The trilling Bhote Koshi experience

By Yug Bahadur

Just three hours away from Kathmandu ,the Bhote Koshi is an exciting river for rafting in Nepal. Most of the visitors often go for this rafting  trip without any hesitation. The river offers you two days of thrilling rafting experience. Bhote  means a mountain man from Bhot which is Tibet and who wears rough clothes. And  Koshi means river. So   Bhote Koshi  means a river that flows from the  high mountains or Bhot. The Bhote  Koshi  is a very steep, very continuous mountain stream and it sounds   like a lion roaring in the jungle.

Rafting : One of the most attractive adventure activities Nepal has on offer.

Our journey starts  early  in the morning   at 7 am  from Kantipath   near  Thamel. We get on to a tourist bus which is loaded with rafting gears and river guides as well. The bus ride takes us out of the valley and among other places we pass through the fields and the ancient city of Dhulikhel. On a clear day the entire Himalayan range is clearly  seen from this city. From here the road goes to the village of Dolalghat , on the banks of the Indrawati river. Then we move to the north. Our destination is just twenty kilometers south of the border. When we arrive here a lunch/ breakfast will be waiting for us before we prepare to set up camp.  After  having lunch/breakfast  every body is fitted with a lifejacket, spray jacket and helmet. Then one of the river guides will deliver an extensive lesson in river safety, paddling technique and what to do when you  suddenly get out of the raft. Rafting in the Bhote Koshi is sort of a full body activity, with much more involved than simple paddling forward and backward.

The first day provides you about three and a half hours of whitewater rafting experience. The rapids are  from 3 to 4 class during the entire trip. Almost all the time, first we hit the rapids and then enter a calm pool, but just a few feet away there is another rapid waiting. The rapids have different names given by the guides. Like gerbil, Frog in a Blender,  Carnal Knowledge and Deviant Nature among others. The simmering waterfalls at different points of the trip and also the untouched natural view on the banks of the river, gives further enchantment to the entire trip. There are other rivers which are more calm, but flowing swiftly from the nearby mountains, the Bhote Koshi experience is an exciting one. It is virtually a continuous trip of ups and downs and twists and turns. We end the trip near the village of Barabise, and then go back to our camp on a bus. However the fun hasn’t ended for the day. At the camp you can either sit watching the river flow by or play volleyball with your friends even as the cooks prepare a delicious dinner. A bar will also be set up and you can relax with a drink for as long as you want before settling in for the night and another day of exciting  rafting.

Day 2: We start with strong coffee to wake us up and then after having breakfast, we again head for the rafts even as our personal gear is packed up and put on the waiting bus. We again go through the same stretch of river that we had negotiated yesterday, but many people don’t recognise the places they have already gone through, as they are more experienced today. But we don’t stop near Barabise now, we continue down river  and the first rapid beyond is the Great Wall, which come soon after the Sun Koshi river joins in with Bhote Koshi. After this we hit other exciting rapids like Liquid Bliss, Fake Right go Left and My God What to Do. We come to the end of the trip near Lamosaghu Dam after going through the last big rapid named Dazed and Confused. At the end of the trip you will have experienced one of the best whitewater rafting experience you will find anywhere in the world. At the end of the trip, the bus will be waiting to take us back to Kathmandu, the trip which will take about three hours.

NTB bags PATA award

By A Staff Reporter

In less than two years of its inception, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), established as a public-private partnership for tourism development of Nepal, has been successful in winning yet another award.

The latest one that added another feather in the cap of NTB was none other than the prestigious PATA Gold Award 2000 for its superb CD-Rom produced under the title “Mt. Everest & More... Experience it in Nepal.”

The NTB’s entry in the CD-Rom category was adjudged the best. The Award will be offered at the 49th Annual Conference of Pacific Asia Tourism Association (PATA), which is scheduled to be held in Hong Kong on May 1, 2000, a press release said.

“Mt. Everest and More ...” is a cross platform interactive multimedia CD-Rom that contains over 560 megabytes of data incorporated over 600 pages of text, 30 video films and over 500 high resolution images and maps depicting various touristic spots of the country.

The contents of the CD-Rom, which is divided into ten major chapters, covers all aspects of tourism related materials, the NTB press release mentioned. It also features a special presentation slide-show accompanied by an interesting fusion of modern sound effect and traditional Nepali music.

In its bid to cater to all its prospective clients, the NTB has resorted to user friendly graphical interface for the production of the CD-Rom. As such, anybody can navigate intuitively through its entire contents. It also incorporates a trouble free printing facility so that the user can easily print any portion of the contents with a click of a button.

Beside the PATA Gold Award 2000, the NTB, during a very short period of time, was also awarded with the “Overall Winner of Greening of Business Tourism Awards, 1999” by the European Incentive and Business Travel Meeting (EIBTM) in Geneva, Switzerland, and “TTF Award of Excellence in Group Participation” at the TTF’99 held in Calcutta, India last year.

The NTB was also the winner of Group Participation Award Scroll of Honour at this years TTF held in Mumbai, India, last month.

Nepali food at the Taj

By A Staff Reporter

In keeping up with serving variety of delectable cuisine, Hotel De L’Annapurna opened its first Nepalese Restaurant of the Taj, Astamangal from March 2. Astamangal means good luck and all round happiness and is supposed to be the best combination of stars one can have as per the Hindu astrology. It is open between 6:30 pm and 10:00 pm daily for dinner and will serve a fixed Nepalese Vegetarian/Non Vegetarial Thali

Expand fleet not route

By A Staff Reporter

According to high level sources at the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC), the airlines has shelved its plan to operate flights to the southern Indian city of Bangalore because of lack of planes. The flight was due to start from March 26.

According to RA sources, the airlines had to add flights to New Delhi in the aftermath of the Indian Airlines’ cancellation of its flights. Another reason is that the tourism entrepreneurs have been asking RA to operate to other northern Indian cities than go to Bangalore. The Airlines may be starting flights to Varanasi and also adding some more flights to Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the plan to expand routes rather than its fleet may land the airlines in deep trouble.

The lease period of the plane RA hired from China Southwest Airlines will end on March 28, and the Airlines has still not found a replacement. RA recently annulled the tender for a wide-bodied B-767- 300 ER, saying none of the five bidders satisfy the conditions of the airlines.

It has issued a retender for a plane, and the date for bidding expires today (Wednesday). If the airlines fails to lease a plane this time also, it may have to do a last minute scurrying for a plane it desperately needs to maintain its schedule. Even if RA finds one at the eleventh hour it may not be able to avoid the charges of kick-backs. RA has again failed to learn the lesson.

Lal Durbar convention center eyes conference-goers

By A Staff Reporter

Drawing of the Lal Durbar Convention Center

The Yak & Yeti - one of Kathmandu’s premier luxury hotels - will be giving conference-goers much cause to celebrate with the introduction of the largest convention facility in Nepal. The Lal Durbar Convention Center, to be ready this March, will feature a wide variety of superbly equipped rooms under a single roof, thus providing a high degree of flexibility to cater the diverse requirements of meetings, conventions and conference.

The center will combine four halls - the Regal room, the Durbar hall, the Dynasty and the Regency - and two boardrooms. The Regal, which can be divided into two separate facilities using a sound-proof and insulated collapsible wall, will be on the first level of the convention center. With a gross floor area of 8,352 sq ft, it will be able to accommodate 950 people in reception style, 360 each in sit-down and classroom styles, 800 in threater and 114 in U-shape styles. When divided into two, Regal I and Regal II will each have the capacity to accommodate 440 persons in reception, 160 each in sit-down and classroom, 300 in theater and 60 in U-shape styles.

Also available will be the latest range of audio visual technology that fulfills the most stringent requirements of meetings, conventions and conferences. The equipment available include a complete public address system with microphones, tiepin microphones, cordless microphones, overhead projector, slide projector, TV screen and VCR, multi-media projector, laser panel board and laser pointer. Simultaneous translation system can also be provided if needed.

Once the Lal Durbar Convention Center is complete, it is expected to become the social center of Kathmandu and Nepal as well as the hub for national and international conferences.