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More Nepal Trekking Hints
A few more practical tips for trekking in Nepal:
- Drink lots of water or tea. Drink more. Drinking (and pissing) lots of fluid is one of the simplest, yet most effective things you can do to help with acclimatisation.
- Take strong water purification (ie not just the simple Micropur tablets; we use iodine drops which are effective but make for a strange (and strangely addictive) taste). Whatever you take, use it on all non-boiled water you consume.
- Unbreakable plastic drinking bottles (Nalgene style) are fine but aluminium bottles (Sigg style) are a lot better: you can put them on top of the red-hot iron stoves (which burn big patties of dried yak shit) so the water inside is not icy cold. Wimps can even heat them up a little and take them into their sleeping bags.
- Don't take a tent and/or cooking stuff unless you really want to explore areas off the beaten track (in which case you probably don't need my advice anyway).
- The guide book rule of gaining no more than 300m altitude per trekking day once above the 3000m mark does sound a little ridiculous (especially for a fit person). However, it is in fact sensible advice, at least for newcomers during the first few days. Going up faster is certainly possible for many people (we've learned we can do 600m per day without showing any AMS symptoms). Whatever you do, listen to your body.
- Many lodges have solar power these days; Namche and many places above even have a hydroelectric plant. It's often, though not always, possible to recharge batteries for cameras or MP3 players.
- In the old days Namche used to be the last place to get a reliable hot shower. Nowadays, hot showers are a craze (though your definition of “hot” and your host's may not be quite the same). Even if there's a hot shower, the “bathroom” will still be freezing cold, so prepare to wash perfunctorily (or even to go unwashed for a few days).
- Namche Bazar has many internet cafes. Access there is not superfast (it's a satellite-based service, with less than 1mbit) but it's wholly adequate for email. Other villages in the Khumbu are also clamouring for internet access: Dingboche boasts the “Highest Internet Cafe in the World” at around 4400m. (There's also internet access at the Everest Base Camp itself, but it's not yet reliable.)
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$updated from: More Nepal Trekking Hints.htxt Sat 26 Jun 2010 10:55:11 thomasl$