Hi,
I was planning on doing the Annapurna Sanctuary trip of Nepal next March. However, I am having some serious doubts given the current travel warnings.
It seems to be getting worse?? I have even read about landmines on the highway between Pokhara and Kathmandu...not to mention bombings of Kathmandu hotels and shooting at public buses (which is the proposed transport for the trip).
Is it really this bad? Are your Nepal trips still running as normal? Also, if the trip is cancelled is the full payment refunded?
Leigh
Re: Safety in Nepal
Hi Leigh - I got back from Nepal last week (Images of Nepal) and it felt completely safe, we had a fantastic time and I thoroughly recommend it. Everyone on the trip had considered cancelling because of the security situation, but we were all so glad we didn't. There are no landmines between Kathmandu and Pokhara as far as I know, we travelled that way and it was fine - are you getting confused with landslides? Because the monsoons caused plenty of those! Please don't be put off, Nepal is a great place and I'm sure you'll love it.
Helen
Re: Safety in Nepal
Thanks Helen and Brendan,
I'm feeling much better about it now.
But it was definitely landmines that I was reading about...link to the website is
[url=http://www.nepalnews.com/main.htm]http://www.nepalnews.com/main.htm[/url]
Leigh
Re: Safety in Nepal
Hi Leigh T
I,ve just returned from annapurna sanctuary and overland to lahsa trip and had a great time . The annapurna trek was very well led by Raj Tamang and was absolutely spectacular with great diversity of scenery . We met Maoists at ghorepani who had a fixed rate of 1200 rupees (9 pounds) for a pass however Raj negotiated a discount and we paid less than 1000 rupees each . The maoists area commander spent a good 20 minutes talking with us ansawering our questions he claimed the donation we gave would go to schools and hospitals in maoist controlled areas and wanted to point out that crime against tourists was almost non existent in maoist controlled areas . The maoist commander welcomed us to nepal and stressed that there was no threat to us or other tourists coming to nepal from the maoists whose policy it was to welcome tourists to the area , the area commander even posed for pictures with us ( we were keen to have maoist passes as souvenirs !) . We met more maoists in chomrong who on seeing the passes of the front members of the group did not bother to check everyone elses they accepted that we had all paid and wished us good luck on reaching annapurna base camp . At no time did we at all feel threatened in nepal , twice travelling the road from kathmandu to pokhara its probably the best trip I,ve done and I would definitely go back again . fantastic