Kim Bannister

What places and activities do you specialize in?

"I live and work in both Nepal and the Indian Himalaya, and do many trips also in Tibet and Bhutan, moving into Burma and Mongolia in the coming years. Kathmandu and Nepal are probably my real specialities, followed closely by the Ladakh and Zanskar in the Indian Himalaya.

My focus has always been trekking - longer, adventurous camping trips in the Himalayan countries - but also run cycling trips in Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan and organize 'boutique' style trips and tours in all of these countries.

Off-the-map treks and travels in the Himalaya, run in our unique 'boutique' style, which basically means that our treks, besides being unique, challenging and remote, are comfortable, with our renown 'Kamzang' dining tent (Central Asian style, cotton rugs, tablecloths, camp chairs, library, light music in evenings, solar lights), an amazing chef, new Western tents, full medical tent + medical knowledge and many other amenities that keep our clients coming back again and a gain. I'm probably best known for a personal approach to trekking and travels, so making friends and taking care of my clients is what I love to do."

How did you get involved in travel?

"I was always a traveler myself, from just out of university when I spent a year and a half traveling part of the world, to my late 20s when I spent 2 years traveling even more of the world. Between these long travels I lived and worked in places like Maui HI, Lake Tahoe CA and Steamboat CO where life was outdoors oriented and the people from all over the world. I'm happiest when living overseas, discovering new destinations, walking in the mountains.

For a short time I did marketing for a high profile adventure travel company in San Francisco, but office life wasn't for me so in my early 30s I left to go to Nepal and see what happened. "

Please share a unique travel experience you will never forget.

"My most challenging travel experience was probably in Ethiopia in the mid-90s, when there weren't many guide books in English, the Lonely Planet had 1 1/2 pages in the Africa guidebook, hardly anyone spoke English and all signs were in Aramaic. Although this was by far the most interesting country I'd ever been, the challenges were being 'helped' by Ethiopians that were just after money. And I was a seasoned traveler! Of course I'm dying to go back ....

Offhand, another unique experience was traveling on top of a loaded cargo truck with Akka villagers to the far-flung border of Laos, China and Burma, in order to take the slow boat all the way down the Mekong. This turned out to be an incredibly dangerous and muddy jungle road, often insanely exposed, and the 75 or so kilometers took us over 12 hours to travel. In the end there was no slow boat, I'm not sure if a Westerner ever came to this small village, and took a fast boat the next day down the Mekong."