Great Website for Independent Guide and Porter

[Cosmo]

www. nepaltrekguide.com
This is the new website for Santaman and crew. It is an independent organisation and the care is all that you hope for. Professional, personal, informative and basically just great company and best of all - the wages go directly to the workers not to an agency.
We travelled with Rame who is Santaman's nephew and had a ball with him - couldnt wish for anyone better in any aspect of our dealings with him. Check out their website and dont hesitate to use them if looking to use independent Guides or porters.

[RRainey]

I bookmarked the site but I am a little confused. There is no mention of a
Santaman amoung the guides on the site, what's up? RR

[RRainey]

I got a response from a pm from Yakshaver. I screwed up the name, two very similar sounding names but www.nepaltrekguide.com is correct. I sent an e-mail and I await their response.

[KhadOz]

Hi,

just a question about this organisation. Does anyone know if they are registered with the government? My travel insurance covers costs for trekking only if trekking with an organisation registered with the government.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers!

[RRainey]

There is no Nepal trek guide listed as a member of TAAN. Maybe they are listed under another name and they may also be registered with other agencies. I tried looking, and some agencies do not have alphabetic listings. Its a little tedious trying to look through 100's of listings. One assoc had a 14 page member list.

[Cosmo]

As to Insurance I know that Rame (of Santamans crew) said they have insurance. I suggest a PM to Yakshaver to have the situation clarified.

[Oli]

It should be remembered that guides can the fully trained on the government schemes, with a qualification and registration card but may not necessarily be registered with TAAN, and they can work independently and/or through an agency. TAAN is an association of trekking agents, it is a business organisation and not a government department. Not all trekking agencies are TAAN affiliated, and in my limited experience TAAN membership is not necessarily a guarantee of quality, and non-TAAN members can be every it as competent. I would suggest that whilst you should expect your guide to be trained and registered with the relevant government programmes it is not so important that they be a TAAN member.

With regard to insurance - that really is a very tricky issue. Very often the Nepali crew on your trek will not have insurance, despite what you may be told by the agency in Kathmandu. Probably the agent will have insurance documents to show you - but does that cover mishap to the workers out on the trail, or is it insurance to protect the agency management against claims made against them by their staff or customers? If you don't read Nepali then you have no way to know. Press them on this and they will probably tell you that insurance for guides and porters on your trek is not necessary. Climbing Sherpas and high altitude guides are more likely to have insurance, but not the guys carrying your bags up to EBC.
I think the only way to be 100% sure is to insist that you make the arrangements for insurance together. For my last trek (3 weeks in Langtang and Helambu) I went with my guide to an insurance brokers office (on Kantipath, IIRC) and we obtained his insurance for our trek together, it was a simple case of filling out a form (in Nepali, of course) that detailed our itinerary and listed a number of payments for various degrees of mishap. I paid for this, it was 800-900NRs and I consider that a reasonable price for both my guides safety and my peace of mind. However, I have been told that Nepali insurance companies are very bad at paying out to trekking staff, but at least if they have a policy in their name then they do have more chance than without.

I have met with Santaman and would say he is a decent fellow, and I was very pleased with his friend Shera as my porter/guide, they both have my vote of confidence.

[RRainey]

I decided to go with Santaman and am confirmed with a deposit recieved.
He has been very helpful in our e-mail discussions and seems very professional. I also e-mailed a previous client that was very happy.

RR