My boyfriend and I also use this guide whilst we were out in Nepal – we were recommended by a friend who used him when she did Everest Base Camp. We decided to do the Annapurna Circuit plus Base Camp.
We met with Norsang in Thamel when we arrived in Nepal and we told him what we wanted to do and how much time we had etc. He told us about a few trips that were possible and we eventually came up with this one.
It was the most amazing trip and wouldn’t have been the same without him and Ngema our porter (Norsang’s nephew).
We spent 20 days trekking in November 2011 and Norsang was able to answer all of our questions from the birds to the trees to the mountains and religion. It was a very cultural trek with so much history.
Some people say that it is possible to do the trek without a guide, which may be true but you miss so much when you are on your own and we learnt such a lot from Norsang which meant that we understood so much more of Nepal when we visited different areas.
We paid all of our money to him up front, which we were dubious about at the start as we didn’t know him but I wouldn’t say that this was a problem at all.
He made sure we were happy and safe and had full bellies at all times and made sure that we knew everything about altitude sickness which we didn’t get in the end thanks to his slower pace higher up and acclimatization walks. We also took Diamox, under his recommendation and we were both fine and only suffered a bit of tingling in our face (a side effect of the drug)!
I would recommend Norsang to ANYONE that was thinking about going Trekking in Nepal, I would love to go back and visit him and do another trek with him when I have the time! There are so many guides out there that claim to do everything that he does but I wouldn’t choose anyone without a recommendation because you hear so many stories about dodgy guides and it would be so sad to lose your money and have a bad experience.
Feel free to Email me if you have any questions and enjoy your trek!