The desk
Who writes this
Guides, planners and reporters based in Pokhara. Each of us writes the part we actually know, and the byline on a page is the person accountable for it.
Rajan Gurung
Head Trek Guide · 15 years
Ghandruk Village, Annapurna
Rajan grew up at 2,012m in Ghandruk, one of the villages on the Annapurna Base Camp route. He knows the trail the way most people know their street — every switchback, every teahouse family, every microclimate. With 300+ expeditions led and wilderness first-aid certification from the Nepal Mountaineering Association, he is the guide your safety depends on at altitude. His rule: “We descend if in doubt. The summit will still be there.” In 15 years he has never broken it.
Their writing
Sunita Pandey
Cultural & Sightseeing Guide · 10 years
Lakeside, Pokhara
Born and raised in Pokhara’s Lakeside, Sunita speaks English, Japanese and German fluently — and gets by in four more. Her real speciality is context: why the prayer flags are those five colours, the history of the gompa you are standing in, which festival in the next village you did not know you needed to see. She leads the cultural circuit — Chitwan, Lumbini, Kathmandu — and the valley day treks most visitors miss.
Their writing
Bikash Thapa
High-Altitude Guide · 12 years
Salleri, Solukhumbu (Everest region)
Bikash is from the Everest district — his hometown sits at 2,376m, so altitude is home. He has summited Mera Peak (6,476m) and Island Peak (6,189m) and leads every Everest Base Camp expedition we run. He carries a pulse oximeter above 3,500m, oxygen above 5,000m, and a calm certainty built from 12 years of reading mountains. Trekkers call him “quietly unstoppable.”
Their writingLaxman Rawal
Founder & Editor · since 1998
Pokhara
Laxman founded Travel Himalaya Nepal in 1998 and still signs off on every article. He carries editorial responsibility for the news desk — the breaking permit and flight changes, the safety advisories, and the hard coverage when things go wrong on the trails, including the 2026 floods. When a story touches loss of life, an official figure, or a family, it runs under his name because the accountability does. His rule for the desk is the same as his rule on the mountain: verify it, or do not say it.
Their writingPrakash Tamang
Gear & Kit Reviewer
Syabrubesi, Rasuwa
Prakash — everyone calls him Praks — started as a porter at 17 and has hauled, worn out, and quietly judged more gear than anyone on the team. He now tests kit the boring, honest way: on real treks, for months, until it breaks or earns its place in the pack. He will tell you when a $40 sock is worth it and when the $400 jacket is a rental in Thamel, not a buy. If he links something, he has used it.
Their writingDawa Sherpa
High-Mountain & Expeditions
Khumjung, Solukhumbu
Dawa writes the high, hard end of the mountains — the 8,000ers, the death-zone maths, the records and the reckonings. He has stood on summits and turned back below them, and he treats both as the job. He does not romanticise altitude and he does not sensationalise the dead; he explains, plainly, why a mountain kills the way it does.
Their writingMaya Rai
Culture & Heritage
Dharan, eastern Nepal
Maya studied anthropology before she studied trekking. She writes the festivals, the food, the living heritage and the wildlife — the why behind what you are looking at. From a Kirat family in the east, she is curious about every other community she writes about, and careful with all of them.
Their writingBishnu Adhikari
Trails & Logistics
Besisahar, Lamjung
Bishnu did most of Nepal on a shoestring before he did it for a living, so he thinks in permits, buses, rupees and buffer days. He writes the planning end — costs, permits, visas, routes, what is trekkable when — and he is frank about where to spend and where not to.
Their writingAnjali Shrestha
News Desk
Kathmandu
Anjali covers the moving parts — arrivals data, flight and access changes, tourism-industry news, the trail-and-weather updates that decide a trekker’s week. She writes clean and fast and attributes everything; the opinion stays out of the report.
Their writingTravel Himalaya Nepal
Editorial team · Pokhara, since 1998
The Travel Himalaya Nepal editorial desk is written and reviewed by our Pokhara-based team of NMA-certified guides and trek planners. Every guide, cost breakdown and itinerary here is grounded in trips we actually run — 5,000+ treks across the Annapurna, Everest, Manaslu, Langtang and Mustang regions since 1998, with a zero-client-fatality safety record. Facts are verified against official sources (Nepal Tourism Board, Department of Immigration, TAAN) before we publish.
- NTB-registered · TAAN member
- NMA-certified guides
- 5,000+ treks since 1998
- Zero client fatalities