2022
Travelling is full of lot of fun & there is no doubt about this. But this time doing the same thing as a local guide not only to visit the place but also to explore the destination made it more worthy, memorable and meaningful. The destination was Nagarkot, Bhaktapur, Nepal, the event was 'Local Guides National Summit - 2017' and the purpose was meeting & mapping the hotels around there.
I had made my confirmation one day before the meet up. In the event day I left home at 6:30 am. Though the places in the journey were not new to me but each individuals whom I was going to meet were totally unknown to me. I got to know that 27 had marked themselves as 'going'. But we summed up with 19. The journey was made via bus so thanks goes to bus staff for their co-operation.
Our first visit began from Buddha Peace Park. We had a group photo session there. Then we left for breakfast at Peaceful Cottage & Café du Mont. Hotel team provided us free cookies and tea. Their support for us is not ended with this one. We used it not as hotel but as a home.
Team member @Sarojdhakal divided the group into four sections: Danphe (by the name of national bird), Sagarmatha (by the name of the highest mountain of the world which belongs here), Buddha (by the name of light of Asia 'Buddha' born here in Nepal) and Laligurans (the national flower of Nepal). The interesting thing is that literally I was not a member of any team but I was the member of all the teams. Hahahaha. It happened this way. I was busy on snapping flowers with five petals for our connect moderator @ErmesT's post so I left behind. I told about this with Saroj ji and he told me to be in any of the group by my wish.
The four teams were mobilized in four different directions to explore the hotels around Nagarkot. All were notified to gather in a common place to have a lunch. Before the lunch we all mapped different hotels and small business around there. The happiness was more palpable in owners of small business or those who were not updated with maps. It is because 40% of the total tourists coming in Nepal visit this Nagarkot area. Most of them open the maps and find/book their hotels. So small business are leaving behind from the traveler's excess. Since there is a lot to on maps here so it's not reliable for us to take it as achievement but we can proudly say that this is a perfect initiation and obviously the plus point to our work.
I joined the Danphe team at the beginning but later switched to Sagarmatha team because of separation from team members from the junction. While visiting and mapping the hotels Sagarmatha team lost its way. We had do wanted to return from same path. So climbing down the hill the road ended up somewhere in a jungle. 🙂 This was another fun part for us. In fact LGs of other team missed this joy of having lost. I had red something worth to mention in the flex in the early morning: LIFE BEGINS WHEN FEAR ENDS. In fact the jungle is not so dense to be lost. The other thing is Google maps which lets us know any nearby roads though some are missing.
After few ours of mapping we all LGs gathered in a hotel and had our lunch there. There our fellow LG Showed a Boomerang throwing. This was completely new experience to me. My unfortunate, he had Boomerang for right handed and I am not the left handed but am also the left handed. Not to be surprised about this. Hahaha. I was born as left handed but later my dad sifted my some works like eating and writing on right hand. With spoon I can eat well with any of the hands. But I can throw objects effectively only by left hand.
Later we returned back to hotel. The manager of the hotel provided us a meeting hall without any cost. The credit of this whole management goes to fellow LG Saroj Dhakal ji. There we discussed about different aspects like effectiveness of ongoing mapping that day, technologies & techniques (360 photos, Google street view, Google crowdsource, Google yellow, 360 camera loan program), involvement in LG connect, how we should proceed in upcoming days and of course congratulating our fellow members who are going to attend the LG summit 2017. Yet again the hotel provided us free tea as we were getting ready for departure. This is not only the good but splendorous. We are in debt for their huge support.
We returned from Nagarkot via different route. This was beyond the plan. But most of us wished to visit the view tower which does not belong to previous route. After leaving the place friends took off on a route from the bus with accord to their comfort. As I reached the beginning of the journey and searched for key to open the door of room I checked the time. It was 7:00 PM.
I would like to thank all of fellow LGs for being there and letting me be there. Special thanks to @NirajBhusal for providing a badge. This badge helps me a lot while snapping photos for Google maps. Thanks to LG connect program (because of it this was possible), all LG fellows (because of your presence I am publishing it) and all those who helped me directly or indirectly. Happy mapping!
Scripted by: Bishowvijaya Pandey
Event name: Local Guides National Summit - Nepal 2017
Meet-up date: 3rd June, 2017
Venue: Nagarkot, Bhaktapur, Nepal
