The Longest Way Home Travel Blog

Celebrating Teej in Kathmandu Teej or the festival for women was celebrated today in Nepal. I went along to the celebrations in Kathmandu to give you an idea of what it’s like. Teej or Hartalika Teej is celebrated in August/September throughout Nepal by women. It is a Hindu festival that is also celebrated in North …

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The Nepali medi-vac or helicopter rescue scam has rocked Nepal’s tourism industry Naively I first came across the helicopter rescue scam in 2011. An Italian tourist “suddenly” claimed to have a bad back on his return from Everest Base Camp and was getting a helicopter evacuation. I met him a week later in Kathmandu prancing …

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How you can really help local people in Nepal Many people ask me how they can “help Nepal” either before they go on holiday or when they are there. The local economy is generally where people feel they can help the most. Tourists often feel that they prefer their hard earned money to go directly …

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A mother goddess statue in Kirtipur Have you ever visited a place and had a guidebook say something is there but it’s not. Or maybe say something that’s inconclusive about an object like “nobody knows”. A little bit of research goes a long way. That’s the purpose of a travel guidebook. You are buying research …

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On July 1st 2018 all tourist buses to Pokhara and Chitwan leave from Sorhakhutte in Kathmandu Kantipath bus stop is no more. All tourist buses to Pokhara and Chitwan now leave from the Sorhakhutte to the north west of Thamel (north of Paknajol). Since 2003 tourists have enjoyed the short relatively easy and quiet walk from …

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Do you know why the names Boudhanath and Swayambhunath end with – nath? I hope you do. Because nobody else seems to. If you’ve ever noticed the naming structure of places in Nepal you’ll find many end with the letters “n a t h“. It turns out the answer is this is not as straight …

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Nepal and China still share Mount Everest, for now There’s an invisible border at the top of Everest between Tibet (China) and Nepal. Back in the 1950s when the British were going full on to be the first to the top there was real concern the Chinese would have issues with the “Illegal border crossing”. …

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