Please Review My "Nepal' Packing List Help...leaving SOON!

[demitry_majors]

Hi everyone. First I would like to say hi, this is my first post on the

forum. Have been reading a lot but am posting for the first time.

Well let?s get right to the point! I?m going to Nepal on the 5th of October

with my Fianc鬠I know short notice. I feel prepared (for the trip you

jokesters?), but wanted to run my ?gear packing list? by you in case I missed

something or if there is anything I forgot to consider. I?m going to tell you

as many facts as I can so that it?s easier to make suggestions. My last trip

to Nepal was when I was 6 years old, so obviously I remember very little other

then the place was simply a fairytale and a photographer?s dream. One benefit

for me, is my aunt and her family live in both Kathmandu and in Pokhara. Not

that it matters, but they are very well off for Nepal?s standards and would

fall into the upper middle class category living here in the states. The only

reason I mention this is, that transportation, access to the Internet (when

near family) etc will not be a problem and we will have ease in purchasing

items in Nepal that one may otherwise need to bring with them as we will be in

close contact with my family there the whole time and never too far from

western amenities and will be spending a lot of time in the cites with and near

family.

 

Here is a rough outline of what we?ll be doing.

 

5 Oct Leave USA

 

7 Oct. Arrival to KTM & rest.

 

8 Oct. Kathamdnu, Durbar Square, Visit the palace of the Living Goddess Kumari,

Freak Street, Boudnath and Pashupatinath, Budhanilkantha

 

9 Oct Drive to Charaundi for White Water rafting in Trishuli, Lunch at

Riverside Spring Resort, Kurintar, Drive to Pokhara

 

10 Oct. Early morning drive to airport for Ultra Light flight ? 1 hour

Sightseeing tour of Pokhara valley including Barahi Temple, Devi's Fall,

Bindhyabasaini Temple, Gupteswar Gupha, Tibetan Refugee Camp etc.

 

11 Oct. Fly to Jomsom. Pony Ride to Muktinath. Eklaibhatte. Reach Muktinath.

Dinner/Overnight at Muktinath.

 

12 Oct. Early morning visit the Holy temple of Muktinath and nearby shrines.

Ride back to Jomsom. Reach Jomsom. Overnight at Jomsom

 

13 Oct. Drive to Ghasa. Trek from Ghasa to Tatopani. Overnight at Tatopani.

 

14 Oct. Trek from Tatopani to Chitre

 

15 Oct. Trek from Chitre to Ghorepani

 

16 Oct. Early morning Poonhill ? sunrise. Ghorepani to Tirkhedunga to Nayapul.

Drive to Pokhara (end of trek

 

17 Oct. Drive to Chitwan National Park ? 5 hours. Lunch at Jungle lodge and

jungle activities

 

18 Oct Full day jungle activities (Elephant Safari Etc.)

 

19.Oct Back to KTM ? 5-6 hours drive; Maybe longer with stops photo ops etc.

 

20 Oct. Visit to Bhahthapur

 

21 Oct Visit Patan

 

22 oct Fly back to USA

 

Ok, now that you have a rough idea of what will be doing, here is what I have

packed so far. I consider myself physically fit, I?m 24 and will be hauling

most of the camera gear. My fianc頷ill carry her pack, her ?CoolPiX? and

herself as photography is not as much an interest for her as it is for me

although I wish it was as she without knowing it takes some incredible shots.

The porters/mules/oxen will carry everything else that we might need (sleeping

bags...warm clothes?etc, so I will be carrying just the camera gear.

 

***LIST***

Nikon D40x Body

 

Old beat up and practically disposable Nikon CoolPix to through around (esp.

river rafting).

 

18-55mm f3.5-5.6 ED AF-S DX kit lens

 

70-300mm f4.5-5.6 ED VRII

 

Filters/Clear/UV/Polarizes for both lenses.

 

Tripod (compact non brand name tiny thing)

 

1 Extra D40x Battery (2 total)

 

5GB of memory (2x2GB, 4X256GB)

 

40GB Battery Operated ?Wolverine Flash Pack? to offload the SD cards to for

storage on the go between access to a computer, provided we are below

10,000feet ( as the hard drive would fail) so we have to be careful when we use

it making sure of the altitude. (Except for a few places, this will not be a

problem at all.) I will be shooting RAW so storage/backup will be a must.

 

Cables/Chargers/Power Adapter/Surge Protector for all equipment.

 

Panasonic MiniDV PV-GS33 Video Camera (palm sized thing) for those special

moments, dances?ethnic curiosities etc. Moments during the trek?you get it..

3x60min MiniDV tapes. (In a pinch video can be offloaded to laptop)

Laptop(will be left in Kathmandu and in Pokhara), 100GB drive for immediate

backup just incase.

 

****End OF List****

 

All this will be packed into a Tamrac camera backback (already tried everything

fits with lots of room to spare for extra jacket/windbreaker, lunch, snacks etc.

Electricity should not be a problem as places we are staying will have

electrical even if we do have to buy it for $1US.

 

Ok there you have it. Am I forgetting anything!?

 

I am contemplating bringing my Russian Made (Film) Zenit Camera with a MC Tair-

3S 300mm f/4.5 MC Helios-44M-6 58mm f/2,

Here it is if you haven?t heard of it (http://www.pimall.com/nais/35cam.html )

 

It takes beautiful photos just for the ?Poonhill Sunrise? day. It?s a rifle

mount-style trigger system that I can sling along with my other gear just for

that 1 day for the sunrise shoot. I?m realy 50/50 on this, but don?t know if I

can forgive myself by not giving it a go in Nepal. I?m not so worried about

the weight, as I am worried about the WTF is that! in customs. What are your

feelings on this?.

 

Phew, didn?t mean for this to be a novel?

Thanks!

[victor_ho2]

Demitry

 

Wow, have a great time. Let things happen. Don't forget to enjoy the time with your fiance. From your list, I would suggest more batteries. You would be out of luck without them. Also, more memory - cards are so inexpensive these days, why take a chance. For your water trip, a waterproof case for your coolpix would be great. Otherwise use the excuse to get a new point and shoot with a waterproof housing. I'm thinking Nikon L12 and Bonica housing - not expensive and you'll get some great shots. Others will probably tell you to alter your lens selection but you'll get by with your present gear. Good shooting.

[warrenlewis]

SB-400 flash to help pull out some highlights. Victor is right, lots of memory cards, batteries and enjoy the time with your fiance!

[cfimages]

Ooh I'm jealous. I love Nepal, but it's been 6 years since I was last there.

 

More batteries and CF cards would be a good idea.

 

In Ktm, Freak St is not really a must see. All the freaks left many years ago. That said, it's pretty much next to Durbar Square so taking a look won't take much time. You should check out Swayambunath (monkey temple) if you can. It's walking distance from Durbar Sq.

 

If you can fit it in, Nagorkot is a nice place to watch the sunrise with Everest in the distance. Good for photos and if you choose the right hotel/guesthouse, quite romantic. Fairly close to Bhaktapur - you could head up there in the late afternoon/evening, stay the night, watch the sunrise then return to Patan.

[rawrainforest]

Hi Dimitry,

 

If you are going to spend extended periods in remote areas without AC power, and will be

needing AA batteries, I would highly recommend getting a foldable solar panel linked to

an AA charger (see link below). The unit on the link is a full 12 Watts and the charger

charges at 900mA (milliamps) and the Sundance people tell me that the charger will

charge the batteries just as fast as the panel is generating the energy.

 

I've used a similar setup in South American rainforest work and it's been awesome. Your

sun intensity in Nepal may be similar - while not at the equator, you will be at very high

elevation. (Units specs on the website are based on testing in northeast United States)

You should be able to charge 4 2500mAh batteries in 2.5-3 hours easy. Get the largest

capacity rechargeables you can find e.g. 2800-3000mAh.

 

The Sundance people say they tested this particular charger (blue unit, holds 4AA) and it

will shut off once the batteries have fully charged. Also that the batteries will not discharge

if the panel remains connected and the sun goes down. That is important.

 

The idea here is you can leave the batteries, go for a long hike and come back Tip: angle

the solar panel for what will be the panel's best reception of sun around zenith (highest

point of sun in the sky - where sun is pointing mostly down), but place battery charger/

battery holder unit itself out of the sun. Once the batteries are fully charged, they can

continue to cook if they are left out in intense sun.

 

Here's the link to the unit I described (this page shows the solar panel nicely folded into

pouch, but there is a link so you can see the full panel) - http://

store.sundancesolarcorp.com/10wahisproso.html

 

Any questions, just email me. Have a great trip.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Bruce<div></div>

[demitry_majors]

Thanks for the replys guys. I will consider bringing more batteries but I don't think that we will be without AC power long enough to warrent the purchase.

 

About getting more memmory, I would, but I feel that the Wolverine will be more then enough. I will have a total of 5GB of memmory at my dispoasal, plus the volverine to offload the pictures to on the go. It runs on battery power and will offload as I understand it about 6GB of data on 1 charge. Total capacity is 30gb. I will have to be carefull to monitor that I'm below 10K feet, to use the HDD, but that shouldn't be a problem, with my GPS.

 

About the solar power charger, I won't need to charge any AAs so unless I could somehow convert it to charge lithium ion bats it would be usless to me.

 

Thakns.<div></div>