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Prem

Kutumba US Tour | Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: Whole World is One Single Family.

This trek is organized by  &

Trekking / Rafting & Jungle Safari in Nepal !!!

Kathmandu Tour / Gosai Kunda 14370 ft Loop Trekking / Trisuli River Rafting (21 miles , grade III)/ Chitwan Elephant Jungle Safari

• Date: January / February 2013!

• 15 Days of Adventure of your life time.
  

• Maximum Elevation 15124 ft.

• Type: Adventure / Relaxation !
  

• Grade: Moderately Challenging (need at least 3 months of some physical fitness )

• Minimum 4 members!
• 8 days of Solid Mountainous Trek !
  

Day 01: Arrival in Kathmandu and transfer to the hotel. Refreshments / Rest of the day is free to relax & evening stroll to Buddhist Dew Drop temple.

Day 02: Morning breakfast and tour of Kathmandu city, which includes visits to Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey temple), Hanuman Dhoka and Pashupati Nath (Hindu Temple), Drop @ the Hotel, debriefed on the trek.

Day 03: Morning Breakfast & then bus to Dhunche (6397 ft.) the starting point of our Gosaikunda Loop Trek.

Day 04: The trek from Dhunche to Sing Gompa (10,990ft.) is about six hours hike.

Day 05: A hike of nearly six and a half to seven hours from Sing Gompa takes us to Gosai Kunda lake at an elevation of 14370ft. Glacier Hanging Lake!

Day 06: From Gosai Kunda to Ghopte we have to pass 15124 ft then drop to Ghopte 11253 ft. is four and half to five hours.

Day 07: Ghopte to Therapati, at an altitude of 11450 ft. is a six-hour trek.

Day 08: Therapati to Kutum Sang 8103 ft. or Golphu Bhanjyang 7020 ft.  is a four to six hour trek.

Day 09: Trek from Kutum Sang to Pati Bhanjyang 5807 ft. (bottom) or Chisopani 7545 (top), Day 10: Hike down to Sundari Jal & an hour drive to Kathmandu (Hotel)

Day 11: Early morning transfer to Charaudi. Start rafting & in the middle of the journey, lunch break at riverside beach. Continue rafting till Kurintar. Enjoy your delicious dinner with bonfire. Overnight at tented accommodation.

The scenery of river Trishuli includes small gorges and a glimpse of the cable car leading to the famous Hindu Temple Manakamana. For the most of the year the rapids encountered on the Trisuli are straightforward, easily negotiated and well spaced out. Trisuli river is an excellent river for those looking for a short river trip, without the challenge of huge rapids, but with some really exciting rapids, with beautiful scenery and a relatively peaceful environment. During the monsoon months the intensity of the rapids increases and attracts a radically different set of rafters. But there are sections for rafting during the monsoon for those who are looking for simply exciting trip!

Day 12: After breakfast relax & drive to Chitwan.

Day 13: Full day Jungle Safari program. breakfast, lunch, dinner, slide show, elephant ride, jungle walk, canoe ride, visit to elephant breeding center, bird watching, village tour and Tharu endogenous cultural program.

Day 14: Back to Kathmandu & Shop (A night out in Kathmandu or just relax at the hotel)

Day 15: Morning Breakfast & head to the Airport.

Package Price includes:

1. Entire land transportation for the trip.

2. Tour of Kathmandu (Famous Temples & Monuments)

3. Twin Share Hotel & Breakfast in Kathmandu

4. Full 8 days trek with 3 meals a day

5. Sherpas & Guide paid & insured

6. Rafting, Camping & Meal

7. Full Chitwan Jungle Safari Program (3 days 2 nights) see below highlights*

8. Trekking Permits / City fees / Jungle Fees / Full Itinerary Transportation!

Highlights:

●     Twin share accommodation Hotel in Kathmandu with breakfast (Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries / Hindu Temples / World Heritage Sites & more.)

● *    2 nights twin share accommodation in Chitwan Jungle Safari Resort with full board program of breakfast, lunch, dinner, transportation by tourist bus and all the activities in jungle like, slide show, elephant ride, jungle walk, canoe ride, visit to elephant breeding center, bird watching, village tour and Tharu endogenous cultural program.

●     All city, Museum entrance fees in Kathmandu /Chitwan, trekking Permit (TIMS), National Park fee, Conservation fees etc.

●     8 Full days of Trekking North West of Kathmandu (Making a loop)

●     Rafting full board

●     (single bedroom can be provided, with extra cost.)

Package Price Excludes:

●     Airfare

●     Nepal Visa Fee ($40.00)

●     Personal souvenir

●     Alcoholic beverages, Mineral Water, juice, Laundry etc.

●     Emergency Rescue evacuation if required

●     International departure airport service charges (May be included in Airfare, find out!)

●     Tips for Trekking Guide, Porters, Sherpa etc.

All rights reserved by Footsteps Nepal LLC USA & Alliance Nepal Treks International Pvt. Ltd. Kathmandu.

For info email footstepsnepal@gmail.com

Ace climber Apa Sherpa has scaled the Mt Everest for 21st time, breaking his own record on Wednesday.

Sherpa, 50, who is leading an environmental expedition collecting tons of garbage piled up on the Everest, reached atop the world’s tallest peak at 9:15 am local time, Ang Tshering of Asian Trekking, the organiser of the expedition, informed.

Tilak Pandey, a government official monitoring the expedition, also confirmed Apa’s new record.

Sherpa had first climbed the Everest in 1989 and has been scaling the peak almost every year.

He told media before setting out for the expedition that when he first began climbing Everest, the trail to the summit was covered with ice and snow, but it is dotted with bare rocks now.

“The melting ice has also exposed deep crevasses, making expeditions more dangerous.”

Since 2006, Sherpa has been living in the Salt Lake City of Utah state of the United States. Courtesy nepalnews.com

By Nirmal Thapa

Shanker Man Singh On January 1, 2011, Prabal Gurung, a New York based fashion designer went online and send out a couple of tweets encouraging his thousands of Twitter followers to consider visiting Nepal in 2011. On the eve of Nepal Tourism Year 2011, Prabal used his celebrity status and promoted Nepal to his online followers. In my opinion, Prabal could be the best brand ambassador for promoting Nepal in the Western world. He is widely recognised in the Western fashion industry having dressed the likes of Michelle Obama, Demi Moore and Oprah Winfrey. Prabal’s short messages on Twitter have definitely given visibility to Nepal’s tourism campaign.

When a country is promoting tourism, it is the best time to see country branding taking place. When I visited the official website of Visit Nepal 2011, I noticed the tagline that the tourism board was using to advance the tourism campaign. It was “Naturally Nepal Once Is Not Enough.” The goal for Nepal Tourism Year is to bring in at least a million visitors this year. According to the Government of Nepal Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation’s Nepal Tourism Statistics 2010 (Provisional Report), there were 509,956 tourists in 2009 and 602,855 in 2010. This is an 18.2% increase in tourism and October ranked the highest in tourist arrivals with 72,522 and 79,186 in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Place branding has been around for a long time and Simon Anholt, a British branding expert states that “in today’s globalised, networked world, every place has to compete with every other place for its share of the world’s consumers, tourists, businesses, investment, capital, respect and attention.” Simon, who coined the phrase “nation brand” in 1998 explains that the way places are perceived by people around the world has a direct impact on their ability to export products, services, ideas, culture and people, and their ability to attract investment, tourists and talent.

The way Nepal is perceived around the world will correlate to how many people decide to visit the country in this tourism year. Simon acknowledges that places are judged by what they do and what they make, not by what they say about themselves. Thus, the country’s brand is what others are saying about the country. The official website for Visit Nepal 2011 consists of quotes from renowned international news sources on Nepal. The National Geographic Adventure Magazine called Nepal “one of the best countries for adventure destination in the world” and BBC Holiday called it “one of the 50 Places to see before you die.” The National Geographic Adventure Magazine and BBC Holiday have placed the limelight on Nepal’s natural beauty of mountains, rivers and lakes and its traditional culture with numerous festivals and languages.

A report titled Branding Your City was published on March 2006 by CEOs for Cities, a civic lab of urban leaders working to advance the next generation of great American cities. The report mentioned that although the most common reason for a place to have a brand strategy is to stimulate economic growth; a strong brand can shift the perception of a place that may be suffering from a poor image among external and internal constituents. A brand strategy can also provide a consistent representation of a place or enhance its local, regional and/or global awareness and position among others.

Promoting tourism is a national undertaking, therefore including multiple perspectives and ideas as well as weighing the issues is crucial to make buy-in and execution easier. The inclusion of a variety of stakeholders is necessary to assure the success of the project. Empirical evidence shows that it is prudent to include cultural and heritage institutions, local media, and business leaders besides the Tourism Board in the planning stages of a tourism campaign.

Nepal has outlined five major objectives for this tourism year. They are: (1) Establish Nepal as a choice of premier holiday destination with a definite brand image, (2) Improve and extend tourism related infrastructures in existing and new tourism sites (3) Enhance the capacity of service providers (4) Build community capacity in the new areas to cater the need of the tourists (5) Promote domestic tourism for sustainability of industry.

In order to meet the aforementioned objectives, for a successful tourism year, Nepal’s government and the Tourism Board should continue to stress the security and safety of the visitors to the country. On January 12, 2011, the U.S. Department of State updated its travel warning advisory to Nepal on its website. Other foreign governments have also highlighted the security risk to their citizens when traveling to Nepal. The tourism campaign would not bear fruit if the country is perceived unsafe to travel. Therefore, utmost care has to be taken to reassure the prospective tourists that it is safe to go around the country.

I am thrilled to see how many people will visit Nepal this year. It is crucial to create brand awareness and let people know that it is Visit Nepal Year 2011. The best place to create awareness in this age is in one’s social network. I have seen a number of my friends talking and encouraging people to visit Nepal and posting videos of Nepal on Facebook.

It is great to have brand ambassadors and Prabal Gurung has leveraged his popularity and encouraged people in his social network to visit Nepal. In this digital age, everyone has a voice and one can take to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or other social media outlets and promote Nepal in one’s own way. When an enthusiastic person creates personalised content promoting Nepal, he or she becomes another brand ambassador to Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

(Nirmal Thapa is Co-Chair at Young Professional’s Group at the New York American Marketing Association. He can be reached at: nirmalthapa2@gmail.com)

(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to editors@mos.com.np This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it)

You can follow Prabal Gurung Prabal Gurung

I was recently in Nepal in multi purpose visit. First of all I was there as a Trekking Guide in the Himalayas, you probably could see some of our picture in the blog http://premlama.terapad.com or http://www.facebook.com/Lamaprem . Second of all, I was there buying items in Kathmandu & surrounding areas. It was just as fun as hiking in the mountain. Well they both were fantastic.

Its been my pleasure to bring you some new items in our web in addition to what we have been selling the most. We have number of new items we have been adding. If you have visited us previously, you will love our new items as we are keep adding in our web catalog. Please let us know via email or posting feedback in this section, what would you like to see in the future.

Thank you

Prem

Thanks for the visit.

Prem

Once again, I am back with new updates and news. Since, we closed our physical shop location, I have been busy with other things and such. Now, I have some free times, I am updating the products and news.

I have been working with my website of Himalayan Xpressions now and other venture of FootSteps Nepal. Please let me know what you think?

Prem