Dashain festival in Nepal
Everybody cares in Nepal
Nepal’s version of Christmas is just coming to an end now, the year here is 2071 and it’s the festival of Dashain. ?Like Christmas it’s a great time of feasting and the coming together of families, it lasts over a week. ?There are quite a lot of animal sacrifices over the period, as well as blessings within families and even the anointing of cars and motorcycles – these are decorated with flowers, garlands and red vermilion powder. ? Even the animals have a sense of getting together, here is a picture from a street in Kathmandu. Happy deshain, and happy holiday in Nepal.
Category: General, Uncategorized
Nepalese food, the benefits
Nepalese food
When it comes to healthy food perhaps Nepalese cuisine has some of the answers. The national dish ‘Dhal Bhat’ can be quite healthy.? The main ingredients are Dhal; a lentil curry and Bhat; meaning rice. It’s the lentils that provide the good news. There are a wide variety in Nepal and like many pulses these provide a good low calorie source of proteins, fibre, vitamins and minerals – they can also lower cholestoral.? So the next time you go for a curry, perhaps try the healthier Nepalese version. On your holiday to Nepal, I am sure you’ll like to try this tasty Nepalese food.
Category: General, Uncategorized
Holiday to Nepal – the dentist
Vaishya Dev is known in tourist books as the God of toothaches here in Nepal and is represented in Kathmandu.
Nepal dental treatment
Here it is in an alleyway, in essence a large collection of metal washes nailed to each other at the base of what was once a sacred tree. Hindu mythology, its culture, combined with Buddhism gives Nepal an endless array of festivals and unusual practices that have long disappeared in neighbouring Asian countries.
On a holiday to Nepal, you can get very modern dental treatment (much more cheaply than the West) with European trained dental technicians in very clean, modern clinics. What?s nice, is that dentists also examine your tongue and advise on diet, sleep and other factors. There is an ?interconnectiveness? with treatment, much like Buddhist karma, looking not just at the symptom but also the cause from a lifestyle perspective.
However, traditions still remain, here a boy enters his head into the symbol to relieve toothache. Shamans too also perform ceremonies around toothache patients, dancing with yak tailed sticks and chanting but they are often more expensive than the dentists
Category: General, Uncategorized
Nepal Holiday, we’re giving away ?50, to visit a Nepalese restaurant!
Nepalese restaurant
With just two places remaining for our?holiday to Nepal this October, we’re celebrating by giving ?50 to anyone from our 301 Facebook followers?who recommends the trip to?someone who books.? We’d like to think that you’ll use the money to enjoy a meal for two at any local Nepalese restaurant; perhaps some?delicious ‘Nepalese?momos’ to start,?’Royal Dhal Bhat’?as a main (with all the pickles) and a?flavoursome Nepali curd as?dessert -?and?good wine.? Already?mouths are?watering!? If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, all you have to do is recommend the trip and?when that person(s) books,?tell them to?mention your name.?We’ll follow it up?by contacting you and sending?a cheque.? Happy eating!
Category: News, Uncategorized
Glastonbury Festival
Steve Carver visited Glastonbury recently, to record a behind the scenes look at the festival.
Glastonbury 2014
He recorded the management of backstage and the world of celebrities, camping in muddy fields, security and even the joys of using a Glastonbury loo. It was a fascinating couple of days, he tells us. ?He interviewed the originator of Glastonbury and friend of festival owner Mike Evis and was told about the good old days when all they had was the Pyramid stage, free entrance and a couple of bands. Steve went back stage with various artists such as Yoko Ono and Blondie and spoke about the exhilaration of playing Glastonbury. He also enjoyed ‘The Pit’; an area surrounded by 100,ooo fans – directly below the main stage – where press photographers would gather – earplugs were given! ?WaterAid, a charity sponsored by Glastonbury were also there and Steve met with the organisers who were developing projects in Nepal, they’d even flown a chap over from Nepal to see the festival, who didn’t know what to make of it.
Category: News, Uncategorized
Last places available to join Radio 4 presenter on a holiday to Nepal
Holiday to Nepal
We now have just a few remaining places to join our holiday to Nepal with Radio 4 presenter Steve Carver. In what is going to be a thrilling adventure, we’ll see ancient cities, the jungle, the birthplace of the Buddha and the Himalaya. Guests will also have the opportunity to stay one night in a monastery in the world-pilgrimage town of Lumbini on India’s border. Group members will ride elephants in the jungle, sail down a river by dugout canoe as well as have the opportunity to fly around Everest by light-aircraft. If you might like to participate, please contact us through the website www.angelholidays.co.uk as places are now extremely limited.
Category: News, Uncategorized
Holiday to Nepal
Holiday Nepal
Thanks to Richard who has updated us with some more photographs from his holiday to Nepal with us last April. As you might imagine a holiday to Nepal is a very colourful one. Already group numbers for our next holiday in October are nearly full. ?Here is quite a nice photograph of a young Nepalese girl he’s taken. With around 70 different castes, a multitude of ethnic groups and a sizable Tibetan community, Nepal really does have a multitude of cultures to photograph. ?Thanks again Richard for your input and I hope everyone enjoys the photos. ? Here’s the link:
https://www.facebook.com/trickygordon/media_set?set=a.10152459575668109.1073741846.589083108&type=1
Category: General, Uncategorized
Miss Nepal, meditation and spiritual holidays
Jharana as Miss Nepal
You might remember a few months ago we confirmed that former Miss Nepal, the lovely Jharana Bajracharja has become a friend and offered to work with Angel Holidays to teach meditation to our travellers. Meditation and spiritual holidays are becoming increasingly popular. Jharana is a celebrity here, and since winning Miss Nepal in 1997 has become a film actress both in Nepal and across the border in Bollywood. In Nepal, outside of the celebrity culture of the West, Jharana walks freely and is unhindered by the press or local people. ?She’s treated as an equal and nothing more. It’s partly due to the removal of the ego and ‘ego-grasping’ as it is termed by Buddhist and Hindu religions; a frowned-upon process whereby we become attached to ‘who we are’ as a opposed to our equal place as part of humanity. ? I wonder why famous people are so revered in the West? Nepal has a high degree of intellectual spirituality; theories about who we are and our position in the world have been developed over thousands of years – even the police force have daily meditations. Here’s a photo of Jharana in all her glory in 1997. ?She can teach meditation and its benefits in the beautiful Pagoda room on the rooftop of our hotel overlooking the city. I wonder how Simon Cowell would react if he could walk freely around London with no one making a fuss of him? Might he suffer from ego-grasping?
Category: General, Uncategorized
Monty Python Tickets
Michael in Nepal
Much is in the headlines these days about the forthcoming Monty Python reunion gigs in London. ?Five more dates have been added to fulfill burgeoning demand, as well as Terry Gilliam more recently hoping the gigs don’t go ahead dreading the possibility that the Pythons would have lost their edge and the whole thing falls flat as, well sorry to add this: ‘a dead parrot.’ ? Michael Palin meanwhile has announced UK dates for his own tour, talking about his diaries ‘The travelling to work’ tour as he calls it. Talking of travelling, when he came here to Nepal, he and his lovely team visited many of the places we visit on our tour. Kathmandu, ancient Bhaktapur, the cremation grounds of Pashupatinath, Pokhara and the jungle. So it might be nice to follow in his footsteps if you cannot buy Monty Python tickets.
Category: News, Uncategorized
When is the best time to visit Nepal?
Best time to visit Nepal
Many travellers ask when is the best time to visit Nepal. In a nutshell it is either April, October or into early November. Within these dates you have to also consider local festivals (as Angel Holidays do). Whilst some festivals are good to experience others can result in national holidays with closed shops and services over extended periods. Tours after mid November are considered winter and it can be chilly at night. ?For trekking too, temperatures (depending on altitude) can plummet. Everest base camp for example can see temperatures as low as minus twenty in November. Likewise January until March are also low season. The skies can sometimes be not clear, and temperatures too cool. May to Sept is a combination of hot and humid and the rainy season. This is why we operate our tours in April or October, expect warm temperatures and long sunny days of between 24 and 30 degrees.
Category: Travel Tips, Uncategorized