When evening falls across the Himalayan landscape, the texture turns soft while village gatherings start naturally form. Male villagers move in a ring, singing folk songs. Female members cluster around one older woman smoking hand-rolled tobacco. At the same time, the visitor end up chatting alongside several youthful ladies—a local girl together with two relatives, Miching and Blinka. Adorned with vibrant fabrics plus ornate jewelry of the Aath Pahariya Rai community, these young women prove equally keen to talk about romance, adventure, or future dreams as other young women. “I’m too self-reliant to get married before I’m very old,” declares young Alina. “When finish studies, I want to travel abroad—then come back here. It’s calm in this place with the air is clear.”
A Local Initiative Helping Women
This remote Dhankuta region in the country is currently hosting visitors via an enterprise which works alongside regional groups in order to assist female residents—such as Alina’s mother—who open family homes to guests. Since its beginning in 2012 featuring only a single homestay, this initiative has expanded to more than 360 families in 40 villages nationwide. It marks the pioneering effort for Nepal’s eastern region.
Increasing temperatures, unpredictable rains, and annual flooding have pushed many local agricultural workers to leave for neighboring countries. As a result, this area is turning to visitor-based for alternative source of income. Enabling women to generate a living without leaving their villages is key for the vision. Moreover, eco-friendly rainwater-harvesting solutions are being set up to support local resources.
Away From the Main Travel Hubs
Although tourism contributed more than $2.2 bn to Nepal’s economy in 2024, it is highly focused in areas like the capital, trekking trails including Everest or Annapurna, a city, and Chitwan. The has led to overcrowded infrastructure, traffic jams, along with financial gains that are received among just a handful belonging to people. Initiatives such as the community homestay project aim to spread tourism income more across regions while providing travelers an unforgettable as well as authentic encounter away from typical tourist spots.
Journey to Dhankuta
After a 40-minute plane ride from Kathmandu and another lengthy road journey along curving mountain roads, visitors reach in the town named Dhankuta. Previously the administrative center until the late 1960s, the town later fell into a obscurity. Today, as visitors wander along its brightly colored structures, local residents frequently stop with astonishment—a seamstress halts the sewing, a buyer drops their bags to stare, and a local stands still at the entrance, oblivious to some lentil soup falling from her spoon.
“In the last several decades, the area had been so quiet that even wild animals wandered the streets,” notes our local, Kalpana. “Locals colored the buildings in honor of their history of citrus farmers prior to climate change—and the hope of appeal to tourists. Apparently they’re a little taken aback to see the plan really working.”
Nature Hike Toward Khambela
Bringing local people into the process forms a core to the initiative’s ethos. It is why training aimed at youngsters are additionally organized. Following a night in the comfortable lodge in town, guests meet one of the program’s first graduates, Nabin Rai of the indigenous community. During the special morning, Nabin guides a 7½-mile woodland walk to his community called the same name as a new guide.
“Whenever I come into the woods, it seems like my own home,” says the guide, leading ahead along a trail lined with silver mineral particles that sparkle similar to the waterway down in the valley. “You can feel the gods in this place.”
As the group enter Khambela passing trees adorned by fragrant flowers, Nabin shows water collection tanks which have been installed in order to support an unreliable public supply pipeline situated a long walk away.
Village Living with Traditional Exchange
The trek ends over a vegetable stew in an open space owned by a woman in her 60s who requests we call her referred to as Didi (older sister). The host observes our fascination with her home using quiet interest. When the group prepare to leave, she presses one hand-carved instrument into a visitor’s hand—an unique object that hums softly when breathed into and played with clumsy enthusiasm.
After a second night at a local hotel, guests may stroll around the town’s haat (bazaar), in which members of various cultural groups—one, another, a group, along with several religious castes—haggle over items ranging from animal-hide seats and oversized cucumbers. Then, one vehicle ride takes toward Sipting {to meet|where visitors
