FAQ

Haggling in this type of country is unavoidable. It is their culture and it is their way of doing things, so you should participate in this “game” always with a positive attitude, with a good spirit and without disrespect. You should not conflict to get away with it … If you can not reach an agreement, you say goodbye with a smile and try in another store, but you should not be offended or offend the other person.
You have to think that most of the Nepalese people are very humble and have very little paid income. For many, tourism becomes the only option to grow and dream of a better future for their children.
For this reason, even if at some point you have the feeling that you could have got something a little cheaper, we should not be “stingy” or take advantage of the need of people to lower the price excessively. You have to pay what you think is fair and stay calm.

One possibility is to look at what you like and then tell a Nepali you trust to come into the store and buy it for you, he will surely get it at a better price. 

If we plan to buy several items we can negotiate further, and offer the seller a total price for everything.

Get in the habit of asking prices at various stores to make sure what they are saying is fair. Sometimes you think they are trying to trick you and it turns out that they were telling you a pretty good price first. 
This usually happens for example with the real Mandalas. At first they may seem very expensive, but then you find out about the work behind them and fully understand it. There are some that can take up to a year to paint, working 5 hours a day. If you respect the artist and his work captivates you, you should not try to take his work home for less than it is worth.

You should not try to haggle in a restaurant where there is a menu with prices in sight or in a street stall where you have already been told the price before consuming and you are seeing that others charge the same.

On mountain routes everything is usually more expensive as you go up. Think that all items should be carried on the back and somebody has to pay those porters. Therefore it is normal that a beer is more expensive at 5,000 meters of altitude than in Kathmandu. Also you can see the prices on the menu before consuming, so you should not haggle on food or drinks… But maybe you can negotiate a bit the price of the room.

With taxis it is essential to haggle. Try to ask your hotel more or less how much the trip will cost, and negotiate a fixed price with the taxi driver. If you can’t get it try another taxi. Many times they give you a better price if you move a little away from the central taxi ranks. For example, you will always find a better price if you leave the airport grounds, than if you take a taxi right there …

Sometimes you will be in places where they do not usually deal with tourists and do not have the custom to play with the prices. In these places it is not necessary to haggle anything, since they are giving you the real prices they give to any local.

You are a tourist, do not pretend to pay everywhere like a Nepali. But don’t let them treat you like a ticket factory either. 
In most places they will treat you with respect, but in some places you will find arrogant “bosses” who are not even friendly and are used to treating others as inferiors or subjects. They do it with their employees (who are paid miserable wages), they do it with their families, with everyone in general who they feel are below them … and you are not better for being a tourist, so they don’t hesitate to try and take what they can from you since they have no respect for you. This is because they have grown up thinking that they are of a higher caste and that their privileges are legitimate, they have seen their parents do it and they follow their tradition. They are usually people with enough money to maintain that social position.
I personally avoid dealing with these types of people, but if you must do it, be patient and try to be calm and keep your distance. Do not take his distant treatment as something personal, he will do the same with everyone. In these cases it is not useful to haggle … just give him a price and if he does not accept you go somewhere else without looking back. 

While you should be on the lookout for scams, you should finally not let the feeling of being cheated spoil a trip. If you think about it most of the time you are paying one or two euros more for something … there is no need for it to be a drama. It is all part of the journey and it is best to take it as a learning experience. When you look back and reflect it will be just a minor anecdote.

Tipping is a tradition in Nepal. From the Sherpas of the expeditions (which already include them directly in their final amount) to those who run a small Lodge or restaurant. Tipping is welcome almost anywhere.

Our clients will not have to pay anything once they are on the trek, since everything
is included in the package contracted with us. Workers receive their salary
for their work through our agency, but they are allowed to receive tips since we cannot refuse a tourist to decide to reward the good service of a worker. 
The same happens if you want to reward the kindness in a Guest House where you have felt especially welcomed, you can directly give what you think convenient to the person who is there working …

The caste system has been present in Hindu society for approximately 3,000 years, and in Nepal 80% of the population professes this religion. Hinduism states that human beings have been created from the different parts of the body of the god Brahma, a belief that provides different degrees of purity and, based on that purity, the classification is established.
This ingrained method of organization hierarchically divides the total population into many groups, although we can distinguish four main castes.

– Brahmins o Bahun
They are associated with the color white, and according to Hinduism they came from the mouth and skull of Brahma. 
They represent intelligence and purity, and it would be made up of priests, doctors and intellectuals, located at the top of the pyramid.
They would be the priests of the gods, the ones in charge of teaching and interpreting the sacred texts. In the Hindu religion the ritual power of the priest or brahmin is more important than the secular power of the king or head of state.

-Kshatriya o Chetri
They are associated with the color red, and they came out of Brahma’s shoulders and arms.
They represent the vital energy and would be made up of kings and warriors.
They are the rulers, warriors and nobles. People with a lot of decision-making capacity and power.

-Vaishya
They are associated with the yellow color or color of the earth and came from the hips and thighs of Brahma. This group is made up of landowners, merchants, ranchers or artisans.

-Shoudra
They are associated with the color black, a hue associated with darkness, and according to Hinduism they left the feet of Brahma to work for the previous caste.
This group is made up of workers and peasants.

-Dalits
Also called Untouchables or Pariahs, this group is outside this caste system and therefore they are traditionally relegated to doing the lowest jobs and do not even have social rights (it is easy to compare them with a kind of slavery). They are even prohibited from participating in community activities such as praying in the same temples as the higher caste Nepalese. 
This caste represents 15.57% of the country’s total population.
In 1963 caste discrimination was abolished in Nepal and the National Dalit Commission was created.
This was to make everyone equal before the law, but over the decades, as the state has introduced stricter laws against the practice, Dalit conditions have only worsened. The system does not seem to be so rigid in public, but in practice nothing has changed too much … Contempt is done in a more subtle, more hidden way …
50 years later, in 2011 the Law Against Discrimination was approved based on Caste and of Untouchability.

However, Dalits to this day continue to be marginalized and women are the most discriminated and vulnerable.

In this model of society, work was inherited, as is the case today with caste, also hereditary. It is not possible to change caste unless it is through a dedication to religious life, it is what is known as shadus or Hindu ascetics, or through death, since Hindus believe in reincarnation and kharma, and, According to this assumption, their current behavior will define their caste when they reincarnate. 
This is really a way of perpetuating the system that favors the privileged as always and condemns the humble and poor to servile.
As time goes by, the divisions between castes dissolve, especially in big cities, where people access jobs on their own merits and where it hardly influences social relations. However, arranged marriages continue to be between people of the same caste. In some identity documents the status from which it comes appears and is sometimes requested in job interviews.

For most people the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about Nepal is Everest, but the second is usually Buddhism. That is why many are shocked to know that it really is the second religion, with 9% of practitioners, after Hinduism, practiced by 81% of inhabitants of Nepal. The other 10% is shared between Muslims and other ancient regional religions. Christianity is really a minority.

Religion is very important to the Nepalese, and in the Kathmandu Valley alone there are more than 2,700 religious temples. 
Nepal has never known a war motivated by religious conflict, life goes on without confrontations and there is great tolerance among believers of different religions. This may be because proselytizing is prohibited.
 
Nepal’s old constitution describes the country as a “Hindu Kingdom”, although it did not establish Hinduism as the state religion. Nepal’s constitution has long followed legal provisions that prohibit discrimination against other religions.

On May 19, 2006, as the government faced a constitutional crisis, the House of Representatives declared Nepal a “secular state”.

Hindu and Buddhist temples and festivals are respected and celebrated by most Nepalese. Certain animistic practices of the ancient indigenous religions also still survive.

Nepal’s history is characterized by its isolated position in the Himalayas and its great neighbors India and China.
Due to the arrival of various colonizers in the history of Nepal, the country is now multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual.
Despite being a small country, compared to its huge neighbors, Nepal has a wide and diverse variety of territories, ranging from the rainy and humid plains of the Terai, to the highest and iciest peaks on earth.

Central Nepal was divided into three kingdoms (Kathmandu, Patan, and Bakthapur) from the 15th to the 18th century, after this period they were unified under the Shah monarchy. These kingdoms together with their monuments have been declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. 

The national language of Nepal is Nepali, and is the most widely used by its population, despite the fact that 92 living languages ​​are spoken in Nepal.
Nepal experienced a fight for democracy in the 20th century. During the 1990s and until 2008 the country had a civil war. A peace treaty was signed in 2008 and elections were held that same year.
Many of Nepal’s ills have been attributed to the royal family. In a historic vote for the election of the constituent assembly, the Nepalese voted to expel the monarchy. In June 2008, the Nepalese expelled the royal house. Nepal became a Federal Republic.
In April 2015, Nepal suffered a large earthquake that affected much of the country.
On September 20, 2015, the Constituent Assembly (AC) of Nepal approved by a very large majority the much debated and long-awaited democratic Constitution of the country.
India opposed various clauses of the Constitution and has expressed frustration by applying an unofficial blockade to the country, which paralyzed Nepal for 5 months due to lack of fuel and many other basic products. It was a very cruel demonstration to do this after an earthquake that has affected so many families and infrastructure …
In 2020 Nepal prepares the “Visit Nepal Year 2020”, a year committed to promoting the tourism industry with all available means.

Nepal is a country where the woman is totally dependent on her husband. In rural areas even more, since they only have the possibility to work at home or in the fields and these are unpaid jobs, with which they will never have economic independence…

This situation varies from one ethnic group to another. For example, in the area near Tibet, with a Buddhist tradition, women are more liberated than in the Kathmandu valley, with a Hindu tradition.

Women do not have the possibility of inheriting land when their parents die, they do not even have the right to family housing when the husband dies, they cannot have any property, everything always passes into the hands of brothers or male children. Men have priority because it is understood that they will have to support their families and instead they will be supported by their wives.

Today there are many girls from humble families who cannot study and are forced from a very young age to work in the homes of wealthy families and that their future will only change when they get married and will go to work at their husbands family’s home. Social customs place women under male domination, passing authority from father to husband.

Although the current Constitution offers women equal educational opportunities, many social, economic and cultural factors have contributed to their lower enrollment and higher dropout rates for girls. It is a vicious circle. Their inferior status hinders their education, and the lack of education, in turn, limits their status and position.

The level of educational achievement among daughters from wealthy and educated families is much higher than that of girls from poor families. That is why educated women have had a certain access to positions of a certain high status in the government and in the private service sectors.

But even though current laws seem to protect women from violence and discrimination, the patriarchal mindset still prevails in Nepali society and within the family.
An example of this is that according to the Hindu tradition, the feminine condition in itself makes them impure for community life during their menstruation or after childbirth, forcing them to be temporarily excluded from family residence. While excluded, women are prohibited from contacting their families, or even bringing food to them. The hygienic conditions in which they have to stay are dire, which dangerously increases the risk of infection. As if that were not enough, they run the risk of suffering some type of sexual abuse or being attacked by wild animals.
Communities that practice chaupadi believe that they will suffer some kind of disgrace if they do not drive women and girls away when they are menstruating.
 
In August 2017, the Nepalese Parliament, prompted by outside pressure, enacted a new law aimed at improving the safety of Nepalese women: “Anyone who forces the chhaupadi to comply will face a three-month prison sentence and a fine of 3,000 Nepalese rupees ”(25 euros). According to World Bank data, the Nepalese average annual salary is about 625 euros. However, in 2005 the Supreme Court of Nepal had prohibited this custom but today it continues to be practiced.
For the new law to be effective, it must be accompanied by a broad effort on the part of the Government and public education to change current traditions and social norms, and that effort does not take place, there is no real will to change.
Therefore, the problem does not lie so much in the approval of new laws, but in the effective implementation of those that already exist.
The head of the Program Against Sexist Violence of the The UN agency for women in Nepal lists the examples: “There are many norms that criminalize sexist violence: the Law for the Control of Accusations of Witchcraft, the Law on Child Marriage or the Law on Domestic Violence. The latter has already been approved in 1996, but people are unaware of its existence. “
 
Another notable example of this patriarchal society is the attribution of citizenship. In the young Republic of Nepal, women become citizens only if their father or husband gives their authorization. This means that a widowed or single woman will never be able to give citizenship to her children, who will grow up without social rights unless this woman remarries which in this day and age seems unbelievable?
 
It was also observed that the legalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in 2010 led to selective abortion only for girls. 
 
According to journalist Marie Dorigny, 99% of men today believe that women should obey them, and 66% of girls and women declare themselves victims physical, verbal, assault, or sexual harassment.
The situation is such that, since 2010, the leading cause of death for women in Nepal is suicide.

A glimpse of hope is that female representation has increased dramatically in the Nepali Parliament in the past ten years. It is the result of an ambitious gender quota system that has made its Constitution one of the most progressive in Asia.
The Constitution requires that a woman be the president or vice-president of the country. The same occurs in the case of the presidency of Parliament and the head of the judiciary. Likewise, in the municipalities a woman must be at the head of the mayor’s office. Each district in each municipality has to reserve two seats for women; and one of them must be occupied by a woman of the Dalit caste, a community historically excluded from leadership positions in society.
These latest data invite optimism, but there is no doubt that changing the mindset of a society so deeply rooted in its religion and traditions requires a great effort in education and many generations.

Information taken from different web articles:

Le journal international.

El país.

El correo.com

El español.

There are 366 festivals in Nepal, 365 days a year. This is not strange, since more than 30 different communities live together, more than 30 ways of understanding life and therefore of celebrating it.
They are usually festivals linked to specific dates, such as the Nepalese or Tibetan New Year, the birth of the Buddha, or celebrations to different Hindu gods, etc …
If you can choose when to come to Nepal, perhaps you can choose a date coinciding with one
of the great Local festivals that fill the country with music, dance and color. But you also have to know that with the big festivals the country is paralyzed and it may be that you run out of transport for several days, or if you have to do any bureaucratic errands you will find many of the institutions closed…

JANUARY:
1 January- Western New Year. Although it is not a traditional Nepalese holiday they celebrate everything.

FEBRUARY:
February 5 – Losar. Tibetan New Year. It goes with the Tibetan lunar calendar and can sometimes fall at the end of January. It can last 9 days and each day different Buddhist rituals are performed.

MARCH:
March 4 – Maha Shivaratri. Ritual offerings and baths at the Pashupatinath Temple and other temples consecrated to Shiva. Hashish can be found for free and is even smoked by Indian Monks. There are even rituals of putting hashish in the food so that everyone comes under the influence. Not many vehicles circulate, etc … Children cut the street with ropes and you should give them money in the name of Shiva. At night they build fires and dance on the street.

March 20- Holi. Festival of color and welcome of spring.

APRIL:
April 14- New Nepali Year.

MAY:
May 18- Buddha Jayanti. Buddha’s birthday.

JUNE:
Dalai Lama Jayanti. Dalai Lama anniversary celebration.

AUGUST:

August 15- Raksha Bandhan. Brothers party.

August 19- Gai Jatra. Feast of the deceased. Saris, masks and garlands will flood the streets.

SEPTEMBER:
September 1 – Teej. Women’s day

OCTOBER:
October 8- Dashain. National holiday in honor of Durga.

October 27- Tihar. Feast of lights.

Vegetables and rice are the basis of the Nepalese diet. Either out of conviction or out of necessity most Nepalese people are generally vegetarians.
The foods are usually very spicy and use highly seasoned sauces (masalas).
 
The star dish without a doubt is Dal Bhat. It is the basic food of the country and is prepared with rice and lentils. The dish contains white rice (bhat) and lentils (dal) served in soup form to mix with the rice. It is usually accompanied by a vegetable curry called tarkari (they are usually potatoes), a mixture of spicy vegetables (pickles) and vegetables like spinach or cauliflower (sak). Everything is served on a large metal plate separating each food in its compartment so that each diner mixes it to their liking.
The meal can be accompanied with poppadoms (crispy round fried bread) or roti (also called naan or chapati in India).

The momos are also very popular in the Nepalese diet. They are steamed dumplings filled with meat, vegetables or even cheese (similar to giant ravioli). The momos that are leftover from dinner are usually fried the next day for breakfast when they taste even better. They are usually served with tomato sauce, of course spicy.

 Vermicelli (noodles) is the fast food of Nepal. They do them in a moment since you just have to take them out of the bag and boil them in water adding the sauce that comes with the pack itself. The thing is that in most places they dress it with potatoes, spinach and egg … thus giving it a homemade touch that makes them delicious. If you are in a hurry it is the fastest and cheapest that you will find on the menu. As a curiosity, the locals eat it directly from the bag without cooking, as if they were potato chips.

The Chowmein are basically fried spaghetti with a little onion, carrot, cabbage, and if you also want chicken or buffalo meat. All seasoned with spices that give it a mild curry flavor. If you like you can add hot or tomato sauce.

Thukpa is the name of a pasta soup that takes everything … In this case the pasta is usually handmade and has a very smooth texture. It is a dish that fills a lot and they usually eat in the mountains, especially in winter.

Chana. Cooked black chickpeas and later fried with onion, tomato and curry. They usually eat it with Tea Mommo, which is a tasty very soft steamed bread.

Samosa. The main base of the dough is made from white wheat flour mixed with water and oil or butter. It is placed in the shape of a cone and filled with potatoes with onion, lentils, ginger, chili, coriander, cumin and masala. Then fried in very hot oil. 

Tibetan Bread. It is a slightly sweet and fluffy fried bread. It is perfect for dipping in tea or coffee in the morning, and you can pour honey on it. 

Curd. It is curdled yogurt, perfect for breakfast in the morning with muesli. It is made from yak milk that is boiled in an iron pot along with cloves, cardamom, coconut, and cashew, and then slowly cools to a curd.

Tsampa porridge. This porridge is a Tibetan staple food made with barley flour mixed with honey, butter and milk or tea … It has all the qualities of a good, nutritious, quick and easy to prepare breakfast cereal.

Oat Porridge. This is oatmeal porridge. It is not a product that the nepalis eat, but it is perfect in the morning for breakfast and they have it in almost all places.

In Kathmandu and Pokhara, more used to tourism, they have almost anything. Pasta, pizza, sushi, hamburgers, grilled meat, fish, etc … but it is for tourists, since the locals will always prefer their Dal Bhat.