Sarangkot: A trek site for busybodies

By Shanker Ghimire

It is just eight kilometres (from turning point of Bindyabashini) away, but can you believe that it will take an hour or more to get to that place on top of  a hill?  Yes, we are talking of Sarangkot.  This is the ideal place from where one can have a “bird’s eye view” of the beauty of Pokhara and also the torquise lake Fewa, and the ranges of silver capped  mountains that surround this beautiful valley.

Sarangkot is also ideal for those people who want to trek but have little time to spare. Just about 30 to 40 minutes of an up hill drive from Pokhara will take you to the starting point of the short trek. This place is known as “Parking” - this is so because all cars, vans are parked here and thus the local people call it parking rather than by its original name of “Gothari”. Two small shops are there at this point and the village is on the western slope of the hill.  Though road is black topped up to “Parking”, due to the frequent twist and bends it takes you 30 to 40 minutes to cover the 5 km stretch.

 There are no local buses to go to Sarangkot, as such either you will have to hire a car or share a van with other tourists in tours organized by local travel agents or hotels.   Hiring a car to Sarangkot will cost from Rs. 400 to 800 depending upon the pressure of tourist flow.

After reaching “Parking” you can either walk through a rough motorable road and it will take 20 to 25 minutes to reach the view point, or you can take a short cut through   a steep uphill steps, and reach the nearest view point within about 12 minutes.   Now you are in the upper section of parking point  which is known as “Thuli Pokhari”. The clusters of 10 to 15 houses is like a small market place and the shops here sell you touristic goods like handicrafts, stones and jewelry and other grocery items.  This can be taken as the place where those people who cannot walk much but like to enjoy a short trek can end their climb.

But those people who really want to hike can go further uphill. It is approximately 3 km. from Thulipokhari to the Sarangkot view point.  Buy a bottle of water to quench your thirst, take rest for sometime and then start climbing up.  It is really an uphill hike, but most parts of  the trails to Sarangkot Tower are paved with stone slabs, so you will not feel uneasy or too hard to make the climb.  While climbing up to Sarangkot tower, you will feel as if you are walking through the ridges of a mountain.

 On your right side you will be able to see the rushing Seti river with her wide bank, and on the foot of the hill you will be able to view the lush green paddy fields, beautiful villages like Henja, Birethanti and the simple way of life of the villagers there. Then on your left side you will see the village of Sarangkot and at the foot hill the tranquil lake Fewa with her source river.

A hike of about 45 to 55 minutes will bring you to the top of the hill known as “Tower”.   It is known as “Tower” because of the Nepal Television Transmission Tower   at the top of the hill.  The actual tower is situated on a flat land on the top within a walled boundary.  Inside there is a garden, a temple and a 2 storeyed view point with some iron chairs.

 You may be tempted to sit for hours to relax and enjoy a  bird’s eye view of Pokhara and Fewa lake and the wide range of mountains like Machhapucchare, Annapurna, Manaslu, Himchuli, Dhaulagiri and Lamjung.  This is the best place in Pokhara to view the sunrise and sunset over the mountains, river, lake, wide spread of green hills, villages and the Pokhara itself.

The “Kot” literally means the “Fort” and Sarangkot was the fort of the then king of Kaskikot. Approximately 1592 meters above sea level, Sarangkot tower is just like a mast on the deck of a ship.  On the Northeast slope of Sarangkot is a young forest. And the Southwest elevation has villages, terraced fields and at the foot of the hill -Fewa lake and its source river.

Just 10 to 15 minutes before reaching Sarangkot tower, there is a small bazaar with small and good lodges, resorts, restaurants and other shops.  If you like you can stay   overnight.  You can carry on your trek to the next hill top called “Naudanda” which will take approximately 3/4 hours.

A place well worth a visit.

Strengthen RNAC: entrepreneurs

By A Staff Reporter

As the consequence of Indian Airlines suspension of its regular flights to Kathmandu, Nepalese travel industry has suffered a loss of more than US $ 1.5 million in the past two months. This was revealed at a press conference jointly organized by twelve tourism related associations on Friday.

The loss of US $ 1.5 million to Nepal was estimated from the projection of more than 28,400 prospective tourists that failed to visit Nepal because of the suspension of the flights by the Indian Airlines.

Beside that, almost 244,000 kgs of export cargo were also halted from being exported to the international market due to the same reason.

Following the hijack of Indian Airline’s New Delhi-bound plane that took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport about two months back, the Indian flag carrier has suspended all its regular flights to and from Kathmandu.

Speaking to the journalists, Presidents of various tourism related associations compared the suspension of flights by the Indian Airlines to economic sanctions.

As the country is suffering loss of millions of rupees, the government has not yet initiated necessary efforts to solve the problem, they blamed.

Despite repeated efforts of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and other private sector associations and repeated assurances received from the Indian diplomatic mission in Kathmandu, the impasse does not likely to come to an end, a press release issued on the occasion said.

They also urged the government to strengthen Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC), the government owned airlines, to tackle such problems.

They also demanded that the private sector airlines should be allowed to operate flights to various cities in India. Though the government had issued licences to operate international flights to more than a half dozen of private companies, only Necon Air has started flights to Indian city of Calcutta.

The travel trade entrepreneurs also demanded to scrap licenses of those companies which failed to operate to the international sector and issue fresh licenses to those who are interested in operating the international flights.

Addressing the gathering, Yogendra Sakya, President of Nepal Incentive and Convention Association (NICA), said that the private sector strongly believes that RNAC should be strengthened.

 President of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA), Bhola Thapa said that the country must learn a lesson from the present suspension of the Indian Airlines’ flights to Nepal and look for alternatives to such a situation in future.

Nepal participates at TTF in Mumbai

By A Staff Reporter

The Nepal Tourism Board participated in the 16th Travel Trade Fair (TTF) at World Trade Center, Mumbai from 18-20 February 2000. The Deputy Chief Minister of Maharastra Changan Bhujwal inaugurated the fair. He also visited the Nepal Pavilion and was presented with information kit on Nepal.

TTF is one of the largest annual travel trade shows mustering a lot of business, on the spot sales and bookings, interaction, cultural exhibition and building up business contacts from all parts of the globe. The first half of all subsequent days of exhibitions was meant for trade visitors and the press and the second half for general public.

The entire Nepal pavilion was decorated with Nepali flags and colorful banners depicting the scenic grandeur of the country. The NTB stall was decorated with the wooden replica of the Pashupatinath temple. The other items used for added attractions include enlarged photographs of various tourist places, prayer flags, photos of Their Majesties the King and the Queen and prayer flags. Useful travel information like visa fee structure, trekking area royalty, mountaineering royalty, international air schedules were put up for the general information of the public. Video Documentary featuring some aspects of Nepalese tourism was a regular highlight throughout the fair. Various queries pertaining to sightseeing, trekking, rafting, mountaineering, safety, security, accessibility etc. were entertained by the officers of NTB at the Nepal Pavilion.

India is the single largest inbound market for Nepal, which alone generates around 32% arrivals to Nepal of the total tourist traffic. Hence this fair becomes all the more important for Nepal to publicize its tourism products in view of the fact that the arrival statistics from India has witnessed a slight decline recently.

In a span of three days, the visitors figure to Nepal pavilion totaled more than 4000, comprising of travel trade sector, journalists and the general consumers. Since Nepal was given a special and separate stall in level-1, the nature of visitors coming to Nepal stand was of high quality.

Various brochures, pamphlets, travel guide books, posters, maps, Travel manuals, CD ROM, Lokta paper bags, Passport bag, Video Documentary were distributed throughout the fair.

The last two concluding days coincided to be Saturday and Sunday - naturally drawing a big crowd. There was a big publicity on Nepal on behalf of the organisors as a partner country.

NTB also managed to advertise its presence at TTF Mumbai In Times of India, Mumbai edition on 18,19 and 20th Feb. with the names of the participating companies.

Coinciding with TTF event, a Destination Nepal Presentation and Press conference was held on 19th Feb. at Hotel Taj President. Travel trade operators and media person were invited at the function hosted by NTB.

Tek Bahadur Dangi, Director Marketing & Promotion, made a presentation on destination Nepal that was followed by Multi-media and slide presentation and interaction.

He also answered queries relating to hijacking episode and tourist attractions of Nepal. The main focus of the conference was to dispel security related doubts about Nepal from the minds of Indian travelers and project Nepal as a safe haven for tourist.

Director Dangi also cautioned the people about the misleading propaganda projected by Indian media including electronic ones and asked them to differentiate facts from baseless rumors. He added that the security arrangement at the TIA confirms to the international standards and the fourteen other international airlines including two national ones, RA and Necon, are operating flights to and from Kathmandu without any doubts to the security standards implemented in the TIA.

This itself is also a strong proof of our good security system at the airport. He appealed to the people that it should be our collective concern to combat circulation of wrong and misleading information.

He further added that the cancellation of Indian Airlines is a matter of loss not only to Nepal but also to India and other adjoining countries since the tour operators between the two countries has a tied up multiple destinations packages connecting adjoining areas in the Indian sub continent.

The Destination Nepal presentation and the press conference was attended by leading media in Mumbai including In Time TV News, Tourism India, Maharastra Times, Times of India, Mid-day, The Bombay Samachar, Business Publications Divisions, Gujrat Samachar, Loksatta, Voayage etc and a big number of travel-trade operators. Dangi was interviewed by some of the newspapers including the TV channel.

A jumbo delegation of Nepal led by NTB had a special presence as a partner country. The 27 private sector companies that participated in the fair includes: Ashish Travel & Tours, Manakamana Darshan, Explore Nepal Richa Tours & Travels, Fishtail Tours, Grand hotel, Gorkha Treks, Hotel Holiday Taj, Hattiban Resorts, Royal Singi Hotel, Heritage Hotels & Resorts, Himalayan Horizon Hotel Snow and Snow, Royal wildlife Camp, Hotel Classic, Hotel, Safari Narayani, Nepa Touristic Journal, Nepal Sagarmatha Travels, Nepal Traveller/Casnio Times, Riverside Spring Resorts, Machan Wildlife, The Begnas Lake Resort, Intertours Nepal, the Royal Nepal Airlines and Necon Air.

Nepal as an affordable, besides an exotic destination, is fact gaining ground amogst all segments of the travelling community in Mumbai and adjoining areas of western India.