While many tourists visit the popular Pottery Square within Bhaktapur’s city limits, the majority of pottery is made in a small city just a few kilometers away. The city of Thimi is famous for its production of pottery and the top dog in town is Thimi Ceramics. Thimi is a short 20-minute bus ride from […]
Sherpa Culture of Nepal: Food, History, and Traditions
Nepal is a diverse country with around 125 different ethnic groups and 123 different languages. In order to show people a little bit more about all the different cultures, I’ve decided to highlight a different ethnicity each week, and this week it’s Sherpas! Hold up, isn’t a Sherpa a mountain guide? I asked myself the same […]
Tipping in Nepal: How Much to Tip Guides, Porters, Drivers, Restaurants & more
Knowing how to appropriately tip in any country can be tricky, and tipping in Nepal is no exception. There’s no hard and fast rule, so using your discretion is key. It seems everyone will give you a different answer when it comes to how to tip. I’ve spent over 3 years in Nepal and have […]
Book Review: The Dalai Lama’s Cat by David Michie
Every year for my birthday, my husband buys me a book. This year, we somehow found ourselves adopted by a sweet little street cat. Yes, you read that right. She adopted us. She decided our home was her home, and we never had the heart to tell her it wasn’t. That’s how we got Dani, […]
The Pros and Cons of Booking with a Tour Group
When I first set out on my yearlong adventure, I would have done anything to join a tour group. Unfortunately for me, the costs of tour groups were too high. I could either do a year of solo travel and figure things out on my own or two months with a company. The idea of […]
Made in Nepal Brand Highlight: Cotton Mill Nepal
This winter, I discovered the wonderful world of khasto! My husband bought me a khasto shawl for Dashain (a Hindu festival) and I became obsessed. Khasto are scarves that have three thin layers of fabric. I thought they looked nice, but I didn’t really understand why every woman in Nepal seemed to have one. I […]
Tea Houses in Nepal: Everything to Know for Trekking
One of the very first questions I had about trekking was about tea houses in Nepal. What is a tea house? What do I need to bring with me? Where do you eat? How expensive is it? So many questions went through my mind. For my first trek, I booked with an agency because it […]
My Year in Review: 2020
For the last 3 years, I’ve written a year in review, and it’s no surprise why I almost skipped writing one this year. I went back and checked out my old posts and was reminded of some cool stuff that I had forgotten about, and it inspired me to write a 2020 post. Has this […]
The Annapurna Circuit or Everest Base Camp Trek: Which is Better?
One of my dreams was to go to Everest Base Camp, but the more research I did, the more confused I was about which trekking route to choose. Should I do the Annapurna Circuit or Everest Base Camp? For some reason, I decided to stick with the Everest Base Camp Trek over the Annapurna Circuit. […]
The Flight to Lukla Airport: What It’s Like
My stomach is tense, and I can’t stop tapping my foot on the floor. A nervous tick. We’re already running an hour late as we pull up to the airport because someone in our group had ATM trouble in the morning. As we exit the van, I can see Lalit (our guide) sprinting across the […]