- Mark Twain
Whenever Ankur Shrestha, 22, gets a few days off from college, she loves to pack her bag and go to visit her relatives who live out of town. Away from the hubbubs of the city, she sets out across the countryside visiting a few more places every time she gets off from her college, to avoid disappointment. [break]
"There´s something to learn everywhere," she says smilingly, adding, "Whether it´s about food, clothes, rituals or lifestyle, every town has something or the other to offer, which is new to me."
Ankur has traveled through the plains in the Tarai to the sloppy hills far away from the hubbubs of Kathmandu. She is also looking for one opportune time to leave for the lands up in the mountains. "One fine day and I will surely be there". "Well, I definitely don´t have relatives in that part of the country, but I´m sure I will make friends once I reach," she adds.
For Ankur, traveling is learning. She believes that her voyage around the country has given her more learning experience than her books and classroom.
The enormous learning that Ankur has acquired by traveling around the countryside is seldom experienced by many of us, who love to hang around. Many of us will have to agree to the fact that most of our holidays are filled by rented DVDs, movie theaters and visits to malls with friends or just stay at home doing nothing.
Ankur is not the lonely traveler who boasts of knowledge acquisition by traveling, acknowledges Yuvaraj Nayaghare, 40, an award-winning author of eight Nepali books - including a Travelogue - that his love for traveling has taken him not only to Nepal´s rural hinterlands but also to countries like Japan, Singapore and India. He has recently returned from a year-long stay in the United States.
"Children these days are confined within a room, all they are exposed to is a computer," laments the traveler. He claims that when he was a fifth grader, he made four-to-five-day long pilgrimage and that too with strangers, but says it was hugely rewarding. "If I were to limit myself only to my books, I doubt I would have the knowledge I have today," he adds.
Manju Shrestha, 22, who hails from Melbourne Australia, also believes that she has unraveled the mystery of traveling and discovered things she only heard or read about while in Nepal. "Back then I never liked to travel. In fact, I had hardly seen any place outside the capital city," she adds. Shrestha, a passionate traveler, has already been to 30 municipalities in Melbourne. "There is so much knowledge outside that can´t be learned from books," she says, adding, "You have to go out there and experience it."
Nayaghare, too, believes in the need to learn through experiencing. He explains, "While reading, you only use your eyes and brains, when you hear you use your ears but when you are out there, you use all your senses, the occurrence is enriching." An aficionado of travel, he says he devotes at least a day in a week trekking around Kathmandu.
Having traveled half of the world, Nayaghare is now eyeing Nepal. The amazing diversity of climate, culture and lifestyle of people is what excites him the most in Nepal. The writer has beautifully penned his feeling in his latest books. "The sweetest melody is the birds singing, the most breathtaking views are of the landscapes before your eyes," he says.
Traveling, however, is not always a fun; it can get a bit risky sometimes. Nayaghare shares experiences of how he was lost in the woods of Rasuwa; how the snow in Kalinchowk reached his waist half way through his destination; and how he was lost in the jungles of Gorkha while trekking on foot. The woods of Rasuwa, he later learnt, were dangerous as they had been housing many wild bears. But, what was most memorable was the snow in Kalinchowk, which hurt his foot for a long time.
Manju, too, has encountered many ´not-so-friendly´ people during her journey. At times, she hid in a train restroom for her bag was stolen and she had no ticket. But despite those unpleasant experiences, both the travelers share their delights in these words, ´We grow as a person through the lessons learned along the way.´
"It´s about expanding your perceptions, raising your awareness, increasing your happiness, and also having fun," adds Manju.
She wishes that someday when she returns to her homeland, she will try and visit as many places as she can. Ankur, too, wants to expand her knowledge horizons by traveling all around the world. Nayagahre, on the other hand, will be coming out with a travelogue this Dashain.
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