We first contacted Magic Himalaya Treks Nabin & Shanta (pronounced Santha) over a year ago in 2016 to enquire about engaging the services of Magic Himalaya for our trek in Oct/Nov 2017. From first contact magic Himalaya team was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and professional. On arrival at Kathmandu airport, we were collected by the Magic Himalaya team with garlands and taken to our hotel in Thamel.
From that point on we didn’t have to worry about anything! Shanta has been guiding experienced and inexperienced trekkers alike for over twenty years, hence, for every problem we had, a solution was already underway, every question had a prompt but courteous answer, and not once did we feel that we weren’t his absolute priority! Once in Kathmandu, we were kitted out with warm sleeping bags and big jackets from the store in Kathmandu. The team also showed a few local sights before we flew to Lukla.
The flying experience is not for the faint-hearted! Then the trek began in earnest, and I can honestly say it’s one of the hardest but also one of the greatest endeavors I have ever undertaken. All through the trek, from Lukla to the very peak of Kalapthar, Shanta was our guide, our leader, and our trekking guru, but he wasn’t the only member of the team. Keshap was the chief porter, he was always rounding us up when we got lost, checking our rooms before we left in the morning (and always finding stuff we had left behind), supplying endless pots of ‘Hot Lemon’ and I never once saw him without a huge grin on his face! The porters were amazing too, carrying three bags each (roughly 45 kilos) up hills we took all day to drag ourselves up, and always beating us to our destinations!
The teahouses and hotels chosen were perfectly fine for our needs, and the food was much better than I was led to expect, the ‘Nepali Set’ being a favorite for lunch, and ‘Rara Noodles’ for breakfast. Shanta and Keshap saw the signs when one of our group was beginning to flag due to altitude sickness, and when he fell, they were right there with water and altitude sickness tablets, the next morning he was raring to go again. When another of our group was stricken with a nasty bug (on the way back after base camp) Shanta organized a helicopter to fly him directly to Kathmandu to hospital, even having one of his relatives meet our fallen comrade there and look after him whilst we were still in the mountains! Even when we returned to Kathmandu after the trip, Shanta was always there for us and even organized for us to go to his house to meet his wife and two lovely children, where we were treated to an amazing meal and some traditional Nepali dancing to his daughter had been learning. I can’t recommend Magic Himalaya, Nabin, and Shanta highly enough.
Contact him directly from the website, and he will answer any requests via email, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram, or Facebook. Just a comment on cost too, I spoke to a few people who had booked through Exodus, traveling from the UK as we had; they were in a huge, rather impersonal group, stayed in the same teahouses we did, ate the same food we ate, yet they had paid over a thousand pounds more for their trip!!! A few tips for surviving the Base Camp Trek 1. Bring Baby Wipes (There are very few warm showers past Namche) 2. Don’t underestimate the cold, in November at night it was down to minus 20) 3. Do lots of training, it’s hard work! 4. Take a great camera 5. Book Magic Himalaya through Shanta, everything else will be fine!
