Indeed a sad day for the tourism sector in Nepal. With only few days away from the much hyped Nepal Tourism Year 2011, The Last Resort which is home to bungee jumping, canyon swing, canyoning and various other thrilling activities has been forced to shut down after dispute between the management and the local VDC’s. One of the local VDC has illegally blocked the bridge off connecting the resort to the roadside. The press release from TLR is below, have a read.
I had the opportunity to visit TLR last year where I stayed overnight and I must say its an oasis. I took photos there but the photos never came out as beautiful as what I experienced. The staff there were mostly all locals who got the opportunity from this company so I dont really know what really happened during the talks but I just hope they come up with a quick solution which will benefit both sides in the long term.
Jai Nepal!
UPDATE: 23/12/10 – Operations have fully resumed!
no wonder it always happen with nepal…..like this our country will never develop…as long as these thugs are alive we have to face this kind of circumstances.how could they do the things which will effect our upcoming income at last moment….they know that visit nepal 2011 is very important for our country and those are the main attraction for the visitors but still……aarggggggg……….. this is not done…..
sad very sad
damn! was hopin to go there in the summer. sad sad saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddddddddd
there shud be a gathering in nepal in a specific place at a specific time. or is tht already planned………¬¬i dnnw
npl ko manche haru ta dumba nai ho…atleast tourists would njoy doin stuffs like dat…..bt khoi.. k ho k….
as i was planning to go to LR for this new year… here is a slap on my face…. no wonder, such bullshit still prevails here… now i just have to head back home, dejected… ke garne hola yo desh ma ???? aaba new year feri pokhara ma…. jai nepal !!!!
It’s a terribly sad news. But the statement of TLR made me think twice. When I went there for bungee 3 years ago I had noticed that the resort was not that courteous towards local community. One should not forget that the first ownership of natural resources goes to local people. No one should be able to privately own Bhote Koshi or the bridge over that if that matters. It should always be under shared ownership.
As the irony we see, government collects so much tax from mountaineering but not even a 1% of that money goes to the welfare of the citizen who actually lives there and nurture that region. Same thing seems to be happening in case of TLR. They have mentioned about their lofty commitments towards the local community but have not quantified the actual contribution they have made over the decade. I totally agree with the positive impact it has made in tourism but remember that using our natural resources they are making hefty amount of private money and some part of it is flowing to New Zealand.
peace!