Nepal is still one of the few countries in the world, where you can escape from the excesses of Western Civilization and yet find tourist amenities which are sufficiently developed for your stay to be comfortable. Outside Kathmandu, its teeming and historic capital, Nepal is a land of remote mountain villages, where people survive by growing their own food on the thousands of hill terraces that scale even the steepest slopes.

Mechanized farming is unheard of here; the fields are ploughed by water-buffalo, the corn harvested and threshed by hand and ground by water mills. If you stay in a trekking lodge, your bread will likely as not be made from flour ground that day, your vegetables freshly harvested from the fields.

Nepal has been a unique meeting place for mountaineers from all over the world. Some have come to scale an unconquered peak, others to undertake scientific research in the high mountains. Today, Nepal sees tourists of many nationalities; some come to complete an energetic trek or high-adrenaline rafting trip, others to enjoy the peace and cultural richness of Nepal's lower slopes and valleys. You can visit villages that are ten days trek from the nearest road, or ones that can be reached in two hours.