Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Why coming to Nepal NOW would be the best thing you ever did!

pic: Urban Adventures | the Boudhanath Rebuild

The human race is amazing - its capacity to fight hard times, to be resilient, strong, and yet still find energy to bring out the act of pure humanity is absolutely inspirational. After the earthquake, Nepal has changed tremendously. Yes, we have houses down, grieving families and an economy that is down, but the people and their spirit are stronger than ever. We have regained our pride in ourselves, in our strength, in our resilience, in the skill we have to build back, and build it back better.

The youth came out in force and even before the first aid plane had landed in Nepal, they had mobilised hundreds of tons of relief into the needed areas, and are still continuing to do so. In the mountains, the youth dug roads, set up supply lines, made shelters and protected communities.

The police have never been on a bigger high. Mobilised within minutes of the quake, they dug out bodies, protected supplies, made huge missions on dangerous landslide prone territory, and were later even performing on the streets providing music therapy, seen here in a video that went viral on facebook.


SuperHeroes Nepal Police | Gangnam style cover - for Therapy
RECOVERY UPDATE | Real SuperheroesThe Nepal Police... They react fast to the earthquake, rescue people, protect supplies, and then provide music therapy. Was a bit emotional with pride and respect.#WeAreNepali - never conquered, never colonised - an earthquake will not beat us!
Posted by Raj Gyawali on Tuesday, May 26, 2015


The tourism industry, which took a huge huge hit, immediately started mobilising and for the first time ever, started even meeting up together and forming joint strategies and actions and aligning with all players to bring back tourism to its feet again. Overnight, the designed online viral campaigns like the "I AM IN NEPAL NOW" and the currently viraling "I AM GOING TO NEPAL" to regain customer confidence. This is huge - it rarely happens, but it did and it continues and this will make the industry stronger and better. No doubts about that!

Overnight, skilled persons got together to save objects of heritage when monuments fell, turned back bulldozers to break apart the monument brick by brick to preserve each piece for the rebuild, and at World Heritage Site locations like Boudhanath, started the rebuild, without any aid money, less than a forth-night since the quake hit, on pure faith! That, in todays world, is pure gold!

The stories continue, on and on! We have changed, and for the better!

This is probably no different than anywhere on earth. At times of urgent need, humans step up the game, and synergise the necessary change that is required to uplift themselves - both in spirit, economically, or what have you!

So here is the reason why you should come visit. One can only witness this strength - this capacity to change the game, this constant shift brought about by synergies, these improvements in quality - in places where an event of this proportion has happened. And for now, this is where we are, in Nepal.

You do not get many chances to experience this spirit. Its rare, and it will not last for very long. If you do not come now, you will miss it - this opportunity to again be proud of being human.

Of course, the mountains and the biodiversity that make Nepal one of the places to visit in your lifetime is intact. The draw is still there!

And of course we are Nepali - we are #stillSmiling and still one of the friendliest people in the planet. Only we have got stronger!

Come witness the recovery of Nepal. It will inspire you and change you forever!


Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Ropain: The rice planting festival 2015

Pic courtesy - https://www.facebook.com/jaysan.photography

Carrying on with the tradition of celebrating ROPAIN as in yesteryears, socialtours organized a group of expatriates and tourist to travel to the southern ridge of the Kathmandu Valley to indulge in one of Nepal’s most colorful and exuberant festivals. After the earthquake of April 25th this was one of the major events to take place.

On 27th June, 2015, the journey towards the paddy fields began at 8 am and we reached the Bajrabarahi temple after an hour of driving through earthquake damaged village houses and well manicured terraced fields. A brief stop at the temple and the team was on its way to the fields. After a quick change of clothes the planting began in earnest. Fifteen minutes of rice planting then gave way to over three hours of fun and frolic in the mud. Mud wrestling, tug of war and mud racing then over took rice planting.

In between local rice beer, rice wine, Newar style sautéed buffalo meat and spicy potato was served. This served as an energizer for the mayhem in the mud to continue for another two hours. After another hour in the fields mingling with the local farming community and giving continuity to on the spot invented games, it was time to relish a typical village Newar lunch. After shower and change of clothes under the open sky an eight course Newar lunch was laid out. Food was as varied as from beaten rice, chicken, bamboo shoot to your regular potato curry. 3 pm and we were pulling our tired bodies into the bus for the ride back home.

This year the crowd was smaller than in previous years due to the earthquake, but let me assure the fun wasn’t. It was an occasion that everyone relished and spoke highly of. It was also a measure of how far we had come after the earthquake in terms of getting our lives back to normal. socialtours has come back stronger and better after April 25th and we promise you a bigger and more eventful ROPAIN 2016.

All photos sourced from https://www.facebook.com/jaysan.photography








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