View Tom Dempsey's favorite photographs of Nepal (trekking, Himalaya, Mount Everest, Annapurna Range, Asia).

Favorite panoramas from Nepal by Tom Dempsey include the summit of Gokyo Ri in the Mount Everest area, temples of Patan in the Kathmandu Valley, and peaks and prayer flags in the Annapurna Sanctuary.

On a classic trek to Chhukhung and Gokyo Valley in the Mount Everest area, our group flew from Kathmandu to Lukla airport and hiked for 14 days, walking up and down 26,000 feet in total. We walked 2 days to Namche Bazaar and acclimatized for 2 nights. At Tengboche Monastery, fog obscured views. Dingboche was our base for a spectacular day hike to Chhukhung (15,520 feet) on the north side of beautiful Ama Dablam mountain. Our group of five plus guides and porters trekked back through Pangboche then cut across to Phortse then up Gokyo Valley. The best view was at 17,580 feet elevation atop Gokyo Ri, a breathtaking 360 degree mountain panorama including four of the world's highest peaks (Mount Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu), plus the largest glacier in Nepal and the attractive turquoise lakes of Gokyo. Compared to my 1981 trip, in 2007 I found ten times more tourists and yak trains, better reforestation, more comfort in teahouses, and improved meals. In 1981, I trekked to the closer Mount Everest view at Kala Patthar, in the Khumbu Glacier Valley, above Everest Base Camp. Gokyo Ri has wider views and smaller crowds of trekkers than the popular Kala Pattar route.

Annapurna Sanctuary Trek October 22-31, 2007: Our group of seven trekkers hiked 10 days from Phedi to the Annapurna Sanctuary returning via Naya Pul, walking up and down a total of 21,000 feet. Throughout the trek, we slept in comfortable teahouses with private double (or triple bed) rooms. We ate good quality hot meals usually prepared with good sanitation. Hire a guide and porters (like we did) to help carry your sleeping bag and extra clothing, and to run ahead and reserve rooms early in the day, because in high season (October-November), lodging on this trail can fill up in the evenings.

In the dense cities of the Kathmandu Valley, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, and pedestrians crowd the narrow medieval streets creating a wonderful chaos and cacophony. The original inhabitants of Kathmandu Valley are Newars, who speak the language "Nepal Bhasa," but Nepali is now the most widely spoken language in Nepal. The Newar rulers of the Malla Dynasty controlled the Kathmandu Valley and nearby areas from the 1100s to 1600s. Kantipur, capital of Kantipur Malla kingdom, became known as Kathmandu. From 1765-73, the Gorkha (or Gurkha) ruler Prithvi Narayan Shah forcefully unified several separate kingdoms into one Nepal. The resulting Shah Dynasty of Hindu kings ruled with Kathmandu as the capital from 1769 to 2006. A ten year Civil War by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and mass protests led to significant political change in 2005. In 2008, Nepal abolished the monarchy and adopted a federal democratic state. View palaces of the Malla and Shah kings in Kathmandu's Durbar Square ("Palace" Square, or officially Hanuman Dhoka). Kathmandu Valley bustles with three cities separated by rivers: Kathmandu (population 700,000; elevation 6235 feet / 2230 meters), Patan (190,000 in 2006) and Bhaktapur (78,000).