For centuries Pokhara has served as a stop on the main trading route between India and China. But more than a 7-hour bus ride from Kathmandu, it still retains a small-town charm and a discernible hippy vibe. I like it and think you should go!

And when you do, here’re 7 insider tips to pave your way:

MEET (Cool Meet Ups) – Lakeside, Pokhara. Situated on the banks of Phewa Lake, Pokhara is full of restaurants. My last days in town were spent hanging out in the lakeside cafes, enjoying views of the Peace Pagoda in the late afternoon. My favorite spot was a little Japanese-style tea house that served chips and salsa (well, sort of a chips and salsa – the closest I’ve seen in a while anyway!). So pleasant!

EAT (Tasty Eats) – Nak Cheese Pizza . Food in Nepal is incredibly unvaried. Basically everyone eats daal baht (a tasting platter of white rice, lentil soup, curry, pickled vegetables, and a paratha) 3 times a day. Unfortunately, at some point early in the trek, my body started to reject daal baht in a big way.

This left me a choice of momos (dumplings), roasted potatoes with curry, or nak cheese pizza (not to be confused with yak cheese pizza). Inside scoop: There is no such thing as yak cheese because the cheese comes from the female yak, the nak. Confused? Doesn’t matter, cheese is cheese! Yum!

SEE (Must-see Sights) – Annapurna Mountain Range. Check out this panoramic view of the mountains. So lovely! I have to say, I appreciated the mountains even more after reaching ABC. Something about the satisfaction of getting up close and really understanding their enormity and towering magnificence!

Check out this video and see for yourself:

Can’t see the video? Click on this link: Annapurna Panorama

SHOP (Gotta Have) – Yak Wear. When I arrived in Nepal, my wardrobe was lacking in cold-weather gear. Instead of stocking up in Kathmandu’s backpacker grotto, Thamel, I decided to buy my warm clothes on the trek, helping out some of the local communities we were passing through.

Along the way I picked up a kickin’ sweater, a favorite multi-hued hat, and yak-knit booties. When worn all together, I was more than 75% yak! Thankfully I left this look on the mountain…

ACTIVITY (Gotta Do) – Trekking! If you book your trek with 3Sisters Adventures (www.3sistersadventure.com), then 15% of the trek fee will go to support Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN).

As a nonprofit, EWN trains young women in Nepal to be trekking guides by offering a paid apprenticeship training program, field experience, health insurance, hostel facilities, and English classes. I thought my 3Sisters guide and assistant were the BEST! Interested? Read more about 3Sisters and EWN in the post: The Lucky Ones.

Here I am describing the trek in some detail. Look closely to see the village on the next hill, which was our next stop before lunch!

Can’t see the video? Click on this link: Erin Treks ABC

GIVE (Greatest Need) – Widespread Poverty. At least 40% of Nepal’s 29 million people live in poverty and a third don’t have clean drinking water. Exacerbating the problem, the country has an entrenched caste system, no mandatory schooling, and little healthcare. It is one of the poorest countries in the world and you can see it on the faces of some of the women and children.

One program that is taking a holistic approach to alleviating Nepal’s poverty is Khotang Development Forum. I met with Madan Rai, the founder, and he told me all about his program the teaches young adults how to be self sufficient by learning the life skills of farming (using organic methods), home building, and clothes making.

Volunteers can visit the rural communities, learning these same skills while also trekking and teaching in schools. On my next visit to Nepal, I’m slated to volunteer with Madan. Want to join me?! In the meantime, check out their web site: http://www.kdf.org.np.

ENJOY (Extra Fun) – After-Trek Message. Well deserved! My choice was a Swedish Relaxation Massage from Seeing Hands, a nonprofit organization that provides the blind in Nepal with a vocational skill, economically and socially empowering them so they can lead independent, dignified lives.

Nepal shoulders one of the largest burdens of global blindness in the world, with an estimated 600,000 people either partially or totally blind. Seeing Hands has locations in both Kathmandu and Pokhara. Visit online at www.SeeingHandNepal.org to find out more. The cost of my massage was 1500 NPR (or US$20). Money well spent every way you look at it!

Erin’s Travel Style

Here’s an excerpt from my May 2, 2012 “Travel Style” interview with Johnny Jet (www.JohnnyJet.com):

• How often do you fly: At least once a month – usually long-haul flights
• How many countries have you been to: 84
• How many continents have you been to: 6
• Favorite American city: NYC
• Favorite international city: Istanbul
• Least favorite country: Any country where women are systematically oppressed.
• Favorite World Heritage Site: Angkor Wat
• Favorite airline: Etihad
• Favorite aircraft type: dunno
• Aisle or window: Window
• Favorite airport lounge: airport lounge – what’s that?!
• Favorite U.S. airport: Atlanta
• Favorite international airport: O.R. Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) in Johannesburg
• Favorite hotel: Mandarin Oriental
• Favorite cruise line: Seabourn
• Favorite island: Zanzibar
• Favorite fancy restaurant: Spruce, San Francisco
• Favorite hole in the wall: Burma Superstar, tucked away on Clement Street in San Francisco
• Favorite fruit: Fresh coconuts
• Favorite food: Lebanese
• Least favorite food: Laotian
• Drink of choice : Spite (air) / 3-olive Martini (ground)
• Favorite travel movie(s): War Photographer
• Favorite travel show(s): Locked Up Abroad
• Favorite travel book(s): Down Under
• Right now I am reading: Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost
• Five things you bring on a plane: Kindle, iPod, inflatable travel pillow, Ibprofen, hand wipes with disinfectant
• What do you always seem to forget: Where the bathroom is! I average a new country every 10 days, and each night I have a small panic attack just before I fall asleep about finding the bathroom in the dark.
• Favorite travel iPhone app(s): CNNGo
• Most embarrassing/worst travel moment: Pick one! Kenyan Airways flight with one engine out, head-on collision with a truck in Ethiopia, jumping from a moving car in Malawi, run over by a motorbike in Hanoi…
• What’s your dream destination: Colombia’s Lost City
• Favorite travel website(s) – besides JohnnyJet.com, of course!: TripAdvisor
• Best travel tip: Register with the U.S. State Department (https://step.state.gov/step/) before traveling to receive in-country travel alerts and invitations to consulate events.

By the way…What’s your favorite international city? Write me!

Proud Passport Holder

I continue to be a big supporter of Tracey Friley’s Passport Party Project, which is helping 100 underserved American girls receive their first passports.

To participate in the campaign, I submitted my photo (along with my trekking friends) – all of us holding our passports!

I also submitted a photo of my Himalayan trekking guide Nirma Rai, ‘cause she’s super fabulous! Read why Nirma’s so great and peek at her passport pic too! Check out: Fabulous Nirma

Did you submit you photo yet? Do it today!

I had never slept in a pod before, so I was kind of excited. No, really! Pod sleeping is totally in line with my LivingMini philosophy. So when I was facing an 18-hour layover at the Delhi International Airport and saw the “Sams Snooze at my Space” sign – I jumped at the chance.

I reserved a pod for 5 hours at $10 an hour and got the 6th hour free. So I paid about $56 with taxes. I reasoned that this is cheaper than a hotel room, plus taxi fare to and from the airport. And it was conveniently located right in the terminal…

Pod Pros: The list of pod amenities was fairly impressive:

• A private room
• An ergonomically designed bed
• Flat screen TV with DVD player, and several movies
• A desk to work at and a comfy chair
• Electrical outlets to charge devices
• Free WiFi
• Small refrigerator
• Complimentary bottle of water

Pod Cons: The drawbacks, however, became apparent pretty quickly:

• No bathroom – You use the general airport facilities like everyone else
• No sound-proofing – The room was open to the ceiling, allowing light and noise to enter (eg: airport loudspeaker announcements were heard all night long)
• No Wifi – The desk staff said the network was down throughout the entire airport – not true!
• Unfriendly staff – They work me up half hour early because they “forgot” to calculate my free time. This is sort of a big deal when you’re paying for the bed by the hour.

Pod Pooper!

Honestly, the new Delhi airport had pretty spiffy lounges in the departure hall that would have worked just as well as the pod. The free lounges and the pods shared the same facilities and everyone was making themselves pretty comfy on them, removing their shoes and snoring away.

And I was already prepared to spend the night in the airport. I had a shawl to use as a blanket, an inflatable pillow, and my sleep mask and ear plugs. So sleeping on the open-air lounges wouldn’t have been so bad.

The true irony of the situation was that I didn’t need to book the airport pod to have a pod-like experience. My “private room” at the hostel in Singapore’s Chinatown the next night was even smaller than the pod!

Like the 16 Indian dudes I met in the hot springs, and the Spanish wing nut, who joined our trek (before we voted her off the island!), and the crowd of 20 Chinese hikers who came with their own cook! Ahhhh…life on the Annapurna bi-way!

Trekking Friendship

Getting to know your fellow trekkers is a big part of the fun. In fact, I started to refer to the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) trek as the “Tea House” trek because of both the frequency of our stops (although, believe me, I’m not complaining) and the tea house atmosphere that makes this hike different from all others.

Here’s our little group of trekkers, assistants (porters) and guides celebrating Nepali New Year on April 14 – the last night of our trek. What year are we celebrating? 2069!

Nepali New Year’s Eve Message

Can’t see this video? Click on the link: Happy Nepali New Year’s! http://youtu.be/NeZJNTik3I8

Our New Year’s Party

Look at all the fun we’re having! It’s just like an American hoedown with folk dancing accompanied by singing and a plastic jug drum and musical spoons! Yeehaw – Nepali style! )

Can’t see this video? Click on the link: Nepali New Year’s Eve Party

Being spoon-fed is secondary only to eating with my hands, my other M.O. for meals. You wouldn’t think so, but eating with your fingers is surprisingly tricky. There are “rules” involved as I’ve begun to find out.

Here’s a rundown of how to eat with your hands…

Knuckle Play: Sri Lanka

At their beautiful home in Colombo, my friends Utthama and PK showed me how to eat Sri Lankan food properly – with your fingertips. Apparently, it’s gauche to have the food go above your second knuckle. No curry, no chili sauce can splash higher.

At first I thought the demarcation line was the first knuckle and I could barely pick anything up with my not-so-nimble digits. Luckily we practiced within the confines of the breakfast table.

We ate string hoppers (pictured here, waiting to be steamed), with sambol, a type of shredded coconut salad with chili and onion. Yum! (Although, in my humble opinion, not-so-very breakfasty.)

Thumb Flick: Nepal

The thumb flick was shown to me by several people, but my friend Madan was most patient (and persistent!). He showed me again and again while eating dinner at his home in Kathmandu.

In the end, my technique was OK, but apparently I didn’t knead the rice enough, so it didn’t hold together. This meant that the rice ball I formed wasn’t firm enough to flick neatly into my mouth…I did try though.

Incidentally, Madan runs a very cool bio-fuel environmental program in the Everest Area valley. Before dinner he gave me a tour of his organic vegetable garden and chicken farm. He also proudly showed me his toilet invention, which separates the faces from the urine from the get-go. And we inspected the large vats of urine he collects from his neighbors.

It was a very interesting tour. I’m just saying it was a little much before eating dinner.

Tear Technique: Malaysia

My buddy Rizwan demonstrated the tear technique for me. The key is to hold the edge of the chapatti-like tortilla with your pointer finger as you simultaneously tear a piece off with your thumb and middle finger. This is indeed the tricky one of the all! Holding the pointer finger, aka pivot finger, down is very important step.

By the way, here’s a video of my friend Angelina (and Riwan’s lovely new bride!) making a traditional Malaysia dish called Ayam Percik. It was good!

Can’t see this video? Click on Angelina makes Ayam Percik.

What other foods do you eat with your hands? And how did you learn?

Here’s how I manage:

A Cup of Coffee

Weirdly, I can usually buy a single-cup cone filter for drip coffee, but I can never seem to find the actual filters that go in the plastic sieve. So here’s a trick I learned while camping – use toilet paper! The thin fibers let the hot water seep through, while keeping the grounds out.

The key is a very slow pour and never in the center of the cone, otherwise the boiling water will tear the TP and you’ll ruin your cup of joe. If you’re ever in a pinch, give it a try!

A Hot Shower

While hiking in the Himalayas we had to pay for hot water, which is fine, it was the actual showers that were in short supply. The answer was a bucket shower with water boiled on the stove.

Now, last month was not my first bucket shower (sadly), but it was the first time that the water was so hot that I needed to add toilet water to cool it down. This sounds disgusting (actually it was disgusting). But bear in mind that the toilet water wasn’t actually from a toilet (because there was no toilet), but merely an extra pail of water standing alongside the toilet to be used as a manual flush.

No doubt the joy of the hot water “shower” was diminished by the use of a toilet water coolant. And truthfully, I’m not too sure how clean I got.

Clean Clothes

I’m starting to lose count of the number of times I’ve had bed bugs, which is a mildly depressing thought. But I got them again in Nepal. Fortunately, I now know how to get rid of them. It’s a 2-step process: Bake & Boil.

First, you put your entire backpack in a black plastic bag and place in the sun for at least 10-12 hours. The plastic bag becomes an oven in the hot sun and bakes the buggers!

Next you pour boiling water on all your clothes and on your backpack, paying special attention to the seams, where the bugs like to hide. The good news is, they cannot survive intense heat, so this 2-pronged approach is a sure winner!

Here’s a photo of me hanging my clothes out on the roof in Kathmandu after a laundry boiling session.

One TP-Toilet Water-Bug Infested Big Adventure!

So now, thanks to just a little ingenuity (and a whole lotta desperation), I can sit down to a nice cup of coffee filtered with toilet paper, after I’ve bathed in toilet water, and put on my newly bug-free baked and boiled clothes.

Ahhhhh….the life of an adventurer!

Factoids

• Himalaya means “abode of snow” in Sanskrit / Deavangari. The higher regions of the Himalayas are snowbound throughout the year.
• The Himalayan mountain system is the world’s highest, and home to the world’s highest peaks —those over 8,000 meters.
• Aconcagua in the Andes stands at 6,962 meters (22,841 feet) and is the highest peak outside of Asia. Yet there are more than 100 mountains in the Himalayan system that are higher than Aconcagua.
• Geologically, the Indian tectonic plate created the Himalayas more than 70 million years ago. And the plate continues to move today, so the Himalayas keep getting higher.
• The Himalaya region is home to the highest lakes. I actually thought Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru and Bolivia was the highest – but that’s the world highest navigatable lake.

Panoramic View

Can’t see this video? Click on this link: Annapurna Panorama

And the Photos

Here’s a collection of my favorite shots from my recent Annapurna Base Camp trek.

Here’s Lucky introducing her organization Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN):

Can’t see this video? Click on the link: Lucky & EWN

Empower Women of Nepal

The goal of EWN is to encourage Nepali women to be self-supportive, independent, decision-making women. The organization has helped more than 1,000 women over the last 10 years and works to improve the lives of Nepali women through 3 main programs:

• Trekking Guide Training – EWN teaches the young girls who enter their program not only to be trekking guides (mountaineering skills, knowledge of flora and fauna, first aid, and tough physical training), but also basic English, Nepali history and culture, hygiene, and nutrition. After the training, the young women enter a paid apprenticeship program.

• West Nepal Outreach – West Nepal is a destitute region in an already disadvantaged country. Here girls are particularly vulnerable to child labor, sex trafficking, abuse and abandonment due to poverty and illiteracy. EWN provides an outreach program that emphasizes practical skills and basic healthcare, as well as building awareness and leadership among the women and girls.

• Children’s Day Care & Boarding School – EWN also runs a small children’s center to care for the children of guest houses workers and women who away while working in the mountains as guides. Currently, 29 girls from the ages of 3-16 years are either cared for at the children’s center or are receiving educational scholarships.

Support our Sisters!

Want to support EWN’s fabulous work?

• Book your next trek through  3Sisters Adventures (www.3SistersAdventure.com)  and 15% of the fee will go to support to EWN – I did!
• Donate trekking supplies to the organization so they can outfit their guides or earn income by renting out the equipment – I did! (Actually all 4 of us in our trekking party donated most of our gear to our assistants, including back packs, hiking poles, boots, fleeces, jackets, thermals, shirts, hiking pants, hats, gloves, socks…)
• Volunteer with the organization, they are especially looking for volunteers to teach English to the trekking assistants. - I did!
• Give a monetary donation to EWN to support their good works. Contact them at http://www.3sistersadventure.com/EWN/

I consider myself the lucky one to have found the 3Sisters / EWN program for my Himalayan trekking experience. You can be lucky too!

All we need is for 200 of you to vote “Yes” by May 30 to double my donation to $1,500!

Increased Challenge!

If we receive 1,000 votes (instead of 200) by May 30, I’ll give an additional $1,000 for a total donation of $2,500! Vote today! (If you are having problems voting, simple type “yes” into the comments section).

Just look how cute the kids are! Here’s the House with a Heart gang with a special Mother’s Day message to you from Nepal:

Can’t see this video? Click on the link: Nepali Mother’s Day

Volunteering in Nepal

My last week in Nepal I was fortunate enough to volunteer with Beverly Bronson, the founder and director of House with a Heart (HwH). Beverly and I worked closely to craft new fundraising strategies for this worthy organization. It was one of my best volunteer experiences yet!

More than a decade ago, while doing volunteer social work in Kathmandu, Beverly found two abandoned children and couldn’t walk away. Instead, she started her own children’s home to save and nurture orphaned and abandoned children from the Kathmandu Valley.

Here’s Beverly describing her family-focused programs:

Can’t see this video? Click on the link: Introducing House with a Heart

Saving Families

House with a Heart runs 3 programs to help destitute families:

Children’s Home: This warm and loving family home provides nutritious meals, education and health care to up to 25 needy children. In addition to providing basic shelter and support, they pay for our children’s school fees and supplies, as well as tutoring in computer literacy, English, the arts and sports training.

Community Care: To help mitigate the extreme poverty in Nepal, HwH also helps families with emergency needs by providing school sponsorships and books for up to 40 students, mother-child wellness care for up to 150 families a year, and a children’s learning center enabling 20 neighborhood children to receive a basic education.

Training and Basic Literacy: HwH’s free training center teaches women sewing and knitting skills to improve their employment prospects and the opportunity for independence. Training scholarships are provided for 30 women, sewing classes for 50 women, felt-making classes and employment for 10 women, and monthly skills workshops for 25 women each month.

 Want to help save Nepali children too? Here’s how:

• Make a donation
• Buy a hand-made gift
• Visit the web site

Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania – 5,895 meters (19,341 ft)

“Poli Poli” is translated as “slowly slowly” — which is how you climb Kilimanjaro, one foot in front of the other, heel-to-toe style. I climbed for 5 days, then attempted the summit on Day 6. You can read all about this little (mis)adventure in the post: Kilimanjaro Nearly Killed Me.

Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal – 4,400 meters (14,435 ft)

Ta Da! Completed with no altitude sickness (except slight headache and nausea, which is normal). We hiked for 12 days, covering about 40 miles (60 kilometers). But unlike Kili (as we folks call it), Annapurna is not a slow straight ascent.

Instead, each day we’d climb one or two mountains, so we may progress only 500 meters higher at the end of the day, but we hiked more than 2,500 meters to get there. Whew – Hard Work!

Inca Trail, Peru – 4,215 meters (13,829 ft)

Like the Himalayas, the Andes were a tough climb. Every day was both up and down, and the trail itself, while limited to “only” 500 trekkers a day, was always crowded with porters and mules. Most of the trek was cobblestone too, which actually made walking really difficult, especially in the rain. And it rained a lot of the time.

The highest point of the Inca Trail is Dead Woman’s Pass (which should tell you something!). At more than +4,200 meters, you are also exposed to altitude sickness. Along the way, you hike through alpine meadows and a cloud forest, and past some pretty fabulous Inca ruins. The Inca Trial is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) long. The trail ends 5 days later at the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Pichu at sunrise. Pretty spectacular!

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia – 4,095 meters (13,435 ft)

Kota Kinabalu, located on the island of Borneo, is the highest mountain in Southeast Asia and the first mountain I ever climbed. I did the 2-day climb in one day, just me and my guide and I was about as unprepared as you could be: no bottle of water, no hiking boots, and one tuna sandwich.

You can read all about this totally empowering experience in my post: Mountain Climbing with Ralph Lauren

Volcan Villarrica, Chile – 2,847 meters (9,341 ft)

Volcan Villarrica is the only mountain I’ve climbed with ice crampons and an ice pick. You start the hike from the central Chilean town of Pucon, which is absolutely beautiful. Not only is Volcan Villarrica an active volcano, it’s 1 of only 5 volcanoes in the world with an active lava lake in its crater = cool!

The best part of our climb was the ride down. Instead of walking down the mountain, we climbers made a luge-like tube and slid down the ice. I admit, I didn’t hesitate to join the fun, ice pick over head, barreling down the mountainside as if on a water slide. I’m sure you could hear me screaming (mostly delight, a little fear) most of the way.

I wrote more about this fun in my post: My Top Three Mountains

Mt. Kosciuszko, Australia – 2,228 meters (7,310 ft)

Even though it’s the highest mountain in Australia, Mt. Kosciuszko is a piece of cake….especially when you can ride the chair lift up most of the way…. Still I trudged the more than 2 hours to the top, just to see the fabulous view. You can check it out too!

Can’t see the video? Click on this link: Erin on Kosciuszko

Milford Trek, New Zealand – 1,140 meters (3,740 ft)

Milford, known as “The Finest Walk in the World,” is a favorite in the trekking world. You walk through beautiful tropical rain forest, featuring ferns the size of a van, wetlands and an alpine pass. The trek is 53 kilometers (32 miles) and takes about 4 days. We were lucky during our group climb, with great weather (no rain!), which I guess is a rarity.

Like Annapurna, climbers stay in tea houses along the way (which are much more akin to a ski lodge). The whole experience, with hot showers and drying rooms for your clothes, is pretty swank. The best part is you carry your own gear, which is a lesson in packing light (if not for that climb, than at least for the next one!).

If interested, be sure and read my Travelated.com article: “Milford Trek: 5 Things to Know Before you Hike”

Whew – 7 major mountains! Maybe it’s time I gave my knees a break. Then again,  Mt. Fuji at 3,776 meters (12,389 ft) awaits! Let’s see if I get to Japan this summer…