Exploring and Rambling in Nepal

[Flashback]

As I'm checked in for the first leg of our flight now is as good a time as any to start on the trip report.

Nepal is a country that has always fascinated me and with the damage done by the earthquakes in April 2015 (nearly 4 years ago to the day) now is more important than ever to visit the country to help bring well needed tourism dollars in.

Originally our plan was to do a lot of trekking but as age and injuries have dictated we've toned things down a little bit and made it more of an exploring trip with the odd spot of trekking thrown in. The other thing with hiking in Nepal is that most of the treks tends to be 8 days upwards to 20 or even 30 days as a whole so that ends up being your entire trip gone. I like hiking, but I don't like it THAT much. So instead we've gone for a mixture of and thrown in a good mix of action, adventure and R&R for the 2 weeks we have.

We've settled on a fairly well travelled route and although there are numerous agencies offering tour packages we've decided to DIY as we oft tend to do so it allows a little more flexibility in how we do things and how long we spend in each place. For the smaller components within the trip some pieces did make sense to book through an agency (sometimes coming in cheaper than we could do piecing it together ourselves) and the chap we've made contact with has been an absolute pleasure to deal with, responding quickly at any time of the day and has been really helpful in getting things sorted.

With that out of the way the route we're looking at doing roughly looks like:

• Kathmandu
• Chitwan National Park (where I will spend my @Denali day)
• Pokhara (and surrounds) - we will be doing a 2 day 1 night hike from here up to the Australian Camp (not chosen due to the naming... it just happened to be a hike that looked decent enough to do!)
• Kathmandu

We are book-ending the trip with a night in BKK to start off with and then 2 nights in KUL at the end. The route is as follows: LHR-AMS-LHR-HGK-BKK, BKK-KUL-KTM, KTM-KUL, KUL-BKK(6 hour transit, enough time for a massage)-HKG-LHR-AMS-LHR.

The positioning flights to/from AMS are in Y exit rows, but it's only a short flight so no big deal (Avios redemptions, the value of each Avios redeemed worked out better than paying for a fare that included baggage).

AMS-LHR-HKG-BKK and BKK-HKG-LHR-AMS was booked on BA's long standing J sale fare ex-AMS to BKK, although these days it forces you LHR-BKK. I applied a BA GUF2 which upgraded us to F for the LHR-HKG and HKG-LHR sectors.

I then booked a Malaysia Airlines J sale fare BKK-KUL-KTM and KTM-KUL-BKK adding in a stopover in KUL on the way back.

Total TP/SC earn gets us slightly over 2/3 of the renewal requirement for BA Gold (OWE).

We were originally supposed to be travelling the day after Brexit, but given most airlines had agreements in place we had no worries about that. It's not an issue now anyway.

I hope you enjoy my TR and feel free to ask any questions as this is one of the lesser travelled places reported on in AFF I'd say.

 

[VPS]

I love you have toned it down due to your age - your poor old thing

Looking forward to the photos

 

[Blinky]

How old flashback?

I did a 10 day trek last October as part of my 18 days in Nepal on a Luxury Escapes tour (nothing luxurious about the tea houses in the mountains). I’m nearly 68, did a lot of training beforehand, found it incredibly hard, but rewarding beyond belief.

I’m not having a go at you, but throwing this comment in for those who might be deterred from high altitude trekking. If I can do it, so too can anyone.

I flew from MEL on SIA in J and Silk without a hitch, stayed a couple of days in Kathmandu. The bus trip to Chitwan was horrendous! The worst I’ve ever had. It took 10 hours to cover 80 or so km. But Chitwan and surrounding areas are worth seeing. I declined the elephant back “safari”. There are good reasons these things have been discontinued around the world.

Pokhara was fantastic, and the obvious starting point for our trek, which took in the incomparable Poon Hill (hill? About 4000 meters...) and other breathtaking towns and hamlets. Very basic accommodation, but decent food and great hospitality.

I won’t steal your thunder any more and look forward to your report. I will finish by adding that if you have the option of flying or catching a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara and return, fly. 40 minutes against 10-12 hours on the bus.

 

[Flashback]

How old flashback?

I did a 10 day trek last October as part of my 18 days in Nepal on a Luxury Escapes tour (nothing luxurious about the tea houses in the mountains). I’m nearly 68, did a lot of training beforehand, found it incredibly hard, but rewarding beyond belief.

I’m not having a go at you, but throwing this comment in for those who might be deterred from high altitude trekking. If I can do it, so too can anyone.

I flew from MEL on SIA in J and Silk without a hitch, stayed a couple of days in Kathmandu. The bus trip to Chitwan was horrendous! The worst I’ve ever had. It took 10 hours to cover 80 or so km. But Chitwan and surrounding areas are worth seeing. I declined the elephant back “safari”. There are good reasons these things have been discontinued around the world.

Pokhara was fantastic, and the obvious starting point for our trek, which took in the incomparable Poon Hill (hill? About 4000 meters...) and other breathtaking towns and hamlets. Very basic accommodation, but decent food and great hospitality.

I won’t steal your thunder any more and look forward to your report. I will finish by adding that if you have the option of flying or catching a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara and return, fly. 40 minutes against 10-12 hours on the bus.

It was said slightly in jest, 30's for me and 40's for Mrs Flashback Her ankle has been giving her some strife, so decided not to over do it.

We are indeed taking the bus from Kathmandu to Chitwan and then from Chitwan to Pokhara. We're treating ourselves with a flight from Pokhara back to Kathmandu at a steal of a price at only $125 USD per person for the 25 minute or so flight

 

[Blinky]

It was said slightly in jest, 30's for me and 40's for Mrs Flashback Her ankle has been giving her some strife, so decided not to over do it.

We are indeed taking the bus from Kathmandu to Chitwan and then from Chitwan to Pokhara. We're treating ourselves with a flight from Pokhara back to Kathmandu at a steal of a price at only $125 USD per person for the 25 minute or so flight

The flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu was less scary than I thought it would be. Nepal flights can be hairy.

I should have added that I went in peak trekking season, so I trust your bus trips will be less onerous.

 

[love_the_life]

This sounds like it will be a wonderful trip. Can’t wait to see the photos.

 

[tgh]

Have oft considered Nepal , but put off by the perceived crowd issue.. looking forward to the report.
As per the new rules no seat selection has been made…

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

How old flashback?
I did a 10 day trek last October as part of my 18 days in Nepal on a Luxury Escapes tour (nothing luxurious about the tea houses in the mountains). I’m nearly 68, did a lot of training beforehand, found it incredibly hard, but rewarding beyond belief.
I’m not having a go at you, but throwing this comment in for those who might be deterred from high altitude trekking. If I can do it, so too can anyone...............

No not everyone can do high altitude !! I for one turn blue and cant breathe at high altitude - and it has happened in Colorado and Quito !

 

[Flashback]

Woke up at 2.30am this morning and figured I may as well get up and start to adjust to the timezone, which is a little under 6 hours. Nepal is GMT+5.45 so a rather odd timezone. Kind of like Adelaide. Plus I can sleep on the flight to HKG anyway! British Summer Time ends tomorrow too so when we arrive home it'll only be a 4hr45min change.

We're aiming to be out the door at 5am anyway to drop off the car back to Hertz LHR and then get the shuttle to T5.

Of course the GBP has been much stronger in recent weeks against the EUR and USD and just as we're about to leave it's dropped (1.29 USD for every GBP). Fortunately I locked in most of our accommodation and flights, activities and USD cash withdrawals (from the USD ATM at LGW) etc. at between 1.32 and 1.33 USD to the £.

 

[Flashback]

After a somewhat restless night of trying to sleep I ended up getting out of bed at 2am, obviously leaving Mrs Flashback to get a few more hours of beauty sleep. After a few catch up episodes of Cops and All American it was time to get ready and be on our way. Clearly my brain still wasn't in full gear as when I took the slip road for T4/T5 to get to the servo to fuel up the rental car, I went the T5 route... being sure that was the one I always took! It was not. No big deal, 6 minutes added onto the journey.

Car dropped back at Hertz and then a quick shuttle ride later we were at the BA First Wing at T5.

Check-in was ...... challenging. I only wanted to check the bags LHR-HKG-BKK so I didn't have to drop them in AMS and then re-check AMS-LHR-HKG-BKK. I expected some challenges there as it's not common, but that was actually the easy part! The difficult part was getting my AMS-LHR boarding pass, according to the check-in agent there was no such flight. Ahhh, yes, there sure was - that's where the booking originates. I went over to the ticketing desk and he chuckled, saying he had no idea why she couldn't print it. I sent Mrs Flashback off through security, so couldn't get her BP.

As usual I popped over to the First Wing security which had a total number of 0 people in line. Through in 30 seconds, although I did have to shout at the security guy to pay attention so I could walk on through the scanner.

Next stop - Concorde Room. Given Mrs Flashback didn't have her BP, we asked if it could be printed. It seems the agent there had the same issue.... but you're only flying LHR-HKG-BKK! Errrrm, nope. All good, left it with her and eventually the BP was delivered to us.

The First lounge was actually really quiet today, unusual for a Saturday morning. Of course we walked through and went to the CCR, designated for real F travellers and those holding a CCR card.

I like the private dining area given the table service etc. although it is a bit odd that you're facing other tables directly so a little awkward. Full english for me and a veggie breakfast for Mrs Flashback, washed down with a glass of LPGS.




Next stop AMS and a quick catch-up with @Mattg

 

[Flashback]

On arrival it was a 15 minute taxi to the gates and then a 10 minute walk to passport control... almost as long as the flight over

We were met with a very pleasant day, 19 degrees and sunshine and people were out in force. We got the train and metro down to De Pijp and stopped for lunch at a really busy little sandwich shop, which had a few seats outside so was good to people watch.



A typically Dutch napkin...


A cake for @JessicaTam ...


The shop ... Le Salonard


Finally the market we strolled through on the way here and back.





Was great to catch up with @Mattg in yet another city and was certainly a far better option than spending 3.5 hours in the rubbish BA lounge.

No queue at security and straight to the gate, boarding was already half way through so we whizzed past the queue in the priority lane and settled into 1A and 1C for the shop shop back to London.

 

[Mattg]

It was nice to catch up and we got very lucky with the weather today in Amsterdam! Usually it's cold and raining here.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[Flashback]

When going through security we didn't have to take our LAGs out or laptop either. That's normal for the middle east but never come across that in Europe.... is that new?

 

[Mattg]

When going through security we didn't have to take our LAGs out or laptop either. That's normal for the middle east but never come across that in Europe.... is that new?

Been like that for a little while in AMS.

 

[Flashback]

So....... just because you fly First class, it doesn't mean you have any class. Or maybe he's in here as a GGL earning 5000/3000 TP in a year? Chap is sitting near us on a Skype call with no headphones, the volume up quite loud. Some people just have no awareness of others!

 

[Flashback]

First time using the Concorde Room today. Underwhelming is quite the understatement..... it makes me glad I didn't spend the extra £1k to go for GGL last year. I don't use LHR or JFK much anyway so no big deal.

I also partook in the massage on offer in the Elemis spa and it was ..... odd. It was described as a 15 minute neck, shoulder and back massage. In reality it was.... this.



There was a lady in there too who worked on my shoulders while the chair did its thing, but yeah, it was all a bit strange! Definitely not what I expected.

Here's the menu in the CCR... I tried the bread and butter pudding but passed on the rest.



And.. the pudding, a strange take on it!

 

[Flashback]

So it turns out Mrs Flashback got a completely different massage. I just checked the original request (which I'm sure I copy/pasted between us) and yep, we asked for the exact same thing. Who knows why we got different. Hers was much better......

 

[craven morehead]

Looking forward to this TR

 

[Blinky]

No not everyone can do high altitude !! I for one turn blue and cant breathe at high altitude - and it has happened in Colorado and Quito !

Fair enough. I’ve been told that fitness is the only variable, but on reflection there must be other factors.

 

[Flashback]

So it turns out Mrs Flashback got a completely different massage. I just checked the original request (which I'm sure I copy/pasted between us) and yep, we asked for the exact same thing. Who knows why we got different. Hers was much better......

So I... enquired as to what happened. They said if you get a chair massage they're supposed to tell you before. That obviously didn't happen. They've booked me in for a massage on the way home, so all good.

I must say I found BA F to be very pleasant, the world's best business class it was not. A decent low level F product, it was. More to follow when we land in Bangkok.....