I am continually amazed that in the Nepal Himalayas, of all places, you can hike for weeks without having to carry food or a tent. The most popular trails, in the Everest and Annapurna regions, are called 'teahouse treks' because there are small villages along the trail. You rarely have to hike more than an hour before coming to a place where you can eat and sleep.
The facilities can be primitive, especially at higher altitude, but you can usually count on sleeping on clean linen and eating home-cooked meals in a warm dining room. (You can also count on pretty grim toilets.) Lodges make decent attempts at various types of international cuisine: spaghetti, pizza, rosti, chop suey, moussaka, etc.
The staff is usually friendly and efficient. It's astounding the way they can crank out meals for 20 to 40 guests using one or two burners. I'm impressed that they actually care, considering the vast majority of their guests arrive in the afternoon and leave early the next morning.
Every once in a while you stay at a lodge where the owners take pride in their lodge and kitchen. The food on the Annapurna Circuit was surprisingly good in general, but two lodges were really memorable.
The first was the Mavis's Kitchen and Guest House. Mavis is an Indian woman who moved to Kathmandu to teach English. Her English is perfect, as in better than mine. She married a Nepalese man and moved with him to his village, Manang.
I spent my first night in Manang in another hotel. I switched hotels after having Mavis's yak steak for dinner. It was outrageously good. Fresh rosemary in the gravy! When I hike I eat as much as I want, because I know I'm going to burn off the calories when I hit the trail again. The lasagne serving was so big I could not finish it.
Mavis runs the place with help from two of her nieces. Chiri works as a teacher during the day and helps out at night. Mavis is cheerful and chatty. I don't know why she wouldn't smile when I took her picture.
You can see a younger version of her in the poster in the background. She's not smiling there either! Most lodges are set up like hotels, but Mavis has little cottages behind the restaurant. Mine is the one on the right.
It's basic, just a room with two beds, a lamp and small table. It's quite cozy, though, and the relative privacy was a blessing after staying in so many lodges where the rooms are separated by plywood partitions.
Cost: about $2 per night.
It's located on the side of town furthest from the river and mountains, but since the scenery here is 7,500 meters high you don't have to worry about the view being obstructed.
Just behind the blue roof is the "Wild West" main street of Manang. After I took this picture I spent the afternoon exploring on the ridge just below the snow line.
The toilets are located behind my cottage. They are spotless. I can not overstate how extraordinary this is. Most of the toilets on the trail look like something out of a horror movie. You are more likely to see a herd of unicorns on the trail than you are to find a clean toilet.
One western concept the Nepalese still don't quite have a handle on is the hot shower. Mavis's would be the perfect guest house if she worked out the kinks in the shower.
It's a bit disconcerting trying to bathe while wondering if the heating apparatus is going to explode. It doesn't work very well, and whatever heat it generates is canceled out by the cold air blowing through the cracks in the wall. That is the only quibble I have. I hasten to mention that this is a typical setup on the trail. It's not as if it's noticeably worse than anywhere else. It's just the only thing about the place where there's room for improvement!
Our next stop after Manang was Yak Kharka. Mavis's sister owns a guest house there. I mentioned this in a previous post, but it bears repeating. She called ahead and reserved cottages for us there and wrote notes for us to take just in case. Even the big-money tour groups have to send porters ahead to reserve rooms. To have a rooms waiting for you on the trail is an unheard-of luxury. I probably shouldn't be writing about this...
In my Manang post I said that the village itself is more than just a stop along the trail. It's a great destination. I can imagine going back to Manang for a week and using it as a base to do short hikes in the region. Mavis may not be there, though. She told me she doesn't enjoy running the hotel as much as she once did and is considering moving on.
The prices for lodging and meals are set by the village governments. This is to ensure all the lodges in a particular area can compete and make money. I had a cottage to myself for about $2 per night. You can get simple meals like fried rice for as little as $2. I ate as much as I wanted and treated myself to Snickers and Coke whenever I got the craving and still averaged less than $20 per day for the trek, and that includes the costs of permits and bus rides.
Yet there are still people who want to haggle! Manang is a busy town. The lodges do fill up. But people still try to get a "deal". The common scam is for tourists to promise to eat all their meals at the lodge if the owner will let them stay for free.
It's not as if you can go around the corner to Applebee's or call Domino's. The only restaurants are in the lodges. Of course they're going to eat there. And since most people only stay for a night, maybe two, they're only going to eat a few meals anyway.
Mavis, understandably, is tired of dealing with people like that. There is something seriously wrong when a woman who takes so much pride in her guest house and restaurant is considering getting out of the business because of cheapskate tourists.
I find it appalling. It baffles me that a tourist would expect free lodging anywhere, let alone in the Himalayas! Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world by western standards, with a per capita income of about $250 per year. Most people live on less than a dollar a day. If you can't afford $2 for a hotel room, seriously, stay home.
The facilities can be primitive, especially at higher altitude, but you can usually count on sleeping on clean linen and eating home-cooked meals in a warm dining room. (You can also count on pretty grim toilets.) Lodges make decent attempts at various types of international cuisine: spaghetti, pizza, rosti, chop suey, moussaka, etc.
The staff is usually friendly and efficient. It's astounding the way they can crank out meals for 20 to 40 guests using one or two burners. I'm impressed that they actually care, considering the vast majority of their guests arrive in the afternoon and leave early the next morning.
Every once in a while you stay at a lodge where the owners take pride in their lodge and kitchen. The food on the Annapurna Circuit was surprisingly good in general, but two lodges were really memorable.
The first was the Mavis's Kitchen and Guest House. Mavis is an Indian woman who moved to Kathmandu to teach English. Her English is perfect, as in better than mine. She married a Nepalese man and moved with him to his village, Manang.
I spent my first night in Manang in another hotel. I switched hotels after having Mavis's yak steak for dinner. It was outrageously good. Fresh rosemary in the gravy! When I hike I eat as much as I want, because I know I'm going to burn off the calories when I hit the trail again. The lasagne serving was so big I could not finish it.
Mavis runs the place with help from two of her nieces. Chiri works as a teacher during the day and helps out at night. Mavis is cheerful and chatty. I don't know why she wouldn't smile when I took her picture.
You can see a younger version of her in the poster in the background. She's not smiling there either! Most lodges are set up like hotels, but Mavis has little cottages behind the restaurant. Mine is the one on the right.
It's basic, just a room with two beds, a lamp and small table. It's quite cozy, though, and the relative privacy was a blessing after staying in so many lodges where the rooms are separated by plywood partitions.
Cost: about $2 per night.
It's located on the side of town furthest from the river and mountains, but since the scenery here is 7,500 meters high you don't have to worry about the view being obstructed.
Just behind the blue roof is the "Wild West" main street of Manang. After I took this picture I spent the afternoon exploring on the ridge just below the snow line.The toilets are located behind my cottage. They are spotless. I can not overstate how extraordinary this is. Most of the toilets on the trail look like something out of a horror movie. You are more likely to see a herd of unicorns on the trail than you are to find a clean toilet.
One western concept the Nepalese still don't quite have a handle on is the hot shower. Mavis's would be the perfect guest house if she worked out the kinks in the shower.
It's a bit disconcerting trying to bathe while wondering if the heating apparatus is going to explode. It doesn't work very well, and whatever heat it generates is canceled out by the cold air blowing through the cracks in the wall. That is the only quibble I have. I hasten to mention that this is a typical setup on the trail. It's not as if it's noticeably worse than anywhere else. It's just the only thing about the place where there's room for improvement!
Our next stop after Manang was Yak Kharka. Mavis's sister owns a guest house there. I mentioned this in a previous post, but it bears repeating. She called ahead and reserved cottages for us there and wrote notes for us to take just in case. Even the big-money tour groups have to send porters ahead to reserve rooms. To have a rooms waiting for you on the trail is an unheard-of luxury. I probably shouldn't be writing about this...
In my Manang post I said that the village itself is more than just a stop along the trail. It's a great destination. I can imagine going back to Manang for a week and using it as a base to do short hikes in the region. Mavis may not be there, though. She told me she doesn't enjoy running the hotel as much as she once did and is considering moving on.
The prices for lodging and meals are set by the village governments. This is to ensure all the lodges in a particular area can compete and make money. I had a cottage to myself for about $2 per night. You can get simple meals like fried rice for as little as $2. I ate as much as I wanted and treated myself to Snickers and Coke whenever I got the craving and still averaged less than $20 per day for the trek, and that includes the costs of permits and bus rides.
Yet there are still people who want to haggle! Manang is a busy town. The lodges do fill up. But people still try to get a "deal". The common scam is for tourists to promise to eat all their meals at the lodge if the owner will let them stay for free.
It's not as if you can go around the corner to Applebee's or call Domino's. The only restaurants are in the lodges. Of course they're going to eat there. And since most people only stay for a night, maybe two, they're only going to eat a few meals anyway.
Mavis, understandably, is tired of dealing with people like that. There is something seriously wrong when a woman who takes so much pride in her guest house and restaurant is considering getting out of the business because of cheapskate tourists.
I find it appalling. It baffles me that a tourist would expect free lodging anywhere, let alone in the Himalayas! Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world by western standards, with a per capita income of about $250 per year. Most people live on less than a dollar a day. If you can't afford $2 for a hotel room, seriously, stay home.
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