Explore Himalaya will be participating at UK’s biggest Adventure Travel event, Adventure Travel Live from January 28th – 30th, 2011 at Victoria, London. We will be promoting our adventure products (Everest Skydive, Lhasa – Kathmandu Motorbike Tour, Nepal & Tibet Treks & expeditions and many more) at booth number C-30. See you there!

Mr. Nabin Trital, Executive Manager & a representative from Explore Himalaya at India’s Travel & Tourism Fair 2011 held in the southern city of  Chennai.

With more than 1500 Exhibitors from 56 countries and 35 Indian States / UTs, an ever increasing number of foreign country representations, and a  visitorship of more than 186,000 visitors, TTF together with OTM is the largest network of Travel Shows in India.

Explore Himalaya is promoting its various tourism products at this fair.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Thus wrote Mark Twain, noted American humorist and author, exhorting all and sundry to set off for the unknown, fearless and uninhibited.

A group of six spirited female adventurers (most of them in their 40s) from Canada and France seemed to have taken his advice to heart and sought to climb Mera Peak , Nepal’s highest trekking peak in November, at the onset of chilly winter season. Explore Himalaya had the opportunity to organize the expedition for the group. After the completion of their expedition, the ladies  dropped in at our office and the group leader Lou Lamontagne, spoke at length about their trip to Mera Peak and the changes she found in Nepal since her last visit in 2005.

(Expedition members (wearing  scarves) with Explore Himalaya’s staff)

Though only one member (Hélène Mineau) could reach the summit, Lou said that they were all  happy with  the expedition.

To quote Lou – “We would have liked to do the summit but for us not doing the summit is not a disaster. We enjoyed all the aspects of the expedition.. that’s the most important thing.”

Read about their trip in Lou’s own words :

“We were six people –  five Canadians (Marie Légaré, Carole CôTÉ, Hélène Mineau, Isabelle Gagnon & Lou Lamontagne) and one French (Severine Tralli). We are a group of friends and we have done a lot of mountaineering and kayaking and outdoor stuff in the past and so we knew each other. I proposed them a trip to Nepal and they said OK. So we went on internet and tried to find a good company. Actually we found your website. We have some friends in Pokhara called 3 Sisters Adventure. They are into trekking also, but they didn’t do Solu Khumbu trekking, just the Annapurna. So we checked with them. We asked if you  were a good company and they said you had a good reputation and we could trust you and we went ahead.

Our trek was excellent. It met all our expectations and we are very happy with the way we were received at the airport. We are also very happy with the expedition itself, the way the staff took care of us. We really appreciated all the small little attention, you know, like bed tea and wash water. They (Explore Himalaya’s staff) just generally made sure that our safety and security was on the agenda.

In 2005 I did the Around the Annapurna Trek (21 days),  and that was wonderful also. This expedition was much, much harder. Only one member from our group summitted. I had a bad bronchitis problem in Khare just before High Camp. I knew that I couldn’t summit because I was coughing very bad and I had a fever.  The other five members went up to High Camp. But four of them got sick with altitude sickness and just one summitted. But that’s okay we would have liked to do the summit but for us not doing the summit is not a disaster. We enjoyed all the aspects of the expedition. So that’s the most important thing.

When I was here in 2005, it was in the middle of People’s War. We witnessed a great military presence everywhere and the Maoists used to stop us and ask for money. We could feel the political upheaval. It was pretty serious at that time and the King was almost out of a job. But now that the Civil War is over, I find more trekkers on the trail and the hotels, tea- houses and lodges doing good business. Things are back to normal.
I would like to come back and visit Dolpo region. This trip was wonderful and we were happy with everything. This was truly a wonderful trip and I am sure we will meet again.”

(Photos Courtesy : Marie Légaré & Isabelle Gagnon)

‘Atithi Devo Bhava’, is an ancient Sanskrit saying which means, “A Guest must be treated like God”. Being involved in tourism the team at Explore Himalaya believes in this maxim and makes sincere efforts to follow it. Given below are some glowing instances of how the team has imbibed this philosophy and has truly succeeded in their efforts, that is,   made a guest ‘feel like God’.

Lee Haslam, a client  from UK writes:

“I’ve just finished my holiday in Nepal. I was on the Everest Base Camp trek and I was rescued by helicopter due to AMS so couldn’t finish the walk. Not so good for me, but this is where your staff kicked in to action. For starters, the communication between your staff was ‘Excellent’. They knew exactly what was happening at all times and what was happening next. The helicopter dropped me off at Kathmandu Airport. Gobinda picked me up after waiting a long time for me to arrive. He then took me to a health clinic. Gobinda was very helpful and caring. A hotel room was booked and also a meeting was organized the next day to change my itinerary. After this Pushpa made every effort to make sure my holiday was the best possible giving me advise where possible.
Suman, you must understand that the personal efforts of your staff have transformed a holiday that could have been disappointing into a Great Holiday Experience. Your staff has exceeded my expectations! I was treated like a member of a Royal family. I am also in customer service in my job at home and if Gobinda and Pushpa were my staff I would be telling them how good they are at their job. Thank you again!”

John P. Medicus writes:

“I just wanted to thank  everyone at Explore Himalaya for an amazing trip this last week to the Everest Base Camp. Tiger (Bagbir) our guide was amazing! He took such great care of our group and myself. I can’t begin to thank him enough. I would like to leave Tiger an additional tip to the one I gave him in Lukla. I was wondering if you would take a credit card for a tip? I hope I can come back to Nepal with your group again sometime. Thank you again. “

According to a Chinese proverb, “A picture is worth a thousand words“. So  without further ado or without wasting any words, we share with you some thrilling moments captured by Wendy Smith at the recently held Pokhara Skydive.

Photos Courtesy : Wendy Smith