Tips for Nepal

Not many people would have the skill, inclination or money to climb to the peak of Mt Everest, but it turns out that it's not really all that difficult (or expensive) to at least get to its Base Camp. Even if you decide to flag that and just aim for the top of Kala Pattar, you get to enjoy the next best thing - getting a magnificent view of the highest mountains in the world, up close.

Advice columns for the Everest Base Camp trek have been posted a hundred times over already, but I figure there's no harm in me adding my version to the mix! So here it is.

Preparation

We were really surprised to find that the three of us managed to go faster than most visitors on the trek, even though we didn't consider ourselves to be all that athletic. We had done some moderate training leading up to the trip, going to the gym a couple of times a week and doing some longer walks in the weekend, but hardly iron-man stuff!

Having a rest

Turns out being superfit - while it will make the walk more enjoyable - is not really a prerequisite for the trek. Sometimes you'll walk for as short as only 2 hours per day, as you can only ascend slowly to ensure your body acclimatises. It's about 62km from Lukla (where you fly in) and Everest Base Camp, and you do that over 8 or 9 days, so not very long distances per day at all.

It's pretty much a given that everyone hires a porter (support the local economy!), so the trip can actually be quite doable for most. Of course, it's still going to be a challenge and you will feel exhausted (and accomplished) at the end.

We saw more than a few people in their 60s doing it, as well as families with very young children. The Dutch couple we met had never done any trekking, ever, and the guy still made it to the top of Kala Pattar. Mind you, we also passed a Singaporean group who had two people helicoptered out due to altitude sickness, so you still have to be careful.

Accommodation places are regularly scattered throughout the walk, so you can easily take it more slowly if you need to. Point is, while it's no cakewalk and it helps to have some prior walking experience and be fairly fit, you don't need to follow some rigorous marathon-esque training schedule either.

What to take

Clothing - a really good down jacket, at least 600 loft (or maybe a 700 loft North Face Nuptse jacket if you can afford one) is a must-have. When you get to the colder areas you'll pretty much be wearing this the entire time you're not walking uphill or huddled by a fireplace, so it's a worthwhile investment. Other than that I recommend lots of merino thermal layers. You're not going to be doing any laundry for over 10 days so things that won't smell are handy. Add your usual thick socks, underwear, and outerwear and you should be fine. I had two pairs of walking pants, one to wear and one spare, and it was more or less enough. You should probably also take some waterproof gear, though we never ended up using ours as the weather was clear the entire time - still, wouldn't have left those at home though! Another essential is a warm hat, but instead of bringing your own, pick one up in Kathmandu or Lukla. One of Nepal's signature souvenirs seems to be novelty animal hats, and we couldn't resist each getting one each, however if you're not game there are plenty of plainer ones too.

Showing off our animal hats

Shoes - if you haven't already invested in good tramping boots with plenty of ankle support, now is the time to buy them. Well, actually, at least a couple of months before the walk, so you can wear them in properly. Don't be tempted by GrabOne deals or el-cheapo Warehouse pairs, because once your feet are full of blisters you'll wish you paid ten times what you did to swap them. I tried on probably a dozen pairs before I found the perfect one. Basically, your heel should not come away from the sole when you lift your foot in a step, and your toe should not be able to touch the inside of the tip when you're going downhill. The outdoor store person should be able to help here. Another great thing to have are some compact soft shoes you can slip into once you get to your hostel - and I wouldn't go with those down booties unless you don't mind having to wriggle back into your boots just to go to the loo. I found these wonderful zip-up Timberland shoes in Hong Kong - unfortunately by then I'd done the trek, but I still bought them for future use. Highly recommended!

Sleeping - a good down sleeping bag is handy, but you don't need to go overboard and start splashing out on the sort that Antarctic expeditions use either, because most likely you will be going to sleep with all your thermals on anyway, plus all guest houses have warm blankets you can throw on top.

Water - get yourself a 1 litre drinking bottle, and Aquatabs, and plenty of them. You're supposed to be drinking at least three (I think?) litres a day in those altitudes, and it's totally uneconomical (not to mention bad for the environment) to be buying bottled water. Aquatabs were completely tasteless and easy to use, and we never got sick, so obviously they worked fine. If one carton has 50 tablets (i.e. treats 50 litres), you might as well take a carton per person, there's no harm in having spares. You can also buy hot, boiled water, which can be nice for taking into your sleeping bag at night as a literal hot water bottle, but this gets very expensive the higher up you go.

Toiletries - hot showers are advertised at most guest houses along the way, but whether you want to pay extra for this and risk being freezing cold (and naked) if the water isn't quite the right temperature is another matter. We certainly heard plenty of other guests squeal in surprise when their shower turned out to be not so hot after all, but probably depends where you go. That said, I managed to have one successful hot shower on my way back, so it can be okay. It's possibly almost easier to make do without, though for anyone with longer hair, especially girls, it will get pretty frustrating. Unfortunately the 'dry shampoo' powder I bought turned out to be absolutely useless, so I wouldn't recommend it, though this could have been user error... Similarly, the 'leaves' of dissolvable shampoo and body wash didn't work for me at all... On the other hand, the Sea to Summit hand sanitiser was great, and they should seriously market it as an instant body wash. Unlike those supermarket hand sanitisers, this one has a very robust twist cap, so you don't have to worry about it popping open and going everywhere in your bag, and the fragrance is really nice too. I found it was especially handy to use on feet at the end of the day, both in terms of keeping them clean and not-smelly. Moisturiser and lip balm are also essential.

First aid & medicine - the big question is probably whether to take altitude medication, i.e. diamox, and to be honest I'm not too sure if it's worthwhile as the side effects of taking it seem to be almost as affecting as the early symptoms of altitude sickness itself. Otherwise take your usual compact first aid kit, including plenty of band aids in case of blisters. Sunscreen is also a must because it's easy to get sunburnt at these altitudes.

Electrical stuff - first off, a head torch is an absolute must-have, as you won't want to be fumbling with a hand-held one when you have to make a trip to the pitch-black toilet. Here, an el-cheapo one will do as long as it's got fresh batteries, you can get them from the supermarket - so don't go spending $200+ at the outdoor shop... a light is a light. As for other electrical things, you can pay to get things charged but this gets increasingly expensive the higher you go, so if you can, try to ensure you have enough spare batteries for your camera the whole way, and turn it on sparingly. We read somewhere that the cold drains battery power so we slept with electronic stuff with us in our sleeping bags, and it all lasted pretty well - no idea what would have happened otherwise though!

Miscellaneous - because it doesn't fit anywhere else, I'll throw it in here - sunglasses. Take some. Also this will vary from person to person, but you'll definitely want something to occupy your time with, because there's a lot of waiting around on this trek, i.e. when you've arrived at your destination for the night and it's not even lunchtime yet. Crosswords, sudoku, brain teasers, playing cards, mini versions of board games, quizzes, conversation starter cards, books, a journal to write in, anything - just make sure you take something!

Getting organised

For the absolute easiest (but probably most expensive) option, you could book a fully organised trip from your home country, such as via Intrepid travel. While I'm sure these are great, it will almost certainly end up cheaper if you start the booking process at a local level, once you're in Nepal.

Either way, it's probably better to sort out a place to stay before you land in Kathmandu, especially if you're getting in late. We stayed at Annapurna Guest House, and it was pretty good - very reasonably priced, a range of rooms and friendly staff. The location is perfect as it's a short walk from the heart of the tourist district, Thamel, but far away enough to be relatively quiet.

Once you're in Kathmandu there are a million travel agents who can sell you trekking and activity packages to anywhere in Nepal. If you're really that keen to watch every dollar, then you can do the EBC trek even more cheaply by organising your own flights, permits, and hiring a guide and porter directly at Lukla. We took the lazier route and went with a local agency package, pretty much this exact one.

Prices will vary but our package ended up at about US$50 (or NZ$65) per person per day, which included the guide, porter, all meals, accommodation, domestic return flights and national park permits. I'm sure we could've spent more time asking around or bargaining it down to get a better deal, but to be honest it didn't seem like much, especially considering we usually spend much more than that on just accommodation alone on our trips elsewhere.

Food

Food poisoning is the last you want when you're doing a 12 day walk, so take your guide's advice (well, our guide told us this anyway) and stick to vegetarian food for the duration of the walk, as meat is often days old by the time it's served...

A typical menu

Even with just vegetarian options I was surprised at the range of dishes on offer at most hostels, as I'd gotten the impression it was just going to be dal bhat (lentil curry) the whole way up. Unfortunately they tend to have the exact same menu items at every hostel, so it still does get a bit tedious.

Fried noodles, fried rice & veg curry

We found that fried rice and noodle dishes tended to be the best in terms of flavour everywhere we went, so they're a reliable pick. 'Italian' dishes like pizza and pasta are a bit more hit and miss, one time we had a 'garlic cheese pasta' which was actually quite tasty, and a couple of the pizzas we tried were also not too bad. Unfortunately, there were an equal number of misses which were nigh on inedible. Order at your own risk! Curries and dal bhats were also not too bad, though the latter (a trek staple) tended to be a bit bland. Momos or dumplings can also be alright, though these also get old quite quickly. 'Rara noodle soup' is good for lunch, and is pretty much 2 minute noodles. They were fine the first time around, but after threatening to come back up my esophagus during the whole walk up to Kala Pattar, I gave them a miss for the rest of the trip. Don't let that put you off though!

'Rara' noodle soup

Breakfast-wise you usually have a choice of toast, omelets, pancakes, porridge, 'Tibetan bread' and maybe even chapati. Toast is fairly reliable in that you'll get a piece of bread, though no guarantees that this will actually be crispy and toasted. Omelets are alright too, though tend to be pretty dry and thin. French toast, when you can get it, is actually pretty good. I'm not a porridge fan normally so didn't try this at all, but one thing I would not recommend is cornflakes with hot milk - seems like a good idea on a freezing cold morning, but after about two spoonfuls the milk cools right down and you have a cold mess in a bowl which looks like something your stomach has already had a fight with.

Condiments galore - the green chilli sauce is great for spicing up a bland dish

Another thing our guide warned us to stay away from was alcohol, as it doesn't help with altitude sickness, so we duly abstained until we'd finished the entire trek. So when our Dutch friend decided to indulge in a can of beer at Tengboche, everyone gaped like he'd committed a crime. Of course, hot drinks are a must and there's a few to pick from, including a range of teas, coffee, hot chocolate, and hot orange 'Tang', which is like hot, flat Fanta. Our drink of choice was usually masala tea or chai, which was similar to what we'd had in India - nice and warming.

Plenty of snacks on offer

In addition to what's on the menu, you can usually buy additional snacks and drinks, from Coke to Snickers bars and Pringles - all exorbitantly priced and exponentially more expensive the higher up you go, but obviously someone has figured out that tourists may well see fit to fork over some cash to reward themselves with a treat after conquering Everest Base Camp.

Another spectacular view

Apart from waking up every morning to spectacular mountain views, another great reason to do this trek are its health benefits - it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll lose weight during this trip. In fact, I lost probably about 4kg in just under two weeks, something which would not have been possible back home, with all its day to day food temptations and lack of exercise! Definitely a selling point the Nepal tourism people should capitalise on further...

Accommodation

A typical living/dining room

All the guest (or 'tea') houses are more or less set out the same way - there's a central dining/living area, with seating all the way along the walls. If you've ever organised a conference and gotten 'U-shaped' seating, that's pretty much it. There'll be a heater/stove or two in the middle, and everyone will inevitably huddle around these as soon as the sun goes down and it becomes freezing cold. Sometimes they also like to boil water on the stoves - in this instance they may have been being a bit ambitious...

Rooms usually consist of two single beds, and if you're lucky, there'll be a light (if you're even luckier, this will actually work). Toilets are almost always shared, and are 'Asian-style' - i.e. squat toilets, so I would recommend strengthening your thigh muscles at the gym before you go! Toilet paper goes in a separate box/bin, while liquid and, er, other organic matter can be 'flushed' with a scoop of water from a large drum, though this can often ice over so you can't rely on it that much... Overall, fairly basic stuff and you'll definitely want to use a dollop of hand sanitiser afterwards, but hey, at least you don't have to dig your own hole to go! 

Some stylish decor

I'll leave it at that for now, here's hoping I'll stay motivated enough to do a part two before another five months pass! And in case you missed it, our photos are saved here: the full set, the best of album, and the panoramas.

Getting to Everest Base Camp

Given it's now May and I'm not even halfway through the account of our trek, I think it's safe to say I might as well give up on the day-by-day commentary, and at least make some sort of belated attempt at a wrap-up of our trip so we can all move on!

One of the most rewarding days of our trek, which we hadn't even anticipated, was our side trip up Nangkartshang from our 'rest day' in Dingboche. The day - and view - was stunning, and these photos don't even really do it justice. I would highly, highly recommend it for anyone doing this trek, no matter how tired and lazy you're feeling by the time you get this far.

The view from Nangkartshang -  Taboche & Cholatse  

The amazing view - see the original sized panorama here

The next highlight (and climax of the trip) was probably getting to the top of Kala Pattar, approximately 5,600m above sea level.

Signs were surprisingly rare on the trek, so we had to take advantage where we could

Given the clear weather we decided to tackle this on the same day as our arrival into Gorek Shep, after dropping off our luggage and having a quick bowl of garlic 'rara' noodle soup at our guest house. I soon began to have deep food regret though, as the nausea of the altitude sickness had the most unsavoury effect on the contents of my stomach throughout the climb.

A happy yak in front of Pumori, on the path up Kala Pattar

We had a fantastic view of Pumori (7,161m) for much of the walk, but the track seemed endless. Each step was a struggle, I got out of breath probably about every 5m, and I wasn't even carrying our daypack. After a few hours, we finally got to the top and were rewarded with the view of a lifetime - Everest, Nuptse and the rest of the Himalayas in all their glory.

We made it!

Everest

Nuptse, looking more dramatic than Everest (as usual)

After we grabbed enough photos it was a relief to start heading back down, as the altitude was definitely becoming impossible to handle. It was a long trudge back to Gorek Shep, and when we got back inside the guest house we more or less lay comatose on the bench for a good half hour to an hour before having dinner and turning in for the night.

That's one way to make ice-water...

At 5,164m, Gorek Shep was the highest place we'd stayed on the trip (in fact, ever) and it was also the coldest. So cold that the water in our drink bottles froze overnight!

The next day, we decided to plough on and go to Everest Base Camp itself - our guide had already warned us that there was pretty much no view to be had, but we had time, and we'd come all this way already, so, why not?

This shot is deceptively sunny because we took it on our way back

We set out before the sun was fully up, and I can't remember what the exact temperature was but I have certainly never walked in such freezing conditions before. You know how walking/doing exercise usually warms you up? Well, turns out it doesn't always work like that - it was pretty much cold the entire way.

The fact that the track just slowly meandered around the rocks was very discouraging too. Unlike going uphill, you couldn't look down and see how much progress you'd made, and just when you think you're getting close, you turn a corner and there's just as far again to go. Overall, a very discouraging walk, and it wasn't long before we were wondering why we bothered at all, having already got our awesome view from the top of Kala Pattar the day before.

Perhaps our impatience at getting it all over and done with helped spur us on, because when we arrived at the 'camp' we were the first group that day, and the sun had yet to fill the valley. In fact, we ended up completing the round trip in just under 4 hours, as opposed to the usual time of 6 hours.

The Khumbu icefall as seen from EBC

Being the wrong time of the year there were no climbers camping in preparation for an ascent on Everest, but looking around at the rock and ice, I have to say I can't think of a more unpleasant place to spend three months (or however long it takes to acclimatise for the summit climb). The mountains still look impressive but it's quite claustrophobic, as opposed to the sorts of panoramic vistas you get from being on an actual peak.

The only reason we did the walk - to get this photo

Of course we had to grab a photo in front of the only evidence that we were actually at EBC - some rock where a thoughtful visitor had scrawled 'Everest Base Camp' with a black marker pen. I would have thought the Nepali government would invest in some sort of plaque, monument or official sign, but nope, just a rock with Vivid on it.

And that was pretty much it! We went back exactly the way we came, with the added bonus of going downhill most of the way and not having to worry about acclimatisation. It took 8 days to walk from Lukla to Gorek Shep, but only 3 days to return. After we got back to Kathmandu we ended up doing a side trip to Pokhara for a couple of days, which was pretty nice - apart from the 8 hour bus trip each way.

Pumori at sunset

Overall, it was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone at some time in their lives. You simply can't beat seeing that sort of scenery with your own eyes, and as spectacular as the photos are, they truly don't do it justice.

Of course we took an insane number of photos, and even edited down there are 641 in our main Flickr album. For a cut-down version, we've selected the 45 best shots in one set. Finally, there's also a couple of panoramas James stitched together which have been added to our panorama set, starting with this shot taken in Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

Our favourite panorama from the trip (and maybe of all time) has got to be this one:

Taken from Kala Pattar - you can view the original 9700 x 3742 image here

And I'll save all my advice for another post - because I sure have plenty of it!

Namche Bazaar to Tengboche

Had a bit of a shock when we paid our bill at Moonlight Lodge, turns out there's a marked inflation in hot water prices between Phakding and Namche. Better to have learnt that lesson earlier rather than later though - from now we decided to break into our Aquatabs water purification tablets, which continued to serve us very well for the rest of the trip.

'Garlic toast'

After a hearty breakfast, including James' garlic toast (yes, it really was just a few cloves of raw garlic smeared on marginally buttered toast), we headed off to our next destination, Tengboche. The morning saw probably the only cloud we would encounter for the rest of the trek, causing us to fumble for our cameras every time a teasing view of Everest was briefly unveiled at every turn.

Ama Dablam peeking out of the morning mist

Descending toward our lunch spot was a mixed blessing, as we knew we'd have to make up for all the lost altitude (and then some) later in the day. Seeing the zig-zagging path on the other side of the valley also brought a certain level of dread, but at least it would be no worse than the climb up to Namche the day before yesterday, we thought.

Crossing more bridges

At lunch we had our first food fail, a 'macaroni with tomato sauce' served by the slowest kitchen ever. This consisted of some sad looking pasta served with an alien, pinkish sauce which bore no resemblance to real tomatoes whatsoever. Even after a liberal dose of ketchup and chilli sauce, it was still barely palatable and we left Mark to force down most of it while we stuck to the other dishes.

Waiting for lunch

At least there was some amusement in the form two cute grey kittens, one of which was particularly fond of jumping on our guide (who did not share the kitten's affections).

What a cutie!

After lunch came the dreaded climb, and while it was fairly slow going we made good pace and even managed to pass another group, reaching Tengboche in 1.5 hours - and feeling a lot better than we did when we arrived at Namche!

Our first view of Everest from Namche

We checked out the famous monastery, though unfortunately as it was heading into winter there was only one monk on duty and no chanting to watch. The richly decorated prayer room was still very worthwhile to see though.

Heading into Tengboche monastary

The richly decorated insides

As we huddled around the fire waiting for dinnertime, we finally decided to be a bit more sociable and start chatting to our fellow travellers. There was a Dutch couple who had been pretty much staying at exactly the same places as us the entire way so far, and we discovered it was actually their first trip abroad and first trekking trip, ever. Nuts! There was also a big Singaporean group doing the walk, one of whom was a piano tuner. Apparently it's a lucrative trade in the small island nation, as pianos require tuning every 6 months due to the climate (usually it's a year), plus it's not hard to imagine the multitude of little Asian kids toiling away at the keyboard for hours on end...

Seems to be a given that if you look out the window anywhere, you get an awesome view

Tomorrow, another short-ish day and then off to Dingboche!

Phakding to Namche Bazaar

The morning portion of our second day of walking was fairly easy, but it was a completely different story after lunch - a constant slog up the hill for about two hours which had us seriously out of breath after each zig and zag. At least we were eventually finally rewarded with our first view of Everest, and when we saw the first signs saying 'Namche Bazaar' we breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally reached Namche Bazaar

Prematurely though, as it turned out there was yet another 130m of punishing climbing through the steep steps of the town before finally reaching our stop for the night - Moonlight Lodge. The last 50m were probably the hardest and even once we were in the hostel, even climbing two flights of stairs to get from the entrance to our rooms was nearly all too much.

Hard to get a better town view than this

Fortunately we were able to rest for the rest of the day and amused ourselves with a retro Monopoly set which was available in the common area.

The common area in Moonlight Lodge

The next morning we were all to happy to have a rest day, apart from a short trudge up the hill to visit the local museum, take some more photos of Everest, and a visit to the town proper which we pretty much ignored the day before in our efforts to just get the walking over and done with.

Shops in Namche

As promised, Namche has everything a trekker needs, from official North Face outlets (accordingly priced), to Irish Pubs, it was by far the most developed settlement we came across in the entire walk. Plenty of souvenir shops abounded as well, with the usual knitted animal hats and yak wool scarves. Prices varied greatly from store to store and we mostly refrained from purchasing anything. No doubt the find of the day were Snickers Crunchers, a favourite of James' and not commonly seen anymore elsewhere.

Probably one of the best things about the whole trek were the consistently amazing views we'd get from whatever place we were staying at, and usually from our rooms themselves too - something which definitely helped us get over the freezing cold temperatures!

The view from our room in the morning

Lukla to Phakding

The surprising thing about the beginning of our trek toward Everest Base Camp was that it was much easier than we were expecting. After mentally steeling ourselves for about two weeks of hard uphill slog, it certainly felt strange to be ambling leisurely downhill for a good hour once we had set off with our porter. In fact, we were so eager to head off our guide told us to slow down from time to time.

The scenery was the very embodiment of 'picturesque', with quaint stone huts, fields of vegetables and plenty of prayer slabs and wheels for that cultural touch. Much later on the walk we would find less and less of these, no doubt due to the fact that carrying huge heavy slabs of stone uphill probably lost appeal after a while, especially when the much lighter prayer flags probably sufficed just as well.

We crossed a lot of bridges on the first day, but these were sturdy steel affairs with plenty of support, so wasn't actually that scary. Festooned with rows and rows of colourful prayer flags, each bridge presented fantastic photo opportunities. The only off-putting thing was probably the well-trodden remains of yak poo between the bits of metal, but at least there weren't any fresh ones - unlike much of the rest of the trail.

After a mere two and a half hours of walking we were already at our destination for the night, Phakding. Given the numerous warnings about not going too high, too fast, it was probably best we didn't try to press on. Upon arriving at our hostel we were greeted by a mute yet highly exuberant guy who gave us a local hot orange drink called 'Tang' on the house, and took our lunch orders.

The highlight of the afternoon was discovering that our guide, Binod, had recently starred (well, featured as a backup dancer) in a Nepali folk music video. Luckily the hostel had a TV and we were able to witness him in action. I have no idea what the name of the song or singer was, but it was a bit like a Bollywood song in a Sound of Music setting - dancing in the grass, picking flowers, mountains in the background - awesome. 

After the sun went down we quickly discovered that the place to be was as close to the wood burning stove in the middle of the living area as possible, with the other travellers who had arrived during the day. Given the lack of entertainment we turned in for the night pretty early at around 8pm, which would become routine over the rest of the trek. Our rooms felt like fridges already and it was only the first night, so that was a bit of a worry - but at least once we got in our sleeping bags it was nice and toasty - we didn't even need the extra blankets they provided.