"Stunning scenery, beautiful people." a Nepal Travel Page by planxty

Myself and five friends travelled to Nepal in 1993 and stayed for a total of five weeks. Briefly, we acclimatised in Kathmandu (actually Thamel) for a few days and organised our tour.

I realise that any tips would be totally usesless, but, for what it's worth, we used a company in Thamel called Himalayan Waves, who were just staring off at the time, and they were superb.

We spent three weeks walking the Annapurna circuit, accompanied by our wonderful guide, Jemmi, and our two porters Vishnu and Shambu. Personally, I carried all my own gear, but some of my companions (novice travellers) seemed to have brought everything with them, hence the porters. One of my friends had to be physically parted from his entrenching tool before we set off!

Anyway, three fantastic weeks later and we had completed the circuit and went to Pokhara to recharge the batteries for a few days, incluidng a days (fairly tame) whitewater rafting on the Trisuli.

We then went to Chitwan National Park for three days of walks, elephant safaris and the like, before returning to Kathmandu and then home.

I have been lucky enough since to have travelled to many other countries, but Nepal, and the Nepalese retain a special place in my heart.

We all agreed that it was a superb trip, made all the more special by the wonderful Nepalese people. The friendliness of the Nepalese is legendary and rightly so. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the way we were treated everywhere.

All this leads me on to the title of this intro. We certainly had very good times in Nepal, but, unfortunately, things have not been quite so wonderful recently. This is not the place for a discussion on the merits or otherwise of the Marxist cause in Nepal, but recent events, including the violent death of the King, have saddened me deeply. There is no evidence that the insurgents are in any way targetting visitors, but the general unrest must be affecting tourism, such a vital part of the nations ecenomy.

I can only hope that peace returns to this most beautiful country very soon.

As I mentioned, any tips would be totally redundant now, but I'll be posting a Nepal album on my homepage very soon.

I'm not really paternal by instinct, and have no children of my own, nor have i ever wanted to have. I must say, however, that Nepalese children are absolutely lovely, and great fun. they always seem to be smiling.

I realise it is a tremendous cliche, but the scenery in Nepal is absolutely stunning. It is breath-taking, and just about any other superlative you would care to emply.

The picture shows scenery that is fairly typical of the higher areas on the Annapurna trail.