Homestay winning hearts of tourists visiting Lamjung

Lamjung / March 8: Homestay programme launched in over a dozen locations in the district is gaining popularity as it continues to win hearts of tourists arriving here.

This facility is gradually becoming the first choice of tourists both from home and aboard.

Tourists choosing homestay are offered warm hospitality, organic food products and better services. Besides, they get an opportunity to be familiar with the local culture and lifestyle and these all factors are behind attracting tourists towards homestay.

Of late, transportation facilities available to reach the villages offering homestay have proved a boon for the promotion of this business. With the availability of road transport facility, visitors make their way straight to the villages for homestay.

Lamjung, a gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, welcomes both foreign and domestic tourists at an equal number and many of them prefer to enjoy homestay facilities, leaving hotel services. It is said that over 40,000 tourists visit Ghalegaun and Bhujung every year. It takes around three hours to reach Ghalegaun on bus from the district headquarters Besisahar.

Ghalegaun, Kaulepani, Ghanpokhara, Naruwal Bhujung, Pasgaun, Gilung, Siurung, Khasur, Gahat, Hiletaksar, Rainas, Chhapa of Taghring, Mipra, Sindure and Purankot provide homestay service for their guests.

Likewise, Kaulepani of Gaunsahar that is in 10 kilometers far from Besisahar has been the priority of tourists of late. One has to travel an hour on a motor and then walk for two hours to reach this homestay destination.

The palace of the king of Shah dynasty, Ranikuwa (pond) and Kalika Bhagawati temple are destinations for tourists particularly domestic ones, said Dev Gurung, chairman of the Kaulepani Tourism Management Committee.

One can view scenes of over a dozen mountains like Machhapuchchhre, Annapurna, Lamjung First, Second and Third and Manaslu.

Khasur is another attraction to the list with its natural beauty and a majority of inhabitant Gurung community. A community snack house run by a group of only 37 unmarried women in the locality is also adding to the attraction. Tourists visiting the locality are welcomed into this house with a variety of folk dances on offer.

Home-stay facility is also offered at Taghiring cottage village near the Annapurna circuit trek.

“The village offering homestay facility is another track 20 minutes away from the circuit trek. Tourists visit the village to taste the experience of the facility in particular,” said a homestay operator Aasha Kumari Gurung.

Tourists visiting the area are prolonging their stay to enjoy homestay facility lately with the publicity of the locality, said Umar Bahadur Gurung, secretary of the Siurung Homestay. RSS