Nepal a Heaven for Adventure Tourist

For all those cliffhangers out there, Kathmandu offers terrific places for rock climbing that make for an experience of a lifetime. Make sure you leave time for hot air ballooning for a bird/s-eye view of the Kathmandu Valley and the magnificent Himalaya. See life from a new perspective as you take off in a micro-light aircraft for motor gliding in Pokhara. A trip will take you over some of the best scenery on earth, as you share airspace with Himalayan griffin vultures, eagles, kites and float over villages, monasteries, temples, lakes and jungle, with a fantastic view of the majestic Himalayas. The Bhote Kosi, one of the world’s wildest raging rivers, rushes down from the heights of the Himalayas. This Bhote Kosi is the main tributary of the Sun Kosi and is followed by the Arniko highway from Kathmandu to Lhasa. Mountain flights offer spectacular views of the Himalaya in just one hour. These flights offer the closest possible aerial views of Mt. Everest and other above 8,000 m peaks.

Why Visit Nepal ?

Nepal, a country of sublime beauty, tucked away in the shades of the highest mountain range in the world, can truly be labeled the 'last paradise' on earth. Even in such a small area of 147181 sq. kilometers, Nepal presents a myriad of attractions to tourists and locals alike – ranging from its scenic beauty and well preserved exotic culture to the adventure opportunities in every nook and cranny in the country.


When the hippie culture hit the world in the mid 20th century, Nepal could not remain an exception. Indeed, the first tourists who came to Nepal were these hippies who arrived in search of cheap marijuana. Hashish was available here and there were no laws preventing its use. Thus, backpackers with the likes of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix thronged to Nepal and the well known "Freak Street" established itself as the tourist hub of Nepal.

Now, tourism has developed much in Nepal and it has lots more to offer to tourists than just cheap narcotics. Due to the diverse topography, altogether different forms of life have developed in the northern Himalayan valleys and the southern plains of the Terai. These lifestyles have given rise to different customs and traditions. Exotic cultures have developed which differ with the part of the country you are in, the mid hills and southern plains being the richest in traditions. Festivals like the Kumari Jatra and Bisket Jatra cannot be seen in any other part of the world. Neither can one experience such hospitality anywhere else. Nepalese believe in a traditional Sanskrit saying "Atithi Devo Bhava"(meaning guests and gods are alike) This is what makes them so hospitable that they can never regard their guests with indifference and always warm heartedly welcome them and try to help them as much as possible.

The exotic customs has also given rise to different monuments of cultural, religious and historical importance. Temples and palaces dating back to 10th century AD still exist as cultural heritages in Nepal. Beautiful pagoda style monuments in the Kathmandu valley uphold a strong reminiscence of their glorious past. Magnificent Buddhist stupas also remind everyone that Buddhism originated from this religiously tolerant country. Art and architecture are particularly well developed in the capital Kathmandu as it was the cultural and political centre of the country from the very beginning of its existence.

The exoticism of the culture makes only a small fraction of what a tourist can experience in Nepal. You cannot come to Nepal and return without trekking some of the ancient pathways hidden in the barren Himalayan Bhots. In fact, nowadays most tourists throng to Nepal for this very purpose: trekking. The well worn trade routes used by people of the Himalayas descending south in the winter or moving in caravans further north towards Tibet in the summer have been modified to serve as trekking routes. More and more trekking routes are opening year by year to enhance a tourist's experience in Nepal.

Not only trekking routes but also more and more mountains have been opened for mountaineering by the Nepalese government. The Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, along with six of the ten tallest peaks in the entire world, lies in Nepal's terrain. The majestic Everest, which stood so proudly and magnificently shining its own snow white light without anyone daring to reach its hilt until just half a century ago was scaled by several thousands of mountaineers two years back to mark the golden jubilee of the scaling of the Sagarmatha (Nepali name for Everest, meaning greatest of all) by Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hilary. Sir Edmund was himself in the capital to grace the functions organized to commemorate this remarkable event.

Moreover, the thing that makes visiting Nepal really desirable to visit is its supreme natural beauty. The hills and mountains, the rivers lakes and falls, the omnipresent greenery, the exotic flora and fauna, the forests with all the wilderness are sure to bewilder tourists who see just their well kept lawns and flower pots in the name of greenery. All these factors, along with the local people; in their small, straw thatched mud houses, living a backward life in the villages, beautifies Nepal more than ever.

Where else in the world can you paraglide, balloon ride, bungy jump off one of the highest fall in the world, bird watch, go for a safari in jungles home to one horned Rhinoceroses and Royal Bengal tigers and yet canoe or kayak in white water rivers or go for a trek or even try to ascend the world's highest mountains? Nepal has it all which many other destinations lack. This country always makes you feel elated, as if you have just landed into a paradise, a small yet really beautiful utopia. The wilderness of Kenya might be excellent for safari but can it offer the snow? The beaches of Hawaii might be the best in the world but can one go for a safari there? Here, in Nepal, one can do all the things they have never even dreamt of. One can go for an elephant ride to see the endangered one horned rhinos and an hour later be at the foot of Everest with all the mountaineering gear ready to scale it. Nepal has it all, from riverside beaches and exotic wildlife to people who value their traditions and present themselves with utmost hospitality to tourists. From adventure sports to sightseeing of ancient relics, anything can be done here. Thus, if you can visit Nepal, do it now, if not, it might be too late.

P.S. It is our sincere request to all those people visiting Nepal or looking forward to it to be responsible in dumping their wastes along the trekking routes and help Nepal remain as beautiful as it is now, if not more so.

NepaLinux

NepaLinux 3.0 (Educational) Released
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), Lalitpur, PatanDhoka, Nepal has released NepaLinux 3.0 (Educational) on July 6, 2008.

NepaLinux 3.0 (Educational) consists of several educational packages such as gcompris, offline nepali sabakos, offline english dictionay and a lot of educational suite. It consists of LTSP (Linux Terminal Server project) out of the box.

LTSP adds thin client support to the Linux servers. It is used to allow many terminals to simultaneously access the same computer. Applications run on the server with a terminal known as a thin client handling input and output.
NepaLinux 3.0 Released
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), Lalitpur, PatanDhoka, Nepal has released yet another version of NepaLinux, (NepaLinux 3.0) on May 25, 2008. NepaLinux is a localized Debian and Morphix based GNU/Linux Distribution in Nepali. It is a Free Open Source Software released under the GNU General Public License(GPL). MPP has been conducting development works of NepaLinux since the year 2004. It is being developed under the PAN Localization Project, which is a software localization initiative in some eleven countries of South and South East Asia. The project is supported by the International Development and Research Center (IDRC), Canada and administered through the Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing (CRULP), National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Pakistan.

NepaLinux 3.0 like the previous NepaLinux 2.0 version, features two separate CDs with respectively GNOME and KDE Desktop environments and a combined DVD containing both of these. Some of the chief attractions of this version are the two new applications, respectively, the Nepali Text-to-Speech Application and Nepali Sabdakos. Among other useful packages included in this version are offline English dictionary and several other useful educational tools like Gcompris, TuxType, Nepali Spell Checker and KTouch typing tutor.

Nepal National Parks Information

General Information

Nepal is a land of extreme contrasts in climate and geography, It has a unique topography ranging from lowlands with sub-tropical jungles to arctic conditions in the Himalayan highlands. Within a mere 150 kilometers the land rises from near sea level in the south to over 8000 meters in the North. This, together with the monsoon rainfall along the south facing slopes, has resulted in compacting virtually all climate zones found on planet Earth. As a result, Nepal has been endowed with a great diversity of life-zones providing a home for a large variety of plants, birds and animals.

The Terai lowlands are defined by a belt of well-watered floodplains stretching from the Indian border northward to the first slopes of the Bhabhar and the Siwalik Range. This is the richest habitat in the land with tall grasslands interspersed with riverine and hardwood sal forest . Here one can see wildlife such as the swamp deer, musk deer, black buck, blue bull, the royal Bengal tiger, gharial and marsh mugger crocodile and the last of a breed of Asiatic wild buffalo. This area is also rich in birdlife with a variety of babbles and orioles, koels and drongos, peacocks and floricans, and a multitude of wintering wildfowl. There are five protected areas in Nepal - Koshi Tappu and Parsa in the east, Sukla Phanta and Dhorpatan for hunting in the west and Shivapuri in the. mid-mountain region. The Churia, also known as the. siwalik, is the southern most range of the Himalaya. No where do they rise above 1,220 meters, This range is famous for fossil deposits of Pleistocene mammals, among them 10 species of elephants, 6 rhinoceros, hippopotamus, saber-toothed cats, various antelopes and primates such as the orang-utan, long extinct in the subcontinent, Situated north of the Churia are broad, low valleys of the inner Terai know as the Doons. These valleys are not unlike the outer plains with tall elephant grass, swamps and ox-bow lakes where the last of the one-horned rhinoceros survive. Royal Chitwan National Park in the Inner Terai of central Nepal is the first and best protected area in the kingdom. Once one of the most famous big game hunting areas in Asia. Chitwan now offers protection to a large array of mammals such as the. one-horned rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, sloth bear and the gaur (wild bison) as well as more than 400 species of birds.

Agreculture technology

Introduction
Agriculture has been the foundation of Nepalese economy and has been part of the culture, knowledge system and way of life of Nepali society for centuries. Today approximately 80 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for subsistence. Realising the importance of agriculture as a means of livelihood, for majority of the people, the government began planned interventions in the agriculture sector in the 1950s. Technological inputs particularly the introduction of improved varieties of crops and their trials were the initial outside interventions in agriculture. The focus on the production of crops under the influence of dominant discourse of science and technology has created an inherent conflict between the scientific and indigenous knowledge systems.

The government of Nepal developed the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) in 1995. The objectives of APP were to reduce the proportion of population living below the poverty line and to specifically include rural poor women in that process through agricultural interventions. It was an action plan, which identified four key priority areas of input and output. Priority inputs included irrigation, fertiliser, technology, roads and power, whereas priority outputs included livestock, high value crops, agribusiness and forestry (APP 1995; JMA and APROSC 1998). In line with the APP, the sole objective of the Tenth Plan (2004–2010) of Nepal was set 'to bring about a remarkable and sustainable reduction in the poverty level'. The Tenth Plan focused on two major areas for the agriculture sector:
to increase agricultural production, productivity, and income for food security and poverty reduction
develop local and export market opportunities

Technology

Todays modern age is technology.In nepal slowly running new technology related work in each field. Nepal is organizing the conference on the theme “Minimizing Digital divide & role of youth society in south Asia.” with the objective of providing a creative and productive platform for the students and youth professional in the field of Information Technology. We at, IT-S, Nepal feel that students and youth professionals in the field of Information Technology form a large part of the information society. But, they lack enough exposure and experience to cope with the challenges as well as to grasp the vistas of opportunities with which they will be welcomed when they enter the professional IT realm. With the motive of empowering such new generation IT-S , Nepal has been organizing various programs since its commitment of IT-S Nepal towards its objective. Moreover, it should be noted that the speakers of the above-mentioned conference will only be the new generation and thus the program is going to be the first of its kind in South Asia Region.