT choose to trek in winter! Take advice on avalanche conditions before setting off. We count ourselves as very lucky. We were relatively young and reckless at the time, and at a young age, you can feel quite invincible.
If you have enjoyed reading about these two treks, you might be interested in reading my “diary” version within my kindle book “Making Memories” for just 99 pence on Amazon (also available in paperback).
We spent a relaxing 10 days in the lakeside town of Pokhara after our trek. The weather was mostly warm and sunny and we needed the time to relax.
Once back in Kathmandu, we saw a poster asking for backpackers to visit an English lad, David, who was in prison here. We decided to do this and made the arrangements. We brought him some books, cigarettes and chocolate. When we signed in the visitors’ book, we noticed that David had had far more visitors (from all over the world) than anyone else in the prison! The jail wasn’t as bad as we had expected. It seemed reasonably clean and the guards were pleasant enough. We didn’t find out what he was in for and felt it impolite to ask.
2009
Over the years we had spoken fondly of Nepal and always had the urge to go back. Eventually, in 2009, we managed to book 4 weeks annual leave, which would give us time to revisit and trek the Annapurna Circuit, crossing the Thorong la Pass at 5,500 metres.
We were very lucky that when we changed flights at Doha, Qatar Airways gave us a free upgrade to business class – what a start to the holiday!
On arrival in Kathmandu, I was in shock at how polluted the city had become. It was no longer the laid back place I fondly remembered, but now a heaving, polluted hell-hole! Cars, trucks and lorries everywhere, nose to tail, and no chance of being able to see the Himalayas through the smog. I almost wished we hadn’t come. It ruined some precious memories for me.
Anyway, we took a taxi to our hotel in Thamel and were glad to find the hotel and grounds to be a wee oasis of tranquillity among the chaos. We had pre-booked before travelling, with things like making hotel bookings being so much easier since the Internet had taken off.
Some of our old haunts were still open and we revisited them during our short time in Kathmandu, while we organised our trekking permits. Given that we weren’t on a restricted budget for this trip, we arranged a taxi to take us from Kathmandu to Besisahar to start the trek, rather than use public transport.
TREKKING – ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT (MOST OF) & SANCTUARY
A new road had been built on the descent side (from Muktinath) not long before our trip, and there were lots of reports that it had ruined this part of the trek. In the end, after crossing the Thorong La Pass and reaching Muktinath, we decided to add on a trek into the Annapurna Sanctuary (otherwise known as Annapurna Base Camp trek).
If I recall correctly we took the road from Muktinath to Tatopani. So our Annapurna Circuit trek wasn’t a true circuit but went from Besisahar to Muktinath via the Thorong La Pass (at 5,400 metres this required acclimatisation, which we did by spending an extra night in Manang en route), then by the treacherous road to Tatopani and on foot again into Annapurna Sanctuary/Base Camp.
Annapurna Circuit photos:-
Annapurna Sanctuary photos:-
This time our trip was in September, which is the tail end of the rainy season and the only time we have ever encountered leeches (not many though).
Once again we chose not to hire a guide or porter (except for the trek up to the pass, where we hired a porter on the way up). We also took better sleeping bags this time and a little more clothing, so our packs were slightly bigger and heavier, perhaps 8-10 kilos this time. It’s always been easy to find your way when trekking in Nepal. Even a map is barely required. Many of the people in the villages speak English, or at least enough for asking directions, and you meet quite a lot of other trekkers along the way. It’s hard to get lost.
September is holiday time for the Israelis and we met a friendly group along the way, who we kept bumping into at the lodges. We didn’t meet many people of other nationalities.
At the lower altitudes, the heat was sweltering, and we got sunburned as our sun cream just ran off of us. Higher up the air was cooler and the trekking much more comfortable. There was little snow and avalanches were not a risk.
In total, our trek lasted the best part of three weeks, with a couple of nights in Kathmandu on arrival and another night before our departure, plus a few nights to chill out in Pokhara, during which Paul had a rather interesting game of golf at the Himalaya Golf Course.
We were 12 years older than we had been when we trekked Everest and Annapurna back in 1997, but probably just as fit. Neither of us suffered from altitude sickness this time.
I hope you have enjoyed this page and found it informative. I have certainly enjoyed “reliving” my Nepal trips. If you have enjoyed this read, please like and share using the buttons below.
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