THE WEEKLY #251: BACK TO NEPAL

It’s been four years since I was last in Nepal. It was still my first year of solo travel when I arrived into Kathmandu in 2017. I liked hiking but didn’t know much about multi-day trekking. To be honest, I didn’t even own any pants at that point in time. So thinking about heading out into the snow was something quite new for me. However, all those years ago that’s exactly what I did as I trekked to Everest Base Camp. Little did I know back then that trekking would become my primary interest and focus later down the track.

After a couple of great months in Tanzania, I made the 25-hour journey across to Nepal. Upon arrival, a great sense of nostalgia hit me as I recognized a few of the streets, temples, and shops that I had visited all those years ago. It wasn’t just the memories of visiting those places but the memory of who I was as a person during that period that began to crystallize within my memory.

Four years ago I was less than a year into my blogging and solo traveling journey. My blog was generating $0 in revenue so far each month but garnering some traffic. I was very new to travel and to blogging but was trying hard. The world was quite a new place to me and I was finding my way.

Fast-forward to today and it is a completely different experience. I am a veteran in the blogging world with four years of solid earnings behind me, have a wealth of experience, and feel quite comfortable in the online space. I’ve traveled to over thirty countries throughout the last five years and explored many of them in depth. I’ve also grown comfortable with travel and feel a lot more experienced in that domain. Things are still new to me when I travel, but I experience them with a slightly different view than four years ago when I came to Nepal.

On this trip I am here to trek for a few months before heading to Pakistan. My first trek will be on the Manaslu Circuit, which is a 12-day, 180km trail with 11,000m of incline. I’m looking forward to the adventure, which I’m sure will send me down memory lane from my Everest Base Camp expedition all those years ago.

I’m currently in a Kathmandu hotel for a few days before the trek so I haven’t touched my camera since arriving but thought I’d post a few snaps from my last trip to Nepal as a bit of a throwback. I hope you all had a great week.