Nepal

An 18-day trip to Nepal over the Christmas holiday, the longest 18 days ever, with almost a week on the Annapurna circuit climbing up to 4300m above sea level with lots of friends from all over the world: New York, California, Moscow, Hong Kong and Malaysia. We then spent a few days in Pokhara which was followed by a long drive south and west to Bardia National Park where we stayed for a week before spending the last couple of days in Kathmandu.

We travelled to Nepal to yet again visit B and family in Bardia National Park in the far west of the country. We stayed a few days and explored the area, hanging out with the family and saw some more of the development of 'Mr B's Place'. From there we headed to Pokhara to meet up with Paul, Nicole, Claire and Isaac and to go on the Mardi Himal trek, a route developed over the last few years heading up a ridge above the Annapurna Base Camp trek towards the fish-tailed mountain that towers over Pokhara called Machapuchare. From there we headed back to Kathmandu before returning to KL.

With the pandemic over, we took the chance to go back to Nepal for Christmas 2022. This time we were heading to the Langtang area for the first time since the devastating 2015 earthquake that destroyed villages in the region. We last went in 2009 and didn't really know what to expect, all we knew was that the beautiful old village of Langtang was all under a huge landslide. We also remembered how cold it had been and how the lodges were only half open.

There were also two places around 4600m high that we would have to get to with Leo, one was a pass on our route which couldn't be avoided if we wanted to get back to Kathmandu, and the other was the peak of Kyanjin Ri (4650m) at the end of the Langtang valley, so we would need to make sure that Leo was well acclimatised. We were also going with Ian and Sinead from school, Sinead used to be Leo's teacher when he was in Year 2 and Ian had come with us in 2017 when we went to Annapurna.

After the classic Langtang trek, we would follow the Helambu trekking route to get back close to Kathmandu, going over the pass just above Gosainkund and then heading south towards Kathmandu. There were a few places to get out of the mountains at the end of the walk.

A couple of weeks before we left, we contacted a small company in Kathmandu to get us the trekking permits and to take us to the trail-head at Syabru Besi. Before we headed into the mountains, we would need to spend a day in Kathmandu buying clothes for the cold ahead of us. Malaysia isn't the best place to buy children's thermals and down jackets!