Nepal

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Just checked Kayak and found flights from PDX to KTM for less than $1000.   26 hour flight with a six hour layover in SIN.

Once you get there, AirBnBs are cheap, cheap, cheap.   Look what $30 a night gets you:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21605029?location=Nepal%2C%20Kathmandu&adul...

Damn.  Maybe Nepal is a realistic destination.

Any of you folks been there?

I would like to go there one day.

Would take some serious drugs to get thru a 26 hr flight.

 

So my brother just booked his flight for the end of the month and will be over there for three weeks.  Have to work and won't be able to join him.  Doh!   

Crazy thing is that his round trip ticket from LAX was only $390!   Its on a Chinese airline and he has a full day layover in some Chinese city.  He thinks the trade wars might account for the super cheap tix.   

K-K-K-K-K-Katmandu

 

wow nirvana looks like a pretty cheap date. Wonder what the food costs in Nepal? I only know about the hash lol.

>>>>>Wonder what the food costs in Nepal? 

I found this online (113 rupees = $1 USD):

"In Kathmandu and Pokhara, expect to pay:

Drinks, such as a cup of tea: 10-30 Rupees per cup

Chapati (flat bread): 10-30 per piece

Momo (Nepali dumplings): 50-100

Fried eggs: 30 – 50

Samosa (Nepali pastry with spicy filling and fried in oil): 10-30 per piece

If you go to a tourist restaurant, expect to pay three to four times more. The cafes and restaurants for tourists serve a variety of meals, and your average meal with a non-alcoholic beverage may cost 7-20 USD."

So to travel cheaply, avoid the tourist restaurants.  

I've dreamed of going to Nepal for years. Though I think I'd want to break up the flights and spend more time getting there. Pretty sure I wouldn't endure 26hrs very well now that I'm an older traveler. 

Hope you go! 

So didn't end up going, but I am receiving reports and photos from my brother who has been over there for about two weeks now trekking around in the Annapurna mountains in the north central part of the country.  Here is what I am learning:

* Practically everyone who interacts with the tourists speaks English.  Language barrier not a problem.

* Many of the trekking trails that were just footpaths 10 years ago are now roads.  Good for the villagers who finally have easy access to goods and hospitals, but bad for the tourists who get dusted every time a truck rolls by.  I am told that emission standards for vehicles are non-existent, so you get fumed too and the air pollution in the city of Kathmandu is really bad. 

* Hotels and guest houses along the trekking routes go for about $5 a night, but they get you on the food with meals going for $5 too.   Beer is very expensive - $2.50 in town and up to $5 in the mountains.  If you forgo the beer, you can get by on $20 a day.

*  There are a lot of temples and shrines along the route with elaborate mandalas and shiny buddha statutes.  $2 is the standard entrance fee.   Here is an interesting painting from one of the temples:

Nepal 1.jpg

* Although technically illegal, ganja grows along the road, but it is reportedly seedy and not that good.  

Nepal 3.jpg

* There is a lot of diversity in terrain and climate based on altitude.  Tropical-like in the lower valleys but dry and cold in the mountains.  Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain in the world and nobody has climbed the south face:

Nepal 2.jpg

Wish I was there, but had to work.  Someday.   

Wow. Awesome! Keep em coming!

>>>Keep em coming!

Now mind you that I couldn't make it and these are pics my brother is taking and sending me.   He has been over there three weeks and heading back to the states tomorrow.  He flew up to the high country near Tibet and the spent two weeks hiking from there down to the low country, which he says is full of Hindis and a lot like India.

Kathmandu:

Kathmandu.jpg

Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction.  You may remember her from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 

Kali.jpg

I jokingly asked my brother if he saw anyone getting their heart ripped out and he sent me this pic:

Kali 2.jpg

A Nepali beer stand. Like the modest slogan:  "Probably the best Nepalese beer."

Nepal Beer Sign.jpg

Spent 3 months in Nepal in 91. Dirt cheap. Lived on $5=10 a day. Had a cheap room in Tatopani 3 days walk from Pokhara in the Kali Gandaki Gorge. .With the exchange rate it was 25 cents a night for 2 people. Shared it with a girl from London. Great Temple Ball hash. Missed out on a Acid party outside of Kathmandu as I was to exhausted to go. They were giving free bus rides to it. Met 2 dead heads from Oregon at Tatopani later who said they went and was pretty cool. Put on by some old hippy from Europe at an big mansion. I regretted it but I was so tired.

>>>>Lived on $5=10 a day

Nice. That would come out to $8.50 to $19 per day now with inflation.  Still a bargain and budget adventure travel to other countries is a truly worthwhile, mind expanding thing if you can make the time.  Costs some money to get there, but once you are there, you often spend way less money than you would just doing day to day things in the states.

The crazy thing is Airfares are cheaper today than 30 years ago. I always paid $1,000 RT to India. Today I can get there for $700 or less! Everything else is more expensive though. Paid 350 Nepalese rupees($10) for a tola (10-12 grams) of great hash back in 91. Today??

>>>the crazy thing is Airfares are cheaper today than 30 years ago.

No doubt.  That $1000 flight to the subcontinent in 1991 would cost $1,885 today with inflation.  But as you mentioned, you can now get over there for less than $900 round trip. 

Flights are half price compared to years past yet people still bitch and moan about air travel like they are stuffed into an 18th Century slave ship during the middle passage. 

Just checked and can get a RT to India for $518!!  Half the price I ever paid to get there the 4 times I was there. How the hell they can make any money is baffling.

 

$406.00 + $112.31 (taxes) = $518.31

Final total price (taxes & fees included)

 

or pay monthly for as low as $46/month 

SELECT

Air China

Flight 820 

1:55pm

Mon, Feb 3

Newark (EWR)

5:30pm

Tue, Feb 4

Beijing (PEK)

 2h layover in Beijing

Economy

Nonstop - 14h 35m

Air China

Flight 889 

7:30pm

Tue, Feb 4

Beijing (PEK)

1:15am

Wed, Feb 5

Mumbai (BOM)

Economy

Nonstop - 8h 15m

    

Total Trip Time (including layovers): 

24h 50m

Select this departure

Air China

Flight 890 

2:35am

Wed, May 6

Mumbai (BOM)

11:30am

Wed, May 6

Beijing (PEK)

 11h 5m layover in Beijing (long connection)

Economy

Nonstop - 6h 25m

    

Air China

Flight 989 

10:35pm

Wed, May 6

Beijing (PEK)

11:55pm

Wed, May 6

New York (JFK)

Economy

Nonstop - 13h 20m

    

Total Trip Time (including layovers): 

30h 50m

Select this return

Set a price alert for this flight

So are you going back to India?

My brother flew on a Chinese carrier too and he suspects that the trade war had something to do with it.  Perhaps the Chinese are trying to drum up tourist dollars with extra cheap flights?   I did read a news article that they have slashed airport fees for Hong Kong to try to get people to come to the protest ravaged city, but that wouldn't explain the ultra-cheap flights to the rest of the country.

No plans to return to India in the near future as of now. But will definitely get back someday Insallah. Would like to visit a few locals I made friends with and see if they remember me. Plus so many places to see there that I never saw or will see in this lifetime. I'm a very slow traveler who likes to find a comfortable place and chill for a week or month there and then maybe move on or not. Can't see it all so why try. Definitely never make an agenda. Just wing it when I get there. I know I missed out on lot's of places but every day in a new hotel taking buses every other day is exhausting and I prefer to chill awhile and get a vibe of the place and maybe make a few friends too. Spent a month in Cairo and never made it to the Pyramids. Saw them out a bus window though.wink

My only gripe about flying is flying on Boeing planes.  The airbus fleet no matter how old is roomier and inflight entertainment better and more reliable.  I book airbus flights over Boeing every time.

I recently flew Aer Lingus to Munich with a stop in Dublin for $600 round trip.  Lufthansa, KLM, and other big Europe airlines were $1200-$1500.