OUR VISION GUIDING US

30 years ago I had a vision to change the way trekking was organized in the Himalaya. I would run it small, I would be at the helm of consistent improvement and change to become the best at what we do.

3 decades later we are still doing what we love to do. We lead not in volume but in quality and attention to detail. We lead in the fact that our same crew are with us since it’s inception, and better yet a 2nd generation is being groomed under the watchful eyes of the 1st.

Come and explore the Himalaya with us. The place where we grew and played. The place that we call home.

THE TEAM

LISTEN, PLAN & EXECUTE

JAGDISH RAI

Founder / Managing Director

After 24 years of distinguished service as a Gurkha who served in the now Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong Jagdish returned to his homeland in 1984. His dream to start an Orchid Nursery was short lived and instead went on to learn the ropes of running an adventure travel company. 6 years on he found his calling. He wanted to change the way treks were run in Nepal. 3 decades later Jagdish created what other companies could only envy. The highest standard of camping where the word camping will seem like a misnormer. When not running the company he makes time to help build houses for widows in rural parts of Nepal.

PANU LUCKSOM

Senior Leader

Panu was introduced to trekking in the Himalaya when he was 10 yrs old. With over 20 years of experience today Panu’s yearly calendar includes leading treks in the Nepal Himalaya, operating a mobile Tented Camp deep in the best Tiger spotting area in Nepal, run fishing trips to bag the Mahseer – ‘The Tiger of the river’ and manage an NGO to distribute water filters in the slums of North India. In December 2015 Panu & Binod created Waves For Water India, a humanitarian organization who with the support of BMW, India has provided access to clean drinking water to more than 30,000 people.

ALISTER ADHIKARI

Senior Leader

Born and brought up in the historic hill station town of Kalimpong, a town that was in the center of India’s trade with Tibet while the British were there, Alister grew admiring Mt Kanchanjunga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world, from the playing grounds of a missionary school founded in 1900 that he attended. As a young boy he was fond of nature and later passionate about the flora. Today with more than 15 years of experience he is a specialist on botanical tours in Sikkim, Darjeeling, Assam and once head hunter regions of Arunachal Pradesh in far north east India. Botanical tours happen in the wet season thus allowing Alister to make time to guide treks in Nepal.

BINOD RAI

Founder / Director Operations / Senior Leader

Binod decided to forgo the chance to study in Hawaii to co-found an adventure travel company with his father instead, leading his first trek for a group from the British Army over a 17,000ft pass at the age of 18 and then never looked back. His 30 years of adventures has seen him create and lead countless once in a lifetime adventure holidays, orchestra the highest swim in the world at 18,000ft, assist to create the last documentary ever made in Western Tibet, hunt for the ‘Tiger of the river’ for the tele serial – River Monsters and recently helped create Babai River Camp (a joint venture with Ussher Tours, UK) – a setup on demand Tented Jungle Camp in West Nepal that offers one of the best chance to see the Royal Bengal Tiger and other big game, and one that made it to National Geographic’s list of 13 Best New Green Hotels in the world in 2020.

PHIL RAI

Director International Sales / Senior Leader

Fitness enthusiast, foodie and a keen photographer, Phil looks after our International Sales. Based in Ottawa he is easily reachable to any one inquiring about a bespoke holiday to any Himalayan destination in South Asia. With his extensive knowledge as a designer of the perfect holiday and the experience as a Trek Leader Phil is always there to make it happen.

PAUL RAI

Senior Leader

A graduate of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute – HMI, Darjeeling and previously a senior ER staff at the Patan Hospital Paul’s love for the outdoors began when we was a senior boy at Kathmandu’s prestigious St Xavier’s School and having excelled at athletics got chosen to attend HMI. His 25 years of guiding groups has taken him to most corners of Nepal Himalaya, high altitude passes, trekking peaks and as further afield as Mt Kailash in Western Tibet. Paul specializes in leading high altitude and challenging treks. In the Nepal Earthquake of April 2015 Paul was instrumental in the distribution of more than 5000 water filter systems and laying the foundation work of Waves of Water in Nepal.

OUR MILESTONE

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS 1990 – 2020

30 years ago we embarked on a mission to create an adventure travel company with a vision to

DO IT BETTER

SET NEW STANDARDS

STAY SMALL & NIMBLE

DO WHAT YOU LOVE; RUN IT YOURSELF

Time validated the fact that our hearts were in the right place. Today almost 30 years on we are setting standards for pure bespoke adventures in the Himalaya. Come celebrate with us, we have lots of adventures in store for you. We are just getting started…..

VIEW ALL TRIP INSPIRATIONS

OUR EDGE

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT

30 years of trekking with no fatalities has not come easy. We take safety very seriously. We use more personnel than any other agency, have radios & Satcom for communication and carry comprehensive first aid kit with portable oxygen on all treks.

Our leaders are WAFA (Wilderness Advanced First Aid) trained with experience in identifying and treating AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).

REAL EXPERIENCE

Authentic experiences cannot be had in well worn busy tourist routes. We take you on trails that have been around for centuries connecting villages and sacred pilgrimage sites where you would not see another tourist and the experience would be special.

PROFICIENT LEADERS

No one comprehends and knows the area better than a local.

Our trips are led by capable, friendly and caring Nepali leaders who have more than 20 years of experience and extensive knowledge to make your holiday safe and special.

SAFE DRINKING WATER

We use Sawyer 0.1 micron Absolute Water Filter Systems for our drinking water allowing us to prepare 100% pure potable water any time, anywhere and help us ensure our clients do not suffer from water borne illnesses that would ruin a holiday.

EQUIPMENT THAT WORKS

Equipment is where we don’t compromise and use the best for our line of business

We use classic A frame, spacious Vango Force 10 ten tents to sleep 2 people that would otherwise sleep 4. Thick Thermarest Airmattress mattress to sleep on with -18*C Northface Sleeping bags, liners and hot water bottles to keep you toasty every night. You can even opt for a walk in tent with a sleeping cot. Our camps have seated toilets, hot showers and heated dining on cold evenings.

WHOLESOME FOOD

Food is one of the most important part of our service which is reflected in the fact of how much our clients look forward to every meals we serve.

We provide well balanced, three course, wholesome meals that are pre plan and prepared fresh on the trail. Our cooks are trained in house and retrained before every trek season on food preparation and hygienic handling.

In the meantime, every aspect of the ground handling was carried out with great professionalism and that very special personal touch which is so very important, especially for people on their first visit to Nepal and going to places they had never dreamed of visiting in the past.

Deepak was an excellent companion and provided great continuity throughout, please give him our grateful thanks and a big ’Syabas’ from all of us.

Including Alistair in the party was a delightful addition and he added a special dimension with his knowledge of trees, plants and such-like.

Your trekking team is the best. The porters’ efficiency was everything that I would have looked for in the army! The guides were charming and very good company.

The chefs – it would be demoting them to call them simply cooks – were brilliant. My friends were astonished at the variety and quality of the food served throughout the trek and Angel is now comparing everything she eats to the standard of cuisine on trek. This, I have to add, does make my life more difficult because I am the cook in the household! The cooking lesson was a clever idea and also enabled everyone to get alongside the chef party who had already become our familiars at the table. The sous-chef is the most photographed man on the trip.

As I had wished, the route avoided bumping into there travellers, so that my friends were able to enjoy a virtually tourist free hike in the mountains, the absolute ideal.

NEVILLE SARONY, QC

PANCHASE TREK, POKHARA 2019

We travelled to Nepal in November 2019 to experience a trekking holiday in the Himalaya.

We were put in contact with Binod Rai of Insight Himalaya and my dream came true. From the start out emails were responded to immediately, we always received full and factual information and Binod listened to what we wanted and delivered in full.

Following 2 days in Kathmandu we travelled by jeep for 7 hours along bumpy, earthquake-damaged roads, stopping en-route when necessary, to look at the views or have lunch! We then trekked for 13 days up the Langtang Valley starting with 2 nights in lodges but then camping for the rest! Great tents, cosy fleece liners, sleeping bags and hot water bottles. All our porters were friendly and so eager to please, the food was quite incredible and our guides were just brilliant, pointing out so many things we would have happily have trekked past without seeing. Their local knowledge of the flora and fauna was unsurpassed. The views of the snowy-peaked mountains, that we experienced every day, are imprinted in my memory for ever.

We have already recommended Insight Himalaya to friends. They are a family run business with a passion for Nepal and its people.

Our holiday will be remembered for ever and we believe Binod has already instilled in our 21 and 22 year old daughters a love of the mountains – and without doubt a love of Nepal.

JANIE CORBISIERO

GANJA - LA TREK, LANGTANG 2019

GIVING BACK

TREK & HELP

A LITTLE HELP THROUGH CLEAN DRINKING WATER
Traveling in the Himalaya makes us aware of issues such as access to clean drinking water which otherwise would be oblivious to us.
The report The Water Gap – WaterAid’s State of the World’s Water 2018, warns that the global population without access to clean water has gone up to 844 million, “which is almost 200 million more than previously counted”. People who spend more than 30 minutes travelling to procure water are to be considered without access to water.
Potable drinking water is one area we have been able to focus through our relationship with Jon Rose and Waves For Water – https://www.wavesforwater.org

Humanitarian support 

Our Leaders Paul, Panu & Binod manage Waves For Water programs in Nepal & India. Panu & Paul was instrumental in distributing more than 5000 water filters to those hard hit by the Nepal Earthquake of 2015. Binod founded Waves For Water India which since 2015 have distributed more than 8000 water filters and the work continues to grow

Have fun & help along the walk
Insight Himalaya offers its clients the opportunity to take water filters on a trek and give it out to those in need along the trail. In remote Nepal many people lose lives due to the lack of clean drinking water and no medical help. We have also started this program in Mongolia from 2019.

Saving fuel
Since 2015 we use Sawyer Water Filters to make potable water on the trek and save hundreds of liters of kerosene every season to boil water.

OUR CONTACT

DROP US A LINE

27*36’45”N

85*21’17”E

1410m

Insight Himalaya, GPO Box 3851, Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal

+977-1-5560300

+977-1-5560400

info@insighthimalaya.com