Travelers’ Choice #19 Destination: Kathmandu
Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital and a Travelers’ Choice Destination, is surrounded by a valley full of historic sites, ancient temples, shrines, and fascinating villages. Mingle with locals and animals amid Durbar Square’s monuments, or join mountain trekkers in the bustling Thamel District. Explore shops for exquisite work by local artisans—carpets and paper prints are specialties.
Nepal and Himalayas have been the synonym words for Nepal enjoys the pride of having 8 out of 10 highest peaks of the world! We don’t have only mountains but our unique geography has given us green hills and valleys, rivers, subtropical forests and flat lands all adding beauty to our country. Apart from geographical diversity, we have incredible cultural diversity within the boundary of our small Himalayan Kingdom . We have a number of ethnic groups, each with their own languages, cultures, and costumes, all living in perfect harmony.
The best way to experience unbeatable combination of natural beauty and cultural riches of Nepal is to walk through terrain. One can walk along the beaten trails or virgin tracks. Either way you are in for an experience of a lifetime. Along with rhododendron forests, isolated hamlets, small mountain villages, birds, animals, temples, monasteries (Gomba) breathtaking landscape of unsurpassed mountain ranges, you will also encounter friendly people of different cultures and traditional rural life.
The great Mountains with unsurpassable splendor, crystal clear streams and brooks, the high current of rivers, colorful species of flowers, birds and animals, abundance of greenery and forests with much more hidden beauty and mystery with unavoidable adventure and fun will be waiting for you.
Many people have said about Nepal .
The country of Mount Everest, Roof top of the world, Top Eight highest mountain and 240 peaks exceeding 6094 meters, land of living Goddess, Melting pot of Hinduism and Buddhism, Country of non-stop festivals, Himalayan pilgrimage, “The wildest dreams of Kew” Nature’s amphitheatre, heat of Shangri-la, land of yak and yeti, living cultural museum of the world, anthropological treasure land, ecologists dreamland.
More Details About Nepal: http://www.samratgroup.org/
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the Bhutanese King and the Sri Lankan President have expressed their willingness to visit the Buddhist holy shrine during the SAARC Summit to be held in Kathmandu on 26 – 27,2014.
Keeping in view the SAARC leaders visit , Lumbini Development Trust has implemented different works to beautify Lumbini .Sacred garden area , Mayadevi temple area and other important locations are renovated and painted.
Meanwhile, the number of Indian and Chinese tourists visiting Lumbini has increased in recent months.A total of 13,300 Chinese tourists visited Lumbini in the first nine months of 2014 according to LDT.
Most of the tourists visiting Lumbini are from India, China , Sri Lanka and Thailand .
The total number of tourist arrival in Lumbini was 136,000 in 2012 and 125,000 in 2013.More than 83,000 foreign tourists have visited the sacred place during January-September 2014.
Source: Travelbiznews
Nepal and Himalayas have been the synonym words for Nepal enjoys the pride of having 8 out of 10 highest peaks of the world! We don’t have only mountains but our unique geography has given us green hills and valleys, rivers, subtropical forests and flat lands all adding beauty to our country. Apart from geographical diversity, we have incredible cultural diversity within the boundary of our small Himalayan Kingdom. We have a number of ethnic groups, each with their own languages, cultures, and costumes, all living in perfect harmony.
The best way to experience unbeatable combination of natural beauty and cultural riches of Nepal is to walk through terrain. One can walk along the beaten trails or virgin tracks. Either way you are in for an experience of a lifetime. Along with rhododendron forests, isolated hamlets, small mountain villages, birds, animals, temples, monasteries (Gomba) breathtaking landscape of unsurpassable mountain ranges, you will also encounter friendly people of different cultures and traditional rural life.
The great Mountains with unsurpassable splendor, crystal clear streams and brooks, the high current of rivers, colorful species of flowers, birds and animals, abundance of greenery and forests with much more hidden beauty and mystery with unavoidable adventure and fun will be waiting for you.
Here are the best tourist attractions in Nepal you can visit:
Kathmandu is Nepal’s largest city and capital of Nepal. Kathmandu is situated in a valley in the heart of Nepal. Kathmandu is famous for many Buddhist temples and in it, mostly from the 17th century. One example is the Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. Buildings that are open admiration in Nepal as a tourist attraction was built in the 16th century, contains a marvelous royal palace and many temples built in traditional pagoda style.
Durbar Square. This complex of palaces, courtyards and temples like Hanumandhoka Palace, Kumari Ghar (Abode of the Living Goddess), Taleju temple, built between the 12th and 18th centuries, used to be the seat of the ancient Malla Kings of Kathmandu. An intriguing piece here is the 17h -century stone inscription set into the wall of the palace with writings in 15 languages. The Durbar Square, protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the social, religious and urban focal point of the city. Even to date, all the major state and social ceremonies, including the solemnization of coronations are performed in one of the courtyards in this complex. There are also museums inside the palace building. There is an entrance fee of Rs. 250 for foreign visitors. Your ticket to the Square entitles you to visit all the museums.
Nepal’s first & most famous national park, The Chitwan National Park covering 932 sq. Km is situated in the southern terai lowlands of Nepal. Widely known for one of the richest varieties of wild life adventures.Only 160 km from Kathmandu, 155 km from Pokhara & 160 km from the Indian border (Sunauli), Chitwan National Park is the best known safari park in Nepal .It is home to many species of animals such as the world famous royal Bengal Tiger, the great one horned Rhinoceros, 4 different kinds of deer, sloth Bear, Leopards, crocodiles, monkeys as well as many different species of butterflies, insects & over 450 sorts of colorful & endangered birds.
Even if you don’t get the chance to see all of these animals, the rich vegetation with dense forest, grassland & riverside areas will be worth walking through.
From Kathmandu & Pokhara comfortable tourist buses have daily departures to Chitwan. If you have only limited time, you can also fly to Bharatpur Airport which is only 17 km away from Jugle Wildlife Camp.
The Pokhara Valley, a land of spectacular beauty crowned by the majestic Himalayas, conjures visions of calm but vibrant green hills. Loaded with luxuriant vegetation and dotted with shimmering lakes, the valley offers awesome vistas. Magnificent image of Mount Machhapuchhare reflected in the clear waters of the Lake Phewa leaves everyone spellbound. One of the Nepal’s adventure hubs, it has reputation of being the second home for the tourists worldwide.
The geographical studies reveal that centuries ago a glacier was formed in the valley. As the time passed, the temperatures steadily increased and the solid ice melted and formed a river that began flowing, cutting into the soil of Pokhara. The regular flow of glacial waters created several underground tunnels. Currently, most of these tunnels are dry and are found in the form of caves.
Lumbini is the birth of place of Lord Buddha and has been declared as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. It is small town in the southern Terai plains of Nepal, where the ruins of the old city can still be seen. At the age of 84, he left this world with thousands of followers to keep Buddhism alive. Lumbini has since been a holy ground for Buddhists all over the world. The restored garden and surroundings of Lumbini have the remains of many of the ancient stupas and monasteries. A large stone pillar erected by the Indian Emperor Ashoka in 250 BC bears an inscription about the birth of the Buddha. An important part of Lumbini is the temple of Maya Devi. It has stone image of Maya Devi giving birth to Lord Buddha as she holds onto a branch.
An important archeological site near Lumbini, Kapilvastu evokes the ancient palace where Lord Buddha spent his formative years. Scattered foundations of the palace are abundant and archeologists have by now discovered 13 successive layers of human habitation dating back to the eighth century BC.
The ongoing solar street lamp installation project in the Capital city is expected to be completed by the first week of November. To that end, the authorities concerned have been working round the clock putting up the lamp posts and installing the solar-powered lights. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been installing solar lights on major streets and thoroughfares of Kathmandu, with the target of accomplishing the project before the Saarc summit.
Kathmandu City Ready for SAARC Conference
“We have been directed to complete the installation works on the assigned stretches three weeks before the summit. We are working day and night to meet the deadline,” said Bhanubhakta Bhattarai, chief at the NEA central branch. NEA has prepared a blueprint for first phase of the project. It is comprised of some major routes: Tribhuvan International Airport to Maitighar, Thapathali to Soaltee Mode, Maitighar to City Hall and Tundikhel to Ranipokhari
Similarly, the stretch from Tripureshwor to Jamal will also to be equipped with solar street lamps before the Saarc summit. “All these stretches are to be completed before the Saarc summit before we move on to the second phase of the project which will complete next year,” said Bhattarai.
Participating Country of SAARC Conference
The project is part of the Kathmandu city beautification plan concocted by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). While NEA has taken the responsibility of installing solar lamps on most of the major routes, KMC will only be overseeing the project being launched at Kesharmahal-Maharajgunj road. “It is because of the budget issues,” said Sanjay Raj Upadhyay, chief of the Road Department at KMC. “The government committed budget for the Saarc beautification is very tight.
Hence KMC will be supervising only one route.” The government has committed Rs 85 million to the KMC for city beautification project. A lion share of the budget will be spent on the solar light installation at Kesharmahal-Maharajgunj road.
Source: Nepalmountainnews