Taking a Trip to Nepal — Any Advice or Tips?

In My Humble Opinion
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An Australian friend and I have been planning a trip to Asia for a while. Our first idea was to travel around China, do the Wall, part of the Silk Road, a few other semi-tourist but not too spoiled places. Unfortunately, we both didn’t realize how much the Olympics would impact things, even in April/May. So about 4 months ago, we decided to drop the idea of going to the main part of China, but we still thought that we could manage Nepal (he has a friend from college living there) and Tibet.

Well, you know how the second part of that idea turned out. Up until about a week or two ago we were still hopeful that we could get permission to go to Tibet. Yeah, that’s just not happening. Now, we’re down to Nepal only, no China, no Tibet. We’d planned to spend about half of our time in Tibet and are finding that we have to flesh out the Nepal trip a bit more.

We’re not planning on doing much, if any trekking. We can’t take enough time off work to do a real trek properly, and he’s probably not in good enough shape for that kind of thing anyway. Heck, even though I’m in pretty decent gym shape, I might not be up to a real hike either; it’s been years since I humped a pack any distance over rough ground. A day hike or two-day thing would probably be manageable. We’ve got proper boots and clothing, sleeping bags, a good tent, and packs, but no camp stove or other serious camp gear. We’d probably skip rough camping and simply do a trek that overnights at lodges, if we did a trek at all.

Our aim is mostly to do sightseeing; temples, vistas, whatever is cool and interesting. We’ve got a list of locations we’re looking at, with the main areas being Kathmandu — because that’s where the airport and his friend is — nearby Pokhara, and the Royal Chitwan National Park. We’ve got a decent budget, so we don’t necessarily need dirt-cheap accommodations like many of the long-term travelers who usually go there.

We’d both love to spend a couple of months, but that’s simply not possible. Neither one of us can get enough time off to do a trip in depth. Since time is a factor, travel that takes longer than several hours to a day between major points of interest is probably not a good idea. If buses take too long to get to a particularly interesting place, I think we have enough money for a short vehicle charter, say 2–4 days.

We’re going to be there from April 26 to May 5, so realistically only 9 solid days to work with. Our main guide is the Lonely Planet guidebook, which if past experience with their guides can be trusted, should be pretty good for our purposes. It is a bit light on points for non-trekking trips to the region, though. We’ve made up a tentative schedule already and are planning on making final arrangements this weekend.

Dopers who have been to Nepal:
[ul]
[li]Any must-see locations, must-do things?[/li][li]What should we avoid?[/li][li]How hard is it to travel between areas?[/li][li]How much time would you recommend spending at the places I’ve listed, or at your recommended locations?[/li][li]Are there any items we should make sure to bring, or leave at home?[/li]Other advice?[/ul]

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Interesting, I actually spent 2 weeks in Nepal last year about this time. I never really thought it’d come up again. I was living with a host family there doing some volunteering type work in the Chitwan region.
One thing, if you’ve never traveled to a 3rd world/developing nation before… It’s very dirty. There is a ton of pollution, particularly in Kathmandu, lots of dust, and the traffic is pretty insane. On the other hand, when you get to Pokhara, you will be treated to some of the most incredibly beautiful sites you will ever seen in this lifetime. Whatever you do, do not pass up the opportunity to go to Sarangkot to see the sun rise over the Himalayas. It’s mindblowingly amazing. On the other hand, don’t walk up there like I did. I had some pretty crazy adventures getting lost in the woods and whatnot… Anyway. I have a ton I can tell you about my personal experiences in the area, so I’ll try to write some now, and maybe some more later.
I’ll start with Kathmandu, since that’s where you’ll be flying in.
First tip: get your visa before you leave. You can get it at the airport when you arrive, but they only accept cash, and you have to change your money there, and they won’t give you a very good deal on it. The lines are very long as well, so if you get your visa at the airport, it will take you a good pa rt of an hour to get out of there. Also, the airport is very small, and very non-technologically efficient.
When you leave the airport you’re going to be bombarded by about a thousand different people, all trying to get you into their cab to take you some place. Some will go as far as to try to grab your bag. They’re very pushy, but they’ll back off if you tell them you already have arrangements made. There will also be people who will come up and speak very fluent English and act like they’re just trying to help you. These people work with the cab drivers to get you into their cabs. Which brings me to the next tip.
Cabs: Always, always, always negotiate the fare before you get in the car. This includes before putting any of your bags in the car. Just do this. They have meters, but I never saw a cab driver actually use it. For almost every place in Kathmandu you will go to from the airport, you shouldn’t have to pay more than a couple US dollars. From the airport they’ll be used to getting more than the cab drivers in the city itself. In the city itself, cabs are by far the most expensive way to travel, but they are the fastest and easiest, and pretty cheap at under a dollar for most places.
Most tourists in Kathmandu stay in Thamel which is the huge tourist area. This place is like a giant maze of tiny cabs, autobikes, dirt, temples, and store after store selling “authentic” kurkuri knives, outerwear/camping gear, t-shirts…
Tip: Unless you plan on buyiing something, never ask how much it cost. There is no fixed price. You must learn to haggle, and haggle hard. If you idly ask without actually wanting to buy, they’ll follow you into the street asking you, “how much, how much” over and over again. Heck, they’ll ask you that if you look at one thing for more than a few seconds. That’s Thamel for you. Things in Thamel are going to cost more than things elsewhere. That includes food, lodging, internet cafes, everything.
Food! Dal bhaat is what Nepali eat 3 meals a day. I hope you like Indian food, because it’s pretty similar to that. It’s actually quite good, although I began to tire of it after the first week of nothing but. If you get dal bhaat it will be a plate with a large amount of rice, a bowl of what looks like curry, and usually some sort of “pickle”/vegetable. The proper way to eat is to take the bowl, pour a bit on the rice, mix it all up with your fingers, just really work it in there, and then scoop it up with your hands into your mouth. Your fingers will adjust to the burning of the hot curry and the difficulty of scooping things. Or you can just do it the easy way since in Thamel they will give you silverware.

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Part 2
Thamel will have lots of different kinds of food, but most of it that tries to be like what you might get in a Western restaurant is not very good. I’d say go with the dal bhaat and eat like a local. It has the added bonus of usually being the cheapest thing on the menu. I think average I paid for meals was ~$1. In Pokhara you could get a big steak for ~$4-5, but when you’ve been paying so little for everything else, that starts to look like a lot of money!
I don’t know if you drink, but when you order a beer there, it comes in big bottles. There are no 12 oz bottles that I’ve seen. You also have a choice of Everest, Oranjboom (or something like that), and some other random beers I’ve never seen before. Alcohol is still cheap, but more expensive than food, and you will easily spend over $10 on drinks if you drink a bit. On the other hand, beer is safer than water.
Overall, I’d say spend no more than a few days in Kathmandu. It’s really best as a home base, and there is definitely stuff to see around there, but the big attractions are Pokhara and the Chitwan national forest.
I’ll write more on those later if you want, but I can summarize them like so:
Pokhara = beautiful, amazing, touristy as you can imagine.
Chitwan = hot, humid, insects, elephants, and probably not a tiger unless you are very very lucky. Also touristy.
Remember, touristy in Nepal is no bad thing. I spent most of my time in a non-tourist place and while it was a great experience, it’s also not what you’d want to do as a tourist.
If I think of some more tips on what to bring/what not to bring I’ll post them.

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Oh! I can’t leave just yet without talking more about transportation.
Getting around in the city can consist of, in order of cheapest to most exensive, walking, taking a tup tup (a small bus that packs a ridiculous number of people in), sitting in a wheeled chair while a guy on a bike carries you around, or a taxi. And actually a lot more than that too, but those are the main ones. Taxi, like I said before, is by far the easiest, but also pretty scary the first time you ride. There aren’t traffic laws, per se, and you’d be amazed at how close they can get to killing people, but it’ll get you there. Tup tups are diesel powered buses that make frequent stops. These cost dirt cheap, but you really have to know where you’re going. They will stop and a guy, usually a younger kid, will hang off the side shouting destinations. Unless you speak Nepali (very similar to Hindi apparently), it can be difficult to understand what they’re saying. Don’t be afraid to stop the guy and ask, “Thamel? Thamel?” or whatever it is you’re looking for. In my experience they never tried to rip me off, but if they want more than like the equivalent of 20 cents or so you’re probably paying too much. These you can’t negotiate as far as I know. It’s probably the closest you’ll see to public transportation. If you are at all tall, however, it is a bit cramped in there. Well, it’s crazy cramped.
Going from city to city is a whole 'nother beast. They have tourist buses like Greenline or whatever it’s called that offer water and air conditioning. These, ritzy and expensive as they are, might be worth it. I took a minibus down from Kathmandu to Bharatpur and from Bharatpur to Pokhara and it was… scary. Bharatpur is the biggest city area by Chitwan, and it’s in a very flat, very low land place. Kathmandu is much higher up, so to get from K to B you have to go down some very windy, very thin roads, with a lovely view of valleys and overturned trucks and buses dotting the landscape. I don’t exaggerate; going by local bus is probably one of the most dangerous ways to travel in Kathmandu. It’s also risky in a more conventional sense - I saw many buses broken down on the side of the road. They’ll also be cramped, no AC (and it will be hot in the southern part of Nepal), so expect lots of gas fumes coming in through the window.
You can also fly from the main areas, which is relatively cheap and obviously much faster. I never did that though so I can’t really speak to the conditions.
Let me know if you want more. I’ll dig up my journal and find out what I packed and needed. I can also post some pictures if you want to give you an idea of what to expect.

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Thanks for the info so far, audiobottle. Yeah, if you’ve got more and want to post it, I’d love to read it.

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Trekking, for the most part, doesn’t involve carrying much on your back. Most folks stay in guest houses, not tents, so your pack can way as little as 15 lbs. There are some short treks just outside of Kathmandu and a bus ride will get you to some more interesting terrain in a half day ride. Pokhara is indeed nice and you can do some smaller adventures from there.

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I spent a week or so in the unpopularm then civil war torn western half of Nepal, so I don’t really have a lot to say about the tourists areas, but what I remember was great…when I first got there after hot, crowded India, I felt like I’d walked into the world’s best place. It was cool, green, relatively clean, and full of the sort of peaceful rural tableaus you revisit in your dreams for years afterwards.

Bring pictures of your family and hometown to show the people you meet. Pictures of beaches particularly freak out people in Nepal, but don’t bring ones with a bunch of people in skimpy swim suits.

Bring small cool toys (mine was a plastic tiger keychain with an LED in it’s mouth) to amazing and amuse crying chidren and hungry policemen when you are taking public transport.

Wear shoes that slip on and off easily when visiting temples. Nothing sucks more than having to sit there lacing up hiking boots on some temple doorstep. Bring a moneybelt and use it, petty theft is pretty rampant. Don’t accept food from strangers on busses, since it may be drugged.

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I had a friend in highschool who went to Nepal on a short-term missions trip and worked in an orphanage outside of Katmandu. The slept on mats on the floor and one day he woke up to a pain in this right hand and found that he’d been bitten on the finger, presumably by a rat. So for the next two weeks he had to go into Katmandu every day to get a rabies shot in the stomach at the local hospital. He had a great time but said the shots were quite painful.

So my advice is don’t sleep on the floor.

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No time to reply more at the moment, but I’ll echo the “don’t sleep on floors” sentiment. That’s a bad, bad idea. Nepali houses are very open to the outside world and all manner of creepy crawlies get in at night.
Tip: Mosquito net is a MUST. You can buy one in Nepal for fairly cheap, or just get one before you go, but you HAVE to have one. One of my co-volunteers didn’t have one the first night and woke up to find her arm so swollen she could barely get it through her t-shirt sleeve.
More later.

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Things to bring:
Not too many clothes. Seriously, they’ll get dirty and gross, but if you’re planning on traveling around a little, having less to carry is a blessing, especially if you’re planning on taking the local buses. It’s probably obvious, but don’t bring any clothes you care about, because they’re going to get pretty dirty. You can have your laundry done for pretty cheap, so don’t worry about packing a lot.
Bring some bug repellant. Get something with DEET.
Bring some candy. Kids in Nepal love it, and they’ll probably pester you for some anyway.
Sunscreen. If you’re going to do any light trekking, and I highly recommend you do, particularly in the Pokhara region, you will probably get a bit of sun.
Bring comfortable shoes. For light treks, I wouldn’t worry about wearing any kind of hiking boots. Just make sure that they’re comfortable.
There are all sorts of expensive clothes made for hiking, but I wouldn’t waste my money on any of them. For simple day hikes/treks, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt should more than suffice. Bring something warm because in the higher elevations like Nepal and Kathmandu, it can cool down a bit at night, although it will still be warm.
You can buy a lot of Western bath products and stuff, but they are very expensive (very meaning much more than the local stuff) so just bring your own.
Most importantly, bring a camera! Take tons of pictures. Pretty much everywhere you go, you’ll see temples, shrines, amazing scenery, and a lot of chaos. It’s all picture worthy.
Oh, in the touristy areas like Thamel and Pokhara, everyone will speak English to some degree, so communication is really no problem.
There will be holy men wandering around who will put a red dot on your forehead if you let them. They will then expect money, so if you don’t want to donate money, don’t let them. I think most of them are genuine holy men who live off these donations, so it’s basically a matter of if you want to give or not.
Be careful about buying bottled water. While you’re walking around Kathmandu, you’ll see people driving around in trucks picking up huge amounts of trash, a large percentage of which is plastic bottles. These people will often refill them with regular water and reseal them and sell them to unsuspecting tourists. Only buy your bottled water from stores, or just stick to drinking beer.
Street food in general is a bad idea, but I did eat a lot of samosas to no ill effect. They are delicious and cheap. Mmmm…
The stuff even sven said is all good advice, although if you’re staying away from the western part you should be safer. That is generally a bad region to travel around in because of Maoists, although when I went last April it was better.
I’m at coffee shop now so no pics but I’ll try to upload some later. I’ll post some of dal bhaat, Kathmandu/Thamel, Pokhara/Sarangkot, and Chitwan/Bharatpur.

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In Pokhara, I recommend checking out the World Peace Pagoda, which will give you a nice view over Lake Pokhara and Pokhara, as well as some of the surrounding mountains. I stayed at a hotel there (I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a real shower) which was pretty nice, and only cost $8 a night. I can’t remember the name off the top of my head, but I’ll check it out when I get home. I’m pretty sure I could have haggled it down to $6, but I was pretty exhausted from my bus ride up and I just didn’t want to put in the effort.
I recommend ending your trip in Pokhara. It touristy, and you’ll see tons of people from all over the world there, mostly for the trekking. The Anna Purna trail is the big one that most people do. It lasts 3 weeks and takes you up to the Everest base camp before looping back down. If I go back to Nepal, that’s one I plan on doing. Even if you’re not into the long treks, there are a lot of things you can see that are within a days trip.
One of the things I’d just skip is Devi’s Falls. After the rainy season I’m sure it’s pretty awesome, but considering that you’ll be there in the dry season it won’t be very impressive.

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Thanks for the feedback guys. Some good stuff here, very helpful.

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Likewise, if you get a tour guide of any kind, they might try to take you to some cave system (blanking on the name). This is a waste of time. It may be the most impressive cave system in Nepal, but it’s nothing compared to Luray Caverns or Mammoth or even the frickin’ Oregon Caves back in the states.

If you’re staying in Thamel in Kathmandu (and that’s a reasonably touristy, safe place to stay, and though the hotels are expensive compared to elsewhere, they’re still dirt cheap) stay at the Kathmandu Guest House. You can get rooms from dirt cheap to expensive, it’s got a wonderful restaurant in the courtyard, and it’s an old royal palace, so it’s drop-dead gorgeous. Other people may recommend you another less-well-known place with slightly better prices or prettier gardens and I’ll grant that I’m no expert and they may know better, but there are lots of bad hotels in Nepal too, and you’ll love this one if you try it.

If you’re into it, the Snowman has been famous for its magic brownies since the sixties.

Swayambhunath and Boudhanath, two important Buddhist stupas, are worth seeing. Watch out for the monkeys- they’ll climb on you, bite you, go through your pockets, and demand food. Do not feed them, and don’t threaten either- the locals don’t like it.

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  1. Brush your teeth with bottled water, trust me, it’s important. And keep your mouth shut in the shower.

  2. If you rent a pedal bike, (fun way to get about the town), check the brakes before you leave the rental company! The same urchins that will watch you bike for a fee, when you go in the temple, are the ones who’ll vandalize it if you don’t pay. Pay them, it’s only a few rupees!

  3. Don’t miss Pie Alley, cheese cake made with goats cheese, tres yummy. And, of course, freak street!

  4. Don’t miss Pilgrim’s Bookstore, count on spending a day there. Where you can purchase a lovely, long skinny, photograph of the top of the world. With all the mountains names and heights, noted. Cost about $20, easy to transport souvenir, and looks fabulous matted and framed once back home.

  5. Save any crispy new bank notes you get, makes a nice keepsake, lovely pictures of animals on them.

  6. How would you like to do me a favour when you’re there? It’s a very small thing and you’re going to be in the perfect place, and involves nothing illegal or dodgie. When I was last there I purchased this wonderful item for my hair. It was dead cheap, like mere pennies. It was three long (18" - 24’)strands of bundled silk thread, with decorative beads and ending in beautiful tassels. I bought it from a shop in the market place where you see very colourful Indian vendors selling things for girls. You really can’t miss it they have brilliant colours and are mostly not for tourists. You braid this thing into your long hair and making your braid longer and lovely tassels at the end. You’ll see many Nepali, Indian and Tibetan women with them in their hair. I wore mine out with use, and everyone loved it, me especially. I have purchased other items from Nepal on ebay and tried to get the seller to get one for me but to no avail. I would trade you anything if you’re so inclined to help me out. I would adore two of them, a black one and a bright red one. Also they make a lovely gift for any girls you know with long hair. If you’re not so inclined, I’ll understand, I know it’s an odd request.

Colour me green with envy!

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While traveling in Nepal I didn’t use bottled water, just boiled water and I carried iodine to treat it myself. In the countryside the litter from plastic disposable water bottles is very depressing. Now I’d probably use a Steri-Pen.

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For things close by Kathmandu, you might want to check out Bhaktapur City. It’s a beautiful old royal city, with some fabulous temples and the old royal palace in Durbar Square. When I was there, we did a day-trip in a minibus to Bhaktapur and Nagarkot. Not too expensive and well worth it for the sight-seeing and the views!

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Couple more questions:

How long would it take to get to Lumbini from Kathmandu, Pokhara, or Suraha near the Royal Chitwan park? Recommended transport method?

Also, any specific recommendations or warnings regarding places to stay in Kathmandu or Pokhara?

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It’s worth saying twice- the Kathmandu Guest House is a great place to stay in Kathmandu. They have a sister hotel in Pokhara that’s also nice, but nothing to write home about and I won’t go so far as to recommend it, just say that it’s not a lemon.

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I stayed at the Tibet Guest House in Kathmandu and they were very good but that was quite a few years ago.

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In Pokhara I stayed at hte Nano Hana (I believe that’s the name) Guest House. It seemed pretty nice after where I had been. Clean rooms (I actually had two beds in my room for some reason), great view of the mountains if you get a good room, actual shower (I have no idea if that’s typical or not, but it was a nice change of pace from where I had been).
Oh, I also recommend renting a bike to get around Pokhara. They’re pretty much crap, and almost amazingly uncomfortable, but it beats walking everywhere. Like someone above said, check the brakes and the seat to make sure all is well first.