Yeti Airlines goes international, Orien...

Yeti Airlines goes international, Orien...

Yeti Airlines International
Pvt Ltd — under the brand
name flyyeti.com — today
commenced its interna-
tional flight with the inau-
gural flight to Kuala
Lumpur (Malaysia) from
Kathmandu.
Mi...read more...

More connections to Nepal....

Yeti Airlines, Nepal's leading domestic carrier and Air Arabia, the largest low cost carrier in Middle East and North Africa, entered into a joint venture to start a new budget airline.

Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, chairman of Yeti Airlines, domestic and Air Arabia chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohhammad alThani recently signed an agreement for the joint venture in Dubai. Nepal government has already approved the accord.

According to the agreement, the two airlines will jointly establish a new low-cost carrier under the brand name flyyeti.com - based in Kathmandu providing affordable and convenient service to a broad range of international destinations. The new markets would stretch from South and Central Asia to the Far and Middle East as well as the Indian subcontinent.

The new venture will have major share of Air Arabia and will apply its successful lowcost business model to the management of Nepal's first international LCC.

The Airlines has received an 'A' category air operator certificate to operate as an international airline. "Operating at higher standards established by both carriers, Yeti Airlines International and Air Arabia will together revolutionise air travel in Nepal and across a much wider region," he added.

The new carrier will begin operations From January 20.

The first destination will be Sharjah and to selected destina tions in India as well as to Doha and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and other destinations in Asia.

"As we set our sights on global expansion, we remain focused on youthful, fast-growing economies where opportunities for growth are greatest. We are pleased to join efforts with Yeti Airlines," said Air Arabia chairman Mohhammad al-Thani.

Ang Tshiring Sherpa, MD of Yeti Airlines termed the agreement as Yeti's continuous effort to open up Nepal to travellers both nationally and internationally. "What is more is that the true potential of Nepal as an 'all season' tourist destination is being seriously addressed for the first time," he said.

Currently, Yeti Airlines operates with a fleet of 10 aircrafts and flies over 29 domestic destinations.

Yeti Airlines, Nepal's leading domestic carrier and Air Arabia, the largest low cost carrier in Middle East and North Africa, entered into a joint venture to start a new budget airline. Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, chair- man of Yeti Airlines, domestic and Air Arabia chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohhammad al- Thani recently signed an agree- ment for the joint venture in Dubai. Nepal government has already approved the accord. According to the agreement, the two airlines will jointly es- tablish a new low-cost carrier - under the brand name flyyeti.com - based in Kath- mandu providing affordable and convenient service to a broad range of international destinations. The new markets would stretch from South and Central Asia to the Far and Mid- dle East as well as the Indian subcontinent. The new venture will have major share of Air Arabia and will apply its successful low- cost business model to the management of Nepal's first in- ternational LCC. The Airlines has received an 'A' category air operator certifi- cate to operate as an interna- tional airline. "Operating at higher standards established by both carriers, Yeti Airlines Inter- national and Air Arabia will to- gether revolutionise air travel in Nepal and across a much wider region," he added. The new carrier will begin operations From January 20. The first destination will be Sharjah and to selected destina- tions in India as well as to Doha and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and other destinations in Asia. "As we set our sights on global expansion, we remain focused on youthful, fast-growing economies where opportuni- ties for growth are greatest. We are pleased to join efforts with Yeti Airlines," said Air Arabia ch- airman Mohhammad al-Thani. Ang Tshiring Sherpa, MD of Yeti Airlines termed the agree- ment as Yeti's continuous effort to open up Nepal to travellers both nationally and interna- tionally. "What is more is that the true potential of Nepal as an 'all season' tourist destination is being seriously addressed for the first time," he said. Currently, Yeti Airlines operates with a fleet of 10 aircrafts and flies over 29 domestic destinations.

Everest Legend Sir Edmund Hillary dies at 88

06:35 pm EST Jan 10, 2008
(ExplorersWeb.com/story updated 7.57 pm EST) Everest legend Edmund Hillary has died at the age of 88. This is a big loss to the world of exploration, Hillary's family and also to Himalaya chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, 83, who remained one of Hillary's closest friends since his great Everest ascent.

After four decades of tracking Himalayan expeditions, when climbers spotted the American chronicler at Kathmandu airport they knew what that meant: "There is only one person that Liz Hawley goes to the airport to meet," Wally Berg reported in 2006.

Not impressed by modern Everest, humanitarian work till the end

Hillary quit climbing long ago, but nevertheless traveled every year to Nepal, where he founded several humanitarian projects together with Ms Hawley. Much like many other veterans, he was not impressed by the evolution of Everest mountaineering.

"I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mt Everest has become rather horrifying...,” he said in regards to the fate of David Sharp. In later years, Edmund Hillary, Junko Tabei of Japan, the first woman to scale the peak and Messner asked Nepal to close the mountain; and only one or two expeditions to be allowed a permit each year.

Hillary and Hawley, whose lives and work in Nepal spanned precisely the 6 decades since Nepal opened its borders to the outside world in the 1950’s, were both doing their humanitarian thing to the end. In April last year, Edmund Hillary went to a New Zealand hospital after slipping and falling during a visit to Nepal. In Kathmandu Hillary, then 87, had met SuperSherpas’ team members Apa and Lhakpa Gelu, together with Liz Hawley.

“Elizabeth Hawley invited us over to gather information about the expedition, and we were unbelievably surprised that Sir Edmund Hillary was there as her guest,” SuperSherpas expedition manager Roger Kehr reported in the Salt Lake Tribune. “We were honored when he said that this may be his last trip to Nepal.”

(Ed: Story updated 7.57 pm with added info and images)

Together with Tenzing Norgay, New Zealander Edmund Hillary achieved the first summit on Mount Everest, via the South Col route on May 29, 1953.

Edmund Hillary's death comes only months after the death (on June 1, 2007 at 95 years old) of Ernest Hofstetter, member of the 1952 Everest expedition which opened the route to the South Col, along with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa who would finally reach the top together with Hillary one year later. The Swiss climbers found the path up the Khumbu Icefall, the Valley of Silence and the Lhotse face, until they reached the South Col.

One year later, the larger and better equipped British team led by Colonel Hunt stepped on the summit of Everest for the first time. Back home, they sent the Swiss pioneers a telegram stating: "To you goes half the glory."

Hillary's mountainering career started in 1945 when he climbed Mount Cook (3764 meters). 1949 he had a year in the European Alps and climbed there. 1951, George Lowe invited him to join a New Zealand expedition headed for the Himalayas, climbing at altitudes of around 6,000 meters.

The British 1953 Everest expedition sponsors first wanted the more experienced Eric Shipton, a team-member on all four Everest expeditions during the 1930’s and founder of the route that Hillary and Tenzing would follow to the top of the world. Along with long time friend Tilman, Shipton devoted himself to small teams exploring with minimal logistics, an objected to the large setup. The sponsors therefore instead hired John Hunt and he in turn invited Edmund Hillary.

The expedition set out with 14 climbers, and 350 porters. The team carried the best high-altitude boots, windproof clothing, lightweight but sturdy tents, special radios and walkie-talkies, Primus stoves, aluminum-alloy ladders for crevasses, ropes, and the latest oxygen tanks to ensure Everest victory.

After their summit, a debate erupted on who of the two climbers had reached the top first. The mountaineers agreed not to answer the question. After his death however; a letter by Tenzing Sherpa was published stating that Hillary had placed the first step on the world's roof.

The history of Tenzing Sherpa:

1933 - Trekking porter in Darjeeling
1936 - Went with Huge Ruttledge's expedition to Everest and reached the North Col, 8000m.
1938 - Accompanied H.W. Tilman's expedition to Everest and reached Camp VI (8332m)
1939 - Went with a party to Tirchimir in the Hindu-Kush range and reached 7012m.
1946 - Carried out explorations in the Kangchenjunga region.
1951 - Went with a French expedition to Nanda Devi and reached the east summit (7621m)
1952 - Accompanied two Swiss expeditions to Everest, reaching the heights of 8600m and 8097 m respectively without oxygen, with Raymond Lambert.
1953 - Went with British Everest Expedition led by Col John Hunt and climbed the summit along with Edmund Hillary on 29 May.

One year into a shaky peace accord, Nepal keeps on trekking

Cherilyn Parsons, Special to the Chronicle
Sunday, December 2, 2007

(this article has been published here by the kind permission of the author, whose original article was published on the San Francisco Chronicle. Read original article here)

12-02) 04:00 PST Kopchepani, Nepal -- On a moonlit night in 2004, two young Nepalese lovers, fleeing their disapproving families, ran onto a suspension bridge over the Kali Gandaki river. As they swayed over the roiling waters, gunfire tore into them. They fell to their deaths.

"It was mistake," said Chhering Lama, my trekking guide, as we crossed the lovers' bridge. "They were shot by the army, who thought they were Maoists. But they were just ordinary people wanting new life."

I gazed down at the river - named for Kali, the bloodthirsty Hindu goddess - and mourned not only these innocents but the 13,000 Nepalese lost in the crossfire of a decade-long civil war.

For years, the Maoists waged a ruthless insurgency to sack Nepal's king and politicians and replace them with a communist government run along the lines of Mao Zedong's China. Foreign visitors were almost never targeted for killing, but thousands were robbed or forced at gunpoint to make "political donations" to help fund the rebellion.

It's been a little over a year since the peace accord that officially ended the rebellion and brought the Maoists into an interim government. Travelers, trekkers, climbers and Nepal lovers the world over breathed a sigh of relief that the violence and instability were finally over.

Or were they? According to persistent news reports and troubling U.S. State Department advisories, the Maoists hadn't quit marauding.

I visited Nepal in October and November to see how much things had changed - or hadn't changed - since the peace accords, and whether the birthplace of Buddha was returning to the days when blissed-out travelers decided that its name stood for "Never Ending Peace and Love."

In recent years, coming to Nepal has been like setting forth upon seas known to be crawling with pirates. Though the Maoists' stated intent wasn't to wreck tourists' vacations, they also called strikes that crippled transport. They bombed buses.

Tourism dropped from a high of nearly half a million people in 1999 to a low of just over 200,000 in 2002, according to the Nepal Tourism Board.

But visitors seem to be returning. When I arrived in Kathmandu in October 2007, I was part of a 27 percent increase thus far this year over 2006, according to the group.

Indeed, the travelers' district of Thamel was packed - far more than on my last visit five years ago.

"We have lots of business now," reported the owner of a camera store where I bought an extra flash card. He refused to bargain with me, apparently because he didn't need to: Another tourist would come along.

Still, all the Nepalese with whom I spoke - taxi drivers, hotel owners, shopkeepers, heads of nongovernmental organizations - expressed exhaustion, apathy and cynicism about the political prospects.

The one exception to the apathy was a taxi driver whose picture of Prachanda, the fiery Maoist leader, peeked out from where it was hidden inside the tassel on his rear-view mirror. When I pretended to be a Maoist sympathizer, he began a passionate tirade against the monarchy, the politicians and the Royal Army. He had a point: According to human rights organizations, the police and army have been more violent than the Maoists during the insurgency.

Were things any different in the countryside? I left Kathmandu to walk the Annapurna Circuit, a trail once so popular with world travelers that it had been dubbed "Highway 101 of the Himalayas." It had emptied in recent years, though, thanks to the insurgents.

With my guide Chhering, two porters and my boyfriend, Greville, I set out on the 125-mile trail. Chhering, who'd been forced many times to pony up clients' dollars to the Maoists, told us how the trekkers who'd braved the rebels had come to think of it: "The donations were like a second trekking permit. The first went to the government with buildings, the second to the jungle government."

The amount of money demanded of each visitor varied over time and by trail, from more than $100 to only a few dollars.

In courtly fashion the insurgents would give their "donors" a receipt to prevent double jeopardy: Show the receipt, and you didn't have to give to other Maoists along the trail.

There were no red flags or gunpoint check posts on the first day, only emerald rice terraces cascading down the mountains. The next day was equally spectacular, with waterfalls from earth and sky. In rain we tramped through a gorge with too many waterfalls to count, each pounding hundreds of feet. Huge stands of bamboo waved in the storm, arced into the sky, dropped and shook thick fronds. We crossed steel suspension bridges over the white Marsyangdi River.

Just before the town of Chamje, I spotted a bamboo barrier and the flash of a red flag with the emblem of a white hammer and sickle.

Five young men, one boy and a woman were hanging out on the porch of a wooden hut. They wore no uniforms, though one had a red woolen cap. I couldn't see any weapons.

The young man in the cap handed me a printed page. "Appeal to Foreign Tourists," it read. "Welcome to Nepal, land of valiant Gorkha fighters, and warmest greetings from the C.P.N (Maoist) and United Revolutionary People's Council, Nepal.

"You are visiting this magnificently beautiful country in the most important juncture of its history. The old feudal and monarchical Nepal is fast crumbling under the tremendous pressure of the people's revolutionary struggle ... "

I skimmed. "We loathe the very idea of extortion from anybody as alleged by our detractors. We would, hence, humbly appeal to you to make a voluntary donation ... "

Voluntary?

"But of course, madam," they assured me.

Chhering waggled his head back and forth in that classic, noncommittal Nepalese gesture.

"Do what you like," he said.

In my five previous trips to Nepal, I'd never gotten a Maoist receipt. I gave 500 rupees, about $8.

At the teahouses, I asked other trekkers if they'd donated. John Beath, a South African now living in Australia, told me, "We said namaste, and went on."

Said Erez Ayalon, 26, an Israeli: "They didn't like my answer, but they didn't do anything about it."

Everyone seemed to see the Maoists as a tourist attraction more than anything. They obviously felt safe in Nepal.

David Duncan, 53, from Auburn (Placer County), was traveling alone. "I feel more comfortable trekking in Nepal than in Latin America," he said, because the latter was plagued with robberies.

It was the local guides and porters who didn't feel safe. When I mentioned being a journalist, one veteran Sherpa guide, who'd told me nothing more damning than "I just hope it gets better here," begged that I not use his name out of fear that Maoists would harm him, his family or employer.

Over the next two days, the trail narrowed into deeper gorges, passed more waterfalls and climbed through pine forests. We ascended endless rough stone steps. Soon we could see Annapurna II, then III and IV - edifices of rock and ice, glacier and cliff. (Ironically, you walk all the way around the main Annapurna peak, but you rarely see it.)

Though political graffiti decorated every village, too, I'm happy to report that the unrest hasn't dampened the sweet, earnest hospitality that has endeared travelers to Nepal. "We have spacey room," urged a teahouse sign near Pisang village, "well seprate you can sleep without any disturb!" Using only wood and kerosene, local cooks still manage to make apple crumble and "Cadbury chocolate" pies.

In Manang, a one-path town of stone houses at 11,610 feet, we attended a lecture by the Himalayan Rescue Association. Andy Gorlin, a volunteer American physician, said altitude sickness - rather than the Maoists - is the big risk to trekkers. Two weeks after that, as if to prove the point, I heard that two tourists died of it near the 17,769-foot Thorung La pass.

A couple of days later, in the tiny village Thorung Phedi, at the base of the pass, we prepared for the long and difficult climb. The plan was to rise at 5 a.m. and hike 3,000 feet uphill. As I stood there contemplating this, a horse nudged me. I discovered that people could hire horses to ride up the pass.

I felt like a wimp, but asked the price. Sixty dollars.

Done.

Before dawn I settled onto her saddle of Tibetan carpets and rode up the snow-covered pass like a Victorian lady traveler. I watched the crystals of snow ignite at dawn; rainbows danced in my camera lens. Morning flowed down the slopes.

The other side, the fabled Mustang district, was an arid plateau carved by wind. This region, especially Upper Mustang, mostly had stayed apart from Nepal's political problems, including the Maoists.

The town of Kagbeni was like stepping into medieval times: a red ochre monastery, old frescoes, mud walls. Except, that is, for the few reminders of modern times, including a "YakDonalds" restaurant.

When we hit the next town, Jomson, with an airstrip serving the region, I began to feel that Nepal's trekking trails were back in business. It became hard to get a room.

Our porters left at dawn to try to get us into the lovely Dhaulagiri Lodge in the hot springs town of Tatopani. Owner Bhuwan Gauchan told me - after we scored a bed - that the old insurgency period had one advantage: "You didn't have to rush for rooms."

We had one last encounter with Maoist-style enforced philanthropy in the village of Ghorepani, where the written appeal - pasted on a red flag - asked that the "warmly welcomed" foreigners "invest your assists" in helping the revolutionary movement improve tourism and natural resources in the area.

I didn't believe for a second that the money would go to tourism - more like food and fuel for the out-of-work cadres. A sour-faced man sat at a desk with a woman in a pink shawl hovering behind him. This Maoist talked tough. My receipt was in my bag with the porters, and the man said, "Then you make a donation, or you wait for your porters."

I gave him 200 rupees ($3.25) - and got another receipt - only to get chided later that night by other trekkers who had just ignored the Maoists and walked on by.

Prachanda, the Maoist leader, has told his cadres to desist, but they're still collecting. It seems this movement is struggling to balance the peace accord with its members' desperate need for rice.

My real concern is that the political truce is as unstable as the rickety suspension bridges we crossed. Elections originally scheduled for Nov. 22 were canceled, a major setback. Anyone contemplating a trip to Nepal should consider a refundable ticket and tour, and watch the news and government sites carefully.

But I do think we go to places like Nepal for a kind of risk - the kind that real travel, as distinguished from a vacation (which has its own virtues), gives. Literally breathtaking, trekking in the Himalayas makes us feel our fragility.

We travel to have our minds blown by beauty, and our illusions of "self" and security destabilized. We go to lose the familiar, the blanket that muffles the spirit and the senses.

Is Nepal safe? Is life?

If you go

When to go

High season is post-monsoon (mid-October through mid-December), and secondarily February through mid April.

Getting there

There are no nonstop flights from the United States to Kathmandu. Most travelers from the West Coast fly via Bangkok, then hop a 3.5-hour flight to Kathmandu on Thai Airways or Nepal Airlines. It's also possible to go to Kathmandu via Hong Kong on Dragonair.

What to do

Though I saw several trekkers doing the Annapurna Circuit on their own (no porters or guide), it's not smart to go solo in Nepal these days, given the political insurgency. There are hundreds of tour companies that can arrange tours and/or trekking in Nepal, from high-end Geographic Expeditions ( www.geoex.com) to tiny agencies down alleys in Kathmandu. I used Sunny Travels and Tours ( www.sunnytravels.com.np), and the service was superb. Cost was $1,300 per person for a full-service, 20-day Annapurna Circuit "teahouse" trek, including transport from Kathmandu to the trailhead, a skilled guide and two porters, good rooms and all food, two nights in Pokhara and a return flight to Kathmandu.

Socialtours.com, based in Kathmandu, has won responsible tourism awards and is run by a friendly man, Raj Gyawali, who blogs about safety in Nepal. www.socialtours.com.

For more information

Both the U.S. ( www.travel.state.gov) and U.K. ( www.britishembassy.gov.uk) governments offer excellent, detailed security information. The U.S. embassy in Nepal's Web site, nepal.usembassy.gov, has up-to-date information. Also try www.thekathmandupost.com and www.thehimalayantimes.com for the latest news. The Integrated Regional Information Networks, www.irinnews.org, an editorially independent news service for the United Nations, offers terrific overviews and analysis.

If you get too depressed, see the Web sites of Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation. www.nyof.org, or American Himalayan Foundation, www.ahf.org, and read about the region through the eyes of these San Francisco nonprofits that have worked there for years.

The best book on Nepal's history is "Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy" (2005) by novelist Manjushree Thapa.

Cherilyn Parsons last wrote for Travel about Newport, Ore. To comment, go to sfgate.com/travel and follow the links.

This article appeared on page G - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Jan 01: Arrivals up by over 27%

Numbers do drive us. It is heartening to know that the growth of tourism in Nepal is over three times the international average. Yet, arrivals by air have yet to cross the 400,000 mark... maybe it is better, as this means that Nepal is still pristine and quality tourism can still be offered. I remember how messy it was in 1999 when we nearly reached 500,000 arrivals.

From www.nepalnews.com :

Tourist arrival increased by one-third in 2007

Confirming what tourism entrepreneurs had been saying all along, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has come out with a statement saying that the year 2007 saw growth of 27.1 percent in the arrival of tourists by air.

The board has said that in the month of December alone, the arrival grew by 13 percent.

The NTB statement says that the arrival figure for 2007 reached 360,350 - an all time high since 2000 and against 283,516 in 2006.

"In 2000, the number of visitors arriving Nepal by air was 376914. Since then, it has continued to plummet due to various socio-political reasons," the NTB statement says.

"One of the main reasons for inspiring growth in 2007 in tourist arrivals is the ongoing peace process and political stability in the county. Another reason is the good air connectivity with many destinations ushered in by the operation of nine new international airlines to Nepal in 2007," it says.

The board has expected that the year 2008 will be very promising for Nepalese travel trade "as more new airlines are coming and existing airlines are also extending their flight frequency to Nepal." nepalnews.com sd Jan 01 08