Trekking Info
Trekking is another word for walking. However, the word trekking has
become better known for the kind of walking, which takes you along
trails winding up, down, over and around mountains.
Trekking is not mountaineering although some of the popular trails
are used by mountaineering expeditions to get to their base camps. Most
of the trails you walk on are still used predominantly by Nepali people
for everyday travel and trade. It is not uncommon to be passed along the
way by a Nepali porter carrying lengths of corrugated roofing iron
slung.
Why to Trek ?
The Himalaya, the "abode of snows", extends from Assam in eastern
India west to Afghanistan. It is a chain of the highest and youngest
mountains on earth and it encompasses a region of deep religious and
cultural traditions and an amazing diversity of people. A trek in Nepal
is a special and rewarding mountain holiday. Just as New York is not
representative of the USA, so Kathmandu is not representative of Nepal.
If you have the time and energy to trek, don't miss the opportunity to
leave Kathmandu and see the spectacular beauty and the unique culture of
Nepal. Fortunately for the visitor, there are still only a few roads
extending deeply into the hills, so the only way to truly visit the
remote regions of the kingdom is in the slowest and most intimate manner
- walking. It requires more time and effort, but the rewards are also
greater.
Instead of zipping down a freeway, racing to the next "point of
interest," each step provides new and intriguing viewpoints. You will
perceive your day as an entity rather than a few highlights strung
together by a ribbon of concrete. For the romanticist, each step follows
the footsteps of Hillary, Tenzing, Herzog and other Himalayan
explorers. If you have neither the patience nor the physical stamina to
visit the hills of Nepal on foot, a helicopter flight provides an
expensive and unsatisfactory substitute.
Camping Trekking Information
If you want to have everything organized in advance, you can
contact a Nepalese trekking company by mail or fax and ask them to
arrange your trek. There are more than 300 trekking companies in
Kathmandu that will organize treks for a fee and provide all Sherpas,
porters and, if necessary, equipment. Unless you have a good idea of
what you want, it will require a huge volume of correspondence to
provide you with the information you require, to determine your specific
needs, to define your precise route and itinerary and to negotiate a
price that both parties understand. Mail takes up to three weeks each
way to and from Australia, the Americas or Europe, so it's better to use
fax or e-mail. Be specific in your communications and be sure that the
trekking company understands exactly who will provide what equipment. It
is most embarrassing to discover on the first night that someone forgot
the sleeping bags.
Teahouse Treks Information
It is a bit pretentious to call some of these village
establishments a hotel, but the Nepalese use of English translates
restaurant or eating-place as "hotel". Since the word hotel has been
pre-empted, Nepalese use the word "lodge" for sleeping place or hotel.
Thus, in the hills of Nepal a "hotel" has food, but may not provide a
place to sleep, while a "lodge" always offers accommodation. Many
innkeepers specify the services they provide by calling their
establishments "Hotel & Lodge". To avoid all this semantic
confusion, most people use hotel, lodge and teahouse interchangeably. In
reality, you can usually find both accommodation and food at any
trailside establishment. The most popular way to trek in Nepal for both
Locals and Westerners is to travel from teahouse to teahouse. Hotel
accommodation is most readily available in the Khumbu (Everest) region,
the Langtang area and the entire Annapurna region. In these areas, you
can operate with a bare minimum of equipment and rely on teahouses for
food and shelter.
If you deviate from popular routes, be prepared to fend for
yourself at times. If, however, you carry food, cooking pots and a tent
to use even one night, you have already escalated beyond the teahouse
approach into a more complex form of trekking with different problems.