Ganesh the coordinator made himself available at all hours for any questions we had leading up to and during the trek. He was very helpful in sourcing airline documents for me when I needed to work with my trip insurance. He also let us borrow hiking poles and sleeping bags completely free of charge.
Shiva our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the terrain and local wildlife, and even helped us customize our trip on the way back to make the days more manageable and got us back earlier than originally anticipated. Shiva would serve us all of our meals at teahouses, bus our tables, fill up our waters, we honestly didn’t have to lift a finger. The teahouses are not super straightforward and all operate differently so this was super helpful. Additionally, he prepared fresh fruit plates for us daily with apples and pomegranates. He’d share water or snacks during the trek if we were dragging. And kept us moving at an easy pace during trekking days, on the right path (not always intuitive) and knew the best places for breaks.
There’s an option to add a porter if you don’t want to carry all your belongings and I would highly recommend that too. Our porter was very careful with our belongings and would bring our things directly to our teahouses rooms each night. He also helped us on the way down from the Gokyo Ri summit, definitely our hardest day, and met us with snacks and drinks. Additionally, we’d go ahead with him during security checkpoints that our guide dealt with to keep us moving. It was great having him has part of our team.
The hike itself was absolutely stunning. I have traveled a lot of seen a ton of gorgeous terrain. I’ve trekked in Patagonia, New Zealand, US National parks, and nothing compares to how beautiful the scenery is in this region. It was unreal, photos do not do it justice. I will never forget this trip – do not hesitate to book!
