There are still at least three places that I intend to visit in the Himalayas. They are Sikkim (India), the Annapurna Region and the Khumbu Region, both in Nepal.

Sikkim was an independent state, but is now part of India. It sticks up like a thumb between Nepal to the west and Bhutan to the east. It borders on Tibet to the north. It is a little known Himalayan paradise dominated by the world’s third highest peak, Kangchenjunga, to the northwest. This coming October I will fly to New Delhi and then connect to Bagdogra. From there I’ll be driven to Sikkim’s capital, Gangtok, via Kalimpong. From Gangtok I’ll hike down through villages in the northwest – Yangsum, Rinchenporn, Hee and Pemayangste – right under the towering mass of Kangchenjunga and the eastern Himalayas. I’ll finish by visiting Darjeeling and staying at a tea estate nearby – the Glenburn Tea Estate. This is my own custom designed version of Geographical Expeditions’ trip, “Hiking Village to Village in Sikkim”. Have a look: http://www.geoex.com/trip.asp?tripID=4948

The following autumn I plan to do another custom-designed GeoEx trip to the Annapurna region of Nepal. From Kathmandu I’ll fly to Pokhara, Nepal’s second largest city. From there one can already see the Annapurna massif and the incomparable twin-summited peak, Machapuchare – “the fish’s tail”. The first trek goes to Ghandrung, lodge-to-lodge, through Damphus and Birethani. At that point one is at the entrance to the Annapurna Sanctuary, one of the most spectacular mountain cirques in the world. After absorbing the scenery and taking some day hikes, I’ll return to Pokhara through Nayapul and fly north to Jomsom. The flight goes through a deep river valley with the twin 8,000+ meter peaks of Dhalaghiri and the Annapurnas towering on both sides. Jomsom is just below the Tibetan plateau and is decidedly Tibetan Buddhist. I’ll trek to Marpha and Tukche and visit the Sanga Choling monastery. In Jomsom I’ll sample Tibetan culture again – which I have done several times before in Tibet and Bhutan, and then return to Kathmandu for the famous morning flight east, down the Himalayan range, over the top of Mt. Everest.

The Khumbu has always been my dream, but I’ll have to work up to it. It is a very demanding trek, no matter how far one gets. It starts with a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, at over 11,000 feet. Then a several days trek up to the Sherpa capital, Namche Bazaar. Acclimatize there a few days and continue to the famous Tengboche monastery – the twin sister of the Rongbuk monastery, which I visited when I trekked to Everest north base camp in Tibet. How much further I go after that will depend on my acclimatization, the weather and how I am feeling. Ideally, I’d like to climb Kalar Patar (“the black rock”), which is a subsidiary peak of the Everest massif at over 18,000 feet. It is THE place to get a classic view of the Everest cirque from the south – Everest, Lhotse (with the Khumbu glacier ice fall in between) and Nuptse – all 26,000 feet and above.

Those are my plans for the next few years – God willing! If I can realize them, there will be a lot more spectacular photos on my web site. Just click on the “Photos” tab.