Message from the Director

Namaste.

If you're reading this, you're thinking about coming to Nepal. Maybe for the trek of your life. Maybe for a honeymoon in Nagarkot. Maybe just to see the mountains you've read about since you were a child.

I want to tell you my story before you decide who to trust with your journey. Because I think you deserve to know the person behind the company you're about to book with.

Where I Come From

I was born on May 9, 2002 in a small village in Dhading district — about 80 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu as the crow flies, but a world away in every other sense.

Getting to school meant walking two hours each way through the hills. Every morning before sunrise, I'd start the climb with my brothers and sisters and the other village children. Every afternoon, we'd walk back home.

What I remember most is the mountains.

Ganesh Himal watched over us every single day. On clear mornings, we could see Manaslu in the distance — the eighth-highest mountain in the world — rising above the ridges. As a child, I didn't know these mountains had names on foreign maps. I didn't know people from Europe and America dreamed of standing at their base. To me, they were just home. They were the horizon I woke up to and walked toward every morning.

But that would change.

Meeting the People Who Changed My Life

My uncle worked in tourism. Sometimes he would bring foreign trekkers through our village — people from places I could barely find on the school map.

I was small. My English was worse than broken. Sometimes I could only communicate with hand signs, with pointing, with laughing at my own mispronunciations. But I would follow the guests everywhere. I'd show them around the village. I'd take them to see the best view of Ganesh Himal. I'd try to answer their questions about our life.

Some of them were kind. Some were patient with a small boy trying to explain things in three languages at once. One family — I'll never forget them — spent time really listening to me. They saw something in that village boy that I didn't see in myself yet.

And then one of those guests changed my entire life.

A foreign trekker who had passed through Dhading offered to sponsor my education. They arranged for me to move to Kathmandu and study at a private school. I was young. I didn't fully understand what was happening. My family didn't fully understand what was happening. All we knew was that someone from another country — a stranger who had walked through our village — had decided to invest in a child they barely knew.

I spent nine years in that Kathmandu school. Then I studied Travel and Tourism for two more years. Every day of those eleven years, I was aware that I was there because a stranger had believed in me.

The Decision Everyone Warned Me About

By the time I finished my studies, I was preparing to leave Nepal.

You have to understand — in Nepal, when a young person finishes school with any English skills and any education, everyone tells them the same thing: go abroad. Australia. Canada. Europe. America. The Gulf countries. Anywhere except here.

The message is the same everywhere: there's no future in Nepal for people like you. Study visa. Work visa. Just leave.

I had the plan ready. Australia. Documents prepared. I was ready to become another young Nepali working in a foreign country, sending money home.

And then something stopped me.

I kept thinking about those mountains. About the child version of me walking to school with Ganesh Himal in the background. About my uncle bringing foreign trekkers through our village. About the stranger who had believed in me when I was small.

I kept thinking: if I leave, who will keep bringing people to see these mountains? Who will make sure the next generation of village boys and girls have someone in this industry who understands where they came from?

So I dropped the Australia plan. I stayed in Nepal. And I started from the bottom.

Why I Started as a Porter

This is the part of my story that most operators would try to hide. I don't.

When I decided to enter Nepal's trekking industry, I didn't start as a guide. I didn't use my education to jump straight to the top. I became a porter.

For one full year, I carried loads for other companies. I climbed passes above 5,000 meters with 25 kilograms on my back. I slept in cold porter huts. I ate the cheapest teahouse meals to save my daily wage. I learned every trail in the Himalaya not from a map, but from carrying loads across them, step by step.

People ask me why I did this.

Because I wanted to know the trails the way porters know them — not the way brochures describe them. Because I wanted to understand how a Nepali porter actually feels at altitude, what he actually gets paid, how he actually eats, where he actually sleeps. Because I knew that one day, when I became a guide, I would need to know these things to protect the porters working under me.

I know exactly how much a porter carries because I carried it. I know how heavy 25 kilograms feels at 4,500 meters because I lifted it. I know how much a porter really earns after teahouse costs because I earned it.

Nobody else in this industry can say these things because most guides never carry loads. Most owners never work as porters. Most agency directors have never spent a night in a porter hut.

I have. And it changed how I built this company.

Becoming a Guide

After my year of portering, I earned my Government of Nepal Trekking Guide License. My license number is 19911. You can verify it independently through Nepal Tourism Board.

Because my English had improved from those childhood conversations with guests in Dhading, and because I had studied Travel and Tourism formally, and because I learn routes quickly, I moved into guiding faster than most porters do.

Over the past 5 years, I have personally guided:

• Over 110 groups to Everest Base Camp
• Hundreds more across the Annapurna, Manaslu, and Langtang regions
• Guests from more than 40 countries
• Trekkers ranging from 12 years old to 72 years old

I've watched guests cry at Kala Patthar. I've watched couples get engaged at Nagarkot sunrise. I've watched fathers and daughters reach base camp together. I've watched trekkers who came to Nepal for a physical challenge leave with something deeper — a connection to the mountains, the people, and to themselves that they didn't expect.

Every one of those moments is why I stayed in Nepal instead of leaving for Australia.

Why I Started Majestic Trails Nepal

For years, while I was guiding for other companies, I saw things I couldn't accept.

• I saw porters overloaded far beyond the IPPG standard of 20-25 kilograms. I saw them carrying 35 or 40 kilograms because owners wanted to save money on hiring more porters. I saw men who reminded me of myself being pushed beyond what any human should carry.
• I saw unlicensed guides taking groups above 5,000 meters because they were cheaper than licensed ones — and I saw what happened when those groups had emergencies.
• I saw operators demand cash upfront for helicopter rescues — turning genuine emergencies into cash transactions — instead of coordinating properly with the guest's insurance provider.
• I saw everything that was wrong with this industry from the inside.

I could have kept quiet. Kept guiding for other companies. Kept collecting my salary. Kept my head down.

But I remembered the child in Dhading. The village boy who walked two hours to school with Ganesh Himal in the background. The boy whose life was changed by a stranger's kindness. That boy would have been ashamed of me if I stayed silent.

So I built a different company.

On July 22, 2026, I officially registered Majestic Trails Nepal Pvt. Ltd. with the Government of Nepal. I built it to be everything I wished the industry already was.

The company is new. We are not.

Our team collectively brings over 15 years of Himalayan trekking experience. We have guided over 2,500 groups above 5,000 meters. We have zero fatalities in our operational history. We have a 95.7% completion rate on Everest Base Camp — because we refuse to sell shortened itineraries.

We're new as a registered company. We are anything but new as trekking professionals.

What Majestic Trails Nepal Refuses to Do

I built this company around a set of promises that most operators would find inconvenient. I stand by every one of them:

• We refuse to sell rushed 10-day Everest Base Camp treks. Even though we could double our bookings by offering them. Even though every third inquiry asks for them. Real acclimatization matters more than a competitive price tag. We include two nights at Namche and two at Dingboche because that's what the human body actually needs at altitude.
• We refuse to overload our porters. Every porter on our team carries a maximum of 20-25 kilograms shared between two trekkers, per International Porter Protection Group standards. Every porter is insured. Every porter is paid above the TAAN minimum daily wage. Every porter has proper clothing, boots, and a sleeping bag. This is not a marketing claim — it is how we operate every trek, every time.
• We refuse to demand cash upfront for helicopter rescues. Emergency evacuation, when medically necessary, is coordinated directly with your travel insurance provider through our Air Dynasty helicopter partnership. You should never be handed a bill in a moment of medical crisis. That's the fake rescue scam, and we don't participate in it.
• We refuse to hire unlicensed guides. Every main guide and assistant guide on our team holds an active license from the Nepal Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. You can verify our head guide license (No. 19911) independently through Nepal Tourism Board.
• We refuse to hide costs. Every trip page on our website shows a full cost breakdown — where your money actually goes. Permit costs, guide salaries, porter wages, accommodation, meals, transportation, gear, and our operational margin. You see everything.
• We refuse to lie about our experience. We do not claim to have been in business for 20 years when we haven't. We tell you honestly that Majestic Trails Nepal Pvt. Ltd. was registered in July 2026 — and that our team has over 15 years of combined trekking experience across the same regions. The company is new. We are not.

My Vision for What Comes Next

I have three visions for this company.

• First: I want every guest who trusts us with their Nepal journey to leave the way I imagine that first tourist family left our village in Dhading — carrying something real with them. Not just photos of Everest. Not just a badge on their travel resume. But a genuine connection to Nepal, to our mountains, to our people, and to whatever they discovered about themselves along the way.
• Second: I want every porter, every assistant guide, every driver, every teahouse family we work with to be treated the way I wish I had been treated when I was carrying loads at eighteen years old. Fair wages. Full insurance. Reasonable loads. Basic dignity. This is not charity. This is what people who work in the mountains deserve.
• Third: I want to prove that a Nepal-based, locally-run trekking company can operate at the highest international standards. I want to show that you do not need to book through an overseas reseller to get world-class service. I want to show the next generation of Nepali guides that you can build something honest here.

To the Guest Reading This

I do not know who you are yet. I do not know if you are planning your first Himalayan trek or your tenth. I do not know if you are coming to Nepal for a honeymoon in Nagarkot, a spiritual journey to Lumbini, or a physical challenge on the Three Passes Trek.

But I know this: whatever you are looking for in Nepal, our team can help you find it.

We will not push you toward the most expensive package. We will not oversell you an itinerary you don't need. We will not compromise your safety to save costs. We will not treat you as a transaction.

We will treat you the way that stranger from Dhading treated me — with patience, respect, and the belief that whatever brought you here matters.

If you have questions before booking, please contact me directly:

WhatsApp: +977 9700937981
Email: info@majestictrailsnepal.com
Office: Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

I read every WhatsApp message myself. I answer every email. I meet every guest who visits our office in person if I am in Kathmandu at the time.

Come trek with us. The mountains I grew up watching are still there, waiting for you. Ganesh Himal is still standing over my village. Manaslu is still rising in the distance. Everest is still calling.

Let's walk to them together.

Namaste, and welcome to Nepal.

Bibek Dhamala
Founder & Guide
Majestic Trails Nepal Pvt. Ltd.
Government of Nepal Trekking Guide License No. 19911