Himalayas

Panorama from Nepal’s Island Peak

In 2011, an Embark group climbed Imja Tse, also known as Island Peak, a 20,305-foot Himalayan “trekking peak.” This doesn’t mean it’s a strict “walk-up,” but it is a challenging but safe summit that can be climbed in just five days. It has a reputation for attracting beginner and expert climbers alike.

Our very own Jim Ronning shot a 360-degree panorama from the summit of Island Peak, so here it is for inspiration. If you love trekking and climbing — if you want to visit Everest Base Camp and climb a Himalayan peak on the same trip — consider climbing Island Peak.

{ 0 comments }

Female Trekking Guides in Nepal

A big hat tip to the Chhetri sisters of Nepal, pioneer women in the field of Nepalese trekking guides.

It’s a lot of work to haul loads and guide clients up and down the Himalayas — work that has long been reserved for men. One of the sisters heard a story about female trekking clients being harassed by their drunken male guides, so they started the Chhetri Sisters Trekking Company, operated by women and offering services to female travelers.

As this story tells us, the sisters were led, eventually, to the founding of Empowering Women of Nepal, which offers free trekking guide training to women. EWN has trained more 16,000 women to be guides so far. They are also in the business of rescuing children from forced-labor situations.

So please read the story for their inspiring tale, and let’s all support the ladies of Nepal trekking!

{ 0 comments }

Mustang Trekking:
Remote, Rare, and Radiant

Trekking in Mustang is like being at sea, only with more dust. There’s an endless spaciousness, punctuated by cathedral columns, crumbling cliffs and towers of rock.

In the rain shadow of the Himalayas, north of the Annapurna range and south of the Tibetan Plateau, Mustang has been part of Nepal since the late 18th century but has more in common with Tibet, which surrounds it on three sides.

Alluring, no? We found these lovely descriptions in this article from an Australian newspaper, describing a two-week trek to Upper Mustang. It goes on to say that only about 2,000 trekkers visit Upper Mustang each year, which it calls “a drop in the ocean of 70,000 trekkers visiting Nepal every year.”

Read on, and you’ll come across more fine prose like this:

Then there are the villages – green and lovely oases such as Ghami, where we stop for lunch on day four, which is all autumn-leafed poplars, white-walled courtyards, fluttering prayer flags and pink hollyhocks.

At Embark, we dream of places like Mustang – wild, remote places with fascinating culture and history, not to mention amazing beauty and fantastic trekking opportunities. Our Mustang trek “More Tibetan Than Tibet” is a perfect introduction to this high, lonesome place.

{ 0 comments }

Homestays in Nepal: Our Kind of Travel

The Toronto Sun has a story that captures the essence of how we like to travel in Nepal: Homestays in a local village.

We at Embark love adventure, of course, but a big part of what we do is interacting with the locals on a level most tourists only dream of. We also believe in the places we visit and make every effort to give back to the local community.

In this case, homestays give visitors a chance to, as the story puts it, “stay with locals, eat locally grown food in their kitchen and even cook meals yourself.”

“We live like a family sitting and eating together with the guests. We discuss even personal matters and crack jokes with them as friends,” one man said.

Their motto is ”‘Come as guests, go as friends.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

The best part is, in the village profiled in the story, only 400 of the 11,000 homestay guests last year were non-Nepali. What an opportunity to really see the local culture on a personal level!

So good for the folks in Ghalegaun, and thanks to the folks at the Sun for telling is about this.

{ 0 comments }

Photo Talent + Nepal = Bliss

We do love sitting around looking at pictures of beautiful places like Nepal. If we can’t be off climbing or trekking in the Himalayas, at least we can lose ourselves in images of that beautiful country.

In fact, here’s a stupendous collection of photos of Nepal right here. Scroll down a bit, click on “Launch Slideshow,” kick back, and prepare to be amazed.

But let’s say you want to travel to Nepal and take your own pictures. A fine idea, we say. We can help with traveling to Nepal, and this fantastic website has advice for photographers going there. We’re not necessarily photography experts, but if that site can help you take photos like the ones on there, you’ll be good to go.

Just make sure you share some with us when you get back. We do love pictures of Nepal …

{ 0 comments }

Tips for Responsible Travel

At Embark, we think of travel as an adventure. But we also want to do it right: that is, we want to visit cultures but not affect them negatively; we want to explore natural environments without contributing to their demise; and we want to see the world while leaving behind a world worth seeing.

That’s why we enjoyed this article from a Filipino newspaper (thank you, Internet!) from an Adventure and Responsible Tourism Conference in, appropriately enough, Bhutan. The article quotes the keynote speaker as offering these seven tips for moving from “gawking tourist” to responsible traveler.

1. Make careful choices about the frequency, length and location of your trip

2. Learn to explore by foot

3. Select suppliers whose actions show that they run “places that care” for the environment, the employees, the host community as well as for the guest and investor.

4. Use transport modes that run on alternative energy

5. Buy food and souvenirs that are sourced and made by local residents, preferably using skills at risk of disappearing, and the services of local guides

6. Demonstrate humble curiosity—a conscious traveler will take the time to learn more about the community, the people and issues before, during and after their trips

7. Learn and respect local customs and traditions

What a great list! We aspire to live by all of those, whether it’s trekking in the Himalayas, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, or going a cultural tour of Nepal. We also believe in paying fair wages and supporting the people and the environments where we travel. We believe in the places we travel, and invest money back into these communities, supporting local nongovernmental organizations such as the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project in Tanzania.

As we like to say, Embark is not just a company – it is a philosophy.

{ 0 comments }

The Beauty of Bhutan

Sometimes it’s all about looking at pretty pictures and dreaming of travel. And no place supplies beautiful images like Bhutan, the tiny Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas.

We found this post leading to some wonderful images, and with a little digging we found the photographer’s site at Visited Planet. One of the things they do is donate used cameras to people in developing nations, so if you have an old camera you’re done with, get in touch with them

One of our hiking groups in Bhutan have brought back some amazing photos, too. Check them out.

Now, who wants to head for Bhutan?

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries