Additional Notes about the Mardi Himal Trek

Stop what you are doing!

Stop planning your annual vacation or holiday to Disneyworld, or Hawaii, or wherever.

Grab your to-do list.

Now write at the very top of the list: "Start planning my trip to Nepal. Today."

Guys, you want to come to Nepal and you will want to do a trek while you are here. And if you don’t have kids that you are dependent on planning your vacations around, plan on coming during the first half of December. That will give you plenty of time to plan.

There are many reasons you will want to come to Nepal, as opposed to going to Florida. Or New York City.

The first is the people. OK, we’ve met only a handful of Nepali people so far, however, everyone we’ve met has been so nice, kind, warm, welcoming, etc. It’s been just a blast getting to know people.

Second, it’s totally do-able, and not as scary as it sounds.

Nepal was not even on my radar as a place to go visit. When my friend David said we had to go there, I began to do some research. I saw that it looked a little scary. I mean Kathmandu is a HUGE city. But then I saw how interesting it looked. And saw that we could do it.

Then I began to think that maybe we could even venture to Pokhara, to see the city on the lake where many treks originate. I imagined that we could stand on a hillside and wave to the people as they leave for their treks.

But then, when I started reading travel blogs, and watching YouTube videos, I saw that regular people, just like us, even within our age range are going on multi-day treks. And I said, if they can do it, then we can too.

And so the planning began. And we did it. And if we can do it, so can YOU!

Third: They need you! They need your tourist dollars.

Nepal is a poor country and their tourism sector is one of the biggest ways they earn money.

They are totally set up to meet the needs of tourists, from accessing plentiful, good, and healthy food, access to drinking water, a crazy but functional transportation system, and most of all, very friendly, helpful people.

People work in Nepal for very little money. But every dollar they make goes a long way to sustaining their families. People in the tourism sector, especially trekking companies, such as tour guides and porters only work when there are clients. And when there are no clients, they don’t work, and don’t get paid.

I would encourage people to come during shoulder season rather than high season. There are plenty of people who come during the three months of high season. Shoulder season, like the beginning of December is a perfect time to come. There are less people, I think you can get things at lower prices because they want your business, and they really need you.

Warm days, like in the 60’s, and cool nights, like in the 50’s are what we’ve been experiencing. As you trek into higher elevations it gets colder at night, but it’s not below freezing. It’s not even at freezing.

Preparing for the trek:

I don’t know what we were thinking. I mean we did some hiking this past summer in some national parks, and we did some hiking in Greece, and we walked for hours across Europe. But did I really think that would prepare us for a climb of 9,547 feet over 4 days? Really?

It was tough. I mean it really stretched us. We each had our crumbling points as you see in the photos. But, we persevered and we accomplished.

Now I think we can do anything we set our minds to. And I think you can too!

So start your planning today!

And if you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas!