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Everest Trek - General Information

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I planned this trip by myself which turned out to be quite time-consuming. I got most of my information from the web, the Lonely Planet guide to Nepal and the book 'Trekking in Nepal: A Traveler's Guide' by Stephen Bezruchka.

The first big decision we were faced with was the trek to go on. I guess both the Everest region and the Annapurna circuit are very popular but given the rapid road construction in the valleys of the latter and the nasty bus trip required to get to the start/end point of the Annapurna trek we decided to visit the Everest region.

We booked our flight with Etihad in May, paying 1200 Euros per person including a stopover of 9 hours in Abu Dhabi on the way to Kathmandu. Etihad later turned out to be a very good choice since we wanted to fly home a bit earlier and they only charged us 50 Euros per person for that. We used the stopover to visit the huge Sheikh Zayed mosque and downtown Abu Dhabi which was overall not too exciting.

Initially we planned to stay for a total of 4 weeks, 3 weeks of which we planned to be trekking. We arrived in Kathmandu on the evening of the 25th of September and were picked up at the airport by our host from the Kantipur Temple House, a nice hotel in Thamel, Kathmandu. Even though it is definitely more expensive than a trekker hostel, we really enjoyed our stay there. The rooms were beautiful, there was a magnificent garden to sit in and the restaurant served food on the rooftop. The staff was very friendly and the hotel makes a strong effort to be eco-friendly.

We booked our flights from Kathmandu to Lukla over the web with Yeti Airlines for the 27th of September and coming back on the 16th of October. Despite a bit of chaos at the airports, everything went well, even though on the 8th of October a group of trekkers was less fortunate when their Yeti Airlines flight to Lukla crashed during landing.

This gave use one day of preparation time in Kathmandu which we used to register with the German embassy, get the required permits and hire a guide. We had initially planned on trekking without a guide but the embassy personnel strongly suggested to get one. We ended up booking one with 'Abbey Int'l Treks & Expedition Pvt. Ltd' which turned out to be a mistake. They basically cheated us, we were promised a guide with good English skills but this was simply not the case. I think other means of finding a guide (personal references, hiring one in Lukla) might work better. They charged us 15 US dollars per day for the guide.

Money: Access to cash in Kathmandu is easy, however, things get trickier in the Khumbu region. There is a bank in Namche Bazaar. They exchange foreign currencies at rates about 5 percent worse than in Kathmandu and they cash in travelers checks (again, about 5 percent worse than in Kathmandu). There was a disfunct ATM in Namche Bazaar. We spent about 25 US dollars per person per day on our trek.

Medical preparation: In addition to the drugs listed in the packlist below, we got shots against: