"Nepal 2004, 2006, 2007 & 2008" a Nepal Travel Page by into-thin-air

Last February I went on trip number Seven to Nepal, Again this was a duel purpose trip, Partly to put another Pro-Tector order in, including the New Trekking Pole Pro-Tector and partly to fulfill the dream of Trekking in Upper Mustang.
Organising the order took less than a week, and the planning for the Mustang Trek had been done before I left the U K, Nirmal at HMA had put us together an Excellent support package for the 10 day trek, we had arranged to meet our 7 man team (One Guide, One cook, a cooks helper and four porters) in Kagbeni and our original plan was to independently trek in from Besisahar and cross Thorung La and join the team, Unfortunately I suffered a bad stomach bug and we had to turn around after 3 days and go back to Pokhara for time to recover, here Helga went down with a fever so we ended up staying there for 5 days, then set off again, this time catching a bus to Beni, then a jeep to Tiplyang, from there we trekked for two days to Ghasa, then again caught a jeep (as time was getting short) to Jomsom, Then walked to Kagbeni, from here we trekked up to Jharkot and spent two nights there (3,500m) and visited the temple at Muktinath, Then back down to Kagbeni to join our “Team”
From here we had an unbelievable ten day trek through Upper Mustang, the first day was fairly easy to Chele, then the next day we crossed 5 “La’s” (passes) all over 4,000m to Geling, Then two shorter days, first to Ghami, then to Tsarang, From here we trekked up to the famous Ghar Gompa, one of the highest Monasteries in the world at approximately 4,000m and from the to lo Manthang, The Capital of Mustang, we spent two nights there before heading across country to Dhi, Then one day following the Mustang Khola (Which we had to wade across several times) to Tangge, Then a Long hard day (over 11 hours walking) crossing more 4,000m+ “La’s” to Chhuksang. The last day was another simple walk down the Mustang Khola to Kagbeni.
Here we said good bye to our team and trekked out independently back to Beni, taking a couple of days off to relax at the Hot Springs at Tatopani before catching the bus from Beni back to Pokhara and from there back to Kathmandu to fly home.
I have posted more photos and written up the trip in greater detail and broken the trek down into daily sections on my new Mustang page
I will post as many photos as I can from upper Mustang as these photos will describe what we experienced better than a thousand words.
I will slowly update my tips section as time permits but meanwhile IF you have any questions about either Nepal in general or Mustang in particular then please feel free to drop me a line
Thanks for taking the time to read my new Nepal pages.
I have just posted photos of the Upper Mustang trek in the form of a slideshow Here
If you want to take a look
Happy Trekking
Rob

Early 2007 I had an Awesome 6 weeks in India, But How could I possibly go to India, which is So Close to my Beloved Nepal without visiting Even if just for a short time, So that’s Exactly what I did and have just had a Fun Packed Long weekend there. I will up-date my tips and add some new pics of Kathmandu and the Valley.

My 2006 trip to Nepal was another dual purpose "Mission"
The First part was to order up another 300 of my rucksack pro-tector's, I wanted to make a few minor design changes and I thought that by far the best way to achieve this was to be there whilst the manufacturers were seeing to this, rather than to have sample pieces winging their way backwards and forwards to Europe -- and besides this it gave me a Good Excuse to be back once more in my Beloved Nepal !!
Also I have a designed a couple of new lines so Please keep an eye on my web-site at Pro-Tector for my Latest products, Again Designed by a Backpacker specifically for the outdoors person
So the plan was to spend a week in Kathmandu overseeing these small changes and also having some samples made of some "New Lines" then to hook up with "Someone" and go off trekking, But -- The Best laid plans of Mice and Men and all that ...............................
So the reality
Two weeks in Kathmandu and still only Slow progress with the order -- Strikes, Lack of the material that I needed in Kathmandu, Eyelet problems -- Again !! etc etc, caused delay and more delays !!
So after two weeks I left them to it and caught the tourist bus down to Pokhara, hoping to find a trek mate there but because of the lack of tourists in Nepal at this time (Mainly because of the poor political situation (In Reality more perceived than Actual)), Bad weather on the mountains and yet another strike causing major difficulties in finding transportation to the trail-head, Plus a fair chunk of Pure Laziness caused my trekking not to happen this time !!
So after 16 days in Pokhara -- Not Total laziness as I did do a bit of day walking and hired a bike out to see a bit more of the local area, I then caught a bus back to Kathmandu to check up on the progress of my order -- Well lack of progress as it turned out !!
So, next I had a friend, Val who flew out to join me for 10 days, she arrived on time but alas without luggage !! Left in London we were told !!
As we had a limited time scale, we left Kathmandu the next day - Val with complete new wardrobe --- Not that she was complaining about that :-) and went to Sauraha for 3 days, visiting Chitwan National park and doing the usual Elephant rides, canoe trip and jungle walks, Not forgetting the "Famous" Taru Stick Dancers !! then back to Pokhara for 3 days -- The highlight of the visit being the micro-light flight over Fewa Tal and to the mountains -- and Excellent it was too !!
Finally flying back to Kathmandu with the infamous "Cosmic" Airlines and the last three days there, Sightseeing and shopping and checking on my still incomplete order (Hopefully this will be air-freighted to England in the next two or three weeks -- fingers crossed) before flying out on yet another strike back for England -- and Finally retrieving Val's suitcase at the airport as we were boarding the plane.
So -- All in All a successful if not exactly an all according to plan trip -- I will be updating my tips over the coming weeks but if you need some up to date information then please feel free to drop me a line.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Happy Travels
Rob

Please Note -- Some of the photo's that I have used on my updates to these pages were taken by Val Hansen and used with her kind permission -- I have accredited these photo's to her by the initials V.H.

This time I chose Gulf Airlines and have No hesitation in recommending it to Everyone !! I flew into Kathmandu on 17th February, Met up with my Friend " Helga " the next day and then spent the next week trying to get the " pro-tector " into production, Helga had come up with one contact and I have a Friend who runs a trekking / travel agency in Thamel and I have known him now for 10 years and trust him implicitly !! So these were the starting points !! We short-listed two factories and got them to produce a sample piece, Both samples were in the main Good but both factories had encountered the same problem and that was achieving a decent finish on the brass eyelets, after one week with many meetings and many delays I eventually settled on one factory and told them that IF they could solve this eyelet problem that I would award them the production " Contract " -- The reason that I went for this particular factory was that they could offer me a production and shipping package so that I wasn't having to deal with too many different agencies !!
So then it was time to head out on Trek !! Helga and I caught the " Posh " Tourist Bus down to Pokhara with the intention of having a couple of days off just to relax !! -- But Unfortunately here I came down with a stomach bug and spent most of the time in my room !! But after a couple of days I felt a lot better and we set off on our Trek, We had opted to go into the Annapurna Sanctuary, setting out from Phedi which is only a short taxi ride away from Pokhara ( as there was a strike there were no busses ), We had seven Wonderful days trekking up to Annapurna Base camp ( 4200m ) then returned down the valley of the Modi Kosi as far as Chomrong and from here we took the Ghorapani route, two more Wonderful days and then a walk up to the top of Poon Hill for the sunrise then down to Tatopani and the Hot Springs !! From here we were intending to follow the Kali Gandaki down to Beni and the road-head but because of some " Maoist Problems " we decided it was better to head Up the kali Gandaki !! So three days up to Jomsom where we booked a flight with " Cosmic Air " back to Pokhara, But we left ourselves and extra couple of days to Trek up to Muktinah to visit the fantastic Temple there !!
So 17 days on the Hill and back to Pokhara, a couple of days there and again the " Posh " tourist bus back to Kathmandu where I was Very Pleased to see the results of the pro-tector with the New and Much improved eyelets -- in fact these new eyelets were better than the ones in my prototype !! So next was to organise the Screen Printing and get samples of that, This time No problems !! So Helga and I had time to take a short rafting trip on the Trisuli and spend a few days in Sauraha while P G Garments went into production and made my 250 pieces !!
We had a Great rafting trip, Visited Manakamana Temple and Spent four wonderful days in Sauraha visiting Royal Chitwan National park and going on Canoe trips, Elephant Rides, Jungle walks etc etc and really Enjoying our time there !!
Because of Yet another strike we decided to fly back to Kathmandu, here we inspected a sample selection of the " pro-tector's " and saw them to the airport for the airfreight back to England. Then we had enough time left to visit Nagrakot and for Helga to go on a shopping extravaganza before our return flights home !!

Please note that ALL the tips that I have included on these pages are Individual tips, and are there solely to pass on my own Personal Recommendations and Impressions. I haven't just doubled tips up as a way to add extra photographs to my pages !
I Really DO hope that these Tips are Useful to fellow travellers and am Really interested in all feedback that I get from them -- Thank You for taking the time to read them -- Best Wishes, Rob