Nepal – if it isn’t already on your radar – needs to be! Such a fascinating country, wonderful for the photographer, whether amateur or professional. The joys are so many: trekking amidst terraced rice fields, visiting the medieval temple towns and World Heritage sites, reveling in the sights and sounds of CHitwan National Park with its elephants and rhinoceros, savoring the dal, rice and curry dishes. One of the most appealing aspects to Nepal is its religious harmony, very noticeable when one visits the temples and stupas. While the earthquake had a great impact, the country is absolutely recovering and one can sense the energy put into reconstruction.
Once you’ve made up your mind to travel to Nepal, the choice of tour company becomes easy. Distinctive Nepal is so worthy it’s hard to know where to start in singing its praises. Sabin Lal Shrestha is all that a tour company founder should be: passionate about his country, knowledgeable about historic and contemporary aspects and possessing the attention to details so crucial in this kind of endeavor. He hired perfect local guides, arranged lovely hotels, safe drivers and on top of organizing visits to the “normal” sites, also arranged special surprise events, such as readings with a famous astrologer, and even a festival dinner at his home. Not only that, he handled mishaps with aplomb: when my luggage didn’t arrive on the international flight, he manages its retrieval later and even arranged to have my eyeglasses repaired when they broke. I don’t think there is anything Mr. Shrestha and his colleagues cannot do for their guests!