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Even in its unfinished state, this site is loaded.

Mt. Everest Golden Jubilee

2003 is the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt. Everest. Festivities are planned for June 1, 2002, to May 31, 2003.

Festival Schedule

Needs to be updated for 2003.

Himalayan Explorers Connection

Scott Dimetrosky's comprehensive site serving backpackers bound for the Himalayas.

Nepal.com

Malaysia Airlines

With the Malaysia Airlines’ AccessAsia Pass, you can fly to any or all of 24 great destinations in Southeast Asia for only $747.00. Price includes round trip Economy Class air fare aboard our B747’s or B777’s direct to Kuala Lumpur from Los Angeles or Newark,** and then on to any or all of the 24 listed cities you want to fly to within a 30-day period. There’s also an option to add on cities in Australia, India, New Zealand, Europe and South Africa for a small additional charge. You can even extend the stay or upgrade to First or Business Class for a special low rate as well.

FLY to any or all of these cities for only $747:

Bali (Denpasar) • Bandar Seri Begawan • Bangkok • Beijing • Cebu • Hanoi • Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) • Hong Kong • Jakarta • Kota Kinabalu • Kuala Lumpur • Kuching • Langkawi • Manila • Medan • Penang • Phnom Penh • Phuket • Shanghai • Singapore • Surabaya • Taipei • Tokyo • Yangon

Check out www.malaysiaairlines.com for details, then call your travel agent or Malaysia Airlines at 800-552-9264.

*AccessAsia Pass is available only to North American residents and is priced at USD $747.00 per person. Applicable local taxes/fees are additional. Rate applies to travel dates between January 15 and May 31, 2002, or August 15th to November 15, 2002. For travels between June 1 to August 14, 2002 or between November 16, 2002 to January 14, 2003 a peak season surcharge of $150.00 will apply. Space is limited and some restrictions apply. ** Newark service begins 5/31/02. See www.malaysiaairlines.com for complete fare rules and details.

The Practical Nomad

Travel advice from Edward Hasbrouck, author of The Practical Nomad

Bestfares.com

For the best deals, you have to pay $59 and become a member. But the fares are good, and membership allows you to make purchases for friends and family.

In addition to positive recommendations, we will be posting warnings and counter-recommendations from various sources.

• Two postings on the newsgroup "alt.rec.travel" warn against using Pakistan International Airline (PIA):
  • Don't fly Pakistan International Air. It's cheap, but not worth it. Last I heard, Singapore Air had the best rates ...
  • Yes, I'd second that. Old planes. No booze - aaarrgghh! And the soft drinks are watered down and very infrequent - take loads of bottled water on the flight. Terrible food. Terrible service.
    Oh! And be prepared to be body searched on the tarmac at KTM on you way back.
    PIA often stop over in the Middle-East too, which just adds more hours of torture.
    Wow! Didn't realise how much I hated flying PIA.
    Enjoy your trip, BTW. Nepal is a truly fantastic country with a wonderful people.
    

• Back in March 2002, "Kathie" posted a response to an email from Miguel Cruz (quoted in indented paragraphs):

  However, if you're willing to assemble the trip on your own, you can often save money by buying tickets in Europe. For instance, I see that it's currently £376 ($532) for a May round-trip between London and Kathmandu on Gulf Air (a nice airline). If you can put that together with a cheap flight to London (and are willing to transfer your own bags in London) then you can do quite well for yourself.

  The big drawback of Gulf on this route is the transfer wait at Bahrain/Abu Dhabi (can't remember which) - 8 hours on the flight I was looking at :-(. I've ended up with Qatar Airways, about whom I've heard good reports - bit more expensive than Gulf but only a 1.5 hour transfer time in Doha.

  The cheapest Expedia has on the same dates from NYC to Kathmandu is $1300 in Pakistan International (not a fabulous airline);

  Very tactfully put ;-)

  their next highest fare is $2800. So you can see that these amalgamated-fare web sites are pretty awful ways to find cheap international fares. Don't use them for anything except an indicator of the highest amount you would possibly have to budget for your flight.

  Heard on the radio this morning that returns from NYC to the London are now selling very cheaply because of people worried about foot & mouth disease. Assuming you're not travelling over a holiday period, you should be able to do the trip for under $1500 US (without having to resort to PIA or Aeroflot).
  The other airline we looked at was Transavia (via Amsterdam), which is owned by KLM, but they stop in Sharjah as well so it meant 2 stops for only a slight saving. Wouldn't be a problem if you flew NYC direct to Amsterdam.

  Look in your area for long-haul travel specialists; usually these are messy little places on third floors of anonymous low-rent office buildings, that advertise in small print on the bottom of the page in the travel section of your local major newspaper (travel agencies with glitzy main-street offices will not save you any money). They can often work miracles through consolidator fares and other tricks. Always pay with credit card when using these people - ask right away and if they want a check or cash, it's probably not worth the trouble. If they charge an extra 3% or so for credit cards, that's worth paying.

  Web sites have been a BIG disappointment to me - I thought they were going to make booking cheap flights really easy but I don't even bother looking at them any more, I just phone trusty old Trailfinders & do it the old-fashioned way!
  Kathie