Sabed's empty houses await tourists | RecentFusion.com

Sabed Village
By Rup Narayan Dhakal
Sabed (Kaski): Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) has come up aggressively to explore new trekking routes in its project area as the newly built roads overlapped the old and popular trekking routes.

Recently, ACAP has explored a trekking route targeting a Gurung village- Sabed is situated in Dangsingh Village Development Committee in Mid-Nepal. Earlier, ACAP had explored two new trekking routes in the Annapurna Region that go ahead touching Kaski's Kirkupass and Lamjung's Bhujung village.

The newest route turns right from Ramghai to reach Sabed. Ramghai is a village falls in between Ghorepani and Birethanti trekking section. It takes at least four days to arrive Birethanti making a circle via a dense jungle, Tadapani and Ghandruk. Birethanti could be reached after 25 minutes of hiking from Nayapul that comes after 43 km north east drive from popular resort town Pokhara.

People are living in 34 houses out of 65 in Sabed. Most of them are children, women and elders. The houses got vacant as their owners left them and came to urban areas like Pokhara and Kathmandu to get employment, study and more facilities.

A local Birdhoj Gurung hopes that the empty houses could be utilized serving home-stay facility to the tourists. Another local Babita Gurung said that she was ready to serve tourists if the touristy infrastructures were created in her village. Now there are not any tourist level hotels in the village however villagers claim that they could serve the tourist level facilities.

A hotel owner Gam Bahadur Gurung of Ramghai said that the exploration of new route is a positive attempt to put alive the trekking in the Annapurna Region and added that he was ready to give any kind of support to make the campaign a success.
ACCAP Pokhara Tourism Assistance Tek Gurung informed that the newly explored route could be an alternative to those tourists who don't like to use existing Birethanti-Ghorepani-Ghandruk route.

Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) Pokhara Treasurer Narayan Sapkota said that this new route is best to the trekkers who like to jungle walk and wildlife watching rather than viewing the snowcapped high mountains. Deer, tiger, monkeys and various kinds of birds are some of the wildlife in this region. Dozens of streams, falls, and greenery also could be enjoyed during the trek.

But trekkers could only pass their nights if they have tents and organized trekking. They also need local guides instead of professional ones because the route has been using by only herdsmen and locals so far. If local guides are hired, they also can find the water source for drinking and cooking purpose.

There are lots of natural campsites along the trekking route so that trekkers can easily erect their tents. After a dense jungle nearby Sabed, trekkers can meet the existing Ghandruk-Ghorepani trekking section where Tadapani is a beautiful tourist village offers tourist level facilities. According to ACAP, this new route would be recommended to trekkers following the further studies.

Campaign in Ghandruk. Pictures: Krishna Mani Baral

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