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The Helambu Trek starts in Kathmandu and is completed in five to eight days. The typical seven-day itinerary is circular, with the first day’s section being repeated at the end of the walk. The sudden contrast between the cultures of lower and upper regions is striking in the shortest Himalayan trek from Kathmandu. Accommodation can be found in lodges and village guest houses that dot the trekking route.

This time of the year, Sauraha is the place to go with your friends and families to relax and rejuvenate. The moderately warm temperature of Sauraha, which lies in Chitwan district, will be perfect for you. Chill at the banks of Rapti River and watch animals like golden jackals and jungle cats prowl on the other side of the river. What better use of your holidays, right? 

New Bajaj showroom at Bharatpur

 HH Bajaj, one of the largest selling automo­biles brands in Nepal, opened a fully facilitated showroom called “NK Motors” in Bharatpur, Chit­wan this week. The new showroom is expected to make it easier the access the different models of Bajaj bikes, their spare parts and accessories. Celebrating the launch, the showroom is offering exciting prizes for the customers for a limited period of time.

Café Coffee Day to open Durbar Marg outlet

 After the successful launch and operation of its outlets in Jawal­akhel and Basantapur, the Indian café chain Café Coffee Day is set to open its third outlet, at Durmarmarg, with a revised menu, that includes new and local food, and a bigger place for hangout.

“The outlet will com­pete shoulder to shoul­der against established national and international food chains in the sophisticated neighborhood,” a press statement said. The chain, the biggest in India in terms of outlets, is owned by Coffee Day Global Limited. It had first entered Nepal in collaboration with Stavya Hospitality Pvt. With 1,682 outlets in India alone, Café Coffee Day also has extensions in other countries like Austria, Czech Republic, Egypt, Malaysia, and Nepal.

Colors “Chatta Cash Patta Luck” offer

Colors Appliances has announced its consumer scheme for Dashain and Tihar. The “Chatta Cash Patta Luck” scheme offers cash-back of up to Rs 14,090 on every purchase of a home appliance. In addition, one lucky customer will get a chance to win a 55” 4K smart TV through a bumper draw. The festive offer, which started on October 1, will be available for a limited period at all leading electron­ics and appliances stores in Nepal.

Marketed in Nepal by Universal Electrocom Pvt. Ltd, a part of the renowned business house Lucky Group, Colors offers wide range of household appli­ances at affordable prices.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today arrived New York in course of returning home after completing official visit to Costa Rica. 
Prime Minister Oli visited San Jose leading a Nepali delegation at invitation of President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada. On the occasion, PM Oli held bilateral meeting with President Quesada.

The University for Peace in San Jose awarded Prime Minister Oli with the degree of ‘doctor honoris causa'. PM Oli is accompanied by his spouse Radhika Shakya, his Chief Advisor Bishnu Prasad Rimal, Nepali Ambassador to US, Arjun Kumar Karki, Foreign Secretary Shaker Das Bairagi, Chief of Protocol Deepak Adhikari and other senior officials of government of Nepal. Prime Minister Oli is scheduled to return home via Qatar on Thursday. RSS

 Himstar announces “Khurkiyo Ki Furkiyo”

Him Electron­ics Pvt Ltd, a sister concern of the larger Golchha orga­nization, has a n n o u n c e d its “Khurkiyo Ki Furkiyo, Dashain, Tihar and Chhat” cam­paign for Himstar Home appliances.

This festive season, customers will get guaranteed gifts on the purchases of Himstar TV, refrigerators, deep freezers and washing machines. Under the scheme named ‘Scratch Gari...Upahar Jiti....Danga Pari...’ customers will get gifts like Himstar rice cookers, electric thermos, electric kettle, vacuum cleaners, woofers, mixers, and dry and steam irons through scratch coupons. The Khurkiyo Ki Furkiyo offer is valid for limited time only.

Xiaomi launches new models  

Xiaomi announced its official entry into the Nepali market on Sept 23 with the launch of its Mi A2, Mi A2 Lite, Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A.

“We are excited to bring Xiaomi officially into Nepal for millions of our Mi Fans here. Over the last few years, the Nepal smartphone market has wit­nessed tremendous growth, and we look forward to extending our share to the local industry,” Sanket Agarwal, Head of Overseas expansion, Indian sub-continent, Xiaomi India said.The Redmi 6 comes in 3GB+32GB and 3GB+64GB variants that are available in Gold, Black or Blue. The 3GB+32GB is priced at Rs 16,499 while the 3GB + 64GB will cost you Rs 18,499.

Redmi 6A, costing Rs 12,999, comes in 2GB+16GB variant and is available in three colors (Gold, Black and Blue).Mi A2 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of ROM, and also in three colors, is priced at Rs 30,999. Likewise, Mi A2 Lite will be available in 3GB+32GB variant for Rs 20,999 and 4GB+64GB variant for Rs 24,499. All four products will be avail­able nationwide from Sept 30.

 With less than two weeks for the start of Nepal’s biggest festi­val of Dashain, the food crisis in Barekot rural municipality of Jajarkot district is getting worse. Locals fret about how they will fill their tummy this festive season. According to Mahendra Shah, the chairman of the rural municipality, the food crisis is partly a result of hail and heavy rains destroy­ing local crops. There has been some level of food crisis in Barekot ever since the wheat and barley plantations were destroyed back in April. Shah complains that even though he asked for 5,000 quintals of rice from the central government three months ago, the food aid is yet to come through.

Most people in the rural municipality are under the official poverty line. “They are not in a position to buy and eat. Nor does the local govern­ment have a budget for it. This is why we sought the help of the federal government,” he says. “There is effectively no food in the households here this festive season.”

The local depot of the gov­ernment-owned Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) lies empty. Some local shops in Barekot have run out of rice to sell. In the shops that still have some, prices have more than dou­bled, making it unaffordable for most locals.

As the monsoon rains also destroyed the roads, food transport has been hin­dered. At present, horses and ponies are the only means to get around. With the roads blocked, the 51 quintals of rice that was sent to Barekot from Khalanga, the district head­quarters, has been stranded in Fulchauli.

“All the grain we had is fin­ished. If food transport does not resume soon, the situation could be dire,” says Ran Baha­dur Singh, a local.

The NFC had set aside 2,100 quintals of rice for the Barekot depot but the rural municipal­ity is yet to get this rice due to transport problems. NFC Jajar­kot Chief Dharma Bahadur Basnet says that the 32 quintals of rice that was reserved for the district has already been distributed. “Rice sent from other districts are stuck on bad roads. Since the rice now has to be carried by horses, there has been some delay but it should soon reach Barekot,” he assures. “According to a new tender, contractors have been requested to transport rice shortly.”

The NFC offers subsidized rice to poor locals. But private dealers have been charging them as much as Rs 2,500 for a 30-kg sack, even though the market rate is just Rs 1,200. A local of Borekot-2, Manbire Nepali, says he is unable to buy any rice even though he is ready to pay up to double the going rate.

Says Gorakh Bahadur Singh, the principal of the Birendra Aishwarya Higher Secondary School, “It’s a huge problem. The poor are simply being priced out of the rice market.”

Meanwhile, it has been a month since Barekot NFC depot in-charge Rudra Bahadur Devkota has been out of reach.

 The National Reconstruction Authority officials say their hands are tied. As the SRBC Pappu JV, better known as Pappu Construction, has bid the lowest amount for the reconstruction of the damaged central bank building at Baluwatar, and since the bid meets all the technical requirements, the infamous company is sure to bag the contract. Of late the construction company has come under withering criticism for inordinate delays in vital infrastructure projects and for shoddy work.

Of 41 bridges that Pappu has committed to build, it has missed the deadlines on 25. Yet it continues to get lucrative government contracts. One reason is that it has friends in high places. The company is owned by Hari Narayan Rauniyar, a federal lawmaker from the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal that is a part of the KP Oli government. Curiously, Rauniyar is in the federal parliament’s development committee that is man­dated to monitor progress of national development works. Parliamentary regulations prohibit MPs with such conflict of interest from serving in its committees. (Two Nepali Congress members of the development committee have similar conflict of interest, and they have predictably come to Rauniyar’s defense.)

The government may make all the noise it likes about its big ambitions for national development, about its crack-down on cartels, about zero tolerance for cor­ruption. But people will have hard time trusting it when even the most egregious violators of the law are being rewarded instead of being harshly punished; when contractors and medical college owners can sit on vital parliamentary bodies and brazenly tweak the rules for personal benefit.

The Oli government is powerful enough to change this. For instance it can alter the public procurement rule that favors the lowest bidder, irrespective of the bidder’s quality of work. In what will be a powerful deterrent, it can also cancel long-delayed works and punish the contractors. No country has prospered on the back of corruption and shoddy work. The longer the government takes to act against these fraudulent contractors and self-serving MPs, the greater will be public disenchantment. They gave the left coalition two-thirds majority with the confidence that the coali­tion would use the ensuing stability to realize its elec­toral agenda of common prosperity—and surely not to further cement corruption and cronyism.

The Tharu men and women, the indigenous inhabitants of Tarai, decked out in colorful tra­ditional costumes are a sight to behold. Hotels in Chitwan such as Unique Wild Resort, Hotel Rainforest and Jungle Safari Lodge offer guided culture tours to meet and experience their tradi­tional way of life. A salient feature of these tours is the ethnic Tharu dance. You may also want to join in.