Sociologist and journalist based in Kathmandu. MA Sociology, BA Journalism and Mass Communication. Eight years teaching sociology at Campion College Nepal. Editorial Director at The Goreto.
Trekking
The problem with altitude sickness is that the early stages feel like tiredness or a bad night's sleep. By the time it is clearly something else, you are already in difficulty.
Travel
The part of Nepal that faces Sikkim, not Kathmandu, runs on a different clock. Tea estates at 2,000m, Rai villages, and a border that most foreign itineraries stop short of.
Travel Planning
October and November are Nepal's peak months. What nobody mentions is that pre-monsoon March to May is equally good for trekking and significantly less crowded. What each season actually changes about a trip.
Trekking
The permit system for trekking in Nepal changed significantly after 2023. What you need to carry depends on where you're going - and the answer is different for every circuit.
Chitwan
The Tharu were here before the tigers, before the park, before the buffer zones. A culture that survived malaria, displacement, and the tourism economy built on top of it.
Food & Drink
In March, the Ilam tea gardens are at first flush. The estate rows sit at 1,600 metres above sea level, the mist comes in from the east, and the picking season has just begun.
The Nepal-India border is technically invisible. People cross it daily without documents, goods move without declaration, and the towns on either side have more in common with each other than with their respective capitals.
Trekking
Nepal's largest lake sits at 2,990m in a district most travellers never reach. In October, Rara turns a colour that no photograph has ever accurately captured.
culture
For eight days every September, Indra Jatra restructures Kathmandu. Chariot processions, masked dances, and a living goddess carried through streets that have not changed their route in 900 years.
Travel Planning
The guidebook figure for a daily budget in Nepal is outdated. Post-earthquake reconstruction, post-COVID pricing, and the 2024 permit changes have all moved the number. Here is what things actually cost.
Travel
Lo Manthang is a medieval walled city at 3,840 metres, an hour from the Tibetan plateau. The permit system, the drive in from Jomsom, and what you find inside the walls.
culture
Nyatapola Temple in Bhaktapur has five storeys and has never fallen - not in 1934, not in 2015. Built in 1702, engineers still study its construction logic.