Transportation in Nepal

I%26#39;m interested in the reliablity of transport in Nepal. I%26#39;m doing a week there and want to hike/trek the odd day or so. I notice that people can trek from teahouse to teahouse but if one wants to save time can s/he jump on a cheap bus on a day instead? What about hitching. I%26#39;ve hitched over most of southern Africa, is hitching legal or possible in Nepal?

Transportation in Nepal

The transportation is quite reliable. But the problem that you might encounter is the obstruction to the roads due to protests organized for all sorts of reason- political to road accidents.

Trekking in the popular routes, you might not have access to roads to shorten your trekking.

Hitching is not illegal and it depends on person to person whether they will stop their private vehicles for you. People are quite receptive about the tourists and they might do that.

Transportation in Nepal

I guess you could call the bus transport reliable--it does eventually get you where you%26#39;re going. Pretty much every bus trip we did was %26#39;memorable%26#39; in some way--due to mechanical problems, running out of fuel, attempting to pass another bus on a narrow mountain road, etc. It would be a good idea to bring earplugs on the bus with you, as they tend to play loud music through poor-quality speakers and honk their horns a lot.

As above, most of the main multi-day trekking routes are through the parts of the country where there are no roads. The trekking routes are the main transportation links! However in some places you may be able to pay someone to take you on their horse or donkey.

Hi,

If youre doing a tea house trek on most routes you will be negotiating a goat like track so definitely catching any form of transport is impossible on these treks. We did however see a poor girl with a broken leg enduring a very uncomfortable donkey ride down the mountain.

KTM is easy to get around. Thamel is the main back packing area and is easy to walk around. Taxis for further sight seeing are cheap, so are guides if you want to learn more. Im sure hitching is fine, I think the odd lorry would pick you up or you could pay a few dollars to jump on the back of one of the thousands of bikes.

Planes are cheap but unreliable. Book ahead and arrive early for your flight. You will need to fly to different areas to begin trekking. Eg~ a 1 hr flight KTM-Pokhora to begin an Annapurna trek is about USD100 one way or to Everest, which we will be doing in Oct is costing USD80 one way.

Tea house trekking is awesome cos you can go as little or as far as you like each day and choose your preferred teahouse on arrival. They serve amazing food and have basic single bed rooms.

There are great local companies in Nepal that can organise your trek and all your gear and a porter and sherpa at only a few days notice if you prefer not to book ahead. And sharing the cost with other travellers will make it even cheaper.

Happy trekking~ youll love Neapl,

Donna.