The Journal
Places
Before the mist lifts off the eastern hills, the tea pickers are already among the rows. A slow account of dawn in Nepal's tea country.
Culture
Temples worn smooth by centuries of hands, courtyards where daily life and the sacred share the same stone. An invitation to look closer.
Journeys
The country does not give up its best moments to those in a rush. A case for staying longer, and doing less.
Pokhara is famous for the Annapurna backdrop, but the lake holds its own quiet drama at the hours most travellers miss. A field note from the shoreline.
Food
The Newar people of the valley have one of the oldest living food traditions in the Himalaya. An afternoon spent learning it, one dish at a time.
In the high country, the weather decides the schedule. A short essay on acclimatisation days, and why they are not lost time.
Around the great stupa, the day turns in a slow circle of pilgrims, butter lamps, and prayer wheels. A walk through one of the most sacred sites in the Himalaya.
Lodges
Not every teahouse on the trail is worth recommending. A short list of the ones we send our guests to, and why.
Nepal's rivers drop fast from the Himalaya, and a few days on the Trisuli or Sun Koshi is a different way to see the country. Notes from the water.
The lowlands of the south are a different Nepal — flat, hot, and home to rhino, tiger, and the Tharu people. A few days in the country's first national park.
Craft
The khukuri is Nepal's most famous tool, and the village smiths of the eastern hills still make it by hand. A morning at a forge that has been in one family for four generations.
Nepal has two real trekking windows and a handful of quieter alternatives. A plain guide to choosing the right month for the right trip.
Of the three old cities of the valley, Bhaktapur keeps its festivals loudest and most intact. A note from Bisket Jatra, when the city pulls its chariots through the narrow lanes.
Halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara, a hilltop town that time nearly forgot. A slow afternoon on its single paved street.
Behind every trekker on a Himalayan trail is a team carrying the weight. A short piece on the people who make these journeys possible, and how we work with them.
Upper Mustang is the slice of Nepal that looks toward Tibet — rain-shadow desert, cave monasteries, and a kingdom that lasted until 2008. A note on a place unlike the rest of the country.
The Langtang valley is the closest trek to Kathmandu, and one of the most human. A short story from a teahouse at 3,500 metres.
