Prime Minister ianugurates Guerrilla Trail

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal today inaugurated a ‘Guerrilla Trail’ and an ‘Insurgency Museum’ at Chunwang of Rukum district.
Lies in the mid-western part of Nepal, in a hilly region of Rukum-Rolpa, the trail was used by the Maoists during the insurgency. One can trek through several unspoiled villages, innocents people, their unique cultures, awesome Himalayan ranges of Sisne, Putha , Dhaulagiri, Chauri peaks,
Guerrilla trekking trail of Rukum-Rolpa area is a virgin land, restricted, impossible and extremely difficult for outside world over a decade during long people’s war in Nepal. The land is known as most playground for revolutionary people, their perfect hideout and running their own government. The small yet naturally beautiful place is now open and heartily welcoming people from outside. The place is blessed with rich flora and fauna, unmatchable natural beauty, rich cultural heritage and adventurous trails once used by Guerillas during people’s war in Nepal are the main attraction in Rukum.
Recalling the times of the insurgency, the premier underlined the importance of the area during their protest 12 years ago. He also expressed his happiness to be able to establish a memento of the time.
Speaking at the inauguration programme, Dahal stressed the need of smooth implementation of Constitution for the overall development of the country. He informed that his government was working to develop Nepal as an economically prosperous country.
"And for this," the PM assured that the local, provincial and federal elections should be held on time.
He also stressed that there is no other alternative than consensus among the political parties for the implementation of Constitution. The recent Constitution amendment bill that was registered in the House will ensure rights of Madhesis, Muslims, Tharus and other marginalised group, the premier said.
Urging the parties to stop staging protests for the sake of protests, he claimed that the Bill was registered ‘in accordance to CPN-UML’s proposal before Constitution promulgation’.
He also called for discussion in order to forge political consensus.

Country mulls ban on solo trekkers after attacks

Nepal is considering a ban on tourists trekking alone in the Himalayas, officials said Wednesday, after several women foreign visitors were attacked or have disappeared.

Solo travellers will have to be accompanied by at least one porter or guide under proposals being discussed by the Maoist-led caretaker government, said tourism ministry spokesman Bal Krishna Ghimire.

"Isolated cases of disappearances and killing of trekkers have tarnished the image of the country. We think that the compulsory arrangement of a tourist guide for a trekker will ensure their security," he said.

Ghimire declined to speculate on when the new policy may come into force.

An estimated 40 per cent of foreign visitors to Nepal come to trek and the majority head to the Annapurna, Langtang, Helambu or Khumbu regions.

Although there is already a requirement for groups to have a guide, it has never been compulsory for independent travellers.

But a growing number of assaults in the Himalayan national parks has led to US Embassy and British Foreign Office warnings against trekking alone.

Belgian Debbie Maveau, 23, was missing for 10 days before her badly decomposed body was found decapitated in June beneath a hiking trail in the Langtang National Park, on the Tibetan border.

American Lena Sessions, also 23, was hiking solo in December in Langtang when she was threatened with sexual assault by a masked man wielding a knife. She managed to escape.

The incident came a week after a South Korean woman was assaulted nearby.

British 27-year-old Zisimos Souflas disappeared in April while travelling alone in Khumbu, while American Aubrey Sacco, then 23, went missing two years ago after telling her family she would be hiking in Langtang.

South Asia, Southeast Asia lead Asia Pacific’s tourism boom

Preliminary results released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today showed that international visitor arrivals into Asia/Pacific destinations1 grew by four per cent year-on-year in May, with the South Asia and Southeast Asia sub-regions recording particularly strong performances for the month.
The first five months of 2011 showed South Asia attracted a 15 pr cent increase in visitor arrivals, whereas Southeast Asia came second with 12 per cent. But Northeast Asia and the Pacific, on the other hand, only managed three per cent arrivals. Across the whole of Asia/Pacific the average growth in international visitor arrivals was five per cent for the first five months of 2011.
International arrivals to South Asia also showed strong growth with a collective gain of 12 per cent in May, maintaining the same pace of growth seen in 2010. All reporting destinations in the sub-region enjoyed an increase in foreign arrivals, led by Nepal (up by 47 per cent), Sri Lanka (up by 39 per cent), the Maldives (up by 11 per cent) and India (up by seven per cent), the PATA report revealed.
"Intra-regional travel remains the key," director of the Strategic Intelligence Centre at PATA Kris Lim said, adding that the dynamic China and India outbound markets continue to expand at a rapid pace with many Indian and Chinese travellers visiting Southeast Asia.
As for Japan’s inbound market it appears that the bottom of the trough has been reached and some positive movements are now being seen."The outlook remains broadly positive in the second half of the year," it said. Coupled with the gradual easing of negative growth seen in Japan, the arrivals growth momentum is expected to continue. "We are hopeful of a stronger third quarter boosted by the northern hemisphere summer holiday period.
"Similarly, Southeast Asia recorded the largest arrivals gain of 16 per cent during May, boosted by a 66 per cent rebound in arrivals to Thailand, as well as by strong demand growth for Vietnam (up by 37 per cent), Myanmar (up by 33 per cent), Cambodia (up by 12 per cent) and Singapore (up by 11 per cent).
Growth in arrivals to Northeast Asia, however, was a weak at 0.6 per cent for the month, highlighting the impact of sharply lower arrival numbers to Japan (down by 50 per cent) and the decline in the number of Japanese visitors travelling to neighbouring destinations.
In addition to Japan, Chinese Taipei (down by seven per cent) and China (down by one per cent) also recorded falling arrivals numbers for the month. Conversely, foreign arrivals growth for Hong Kong SAR (up by 15 per cent), Macau SAR (up by nine per cent) and Korea (up by two per cent) remained positive during May.

Nepal receives record tourist arrivals by air in 2010

Its a good news for Nepal Tourism Year 2011 that aims at receiving one million tourists arrivals, the country received almost half a million tourists by air only in 2010.
Propelled by robust growth from South Asian market, Nepal received a record high tourist arrivals by air in 2010.
The country received 448,769 in 2010 arrivals that is 18.5 per cent higher compared to 2009.
Similarly, the month of December also witnessed a sustained growth in visitor arrivals. The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) reveal that visitor arrivals in the month of December 2010 increased by 15.7 per cent to 36,323 compared to last December.
The SAARC region registered a robust growth of 26.1 per cent in the month of December and 24.7 per cent in the year 2010 compared to 2009. Visitor arrivals from India (19.5 per cent), Bangladesh (42.4 per cent), Pakistan (94.3 per cent) and Sri Lanka (148.3 per cent) have registered positive growth in December.
Similarly, December registered a robust growth of 24.4 per cent in visitor arrivals from China.
Except Japan, arrivals from Asia -- other than South Asia -- also recorded positive growth. Visitor arrivals from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea have registered a positive growth of 41 per cent, 26.4 per cent, 4.4 per cent, and 22.3 per cent, respectively. However Japan has suffered a soft decline by 0.4 per cent.
In an aggregate the Asian segment -- other than South Asia -- registered a positive growth of 14.3 per cent in the month of December and 17.7 per cent in 2010.
The European markets witnessed a soft decline of 0.2 per cent in the month of December but it also posted a positive growth of 14.4 per cent in an aggregate in 2010.
In December, the arrivals from the Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and UK were up by 57.3 per cent, 37 per cent, 26 per cent, 17.4 per cent, 75 per cent, 43.9 per cent, 2.1 per cent, 30.5 per cent and one per cent, respectively whereas Belgium, France, Germany and Italy declined by 20.1 per cent, 8.7 per cent,13.4 per cent, 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Similarly, tourist arrivals from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA also registered positive growth of 8.5 per cent, 57.9 per cent, 1.2 per cent and 14.4 per cent, respectively in December.
A total of 44,019 foreign tourists departed from TIA in December whereas it recorded 57,661 Nepalis arrivals. Some 77,230 Nepalis departed from TIA in December alone.

The yearly arrivals by air
1999-- 421,243
2000 -- 376,914
2001 -- 299,514
2002 -- 218,660
2003 -- 275,438
2004 -- 297,335
2005 -- 277,346
2006 -- 283,819
2007 -- 360,713
2008 -- 374,661
2009 -- 379,322
2010 -- 448,769

Dreams of a man called Nobukazo

Development and technological advancements have snaggled the lifestyle of the younger generation of Japanese: they have stopped dreaming.
"They have no dreams," said Nobukazu Kuriki, himself a 26-year old Japanese. To make them start dreaming, he has started a new campaign to reach heights -- climbing mountains. Kuriki has challenged the seven-summit solo as the first phase of his campaign that started in 2004.
"This campaign of scaling summits might give them some food for thought that life is challenging and it is necessary to dream," added he.
Kuriki has already climbed six of the seven heighest summits of each continent and wants to scale Mount Everest next summer. He thinks that climbing mountains is a noble way to make today's Japanese youths realise the reality of life. "The conquest of summits is a reality of life's hardship and human beings' untiring efforts to conquer nature," he philosophised. "Climbing mountains is also like living a life full of dreams -- achieving something."
"Not only that, the difficulties poses by the snow-capped peaks while climbing are like the difficulties in our lives when we are pursuing our dreams," he said adding that it also teaches one how to live life on a daily basis while fighting adverse conditions and at the same time straining to scale the peak.
"Today's Japanese youth are busy with computer games and other electrical gadgets. They have no imagination," he said adding that his campaign that was telecast live in Japan about the various peaks he conquered will send a message to his country's youth that life is beautiful and worth dreaming about.
Kuriki has already climbed six -- Mt Mckinley, Mt Aconcagua, Mt Elbrus, Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Vinson Massif and Mt Carstensz Pyramid -- of the seven-summit solo and is planning to climb Mount Everest coming summer. Over and above that, he plans to scale 14 summits to attract the new generation of Japanese towards mounteering.
He has also climbed Mount Manaslu and Dhaulagiri -- this season -- apart from the familiarisation climbing of Mount Everest upto 7,000 metres as his preparation for next summer.
Once, Japanese youths used to love adventure and dream of climbing Mount Manaslu if not Mount Everest as Mount Manaslu was first scaled by a Japanese. "My campaign might re-ignite that age-old love of climbing in today's Japanese youth giving a little boost to Nepal's mountering and trekking sector," Kuriki hoped.

On wheels: Tibet and Everest Base Camp

Nepal has become an attraction for guided bike tours that have earned a reputation for exciting, off-the-beaten track itineraries and adventures lately. In the last couple of years, number of group biking adventurers has increased as one of the major vacation choices for the seasoned travellers.
Last month, a group of six motorcyclists — including a lady rider from Australia with a Nepali Road captain — completed a road trip of over 2000-km from Kathmandu to Lhasa and returned via Everest Base-camp in 16 days.
From dirt to high altitudes, rough roads and to newly black topped road from Gyantse via Gandrock, on new Royal Enfield Bullet 500cc motorcycles, the bikers led by Stewie McLean — who has been organising such adventure riding trip since 2004 — experienced an euphoria that cannot be described in words.
Though McLean has been bringing adventure groups to Nepal every April and taking them on a ride on rough mountainous roads in Nepal from Kathmandu to Pokhara to Chitwan, and back to Kathmandu, its the first time he attempted a ride to Lhasa with his groups of motorcyclists including Chris Abbot (a businessman), Wayne Skues (a farmer), Helen Travers, Stephen Brand (a doctor) and Binod Chettri a road captain.
Himalayan Riders — the local co-ordinator of the trip — has been organising such bike trips to different places in Nepal to make holidays of the tourists most memorable ever. It is organising such bike trips to Ladakh and Bhutan and planning to start a trip to Mangolia soon.
"Its more free to travel on bike," McLean, said, adding that the trend is picking up as the number of bikers is increasing every year. However, its very interesting to know that all these motorcyclists are 40-plus people. "Older folks like such trips," he added. According to him the younger people don't have enough money for such trips.In a long bike tour, the riders develop a certain comaraderi among themselves. "The group must be clear when to stop and how to communicate essentials like 'stop', 'slow down', or 'I have a problem'," he said, adding that one should make sure to have protective gear and use it properly."
Riding in a group requires a bit more skill than riding solo. A new rider may not have experience and the group will have to face the problem together," he added. Apart from that its challenging not only because of rough roads but also due to unwanted stray animals on the road," McLean said. "Its difficult to keep the speed and the riders have to blow horn all the time.
"But how did it all start? "When I invited my friends to Nepal for trekking, some of them didn't like to walk," he said, adding that then an idea occured. "Can I arrange a riding trip, I asked them and they immediately said 'ye'.
"Unlike most of the Nepalis, for whom bikes are means of transportation, McLane and his rider friends take it as sport. "Its a group sport," McLane added.