Adventures in Nepal

At last we go to Nepal.

Nepal is a natural destination for Tali and me, who like to go to high places.

The reason we go to Nepal only now (and not before) is merely technical.

We have two months in Nepal. Our tour plans are as follows:

1. Three weeks trek in Dolpo (or Dolpa), a remote province in the west of the country. We choose this area only because it is the part of the Tibetan plateau which is sheltered by the rain shadow. This means that the area is more or less protected from the monsoon rains prevailing in the other parts of Nepal at the time we plan to be there (September). Unlike in the more touristic areas (e.g. Annapurna, Langtang, Helambu and the Khumbu areas) the trekking infrastructure (tea houses, hotels, porters, shops) in Dolpa is non existent at all. This means we have to bring all food and gasoline supply, as well as a tent, with us. At the time of planning we don't know two major facts about Dolpa. The first is that in the previous year a cinema film called "Himalaya" was made by a French director (Erik Valey), so Dolpa becomes a premiere touristic destination for French trekkers. Because of that the area is supposed to be relatively "crowded" with organized groups of French tourists. The second fact is that Dolpa became the hold place of the Maoistic Communist rebels who started to kill policemen and government officials. Because of that most of the groups canceled the visit to Dolpa. So in fact, we will meet only 4 groups of tourists while being there !
2. Three weeks trek in the Khumbu area. We plan to extend the usual two weeks "Everest Base Camp trek" to include a technical climb on Island peak (Ima Tse) at 6,189m', crossing three high passes: the Kongma-La (5,535m'), Cho-La (5,330m') and Renjo-La (5,340m') and visiting Gokyo area (up to the sixth lake).

A technical note: all photos except two (which are indicated specifically) were taken by us with an Elan IIE Canon camera, with zoom lenses of 18-35mm (Sigma) and 28-105mm (Canon). The photos were scanned in 200-300 dpi only, in order to decrease loading time. It is best to browse the following pages with a screen resolution of at least 1024*768 pixels and with small fonts. Your comments regarding the photos or text are more than welcome !!!

Tali wrote our adventures while being in Nepal and sent it to our friends in two letters by e-mail. I tried to edit the letters in a minimum way, in order the keep its "fresh" and "enthusiastic" flavors. I hope I've succeeded !

Letter 1 - Wild West Nepal
Letter 2 - Everest Base Camp Trek
Epilogue