UKH

Are there gear shops in Kathmandu or Pokhara? If so, is gear cheaper or dearer in Nepal?

Loads selling knock off kit. My £6 Arcteryx Jacket is perhaps worth £2, total rubbish. The North Face Shop in Kathmandu seemed about the same as the UK to me, but as I was only going on a short trek I hired kit in Pokhara so did not closely look at TNF prices beyond walking in and looking at the first price tag and saying to myself " this is as expensive as the UK" and turning on my heel..

What I did buy was a "buff" for 60p, which has a prayer flag motif and I wish I bought more.

I have heard tales that some of the kit in the outdoor shops in Kathmandu are over runs from the big brands factories in the Far East, but you would have to really know what you are about to suss that out.

If you are flying from and back to the UK for a specific trip, you are probably better taking everything with you. If on a bigger  trip and just calling in Nepal, maybe hire.

My tip would be wear a face mask in Kathmandu, I found the air very polluted, and fly up to Pokhara, the bus is slow and the full Nepali experience wears a bit thin after 8hours.

As Godwn said, lots of knock-off kit available, probably fine for a trip in reasonable conditions. Whether it lasts longer than that will be debatable.

From experience, look at the details on kit, especially stitching on embroidered logos and labels inside, but also things like zips and depth/material of pockets. I've also seen that the cut on some items is more "Asian" than "European", meaning it suits a stockier build - the legs on a pair of trousers I looked at were really short and quite baggy on me.

If you are in a big enough group, a private transfer from Kathmandu to Pokhara/wherever can be negotiated, but the traffic can be a nightmare.

Loads. Well there was when I was there 10 years ago.

You will find plenty of legit and knock off gear. In terms of the fake, yes there was some proper poor quality.  (but usually easy to spot)

However if you give yourself sometime to go from shop to shop and compare, with a wee bit of haggling, there is potential to come away with some very good quality 'North Fakes'.

I bought a '-20 Mammut' down sleeping bag and micro-down jacket. The former is still going strong, the latter after heavy use was retired only last year. Think total cost was around £70. 

Also plenty of hardware can be bought.

I know its regarded as part of the experience, but possibly best not to haggle too much given Nepal is a very poor country?

When I was in Amritsar 40 year agone, I bought a silver bangle for my girlfriend. The owner of the jewellers shop wasn't there at the time. When he walked back in, he asked the assistant how much I'd paid. I knew enough Hindi to gather that he was asking whether we'd haggled.  When he learned that I'd just paid the asking price straightaway, he gave me a refund, as he considered it not fair.

Haggling's part of the craic.

"fly up to Pokhara, the bus is slow and the full Nepali experience wears a bit thin after 8hours"

possibly a bit of a glib question, but, why go to nepal if you don't want the full nepali experience?

I remember, from 25 years ago, the bus ride from Katmandu to pokhara to be an amazing experiece and a great way to see parts of the country and the way of life that you won't see if you just fly, then go on a popular trek, and its a lot cheaper than a flight.

In Kenya a guide told my sister that they should never pay the asking price as otherwise it upsets the local economy when flogging junk to tourists becomes so much more profitable than selling general wares to the local community.

Depends what you're planning on doing. In my experience of the stuff there I would not be buying kit in Kathmandu to take on an alpine expedition. However I would happily pick up a knock off warm jacket or breathable Ts etc for a valley trek. 

Always haggle, it is entirely normal, expected and not doing anyone a disservice, just be friendly.

The road is in shit state and it takes 12 hours. The beauty of Nepal is the culture and the scenery, maybe a shorter bus ride, but after 8 hours it wears thin.

Kathmandu is heavily polluted and snided out with scooters.

Bus cheaper, maybe, maybe not when you factor in food and one day of your time in Nepal, which will have a monetary value.

I suspect Nepal, especially the Kathmandu Valley is very very different to 25 years ago.

Understand what you’re saying and appreciate where you’re coming from given Nepal is one of the most economically poor countries in the world. 
 

As others have suggested, haggling is part of the culture and is expected for certain items. The initial prices they set were often heavily inflated, so it’s part the game/custom. There is a nice relational quality to haggling, for both seller and buyer, that doesn’t come from a simple transaction. 
 

The other thing to note is that yes Nepal is a poor country, but like everywhere within there is inequality. So I suspect a person owning an outdoor shop is doing relatively well. And  They’re be well aware of the bottom price and I’m sure are very clever operators and wouldn’t sell below that.

Thanks. If you read my post I said "not too much" not "not at all"! 

There is a difference and I am always conscious that in Nepal education is only available on a paid for basis, one of the few countries if the world.

We can only hope that "some" of our spending finds its way somehow into children's education - hence my suggestion not to be too mean! 

Buying Sherpa Adventure clothing either here or there is a sound ethical choice as far as Nepal goes.

No need to hope, just send money to the appropriate Charity, seems an inefficient way of sending aid via buying clothing.

It was noticeable that relative to Nepal, India seemed to be doing okay.

Many thanks for the useful tips.

Not sure that's correct, while there certainly are many private schools and colleges in Nepal, the majority of students go through their primary and secondary education in government schools where the lessons are free but books and uniform need to be paid for.

In answer to the OP, loads of reasonable "fake" gear to be found in the countless trekking shops in both KTM and POK. Most are made from Gore-tex but where they let you down is usually the zips or seams. I would buy one each season and it would last most of that year. Much cheaper than buying the "real" stuff. Most big brands now have stores in KTM and a few in POK, but the prices are similar to Europe. Plenty of good second hand kit in KTM. I've done several trekking peaks with clients kitted out with gear they've pick up in Thamel.

In the end I bought a pair of Marmot poles for £12 which didn't let me down on my trek; a nameless sleeping bag liner from Shona's for £20, which my wife doubts is real silk but which she really enjoyed using; and a Dolpo windjammer smock for £15 from the Dolpo shop in Thamel. I haggled a bit, but my heart wasn't really in it, especially when I thought of the price at home. A must buy is cashmere beanies for £8. Christmas presents sorted. Really needed mine when I got back yesterday. 

Nepal does a little better than India on lots of metrics despite having lower per capita income.

Eg, child mortality:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality?time=1992..latest&co...

Learning adjusted years of schooling:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/learning-adjusted-years-of-school-lays?t...

Share of population that’s undernourished:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment?country=A...
 

GDP per capita:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank?tab=chart&t...

I’ve included Afghanistan in the graphs as a comparison for somewhere that is really poor (more similar to parts of sub-Saharan Africa than South Asia). Nepal and particularly Bangladesh are, in terms of looking after their citizens including the poorest, relatively successful.

TBH this is all interesting, I relatively recently gained a degree in Environmental Geography, so I get this stuff, however it is all a little impersonal.

I am currently engaged in a year? of travel, something I did not have the opportunity to do when I was younger, and it is the small interactions that have made the most impact.

The young man from Bangaldesh I met in Pokhara. Probably Middle Class, whatever that means. His father had died aged 56 ish, they had sold nearly everything they had to pay for his cancer treatment, a house, half the stock of their business, one of their 2 T Shirt Printing presses, anymore and they would have put the family back to word one. Dad went into the state system and was dead in couple of weeks.
or

The Tuk Tuk driver in Lucknow, he owned the Tuk Tuk, had a house, so on the up. He had one child, his wife wanted another, but at the birth of the first she needed blood, IIRC a C Section, and she had an unusual type, which cost a lot of money. He was terrified of this happening again and having to sell the Tuk Tuk and pushing the family back, so would not have another child.

or

The Nigerian Footballer I met in Madrid, we had a great chat, and when I told him about how education, particularly University and how the Government lends money and our health system, he thought it amazing and what a wonderful land to live in.

or

The Camel driver in the Thar desert, during the Pandemic, there were no Tourists, and as he said, "No Tourist, No Chappati" and all the Indian Government gave from what I could understand was bags of flour.

I could go on, there have been many things that have happened and that I have seen, shocking, amazing, awe inspiring, I could go on.

But my point is, that the statistics are different from actually seeing things and speaking with people.

I have no answers, but I do know we live in a very very unequal world and I am not sure many people in the Global North actually appreciate just how lucky they are to have been born the right side of a border, and that has lot more to do with their personal amazing lifestyle (literally like a king of old for many) as opposed to some intrinsic awesomeness they possess.

Well... the inaugural speeches at COP 28 fully acknowledged the issues of inequality,  but when I looked at the berobed and besuited big shots assembled there, I wonder how much that matters to them. eg: Will we (UK)  restore the Department for Overseas Development? Let's see.

They know we're worried about the issues,  but will they do owt? Let's see.

Yeah, the first time you start to realise just how most of the world lives it’s a bit of an eye opener right? People in poor countries are indeed very very vulnerable to all sorts of shocks, medical, financial, political, and lives can be very easily turned upside down. Obviously when I say Nepal and Bangladesh are doing “relatively” well, it’s just that - relative to similar countries, not relative to us in the west. 

For me the thing with statistics like this is to put what you see and hear yourself into some sort of context. Is this person I’m talking to poor or middle class by the standards of this place? What sort of education might they have had? Is their story typical or unusual? The stats are just everyone’s life experiences, amalgamated.

Your point that most people in the wealthy western world don’t get what life is like elsewhere is pretty much spot on. 

I remember going on the bus to Pokhara in the 1980's. Most of the Nepali locals are quite a bit shorter than the average European, so the distance between rows of seats is very short. As a couple of six footers we decided to travel clinging onto the luggage on the roof rack.

In the 80's Pokhara was full of hippies and I was expecting a repeat of Woodstock.

Yeah I spent most of the journey to Pokhar on the luggage on the roof of the bus. That was in the mid 90's. As you say it was probably preferable to being inside. 

What I noticed was nobody was doing that anymore (I am conflating Nepal and Kashmir) and there were thousands of scooters and motorbikes, everyone of which was being ridden expertly by a helmeted young person. There were often two three and four up,  though, with, sometimes, a goat. Also most cars were good, some very good. EVs are starting to appear. Not many tuc tucs; cycle rickshaws a tourist novelty ride. Crossing the road was really scary until you realised that road rage just doesn't seem to be a thing there. Nobody wants to damage their vehicle and life is precious. 

The bad roads are caused by the Chinese government who chavilled up existing trunk roads to replace them really quickly but then disappeared during covid. The consequence is dust blighted communities and white knuckle off-roading travel for hundreds of miles.

Road rage is absolutely a thing in India, not sure about Nepal but doubt they are immune. By road rage I mean people being beaten to death by cricket bats. 

I felt really safe in Nepal. Horn use was restricted to the odd warning parp to ensure another's safety, rather than irritated blaring. People seem too busy to waste time on macho posturing. It's not Shangri-la but almost everybody I met was really nice.

You’re a rich foreigner in a very poor country dependent on tourism, so there will be massive  risks for anyone caught doing anything untoward to you. I felt safe when I visited Nepal, but it’s also the only place anyone’s ever fired a gun in anger in my presence (but not, luckily, in my direction). 

That last remark made me realise how blest we are. I've never heard a gun fired in anger.

LOL, Tell that to the dozens of folk who get reversed over by buses once they've already been hit. A perverse law in Nepal stated if you injure or maim someone you pay them compensation for the rest of their lives, whereas the one off payment for killing them was cheaper. This led to a spate of burnt out buses littering the Prithvi Highway that were torched by irate passengers once they realised their driver had murdered someone. Often, said driver was lynched. I counted 3 buses one month. 

Ironically there was a correlation between good road surfaces on the highways with an increase in collisions as the drivers couldn't handle the unfamiliar speeds. The poor surfaces you blamed on the Chinese existed long before China invested heavily in Nepal. They're shit because of corruption and the lack of planning, with the funds for annual maintenance rarely making it out of state/minister's coffers.

Oddly, I was surprised to never witness road rage in India, despite the mental roads, until my Taxi to the airport on the last day. The car behind us in the traffic jam tooted its horn and my driver twitched, it tooted again, and he was out the door and threatening to fill the tooting drive in.
My driver was Nepalese and I think we were all lucky he did not have a Kukri to hand.

How much of your trip did you spend driving around huge urban areas as opposed to visiting more relaxed countryside areas? Delhi traffic is terrible even by the low standards of India generally!

Delhi, Mumbia, Bangalore, Luknow, Varnasi and Amhedabad for starters, I saw a lot of cities. Like I say I was surprised.

Which is why personal experience and observation alone never quite captures a place.