Travel tips and tricks – Trekking in Nepal

Below is a list of Notworkrelated ‘Awards’ which we allocated during our trekking adventure, some of them were reached with the aid of our trekking partners Joshua and Amata and were loving called the ‘Rutcoe-Urdan’ awards!

Here we go:

• Best Accommodation/Lodge/Teahouse – Ang Chopka, Jumbessi
• Best Dal Bhat – Moonlight Lodge, Namche
• Best Finger Chips – Moonlight Lodge, Namche
• Best Ra-ra Noodle Soup – Unknown lodge in Puiyan (left hand side further on from The Sun Shine Lodge)
• Best Breakfast – Ang Chopka, Jumbessi: Porridge
• Best Apple Pie – Worlds Highest Bakery, Khumjung 3780m
• Best Milk Tea – Ang Chopka, Jumbessi (masala milk tea)
• Best Bed – Gokyo Lakeside, Gokyo (great blankets) and Ang Chopka, Jumbessi (although we cheated and doubled up the mattresses from one of the other unoccupied rooms!)
• Best Shower – Moonlight Lodge, Namche
• Best Views on a Hiking Day – Machermo to Gokyo and Gokyo Ri
• Best Lodge Terrace Views – Everest View, Sete (No view of Everest but a lovely valley below)

Bonus:

• Hardest Trekking Days – Lamjura Pass (Steep and Hot), Chaurikarka to Namche (Long distance, relentless up hill to Namche) and Namche to Lukla (Exhaustion and distance)
• Most amount of time without a shower – 6 days
• We worked out from our guide book (the excellent “A Cicerone Guide: Everest: A Trekker’s Guide (Trekking routes in Nepal and Tibet) by Kev Reynolds”) that we in total for the entire trip we… ascended 9297m, descended 7358m and walked for a total of 173km.

Top tips:

We realise some of you may be well read on what is useful and or what should go in your trekking backpack. We were pretty organised and as well planned as we could be incorporating a trip like this within our World travels. That is until we met a few other trekkers who were way more organised and weight conscious than we!

We want to offer some advice on what to bring, what not to bring, a few top tips and so on. Here’s what we feel would be a sensibly packed trekking backpack for the Himalayas in the Spring:

• A good, lightweight rucksack; we opted for Osprey but there is so much out there. Our friends had packs weighing around 20 pounds total (9kg’s), that’s good weighing skills! Ours weighed at least 15kgs each (33 pounds!!) way too heavy, which is why we left items behind in Namche before heading to Gokyo.

The rest of the list…

• Well worn-in trekking boots
• 1x pair of flip flops
• 2x thermal long sleeve tops: 1 for trekking, 1 for sleeping
• 1x thermal trousers lightweight
• 2/3 pairs of wool trekking socks perhaps making one pair a thin pair.
• 3 pairs of underwear and 1 thermal underwear
• 1x fleece
• 1x windproof lightweight rain jacket
• 1x feather down jacket (it’s very cold in the evenings from early on in the trek) We hired one from a supplier in Kathmandu for 50rs/day per jacket
• 1x thin woollen gloves, 1x thick waterproof gloves
• 1x snood/scarf
• 1x buff
• 1x good UV protection sunglasses
• 2x t-shirts (ice-breaker/merino wool)
• 1x warm hat, 1x sun hat
• Sunscreen, lip protection
• Earplugs
• Travel towel
• Sleeping bag liner
• Sleeping bag – Duck down at least 700 Loft (it can get very cold at 5000m+)
• Water purification – we had a steri-pen (Èbought in Kathmandu for around $45) which was well worth the investment and aqua-tabs for back up – no tummy problems at all.
• Books/ Kindel (there is plenty of time to read and Kindel’s can be a little unreliable in extreme weather climates)
• Guide Book – A Cicerone Guide: Everest: A Trekker’s Guide (Trekking routes in Nepal and Tibet) by Kev Reynolds.
• Shoe laces (use as a washing line, a belt)
• Screws/nails (use to tack up a washing line in the room)
• Trekking poles (we only had 1 each but most people tend to have 2)
• Padlock and keys (in case there are no locks on the doors)
• Refillable water bottles (we chose Platypus and a metal Sigg bottle) The Platypus bottles are excellent, light-weight and squash down when empty, the Sigg bottle doubled up as a hot water bottle

Female advice:

• Try to get used to using a Shewee, it’s more discreet than squatting
• Take some wipes for those times when water just isn’t an option
• Take own Tampons and panty liners
• Take some moisturiser, this perhaps is a luxury item but it works when the dry skin sets in!

We also picked up some parcel tape along the way but our friends had Duct Tape wrapped around their pole in case of blistering and repairs. The duct tape can be strapped onto the inside heel of the boot to prevent foot blisters, or on the sock; Dave found this to be extremely helpful when it came to aiding his blister problems.

Things that helped us along the way:

• Nak Cheese – cheap and very good for a mid-trek snack
• Chocolate: Twix, Marsbar, Snickers, Toblerone, you name it we got it. We couldn’t believe how much chocolate we got through but the energy fix it gave us each time was well worth it.
• Own tea bags – for when it gets pricey higher up.
• Cinnamon and raisins from Kathmandu – helped with the porridge in the mornings.

Our budget:

We calculated that we would need around £20 ($32)/day taking into account that it would get more expensive the higher we got. Sometimes we went over budget, and by the end we had to borrow 3000rs from our friends (Thank you!!).

So we estimate that 55,000 Nepalese Rupees would be sufficient for a 22 day trek in this region. That equates to around £500 which when you break it down is roughly £22 ($35)/day. Not bad for the both of us. You could be even tighter by bringing more of your own tea bags and hot water from the teahouse and basically eat the cheapest things on the menu.

We hope that some of this information is useful to anyone considering or planning their very own trek. Any more tips or advice please feel free to add in the comments section.

Related posts that may be of interest to you:

1. Travel tips and tricks – Part 1 Hello and welcome… As you may or may not know we are currently residing back in the UK! This has given us some time to...
2. Travel tips and tricks – Part 2 Hello and welcome… This is part two of our top tips for travelling learnt whilst on our first five months away in Asia. Hopefully some...
3. Travel tips and tricks – Part 3 Hello and welcome… This is part three of our top tips for travelling which we learnt whilst on our first five months away in Asia....
4. Trekking in the Everest Region – Nepal – March – 2012 We wont be on here for a little while as we’re off exploring parts of the Everest Region. We start our trek in Jiri and...