Hot showers on a Nepal trek

If you want, you can take a shower every day while trekking in Nepal. But what exactly will that shower be like? What should you prepare for? Is it even worth washing in the highlands? In this article I will try to describe the main types of Nepalese showers and share the secrets of how they work:) Why write about such nonsense, you may ask? On the contrary, bathing is a serious matter. In the mountains, everything is serious - even getting up from a chair.

Three hot showers

Strictly speaking, there is a hot shower in virtually every Nepalese lodge. The service is often even mentioned on the lodge's menu. They write (somewhere on the last page) "hot shower - 200 rupees". And if, while choosing a lodge, you ask the administrator "Hot shaver?", he will of course answer "Yes!". You could leave it at that, but if you really want to wash today (tomorrow you will be somewhere else), you should ask the next question: "Gas or solar?".

Solar shower (solar shower)

A shower in which the water is heated by the sun. It may be a simple black tank on the roof of the shower room or a modern system resembling a solar panel, with an expansion-tank thermos. Solar showers are rarely found outside the "warm zone" (up to 3,000 m above sea level), but even there they work only on clear days. And the supply of warm water in the tank is not endless. So you should use a solar shower not in the evening but in the middle of the day. And save water - turn off the tap while you soap yourself. By the way, it is better not to open the cold-water tap at all. The water in it comes by gravity from mountain springs. As a result, the pressure in the "cold pipe" is much higher than in the hot one. Open the tap and you let the genie out of the bottle: cold water easily pushes the hot water back into the tank. In short, touch the taps as little as possible.

Gas shower (gas shower)

The most luxurious and most expensive type of Nepalese shower. The spacious shower room has a gas cylinder and a flow-through gas water heater connected to it. This system produces genuinely hot water, so you can shower even on cold days. Access to a gas shower usually requires prepayment - you hand over the money and receive the shower key in return. Be sure to ask the owner to show you how the system works. Most often, a plastic hose with a shower head is connected directly to the water heater, with no mixer taps. It is not always possible to adjust the water temperature with the heater's "knobs". The system constantly swings between extremes: either boiling water or barely warm water. In that case, you can cool the water by fixing the spray head higher up and sitting down lower yourself. While the water is flying through the air, it cools slightly and stops scalding you. The room often smells strongly of gas, so do not smoke there, use a lighter, or stay in the shower for more than 15 minutes. Despite all the inconveniences, hot water is such a thrill that it is extremely hard to tear yourself away:)

Hot bucket (hot bucket)

This type of shower can be found in modest lodges in the highlands, where it is cold and demand for bathing is very low. For 2-4 dollars you get a bucket of hot water (about 10 litres), a ladle and a "shower room" where you can splash around. Since you pay for the water (more precisely, the fuel needed to heat it), not for the shower room, you can save money by taking one bucket for two. With a well-planned soaping strategy, one bucket of hot water is more than enough for two people. A couple of times in Nepal I came across a more advanced "hot bucket" - the bucket had a tap. It was hung from the ceiling and made a perfectly traditional shower.

When can you bathe in the Himalayas?

Experience shows that above 3,500 metres everyone is so cold, chilly and uncomfortable that the desire to take a shower disappears by itself. Tourists with a clear conscience postpone washing until they return to the "warm zone", and I recommend that you do the same. Gradually, the body gets used to wearing thermal underwear all the time and stops sweating, itching and demanding water:) And, of course, wet wipes are still an option.

Only when it becomes completely unbearable - when your unwashed head refuses to think and your body refuses to walk - should you start preparing for a shower. In the highlands, before going to the shower, you first need to listen carefully to yourself. Do you feel normal? Any hint of a cold? Are you overtired? At high altitude, the body's thermoregulation mechanisms do not work normally, and if you bathe while weakened it will be very difficult to warm up afterwards. So when you get ready for a shower, prepare warm clothes in advance (thermal underwear, a down jacket and a hat). If you decide to bathe, it is better to do it during the day so you can warm yourself in the sun, or in the evening once the stove in the lodge dining room has been lit.

What should you take for a shower while trekking?

Almost all Nepalese shower rooms have cold concrete floors, so you can take shower slippers on a trek. After midday, clouds descend on the mountains, suspended moisture swirls in the air and nothing is in a hurry to dry - neither hair nor towels. To stop your towel rotting out of despair, it makes sense to buy a quick-drying sports towel made of thin microfibre. Thin, specifically - without the "terry" loops of an ordinary bath towel! And to keep wet hair from driving you to the grave (I am not joking), shave your head or put on a hat immediately after the shower. One more thing: since the amount of water allocated to you may be limited, take some easily rinsed soap with you on the trek:)

For other things that may be useful on a trek, read here

How should you brush your teeth?

You should brush your teeth with warm boiled water. Tap water will be too cold and, most importantly, it may contain pathogens. Let me remind you: in Nepal you must not drink untreated water. To avoid the hassle of looking for warm boiled water, I brush my teeth with tea from a thermos. I always have one with me.

Where can you wash clothes in Nepal?

First, you can postpone laundry until you return to Kathmandu, where there are plenty of laundries. The eternal evening dampness in the mountains (caused by low clouds) is an important argument for this decision - washed clothes dry very poorly. But if you do need to wash something, the most comfortable place is of course under a hot shower. All the other taps around you supply only cold water, which makes your hands cramp by the second minute of washing. Still, do not wash clothes in a "solar shower", so as not to waste the irreplaceable supply of warm water. And if you decide to do a big load of laundry, it is better to take the shower last in the group so you do not create a queue.