NEPAL - Most travellers know Nepal as a land of majestic snow-capped mountains and trekking trails. But Nepal is a land of many geographies, and between the Himalayas and lowland Terai plains lies a lush band of giant hills offering a different window into the country.
I started my journalism career in the capital of Kathmandu on an internship in 2014, and fell in love with this welcoming and warm nation while staying with a local family.
A decade later, on the invitation of social enterprise Community Homestay Network (CHN), I find myself high on the hillsides of eastern Nepal in September.
It is my fourth time in the country, and a rare chance to experience everyday life in places virtually unexplored by international visitors.
"The concept of tourism in Nepal started from a mountaineering perspective. How to promote our mountains, cater to Western travellers and make them feel good. There was huge economic leakage," says Ms Aayusha Prasain, chief executive of CHN.
Thousands of foreign visitors arrived to trek in the Annapurna, Everest and Langtang regions. Nepali porters would carry everything - cereal, pasta, bread, canned items and exotic fruit - to cater to a mostly Western clientele. Later, the trend shifted from camp trekking to tea-house trekking, where hikers stayed in local lodges.
Even today, Nepal has trouble breaking free from this image. Local diversity, culture and other geographical regions still play second fiddle to its mountains.
But a new approach is shifting the narrative, with an emphasis on community-based tourism, where locals run tours and workshops, develop tourism products or offer accommodation in their homes and reap the economic and social benefits.
Today, CHN - one of the winners of the United Nations Tourism Sustainable Development Goals Global Startup Competition for its contributions to sustainable and responsible tourism in 2021 - has homestays in 36 communities in Nepal.
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