What should every foreigner know about Nepal in terms of food, tourist destinations, and USP?

NEPAL (South Asia)

Hi guys, I have enough details and some good pictures attached about Nepal. I hope you will like it.

Introduction

Nepal lies between two big countries China and India. Nepal is a poor country. 25.16 percent of people are living below poverty level. But overall Nepal is a very beautiful country. It's a birthplace of Gautam Buddha and it's a country of Himalayas. There are 8 peaks in Nepal which has an altitude higher than 8000 meters including the world's highest peak, Everest.

The USP (unique selling point) of Nepal is it's natural beauty. Nepal is very rich in water resource, mountains, forest, wildlife, etc. Nepal has been a great tourist destination due to the natural heritage sites. On of the other unique selling point is that Nepal is very cheap country to travel. It’s because the cost of living in Nepal is not very high.

Nepal has 8 mountains greater than 8000 meters.

Nepal is the second richest country in water resources.

Gautam Buddha was born in Nepal in April of 11th century B.C

Demographic

The total population of Nepal is 28.98 million. (2016) Many people live in the cities. Kathmandu has the largest population of 2,510,788 people. Followed by Pokhara (200,000) and Biratnagar (182,324)

Nepal is also very rich in culture. There are more than 100 languages, ethnicity and each has their own culture, beliefs, dress and style of living. The diversified country has a common language Nepali which brings Unity in Diversity.

Geographic

Nepal is divided in three geographical region; Himalaya, Hills and Terai.

Himalaya is high mountains of more than 4000 meters height. Hill lies between 500 to 4000 meters while Terai is the plain land below 500 meters. Nepal has all kind of altitude at different locations.

An elevated view of a small village in the hill of Nepal.

Best Tourist Destinations

There are more than 1000 tourist destinations in Nepal. Even if you go to a random place it’s beautiful and you will love it. Some of the famous tourist destination are as follows.

• Mt Everest The highest peak in the world lies in Nepal. It’s a famous tourist destination. Most of the trekkers visit Everest. This is the tallest place in the earth. The mountain is snow-capped for all the time in a year. Each year 1000s of trekkers visit Everest for expedition.

• Mt Annapurna Mount Annapurna is the tenth highest mountain in the world. This mountain looks mighty and is the second famous for trekking in Nepal. The height of this mountain is 8,091 meters.

• Lumbini Lumbini is a city located in southern part of Nepal. This place is amazingly beautiful and has many other monasteries. It’s a very good place to see as the temple in the first picture is the Mayadevi temple which is the birthplace of Gautam Buddha.

• Pokhara Pokhara is another city in Nepal. It’s a very beautiful place to see as it has good numbers of lakes, caves and temples inside the city. There are also good number of viewpoints in the hill tops.

An aerial view of Pokhara City featuring peace stupa on the right side.

Talbarahi Temple in an island at Phewa Lake, Pokhara.

A picturesque view of Phewa Lake and mountains.

A view of himalayan range of Nepal from a hilltop in Pokhara

A person in another hilltop, Poon Hill (3210 meters) nearby pokhara

Ghandruk, a village near Pokhara. This is one of the route for trekking to Mount Annapurna that can be seen in the picture.

• Kathmandu (City of temples)

Kathmandu is very famous for temples as it is also called the city of temples. There are more than 100 temples in the city. It includes Syoyambhunath, Boudhanath, Pashupatinath, Changunarayan. Here are some pictures of temples.

Also it has three durbar squares; Patan durbar, Basantapur durbar and Bhaktapur durbar. These are all the historic places as there used to be kingdom long time ago and durbar means palace. Here are some pictures of Durbars.

Just like in Pokhara Kathmandu also has some good view points around the valley. Some of them are Kakani, Nagarkot and Dhulikhel.

• Chitwan National Park

Chitwan National Park is on the southern part of Nepal. Its an amazing place for adventures in the nature.

This place is famous for ecological life of plants and animals. It’s beauty is amazing. And you might want to go for a jungle safari in an elephant ride or a jeep safari. The good thing is that you can see many different wild animals during the safari.

• Mustang

Mustang is very famous of it’s unique landscape. The place is dry and has rare rain. It has a very unique hills and mountains. Here are some pictures of the place.

It has many international as well as domestic tourists.

• Bandipur

Bandipur is a small town in the top of the hill. This place is not very far from Kathmandu and has many tourist. People travel to this place to see local life and the town. Here are some pictures of bandipur.

You can also try paragliding in Bandipur.

• Rafting

There are many rivers where rating is done in Nepal as there are many fast flowing rivers. Rafting is very exciting . Here are some of the pictures of people rafting in Nepal.

It is a very famous adventurous sports in Nepal.

• Bungee Jumping

Bungee is another adventurous sports. There are two places for bungee jumping; Pokhara and Bhotekoshi. Bhotekoshi falls under one of the highest bungee in the world. It’s 168 meters. It’s insanely fun and there are many people who do this. It’s completely safe but scary as there is a very fast flowing river below. It takes only 4 seconds to fall. Here are two pictures of bungee jumping in Pokhara and Bhotekoshi.

These are 10 places that are very famous for tourist. Most of the tourist like the people in Nepal because they are very friendly to them. I believe that the friendliness of Nepalese has become one of the main attraction for foreigners as they feel very honored and welcomed. It makes them wanna come to Nepal again and again.

Best Food in Nepal

Nepal has all kinds of food. You can find different cuisine in Kathmandu and Pokhara specially. Some of the famous food are listed below.

Famous Food

• MoMo Momo is everywhere in Nepal. it’s very famous and it is also very tasty. It’s a very special food. you must try this here.

• Dal-Bhat Dal-Bhat is the most consumed food by Nepali. An average Nepali eats Dal-bhat twice a day. This is a very healthy food. Dal is soup and Bhat is rice. This is very special and different. You must definitely try this.

• Newari-Set This is a special Newari food. Newars are one of the cast the food is little spicy but it’s tasty with a lot of varieties in a single plate.

Some pictures of local foods and drinks below:

Best Time to Visit

Nepal is country with all kinds of climate. It’s hot and rainy in the summer while dry and windy in the winter. So you can choose your best season. If you want to visit Nepal for views then it’s better to come when the rainy season is over at Oct-Nov. Else you can come before the rain starts that is Mar-June. This is the time when maximum number of tourists enter Nepal. I recommend you to visit in Oct-Nov after the rain stops.

Extra Information

If you ever come to Nepal then feel free to message me for any help. I am working for a social Enterprise in Kathmandu. The name of this project is “Cocina Mitho Chha” It’s a social enterprise and we aim to train the youths of Nepal for better visit. This is also a restaurant and a Bed and Breakfast.

You can see more in our website. Link here: Cocina Mitho Chha

Here are some pictures of the restaurant, B&B and the cooking project with students and guests.

I hope you liked the pictures and details.

Thank you very much for reading this answer. I kept lot of time and effort to make this answer. Do visit Nepal. It’s a lovely country. Written by: Nayan Pokharel