Rebuild Home Volunteer Program - 9 Days

Indeed, Nepal is entirely open. Travelers are welcome in Nepal without any restrictions. Arriving travelers can obtain a visa on arrival at the Kathmandu airport as well.

Traveling to Nepal is now hassle-free. You don’t need a vaccination certificate or negative PCR test, but check with your airlines and transit countries for any specific requirements.

We suggest you look at the Nepal immigration site https://www.immigration.gov.np for the most up-to-date information.

• Two passport-sized photos (2×2 inch) to give to our office staff
• A copy of your international flight ticket to give to our office staff
• A copy of travel insurance to give to our office staff

The best course of action is to add a day or two before and after your intended trek days in case of flight delays or cancellations. It also gives you time to buy clothing equipment and gear required before your trip.

Please be aware that Ace the Himalaya is not responsible for any inconveniences or missed international flights resulting from unforeseen events like airport changes, flight delays or cancellations, etc.

• COVID-19 vaccination (Negative PCR report in case of unvaccinated travelers.)
• Typhoid vaccination is recommended but not required

We suggest you have a dental checkup before your trip and know your blood type. It is helpful if you inform us of any medical condition that is relevant so we may convey this information in the event of an emergency. Ace the Himalaya keeps your medical condition confidential unless treatment is necessary.

Depending on the needs in each area, we assign 5 to 30 people for building one house.

Spring – March, April, May and June
Best time to travel. Always clear sky and good views. During springtime, the average temperature is 25 degrees C. But the temperature can climb up to a maximum of 30 degrees C, and it can drop to a minimum of 15 degrees C in the morning and at night (for areas above 2000 meters).

Monsoon Season – July, August and First Half of September
Not recommended to travel but best time to see the farming and work with local people in the field. The maximum temperature during the monsoon season can be 25 degrees C during sunny days and the minimum temperature can be 15 degrees C in the morning and at night (for areas above 2000 meters). The average temperature tends to hover around a comfortable 22 degrees C.

Autumn – Second Half of September, October and November
Similar to spring. Best time of the year and much cooler than spring and monsoon.

Winter – December, January and February
Cold season. The average temperature during this season is 10 degrees C and can climb up to a maximum temperature of 20 degrees C during sunny days and drop to a minimum of 0 degrees C in the morning and at night (for areas above 2000 meters.)

Our staff will be waiting for you outside the airport terminal with our signboard (Ace the Himalaya). You will be accompanied to a hotel in a private tourist vehicle.

Yes, you can obtain a Nepal visa upon your arrival at the airport. There are kiosks in the arrival hall that you use to complete the necessary forms.  The cost is USD 30 for a 15-day tourist visa, including numerous entries, or USD 50 and USD 125 for a 30-day or 90-day tourist visa including numerous entries respectively. You should carry cash (USD) with you to pay your visa fees quickly and easily, as digital payments are frequently unavailable.

Typically, USD 15 to 20 per person per day will be sufficient. This is to purchase water, snacks, in the villages and lunch or dinner in Kathmandu. Additionally, if you want to buy souvenirs or native Nepali goods, you can bring extra cash with you.

In Kathmandu, yes. But once you are out of the city, all you need is cash. Please change the currency in local Nepali Rupees before you go to the villages.

When you book, you must pay a 30% deposit to secure your itinerary. The remaining balance can be paid upon your arrival at Kathmandu or before arrival. US Dollars cash and credit cards (Visa, Master, and American Express) are accepted once in Nepal. Please note a 4% transaction fee will be added for all credit card transactions.

You can make payments via US Dollars cash or credit card (Visa, Master, and American Express). A 4% transaction fee is added if paying with a credit card. Thus, we encourage you to pay with USD cash if you are planning to pay upon your arrival in Kathmandu.

We prefer you pay with larger bills (USD 50 or 100).  Please note that the cash should not be older than 2009 and in good condition, as banks do not accept worn, torn, or crumpled bills.

There are ATM and money exchange facilities almost every few meters in Thamel, where you will be staying in Kathmandu. So, you can easily use your cards to cash out limited sum of money to which a minimum charge is deducted by the ATM facility itself. You can easily exchange your foreign currencies in currency exchange centers for an exact rate.

The construction activities will be started before you arrive by the locals and the needed expertise. However, you will indulge in the simple activities like carrying housing equipment like timber, stones, sand, cement, tin, iron rods, aluminum sheets etc, mixing sand and cement, painting the walls of the houses and so on.

The locals and the guides will also be involved with you. For activities needing technical skills, we will hire building professionals. But if you have skills, then you can help them in their work and make things easier.

You will only be assisting in construction of the house for a few days before another batch of volunteers’ takeover with the involvement of locals and other builders. Likewise, we continue the construction work until one house is completed. Only then, we move on to construction work for building another house.

The mission of this Program is to help the villagers to rebuild the houses destroyed by the 7.8 earthquake by bringing in the good-intentioned foreigners to volunteer and providing donation to cover a certain portion of the house-construction expenses.
But it excludes cost for tap, toilet and furniture. It’s because most of the taps, toilets and furniture have escaped destruction and are usable.

The house will be built in load-bearing wall system. It will be earthquake-resistant. We will follow the technique recommended by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

What makes this technique effective in resisting damage from earthquakes is predominately the tie beams on the walls and concrete stitches at the corners. The tie beams are used to tie the walls to each other and prevent dampness coming up from ground to the superstructure. Both beams and stitches will be made from iron rods and concrete.

We will be using stones instead of bricks as they are readily available in the village and they are strong. We want to minimize the cost by using locally available and reusable materials found in the existing house site. If we can minimize the cost, we can build more houses.

You don’t need technical skills like that of a professional builder. The works you will do are simple such as carrying stones, mixing sand and cement, painting the walls, etc. But if you have the technical skills to build a house, you are warmly welcome in doing more than simple activities.

Our own Managing Director comes from this village where this project focuses. Therefore, it becomes easier for us to know the most destructive areas where people have lost their shelters. So main focus would be for those who are very in need and is very economically low.

The main occupation of the villagers is farming, grazing animals, etc and due to this massive disaster, they have become not only homeless but jobless too so we will give the first priorities to such families.

This trip is suitable for average people who are moderately fit. Some physical fitness programs such as running, swimming, hiking is recommended before you embark on your journey as you will engage in rebuilding activities.

If you are moderately fit and want to help a devastated community to rebuild, then this trip is for you.

In Kathmandu, you will stay at a three-star hotel. In the village, you will stay at a tented camp. A sleeping tent will be provided to you. All the accommodation will be in twin-sharing basis with same gender. But for the entire trip if you want to have a single room including a single tent, you need to pay extra.

In the village area, there are no private facilities for bathing and washing clothes. There are spring water creeks, rivers and communal water source available for bathing and washing. While in Kathmandu, the hotel offers the attached bathroom with hot and cold water.

We will provide the shower tent for those who want to have private shower near by the camp especially for our female volunteers. Depending on the weather our kitchen team will prepare the bucket of hot water for the shower.

During your stay in a tented camp in village, we will provide you a common tented toilet. While in Kathmandu, the hotel will offer the room with attached toilet and bathroom.

During the camping in Gorkha, our local cook can prepare normal and special meals upon request. There is a wider variety of food available, including Western-style food, and you may request to eat at any point of the day. The camping price includes an all-you-can-eat food service.

Please note that lunch and dinner in Kathmandu is excluded in your trip price.

Important: It is common in Nepalese culture to offer food when receiving guests into the home; however, volunteers are advised not to accept any food from local villagers at any time. Please kindly reject the offer. Often time the food is not prepared properly or contains contaminated water and volunteers risk getting sick. If visiting a villager’s house, or a local festival, it is recommended to take a guide from the Ace team to communicate this issue. If you have any special dietary needs, please let us know and we’ll do the best in our ability to have this arranged.

No problem at all because we can serve the vegetarian meals. We always recommend our volunteers to eat vegetarian meals to avoid the food poisoning.

Only very recently has the village started receiving electricity, which means you are now be able to charge your electronic devices. Internet facilities cannot be guaranteed though.

Please, remember to bring your adapters!

• To greet in a traditional manner, place your palms together in a prayer style and say “namaste” or “namaskar”.
• When talking to someone elder to you, you must address the person as “dai” (elder brother) for men, or “didi” (elder sister) for women. Raising your voice or shouting is also not acceptable, especially in public.
• Dress conservatively, well shirted, to keep shoulders and knees covered in a temple. It is not acceptable to wear revealing and tight clothes like lycra, low-necks, tank tops and so on. This applies particularly to women. Public nudity, even while bathing, is punishable by law. When swimming in the river, it is suggested that women wear a one-piece swim suit. Men must wear trunks; Speedos are acceptable.
• Always remove your shoes before entering a Nepali home or a temple.
• The cow is a sacred animal in Nepal and injuring or killing them is an offence. You will find cows roaming freely all over the place.
• Always use your right hand to accept what is being given to you. Likewise, use your right hand to offer food and other items. Left hand is considered polluted.
• Avoid “disrespecting” the food by inadvertently touching it or bringing it into contact with a used plate or utensil. Using your own fork or spoon to serve more food is not acceptable; always wait to be served by the host. If you feel you have been given too much food, ask them to take some away before you commence eating; this is perfectly okay and is more appreciated than wasting food. Of eating, a tourist once noted: If you don’t hold your hand over your plate, it doesn’t matter how many times you tell people you’re full – they will just keep heaping food on your plate. If holding your hand over your plate doesn’t work, try bending your whole torso over the plate to block the incoming food with a little more bulk.
• You are expected to wash your hands and mouth before dining.
• It is normal to drink from a glass or a container without the lips touching the vessel. If you are not comfortable doing this, you may pour the water into a cup.
• Kissing, hugging, snuggling and other forms of public displays of affection are frowned upon in public. Swearing, discussing or insinuating about sex in public is also strictly prohibited. It is also strongly suggested that any sensitive topic on religion and politics not be debated at lengths.
• It is normal for boys and men to walk arm in arm. More often than not, these are signs of friendship and should not be subjected to sexual profiling.
• It is impolite to step over someone’s outstretched legs or to touch (or point at) someone with your foot.
• Don’t expect to find toilet paper in private houses, esp. in remote areas. Always be prepared with your own stock.
• As with any country, Nepal operates on a different concept of time – things happen when they happen! The Nepalese people are said to have a casual and laid back approach to life.
• Be prepared for lots of questions. Just walking in the streets you may be asked: “What’s your name? Where are you from? How old are you? Where are you going?” – perhaps questions you may consider personal. Don’t be affronted or consider it rude or an invasion of privacy. It’s usually genuine curiosity, friendliness or a desire to practice their English. Respond with patience and in a cheerful manner. Concepts of privacy in some countries can be very different to your home country.
• Giving alms is not advisable because it will encourage begging, particularly among children.

The main language is Nepali. English is the official second language of Nepal, but despite this, young students in the village speak only broken English, and the older generations will not speak at all.

It is for this reason that we recommend you learn some basic Nepali phrases before arriving in the village. It will help you communicate and get to know the villagers, as well as explain basic rules in your workshops.

Tipping is expected. Your gratitude towards the trek guide and porters would be appreciated. You can tip your trekking guides and porters based on your satisfaction and enjoyment. Assuming you find it hard to choose, we suggest you spend at least 10% of your total trek cost tipping the whole nearby staff. During our pre-trip meeting in Kathmandu, you’ll be likewise educated about the proportion of tipping guides and porters based on your group size.

You don’t need much money in the village. However, you can carry some cash on you, about USD 10 to buy some snacks or other necessities. You need to change the USD in Kathmandu into local currency before going into the village or the mountains. You can change the money easily from the banks and money exchange counters nearby your hotels.

Our company insures all our trekking staff members, including guides, cooks, Sherpa, and porters. Please browse through our legal docment page to view insurance details.

Yes, they have all received a 45-days training from the Hotel Management and Tourism Center in Nepal. The guides have also received high altitude first aid training from KEEP (Kathmandu Environmental Education Project). Please check Ace the Himalaya’s team page

All transportation inside Kathmandu will be in a private vehicle (a car or a minibus) including airport/hotel pick up and drop off. For transportation to and from the village, we will use Private tourist vehicles. The remote villages are not connected by tarred multi-lane roads. There are single-lane dirt tracks that run along the side of large hills, and are very bumpy, and prone to landslides, especially during the monsoon season (June – September). We assure you that all our drivers are very experienced in driving on these roads. We will make all necessary arrangements to ensure that you reach your destination safely.

Important: Transportation in the region may not always be reliable because stranded trucks and buses, car accidents, heavy rain, and landslides may block the roads for hours on end. You must always be prepared to trek to the destination (accompanied by our staff guides) during such unforeseen circumstances. In an event that the 4WD cannot take you to the final destination, there will be no refund of the transportation cost incurred because the cost will already be accounted for in advance. If trekking is necessary, you can be assured that the route trails through the most pristine and traditional villages, exposing you to the traditional Nepalese culture and lifestyle up close. Manaslu and the Ganesh Mountain ranges as well as parts of the Annapurna ranges are visible from the path and will make the trek worth it. Within the village, there is no public transportation. Depending on the location of accommodation and the project you are assigned to, you will have to walk anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour each day. However, these walks will have stunning views of surrounding villages, the opposite hills, distant Himalayan peaks, and the valley below.

Yes, you need to book your own international flights. We are a local agent and it would cost you significantly higher to book through us. Please find more information in the International Flight page.