Nepal Trip: Guide Book, Costs, Misc

This is the final post of my 14-day trip to a wonderful country called Nepal.  In this post, I will share with you about our planning, the cost of airfare, trekking, etc. 

1. Airfare

There are limited choices when it comes to airlines flying to Kathmandu from Singapore.  One is Silk Air, the other is Thai Airways.  You may also choose Cathay, but you might have to transit at Hong Kong, which is not going to be very time-efficient if you origin from Singapore.

Silk Air offers direct flight, the cost is around S$1000, plus and minus a bit.  Thai Airways has no direct flight to Kathmandu, you have to transit in Bangkok.  The cost is also around S$1000.  However, if you are lucky and have sharp eyes, you can fish for some good deals at Zuji Singapore website.  For our case, we found that if we set off on 18 Dec, and return on 31 Dec, we could get the tickets at S$724/person, inclusive of taxes and surcharges.  If you just move the dates by one day, the price will be the normal S$1000 plus.  A little bit of research will save you quite a bit of money, and a S$200 saving will expand your spending power in Nepal quite a lot.

2. Accommodation

I will recommend that you book the very first night of your stay in Kathmandu in advance.  If you fly in, the numerous touts at the airport will make you feel dizzy.  If you make an advance reservation, most hotels and guest houses will offer you free airport transfer, as they don't want their guests to be snatched away by others.  It helps to have someone to pick you up if you are in a foreign country for the first time.

Guest houses in Nepal in general are quite ok by backpackers' standard.  No fancy furniture or interior deco, but with basic facilities and reasonably clean. 

3. Trekking

We engaged our trekking service at our guest house.  The total cost of our 10-day trek to Annapurna base camp is US$560, including the airfare from Kathmandu to Pokhara, trekking permits, guide cum porter, food and lodging along the trek, return tourist bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu, etc.  Basically everything is included, except personal expenses such as drinks, extra food, etc. 

We paid our guide cum porter US$100 at the end of the trip as tips.  I think it is considered as not too bad.  My Singaporeans friends told me for the guide, usually the tip is around S$80, while for the porter, it is around S$50-60.   As we combined with a Japanese tourist and his guide 2 days into our trip, so we also paid his guide US$50 for his good work.  That tip amount is above average.

4. Guide Book

I was using a 4th Edition of the Lonely Planet guide book on Nepal, while the current version is the 8th Edition.  Some things don't change, especially the cultural stuff.  The prices have gone up, the political system has changed, but the rest remains about the same.  If you can afford it, get the latest guide book.  However, I personally don't recommend Lonely Planet's guide book, it is confusing and making simple things difficult.  Our Japanese friend uses a simple guide book which is more clearly cut and focused. 

In addition, I highly suspect Lonely Planet has some hidden agenda, as some 'famous' sites mentioned in Lonely Planet are really not that great, and I have doubts on their motives.  One example is Devi's Falls.  It is nothing but just a hole in the ground, but it took up quite a bit of space in Lonely Planet's guide book. 

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.

Nepal Trip: Day 14: Usher-in 2010 in A Blue Moon

Our flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok was smooth.  At Bangkok's new airport, we went through the same ordeal of walking for more than 1km to catch our transfer flight.  When I boarded the plane to Singapore, I picked up a copy of the Bangkok Post

There were articles on the review of 2009 and the vision for 2010 in the Bangkok Post, but one caught my attention.  In the article, it said tonight, 31 Dec 2009, we would see a blue moon!  I often hear the idiom of 'once in a blue moon', but never thought there really is a blue moon.  As I was reading the article, I couldn't help but to look out of the plane window.  It was a full moon, bright and peaceful.  I couldn't really tell its color, whether it was really blue, or just normal white.  20,000 feet down, the lights of Bangkok were bright, yet fading away. 

We flew past Malaysia, Indonesia.  You might wonder why Indonesia, because Singapore is too small, we had to fly to other countries to land :P

Along the east coast of Singapore, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of ships were stationery on the sea.  Their lights were on, making them look like a metropolitan.  Long have I heard some ship owners idle their unchartered ships in the international waters around Singapore to cut the over-supply in cargo ships, but now I could see them myself.

The lights from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia were spectacular.  Fireworks ushering in the new year could be seen here and there. 

In the music ushering in 2010, our plane landed safely at Changi Airport, just in time for me to welcome a new year, 2010 :)

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.

Quest for Immortality

Taking advantage of free adimission to Singapore National Museum, I went for the Quest for Immortality - The World of Egypt exhibition.

It is still Chinese New Year, I didn't expect the museum would be this packed.  To get into the Quest for Immortality exhibition at Gallery 2, we waited for about 1 full hour.  While waiting, some MediaCorp reporter was there shooting news clips.  He interviewed a couple of people, asking them how they feel about the long waiting time. 

We got into the gallery at around 11.45am.  The size of the exhibition is small, comparing with what you can see in Louvre Museum or the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy.  The exhibits are mostly small in size, but quite intricate.  For someone who has never seen Egyptian artifacts before, this exhibition is really an eye-opener.  It also saves you the trouble to travel to Egypt or Europe to admire this great ancient civilization.

The highlight of the exhibition is none other than the mummies.  They have quite a number of colorful mummy coffins on display, and they have a real mummy at the exhibition too.  

Another interesting display is the ancient Egyptian picture characters.  They are so vivid.  Birds, humans, animals, they are words and they look so lively even after so many thousands of years.

This exhibition is worth a visit if you are a fan of ancient Egyptian culture.  You can find more details about the exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore website.

If you want to know more about the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, you can check out my previous post here.

Nepal Day 14: Kathmandu Airport Security Check

31 Dec 2009

It has finally come to the last day of 2009, also the last day of our stay in Nepal, a poor country with nice people.

We arrived early at the Airport, just in case anything that might cause a delay somewhere.  Enough of power outage and strikes.

Our taxi was stopped when we came near the airport for a routine check, but the security guy just waved us through when he saw foreign tourists on board.

To enter the departure hall, we had to first queue up, showed our passport and air ticket.  I was not too used to this as ever since the introduction of e-tickets, I seldom have my tickets on hand.  After that, went through the first level of security check, which we put our check-in luggage through the x-ray machine.

Inside the departure hall, it was a bit chaotic, with no clear signs of which counter you should go to.    I asked an airport staff, he kindly pointed us to the Thai Airways counter, with very short queues.

It was great that at Kathmandu airport, they also issue our onward boarding pass from Bangkok to Singapore.  In contrast, Guangzhou's Baiyun airport still can't issue onward boarding pass till today.  They really need to improve, man.

The immigration hall is small, with only 2-3 counters for foreigners, so it is not unexpected to see long queues.

After the immigration, we had to go through a second security check.  Your hand-carry goes through the x-ray machine, you walk through the metal detector, as well as undergoing a manual body search.  There are two separate queues, one for men, one for women.

After that, it is still not over yet.  You have to carry your hand carry to one of the security officers and go through a manual check of your hand carry luggage.  Once the officer is satisfied, he will sign on the back of your boarding pass to say ok, you can board the plane.

After that, you have to show your boarding pass to another security officer before you can enter the waiting area.

Just when you thought all that security check is over, just before you board the airplane, you still have to go through one more time body search.

This is the most tedious security check I have ever experienced in airports across the world, however, its effectiveness is very much in doubt, in my humble opinion.

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.

The Little Tiger Band 小虎队2010年

Members of the long disbanded The Little Tiger Band (小虎队), a boy band popular in the last decade of the last century, got the chance to come together again in the celebration of the Year of the Tiger on Chinese Central TV's new year's eve program.



They were members of the boy band, but now all the little tigers have become mature tigers.  Out of the 3 members, Chen Zhi-peng (陈志朋) is almost unknown to the younger generation, no trace of him in the entertainment industry.  Wu Qi-long (吴奇隆) came out in newspaper headlines only for his unsuccessful marriage and a painful divorce.  The only one who is still well-known and popular is Su You-peng (苏有朋).  He starred in the most popular Qiong Yao TV drama Huan Zhu Ge-ge (还珠格格).  He is still active in many mainland Chinese TV dramas and motion pictures.

Their performance on stage was kind of heart-breaking.  30 something middle-aged men were still trying to act if they were teenagers.  Haiz...





And let's take a look at their old videos of the same song.

Silver Investment in Singapore

In Singapore, there are limited channels for Silver investment.  Here I would like to share with you some such investment avenues with you.

1. UOB Silver Account

This is one of the convenient ways to get your hands on silver, paper silver only though, not physical silver.  It works something like your savings account.  You decide on how much silver you want to buy or sell, then the amount will be credit/debit to/from your account.  You will never see any physical silver.  All is on paper. 

There is an administration fee of 0.2 ounce per month or 0.375% per year on your account.  If you are thinking of only small amount of silver investment, then this might not be suitable for you.

More details are available at UOB website.

2. Singapore Silver Bullion

If you are looking at owing physical silver, you may consider purchasing from Singapore Silver Bullion.  They have an office where you can go down to pick up the goods and make payments.  There are different types of silver available, from American eagles, Canadian Maple Leaves, to silver bars, & rounds. 

However, they have a minimum purchase amount, which is SGD2,000.  If you are thinking of less than that amount, you may have to go elsewhere.

More details are available at Singapore Silver Bullion website.

3. eBay

If you are looking at physical silver, but not as much as SGD2,000, you can consider buying from eBay.  Singapore's eBay has very little activities, so you have to buy from mostly US-based sellers.  Their prices are quite reasonable, including shipping and handling.  However, many sellers don't ship to Singapore, so you have to do quite a bit of searching.  In addition, buyer aware.  There is always some black sheep around.  Go for those with at least 100 positive feedbacks, and no neutral or negative feedback sellers.   It is less economically sensible to fake 1 ounce silver bullion, but who knows...

Another potential risk is the goods being lost on its way to you.  You must take all the potential risks into your consideration and make sure the worst case loss will not going to cause a limb. 

4. Silver ETF

Singapore investors have direct access to a gold ETF listed at Singapore stock exchange (SGX), but a silver ETF is still yet to appear in SGX, but it does not mean you can't invest in a silver ETF. 

You can open an investment account with a brokerage with access to US markets, such as DBS Vickers.  A silver ETF is listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with ticker of SLV. 

You can trade the silver ETF the same as any other stocks with normal buy/sell commissions.  This is one convenient way to have participation into silver.  It is one step more advance than UOB silver account, which you still have to go to the bank.

5. GoldClubAsia

There is one more way of getting hold of physical silver for small investors.  There is this internet forum called www.goldclubasia.com where there is a buy & sell section.  Members can buy and sell their precious metal bullion or coins there.  I have not tried this before, although I am aware of their existence. 

There above are all the avenues that I am aware of to invest in silver in Singapore.  I hope it helps in one way or other to your physical metal investment. 

Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财

Year of the ox is coming to the end in a few hours' time, year of the tiger is to start its reign soon.  At such a festive occasion, I would like to wish everybody a Happy and Prosperous Year of the Tiger.



For those who are more unconventional and rebellion, you may like Name Wee's version of Lunar New Year celebration song :D

Nepal Day 13: Swayambhu Stupa

Swayambhu Stupa, more commonly known in the English world as the 'Monkey Temple', is another one of the 7 world heritage sites in Kathmandu.

Our road to Swayambhu was full of obstacles.  First, it was the heavy.  You could barely see what was 50m ahead.  We first headed to Durbar Square, from there, we walked west from Maru Tole of Durbar Square, down to a small bridge covered almost completely in fog.  Streets in Kathmandu have no names, except some really big ones.  I had originally hoped to be able to see the giant Stupa sitting atop of the hill from afar, so that we could just walk toward it.  However, in this heavy fog, I could see nothing but fog, and fog.  Luckily, Nepalis are friendly in general.  I asked people along the road for directions, they all happily pointed me to the right direction. 

We had our breakfast at a road side store, where the locals have their breakfast.  Well, the price is really hard to believe, breakfast for two, including 4 roti prata, plus curry, plus tea, was only Rs60+.

 

After quite a bit of struggling, we were led to the Stupa by a kind Nepali man.  The stupa, or temple to be more exact, was covered in fog too.  The fog gave the Buddha statues a sense of mystery.

 

Awaiting for us is another long flight of stairs, another uphill.  Haiz, after climbing all the way to Annapurna Base Camp, what is this man?  

After climbing up all that hundreds of steps, and paid Rs200 per person for admission, we were greeted by this Dorje, or giant thunderbolt, a symbol of power.  

I used Lonely Planet's 4th Edition of Nepal guide book, which says if you climb up the steps yourself, then you don't have to pay admission charges.  Well, bluff.  Ok, 4th Edition was published in 2000, now it is 2009.  Things may have changed :)

The stupa, disappointingly, was under renovation.  The spire was covered up.  Sigh.  But, by Buddha's blessing, the fog cleared a bit when we arrived at the stupa.  

In a clear day, you can see the entire Kathmandu valley right in front of the stupa, now, we could only see the entire Kathmandu valley masked under fog, with the stupa, which is on top of a hill, was clear under the bright sunshine.  

It is known as 'Monkey Temple', because of the many monkeys playing around in the temple ground, enjoying the offerings from us mere mortals to the gods.

As the stupa is under renovation, I can only look for the finer details.

 

  

  

  

 

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.