BEGIN AGAIN

Nepal is seeing a paradigm shift as a rising number of travellers swerve away from its popular adventures and seek to discover the undiscovered. SHIKHA TRIPATHI takes stock of the sustainability interventions done by homegrown organisations in areas ranging from architecture to food, crafts, and apparel.

- SHIKHA TRIPATHI

A MIX OF FRESH, steaming vegetables gleam on my plate. The strong scent of spices rising from the chicken curry sails up to my nose. Sitting in the centre like a plump, spoilt king, is a dollop of dhindo. It’s the first time I’m sampling this traditional dish—a millet, corn, or buckwheat-flour porridge that completes a Tamang meal. I must dunk the mashed ball generously in gundruk, my hostess, Kumari, says as she dips hers in the homemade spinach preserve and scoops it into her mouth. I am not surprised by how good the flavours are. What’s remarkable is that I’ve never eaten this before in my decade-long tryst with Nepal.

Of the million-plus international travellers who visit Nepal every year, the bulk is made up of trekkers and mountaineers. And rightly so, for the mountain kingdom is home to the best chunk of the Himalayas, a magnet for adventurers. More often than not, leisure travellers get bitten by the outdoor bug too, opting for a paragliding stint in Sarangkot or ultralight flying above Pokhara’s Fewa Lake. Both offer stellar sunrise views when melted gold spills onto the grand Macchapucchre, the fish-tailed crowning glory of the Annapurna range. Tiptoeing past adventure, however, a new vertical of conscious travel is slowly finding its feet after a long jostle for space on the tourism turf. With the ethos of minimal impact, sustainable choices, and cultural and heritage preservation, conscious travel is rising to the surface like a long germinating seedling, steering the narrative away from Nepal’s age-old ‘ultimate adventure destination’ image. In a bid to ride this new wave, I end up at Kumari’s home, sampling her homegrown version of dhindo.