by Scott Coates

When traveling almost everyone stays in a hotel for most of their trip abroad. International hotel brands provide supreme comfort, all the services you could want but often lack local character. Small boutique hotels can be very neat and quirky but sometimes lack the quality and upkeep that one still expects from a hotel and the prices that go along with them. Then there’s the homestay where you bunk down with a local family, usually meaning facilities are very limited and perhaps not comfortable

Smiling Albino adventurers enjoying a break in the Newa Chen courtyard

enough for the average traveler. Enter something different and in between all of these – Newa Chen.

While developing the Nepal Trek & Trail adventure back in 2007, our Nepal Team leader Mads suggested we spend a couple nights in the old capital of Patan and really explore it. A former capital of the country, located in the Kathmandu Valley, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site where every street, alley, corner and building serves as a living museum. Patan was a center where artisans flourished, specializing in word work, smelting, bronze work and along with it, they spent a good deal of time creating intricate and beautiful homes.

Newa Chen is perhaps one of Patan’s best preserved traditional homes. Owned by the Shrestha family, it’s constructed of brick and timber in traditional Malla style, a period where great importance was placed on art and culture. With modern times many of Patan’s traditional homes and those in the greater Kathmandu Valley for that matter have and are being torn down in favor of modern concrete structures. If you’ve been around intricate wood carvings and wooden homes most of your life it seems concrete seems like progress.

An intricate window frame

With its heritage literally being torn down around them, the Patan Tourism Development Organization along with UNESCO set out to protect and promote historical homes and buildings before it was too late. Many Patan homes are in disrepair due to the passing of time, lack of funds to fix them and Kathmandu also lies on an earthquake fault and is prone to occasional tremors, causing damage to poorly built structures. Often tearing down old homes, subdividing the land and building modern concrete ones is a way to earn money. The two organizations approached local families with what they deemed to be heritage homes and proposed a plan: use a low interest loan to restore your home, then develop a way to showcase it to visitors. Rather than being a financial drain on a family, sometimes crumbling structures like Newa Chen were not only refurbished and preserved but quickly became a significant source of family income.

Opened in 1996 after a thorough restoration, Newa Chen welcomes visitors to stay in one of their eight guest rooms. Short doorways force one to bend over or bow when entering, making you pay respect to the home as you enter. Residents share communal spaces, courtyards, dining areas, an attic

Waving from their room

which serves as a lounge and you see family members come and go throughout the day. Gorgeous brickwork, intricate wooden window frames and doors, Patan art and traditional furnishings don’t just share the area’s feel but submerge you right into everyday life. Steep wooden staircases (ladders really) take you through Newa Chen’s three floors which surround the central courtyard which all rooms look out onto. While great attention and effort is put into the preserving the past, they’ve thoughtfully installed such modern amenities as sit down toilets and nice hot showers, ensuring you’ll want to come home at the end of a day exploring.

Newa Chen is one of the most interesting and enjoyable places I’ve ever stayed. I’ve brought my parents there for the experience and we’re thrilled to have it as part of our special Jazzmandu Grand Slam adventure starting on October 28, 2010. In a world cluttered with boring, overpriced, and soulless hotels, Newa Chen is successfully blazing new trails and setting a new standard.

by Scott Coates

A gig at a previous Jazzmandu

In October 2006 I arrived in Kathmandu for the inaugural installment of the Nepal Grand Slam, our first trip outside Thailand. That first night, Mads, our Nepal Team member extraordinaire took me just outside the city proper to the Gorkhana Forest Resort and a hotel which was then a le Meridien for a concert that was part of Jazzmandu 2006. It’s still one of my favorite memories of Nepal after many trips and four years later.

Started in 2003, the festival is entering its sixth installment having missed a couple years here and there. The brainchild of Chhedup Bomzan of The Upstairs Jazz Bar, one of Kathmandu’s top spots to drink, eat, listen and be merry, the festival has a pretty cool and straightforward mission statement: To put Kathmandu on the International Jazz Circuit.

A gig at Patan

The festival is most of all a collection of musicians, most not well known, who love music, travel and Nepal. Venues range from small – Upstairs Bar to larger but intimate like the Patan Museum. It’s the venues that really make Jazzmandu special. Taking in a concert at a venue that’s hundreds of years old, sitting atop a small brick wall that was built by hand as temple roofs gleam in the background is something that can only be in Nepal.

Having been born in 1973 I missed out on large concerts like Woodstock and the collection of interesting people who met at such events. My one night at Jazzmandu is the closest I’ve ever been to that. That night at Gorkhana I met diplomats, hotel owners, international reporters, NGO workers, locals and musicians all together for the love of music, the country and the company of others. It was one of the friendliest atmospheres I’ve ever known.

A gig at Upstairs Bar

Having missed a year in 2009, Jazzmandu 2010 is on track for October 28-November 2 and Smiling Albino plans to be there. We’re currently modifying the Nepal Grand Slam for a special one-time installment that will take guests to all the gigs, then on a brand new trek in the Annapurna Range. In addition we’ll also be offering a shorter six-day trip that will concentrate on Jazzmandu and sites in the Kathmandu Valley. This event is simply too good to miss and something to be part of before it’s a major stop on the international jazz circuit.

Jazzmandu’s founder Chhedup has been driving Smiling Albino guests around the capital on his Royal Enfield motorcycle since our first trip, has been an outstanding host to us at Upstairs Bar and has guaranteed this year’s festival is going to be the best yet.

Keep your eyes peeled on our website for these two special trips which are sure to sell-out quickly. I hope to see you there!

Photos courtesy of: http://jazzmandu.org.

by Scott Coates

If you’d told me in April 2006 that Smiling Albino would be leading trips in Nepal before the end of the year I’d have told you you’re crazy. At that time I was setting off for a personal holiday (run by someone else so I could relax) cycling from Lhasa, Tibet to Mount Everest and on to Kathmandu, Nepal. During the process of finding a company to travel with I met an interesting Danish guy who’d lived in Nepal

A happy camper

for 10 years. Little did I know this would be the start of a very good relationship and result in him becoming a member of the Smiling Albino Team.

Mads started traveling when he was 19-years-old, heading to South Africa where he worked for a bit over a year. The thought of settling down back at home didn’t yet appeal so he continued traveling, headed to SE Asia and eventually ended up in Nepal. His love affair with the country was immediate. He worked as a trip leader for a number of travel companies for years but felt he could offer better-value, more authentic trips on his own. He and a few like-minded friends formed a company and off they went. Much like Smiling Albino they focused on custom-made experiences that were in lesser-known locations, great customer service, comfortable accommodations and multi-activity/sport trips.

Our campsite on a gorgeous ridge

When Mads and I started emailing in November 2005 about a possible Tibet trip with his company his emails struck me – they were rather similar to Smiling Albino’s. His tone was comparable as were his philosophies about travel and the industry in general. Emails led to phone calls and we continued to talk regularly. It was decided in February 2006 that we should meet. On his way back from leading a trip in Sri Lanka he flew to Bangkok and we had a meeting from 23:00-03:00. Talk of serviced camping got me really excited. The coming weeks saw us brainstorm about a first-of-its-kind adventure and eight months later we launched the Nepal Grand Slam with Mads being a full-fledged Albino!

One of the parts of the Grand Slam that got me excited from first mention was the full service camping during the trekking portion of the trip. Being Canadian I camped a lot as a kid and it’s an activity I remember fondly but don’t get to enjoy too much in SE Asia due to the heat. More importantly, it’s not very often you get to camp, hike point-to-point with a full team doing the hard work of carrying the main gear, setting up, tearing down, cooking meals and tending to your every whim.  This is truly a must experience way to travel.

The first time I partook in a full service camping trip it took a couple days to feel comfortable. Huffing and puffing walking up a mountain with only a small daypack on my back hardly seemed fair while seeing our porters haul 30kg loads, smiling all the way. Lunch was prepared by a team of no less than four persons while we lazed in a terraced field sipping Nepali tea and nibbling on cookies. At the end of the day it was a similar scene – sipping tea, eating treats and watching the crew set up our tents, boil water for washing and preparing an amazing multi-course hot meal. The next morning I was woken to the sound of a crew member offering me a cup of tea through the door of the tent and a basin of warm water for washing. While eating a delicious and nutritious breakfast of oatmeal, omelets and toast the crew tore tents and camp down, strapped them to their backs and set off along the trail.

Mads and I chatted about how difficult the crew’s jobs are, how hard they work and how lazy I felt watching them do it while enjoying myself. After some discussion (there’s a good deal of time to chat/think on the trail) he sold me on the idea that Nepal is a country with high unemployment and little opportunity in rural areas to earn hard currency. Portering is a career in Nepal and has been for hundreds of years. Roads are a very recent thing and most people live in mountainous areas where commuting and transporting goods by foot is the only means possible. Not only do trekking groups provide employment to locals, but they instill a deep sense of pride in the porters themselves. After all, they carry the majority of the weight and do all the work while watching visitors huff and puff in high-tech gear and flake out at every opportunity. Nepalese are truly strong, hard working, resilient people and showcasing their work ethic and strength is something they enjoy and are proud of.

Since my first trek in Nepal I don’t feel guilty while trekking and now take time to openly marvel at the trekking crew’s strength, talent and impressive work ethic. It truly is remarkable and something to be seen and respected.

Check out and sign-on for the Nepal Grand Slam and/or Nepal Trek & Trail.

by Scott Coates

I met David Allardice, a native of New Zealand, in March 2007. He was behind the bar at The Last Resort, a tented camp not far from the Nepal-Tibet border, which he conceived, built and owns. It’s a real oasis of relaxation with an interesting twist – to get in you must cross a small suspension bridge that dangles 160m above a raging river. When David leased the land to build his Resort there was one small problem – how to get across?

Quite a construction

A white water paddling pioneer and all around adventure man a bridge seemed to be the solution. Buy how to get the first piece of rope across an almost 200m gorge? The solution – he made a contest for local kids to see who could get a piece of thread across. One boy used a kite, successfully won the prize and larger pieces of string, rope and steel were moved across. The result is not only an awesome bridge to a cool resort, but a foot expressway that has cut local villagers’ commute time down by four hours. Now having such a tall bridge David decided all that was missing was a bungee jump and he built that too (he was the first to jump). It remains one of the world’s great bungee jumps.

Fast forward to 2008 – David was telling me about a new venture he was putting together in Thailand. It would be the first of its kind in the region but that’s all he could tell me. Flight of the Gibbon, by Tree Top Asia opened

Going in for a landing

their Chiang Mai, Thailand location soon thereafter and introduced canopy adventures to the kingdom. I met David at the location, had a go and was impressed. Not only was it thrilling to zip from tree-to-tree, in the thick of the canopy, but it’s an eco friendly outing. This attraction quickly shot to the top of must do lists on travel sites like Trip Advisor. Knowing they were on to a good thing, Tree Top Asia recently opened their second location midway between Bangkok and the seaside resort of Pattaya.

Located in Khao Kiew National Park, I’m guessing this Flight of the Gibbon location is everything David and his team wanted the experience to be after making the Chiang Mai one and learning from their first go. While fun, the northern zipline is not terribly long and would be a bit of a disappointment to someone who has done large ziplines in other parts of the world. The Khao

The journey down at the end

Kiew location is large – very large. Set amongst lush jungle atop the mountain, this course takes about three full hours to run. The longest line is 300m and a combination of sky bridges, abseiling locations and lots and lots of spectacular ziplines make this a seriously fun outing. It’s so nice to see nature become the attraction in a country that too often focuses on jet skis, ATVs and 4×4 adventures.

The Smiling Albino Office Team thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Flight of the Gibbon, Khao Kiew. If you’re looking for something different, fun and with great views to get you out of the big city for a day, drop us an email and we’ll make it happen.

by Daniel Fraser

I have had my trip designer’s hat on several times again the past few months. It has been fantastic and has mostly involved testing bike rides or motorcycle routes or finding scenic detours, squeezing hotel pillows, sampling spring rolls, tasting hotel coffee or grilling the local bartender on how to get the keys to the city.

A nice footpath in northern Thailand

Many of our trips involve hikes and bicycle rides, some as short as an hour and others multiple days. Specifically I have been surveying various hike possibilities lately in far flung places like Isaan (NE Thailand), central Laos, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and more recently in northern, central, and southern Vietnam. I have driven several trekking guides to the point of insanity and we’ve gone back to the drawing board multiple times. I admit that at times I have struggled to explain exactly what I am or am not looking for when it comes to a good hike or bike ride or any day excursion for that matter. So, I’ve come up with a simple quick-list of qualifications that, say a hike must have to get the Smiling Albino stamp of approval.

I’ve omitted the obvious things like ‘carry proper supplies’, or ‘be a friend to nature’, etc., as that surely has been covered already.

Following, in no particular order, are a few steering points that I’ve used when building hikes or bike rides (from 1-8hrs) for Smiling Albino:

1 – Graceful Transitions
This means ideally no driving 45-minutes just to get to the starting point of a hike, or an hour in a van back to the resort when it is finished. Obviously in some regions this isn’t possible, but in the case where any transfer is necessary the hike must be extra special to justify it. Good flow is vital to a perfect holiday, and graceless transitions can upset the otherwise good rhythm of your trip. Now, if the hike absolutely necessitates a commute at the start or finish, or both, then an effort should be made to involve alternative means to get there rather or back than a van ride, such as a bicycle, boat, or even motorcycle taxi. Maintaining good flow is as important to an adventure as the hotels and meals. We are currently planning a couple of hikes in central Vietnam in which we transfer to the start point by a local motorcycle touring club and finish the hike a stone’s throw from a hillside pub – that’s good flow.

2 – Modifiable
As we would like several different types of our guests to enjoy a great hike, it should be modifiable so that Olympian guests can get their burn if so desired, or the leisure stroller can feel like they got what they were after. Shortcuts, scenic routes, fun detours and strategic stops make this possible.

3 – Higher Purpose
Besides a walk in the woods, what is the purpose of the hike?
Smiling Albino does a couple of fantastic hikes in northern Thailand where there is a relevant sub-theme to the hike. We follow village trails once used by smugglers in the former opium trade and use the time discuss the eradication struggles, and witness the new agricultural alternatives the villagers are cultivating. Throughout the hike we’ll discuss the role opium played in the region and how everyone from the Chinese government to the CIA had their direct influence on the villages that feature in the hike.

Not that wandering in the woods and quoting Walt Whitman alone wouldn’t be fulfilling enough, but surely a hike’s purpose, other than getting back to nature and a bit of a workout, must be to connect the hiker with the location. Additionally, bonus points if the hike follows the path of a historic battle, or even traces the migration of a people to a new settlement and the reasons behind it.
A great trip needs multiple layers of connectivity to truly be impactful.

4 – No logging roads or constructions sites!
Although one can’t deny you are still out in nature and far from the city

A guide gives blankets to a local in northern Thailand

streets, walking down logging roads or through forest construction sites or mega agro-projects just doesn’t fill the soul’s need for tree-hugging granola moments of bliss. I once did a hike that followed a series of logging roads until we reached a giant gravel quarry, where we had lunch and observed heavy machinery crunch rocks. Needless to say it didn’t make the cut for SA trips.

5 – No staged village visits
For too long in SE Asia hikers have been subjected to the trumped up ‘remote village visit’. Truth is most of the villages accessible on a day hike are not that remote, and as we know unfortunately some villages are incentivized to stage some of their tribal authenticity. I have no problem with being part of equitable fair exchanges between groups (fruit or blankets or basic medical materials in exchange for a visit to a house for a whiskey with the local shaman or a cigar with the village chief, etc.), but to make the villagers themselves the focus of the hike ultimately creates an awkward mercenary exchange in which the visitor is unknowingly paying for village behaviour to appear a certain way to fulfill his/her expectations. Professor Erik Cohen has a great series of white papers on this topic in his White Lotus books publication.
So, only subtle village visits please, and no cultural dance shows unless they were happening that day regardless of our passing through, and no human-zoo gawking and romanticising the moment. Pass through, learn a bit about them, provide a fair exchange if appropriate, and continue with getting back to nature.

6 – Bush, Plant, Bug, Bird
At least some basic learning about flora and fauna and the types of crops growing in the area is needed. Now, most guests that join our short hikes on our Thailand trips or our longer hikes on our Nepal/Tibet trips are not looking for a comprehensive breakdown of species and biodiversity in the region, but they would at least like to learn about a few crops, bushes, plants and other things along the way.
“Hey is that morning glory”? “Yes, and we’ll have some tonight.” “Cool”. Or, “Hey, can you smoke that?” “No, it is pumpkin.”

7 – Snack
Depending on the length of the hike, appropriate food at an appropriate place can’t be underestimated. I was once on a hike (before Smiling Albino existed) and we had a picnic lunch of rice in a box served under a bridge. Zero points for ambiance – but surely even some basic fruit and nuts under the canopy of the jungle would have tied us over until dinner?

8 – Transcendence (in a hiker’s context)
Ideally the hike actually brings you from one place to another, or, in a perfect world, the hike is part of a larger experience carefully woven into the day. For example, sometimes we do a short afternoon kayaking venture down a river in northern Thailand. If the guests are up for it, then we offer the alternative to hike back to the resort rather than a longtail boat (5km or less) just for a change of scenery. In this case the hike is woven into the ongoing events of the day and becomes part of the kayak trip, which becomes part of getting back to the resort. The activities combine to form an afternoon’s experience which goes beyond the simple joy of each element itself. This adds to the vital ingredient in any adventure: flow. Re-arranging the dots, as opposed to simply connecting them, enables our guests to hike right back up to their rooms after a trek in the woods and a paddle down the river. No vans or graceless transfers. That’s some good flow.

9 – Be a friend to local communities
This is vague of course, but it means that there should be some higher learning that the guests gain about the area and the people. A visit to a local school can be a great way for a few moments of innocent cultural exchange, or throwing Frisbee for a few minutes with children from a rural village. No handing out candies or clamouring for photos, just some dignified human-to-human interaction.

10 – Work-out
Lastly, if a hike isn’t strenuous enough to warrant a cold beer immediately upon completion, go back to the woods and start again. You’ve at least got to work up a sweat, or use some muscles that have been dormant for a while, or push yourself even slightly so that that beer at the end feels like you earned it.

Walking with locals in the mountains along the Nepal-Tibet border

11- Bonus
A great company will prepare cold beer or your favourite beverage of choice at the end of a hike (unless of course operating a vehicle is still required afterwards).

This isn’t a lecture and no travel company is perfect, but having had my trip design hat on several times the past few months I was not able to find what I was looking for just by using terms like ‘flow”, “transcendence”, “graceful transitions” or “connectivity”. So, I jotted down the basic thoughts which have governed my approach to hikes and I realized the way we approach things at SA involves a great deal more analysis than most people realize. Plus we’re very high maintenance. The small details are enormous.

by Scott Coates

Smiling Albino launched adventures in Nepal in October 2006. During the development of our first trip there, the Nepal Grand Slam, and subsequent trips like the Nepal Trek and Trail, I’ve been lucky enough to spend about eight months in the country over the last four years.

A nation steeped in tradition, Nepal is a true natural melting pot as the Mongoloid people of the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau have meet, traded and mixed with the Caucasoid people of the lower Indian subcontinent in the Kathmandu Valley (1,350m) for thousands of years. As a result you have a people that are very diverse in their appearance, religion and cuisines. In 1950 the doors to this former kingdom swung open to foreign visitors and with it came an influx of hippie travelers in the 1970s. Foreigners brought with them their love of food from home and today Kathmandu and its Thamel district, home base for most travelers, is a hot bed of food and drink from around the globe.
I never would have dreamed before visiting that my favorite pizza would be found in Kathmandu or that some of the best brownies can be found here too.

Here are some of my favorite spots to eat, snack and drink in Kathmandu:

Snacking
Helena’s: Rooftop patios are a staple in Kathmandu. A wonderful place to get a feeling for the layout of the city, few buildings are more than six stories high and there’s a wide range of patios to chose from. One of my favorites is Helena’s due to it being the highest in the Thamel area at 6.5 stories. You may want to rope-off or use oxygen on your way up the stairs but once you’ve summitted you’re in for a treat. Views of the Kathmandu valley abound, they have a full menu, but it’s cold beer and brownies that with a deck of playing cards that keep me coming back.

The Best Finger Chips: I’m not sure if this is the actual name of the food counter, but it’s the main point you’ll notice on their sign. Located near the Bamboo Restaurant, not so far from the Courtyard Hotel, this little side-of-the-alley-counter is a favorite with locals wanting some fast, fried snacks. Their French Fries are great, with a choice of a dozen neat sauces – my favorite being Devil sauce. Grab a medium bag of fries, cold beer, newspaper and enjoy.

A sketch of Mike's

Breakfast
Mike’s Breakfast: Located in the heart of the city in a quiet, walled-compound, Mike’s was started by you guessed it, Mike. He’s no longer with us, but left a great place to relax and enjoy a meal, especially breakfast. Favorites are the breakfast hash and breakfast burrito. Both sure bets to fill your stomach and get the day going. The environment is supremely relaxing, coffee refills abundant and the staff has been there forever. They also have a branch along the lake in Pokhara. Pick up Mike’s cookbook for an interesting history/perspective on the country.

Pizza
The Roadhouse: Thin crust pizza gets no better than at the Roadhouse. Started by a group of Nepalese restaurateurs some years ago, they specialize in western fare and pizzas, freshly baked in their wood-fired oven. They now have four branches in the Kathmandu Valley and I’ve never been disappointed. Their Thamel location is very near Helena’s.
My favorite is pick four toppings: bacon, jalapeños, capsicum and pepperoni.

Chillin’
The Courtyard Hotel: I’m charmed by nice owners and Poujean is one of the country’s best. A dashing Nepalese guy, he was schooled in Seattle and came back to his homeland around 2000 to remodel and run his family’s hotel. Cool rooms make it a great place to stay, but it’s their large courtyard with pillows that provide a perfect escape from bustling Thamel. In the day try a masala tea and bowl of Tukpa soup and in the evening, saunter into the very stylish and homey lounge for a range of top-shelf spirits. They also have free wifi which works here and there (this is Nepal).

Upstairs Bar: Chedup, Upstairs’ owner, is a legend in his own time. The owner of a rafting company as well as Kathmandu’s coolest bar, you’ll see him here most nights – he’s the guy with the long dreadlocks. Sit at picnic tables, on pillows on the floor or for something really interesting have a peak behind the green door. Expats in the know head here for generous pours, friendly conversation, the best Momos (Tibetan dumplings) in the city and good live music on Wednesdays and Fridays. Sting even drops by when he’s in town. You’ll find it in a small alley on Lazimpat Rd.

Sam’s Bar: A locals’ haunt and favorite of world-class climbers in the area, Sam’s is about as laid back, cool and central in Thamel as it gets. You’ll see the sign on the side of the road, then head upstairs to their cool patio. Popcorn is free, service great and there’s always lots of neat people to meet. It’s also one of the latest operating bars in the area. If you show up late and it looks closed, have a quiet wander inside to be sure as they’re pretty stealth but usually still serving.

Indian
Indian curries, Nan bread and other staples can be found almost anywhere in Kathmandu but my favorites are two simple places about 2km from Thamel on Lazimpat Rd.

Tandori Hut: If cheap plastic tables and chairs are your thing, then you’ll love it here. Truly a locals’ pl.ace, there’s nothing fancy here, but the Chicken Tikka Masala curry is to die for and a meal for two with a couple beer will only set you back $10US. I must eat here each and every time I visit the city.

Bahri: Opened in 2008, it’s quickly become a favorite with well-healed

Mike's cookbook

Nepalese and those in the know. Various rooms in a house provide a variety of environments and the food is tops. The Palak Paneer is to die for and the prices very reasonable too. You can’t go wrong here.

Juice
Juice: That’s all the sign says, but they do a great job of it. Located in Thamel, also near the Bamboo restaurant and not far from the Courtyard Hotel, you’ll find this little shop next to an antique shop and there’re lots of fruits to choose from. Pick one or a couple and they’ll blend it into a tasty beverage.

All this typing has got me dying to go back to Kathmandu.
Book a Smiling Albino Nepal adventure and taste for yourself!

by Bank Takaeng

If you are a tea taster type. The unique flavour of Nepali tea is something you shouldn’t miss!

Ingredients:
Tea leaves (doesn’t need to be fancy tea) – 1 tablespoon/ 50 ml.
Milk – 1 cup/ 240 ml.
Water – 1 cup/ 240 ml.
Sugar – 1-2 tablespoons/ 50-100 ml.
Add spices to taste – Cardamom, Cloves, Ginger, Black pepper
To make it really fancy you can add Aniseed or Cinnamon

Preparation:

• Place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute or so, depending on how strong you like the flavours. Strain into two tea cups and enjoy with a friend!

This is for serving two people.

Note:
Have fun experimenting the mix of spices to find the flavour that suits you. The basic Nepali chiyaa (that people get on the trekking trail with us) is just made from milk, water, tea and lots of sugar. The spices make it extra special! The pepper is best added in winter when it’s cold.

by Scott Coates

The world first saw bungy jumping (can also be spelled bungee) courtesy of Sir David Attenborough when he and a film crew visited Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, in 1950. They captured young men hurling themselves from a crude tower with vines tied around their ankles. The idea was to survive and prove one’s bravery, passing into manhood.
Fast forward 50 years or so and there are jumping platforms around the world. Every couple of years a new one opens as the highest, longest, from the highest helicopter, staking its claim in the record books for a couple years.

Greg takes the plunge at The Last Resort

I first jumped from the original commercial bungy at Kawarau Bridge in New Zealand back in 1992. At 43m high it was a mind bender and for whatever reason (I was young and stupid I think) I did it naked on a dare. Boy was my mom impressed!
Two days later a jump at the 102m Pipeline really blew me away. I grew up a bit and avoided long plunges for a number of years until living in Thailand in 2002 I was offered a free jump by one of our guides who was working at a bungy jump in Chiang Mai. I wasn’t interested (scared) but couldn’t say “no” to an employee. Many years went by and I found myself in Nepal after cycling through Tibet and Mt. Everest in 2006. We were cycling south from the Tibet-Nepal border and our guide mentioned we would see a bridge in 10km, to cross it and we would find our tented camp at The Last Resort. What he didn’t mention was that the bridge is a major suspension bridge, crossable only by foot and is 160m above a raging river. Talk about an interesting entrance to your lodgings. And the kicker – there’s a bungy jump from it.

Student using The Last Resort's bridge to return home

That evening we gazed at the bridge, contemplated the 140m plunge and one of our group of four committed to doing it the next morning. Having previously bungeed I thought I had a perfectly good out. I encouraged those who’d never done it to give it a go, truly believing that doing it from an outdoor structure in a beautiful setting was the way to go. Over breakfast the next morning my friend (not sure after this) informed me that he’d already paid for me to jump too. He wasn’t going to jump alone. I was terrified. You’d think after doing it once you wouldn’t be scared but that wasn’t the case. If anything I’ve been more scared each time I’ve taken the plunge (six times now). Just walking across the bridge is terrifying. Strapped in, double-checking with the Bungy Master (what a job title) that everything was good to go, I inched out onto the jumping platform. He started to chat with me, talking about how the countdown would work and all I wanted to do was get off that platform. Walking out on to it was very scary and once I was there I wanted it to be over – off I went. What a long fall. There’s time to think about things as you fall, dropping for almost three seconds before the cord kicks in. I’m told I screamed the entire way down.

The author contemplating life before a jump in Nepal

I’ve been lucky enough to return to The Last Resort a number of times while leading trips in Nepal and one evening chatted with the jump’s designer David. Back in 1999 he constructed the bridge for roughly $100,000US, truly an awesome feat, paving (or bridging) the way to his tented camp. It also had a great benefit for locals whose commute across was reduced from five hours to 30 seconds. David, co-developer Bishnu and some others built, tested, dropped weighted items from the bridge until it was time for a human to try…and David was that human. He survived and thousands have since taken the plunge, including a good number of Smiling Albino guests who’ve stayed at The Last Resort during the Nepal Trek & Trail.

While bungy jumping isn’t for everyone and I’m not sure I will do it again (it’s really scary), it is something every adventurous soul should try once. It will never get easier to throw yourself off a perfectly good bridge with a large rubber band around your ankles, but the rush is something that can’t be duplicated. The Last Resort’s bungy is without a doubt the highest I’ve been off and by far in the most beautiful setting. Let Smiling Albino take you there!

by Scott Coates

While looking at our Nepal Adventures and photos from travelers there, a few shots from my March 2009 visit with my parents caught my attention. These were shot in Patan, just outside Kathmandu. Enjoy!

Rashita working at Newa Chen, Patan

Don & Sharon looking out from their room at Newa Chen

Sharon resting by her window at Newa Chen

Checking out Patan's sites

Peering out her window

A very neat temple's stupa

Patan's Durbar Square

by Scott Coates

The cure it seems to riding the world of bribes is pants without pockets.
A recent BBC online story told of how authorities at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan Airport are issuing pants without pockets to airport staff. It seems there have been a high number of complaints by Nepalis that workers at the airport have been accepting/requesting bribes, almost exclusively from Nepalis, not tourists, over the last few months.

Be sure to wear your pants

Due to the stagnant economy in Nepal, many people, mostly men, seek employment in the Middle East, where they can earn better wages, send funds home and visit occasionally. The average Nepali makes $1,100US/year and finding a way to get a little extra is appealing, especially when you work at the airport, seeing people coming and going with neat things in-hand.

During my many visits to Nepal, you see lots and lots of television sets and other high-tech good being brought in by Nepali workers returning home from a stint abroad. These goods are not only available outside the country but much less expensive than in this land-locked, Himalayan country. My guess would be the temptation for Customs officers to not make a bit of money on a spontaneous ‘import tax’ is likely the main cause of the bribes. I can also say that during my many visits to Nepal and going through Immigration at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan Airport, I have never been asked for money and only received most polite service. Nor have I ever heard of foreigners being asked for bribes – ever.

It must be stressful to return to your home country and have to contend with Immigration and Customs officials looking to make some extra Rupees from their countrymen. This is likely not much different than how goods get into a lot of countries but authorities proposing pants without pockets for airport staff seems a bit ridiculous. Where will one keep their wallet, house keys, money for lunch and mobile phone? Is this really going to improve the problem, rather than say educating airport staff of the dangers of accepting bribes, boosting their wages a bit and laying out a harsh penalty for those who accept bribes? Then again no one would get new pants and the people who make pants would have less work. What do you think the chances are someone at the top of the airport staff also has a company that makes pants?

So, next time you go to Nepal and enter via the country’s main airport you’ll see hands by their sides and certainly no bribes happening. To pants without pockets!