Paragliding in Pokhara

I went on holiday to Pokhara 

with my mum and sister in June. Pokhara is always fun to be and it was my second visit since I was there twenty years ago. Much has changed in the city however, beautiful mountains, lakes, temples and monasteries remains the same.

Another famous tourist attraction this time was the "Paragliding". When it comes to flying with para-suit stuff I am always scared. Anyway, this time I did paragliding in Pokhara. It was the great time I ever had. Thirty five minutes in the sky and to see beautiful Pokhara from the glider - simply magnificent. I waited eight hours to experience paragliding due to bad weather. Now, I want learn myself paragliding and fly solo. It was simply fantastic experience. 

Air India experience - First time

I have heard lots of stories about Air India and specifically the harassment by the immigration officials & police, bad treatment, baggage lost, very rude customer services, misguide to passenger etc etc at the airports. When I was preparing my trip to Nepal in June this year, I was also very scared  and try avoiding Air India. First,  I have never been to India, second tons of stories that I heard, read and watched. But, then on the other I just heard other peoples experiences- I am sure things happened in that route hence people share their experiences.  I have few Indian friends at my work and I always make fun with them on customer service at the Indian Airports. They even shared their experiences even for Indian nationals. It sound like a cultural or tradition issue.  I am from Nepal, and many Nepalis had had an incident like that, I read tons of article while I was in Nepal and in west too.

Anyway, even-though I hesitate to fly via Indian airports, I asked the final suggestion to one of

my friend, her encouragement was very positive and self-assertive. At the end I booked my flight to Kathmandu via New Delhi for the first time. 

Despite having all those stories in mind, I was very careful while flying as well as while transfer the flights. In my first experience with Air India, I did not feel one bit of what I have heard or people wrote about the customer service and the harassment at the airport.  I feel really good, not a single problem like such came to me - perhaps I was the lucky one on that day, I do not know :). Well, someone told me that "The New Delhi airport" has recently built and old Delhi airport is converted for domestic flights.  Perhaps harassment stuff are happening in that side which  I do not know. 

For me, I had a jolly good time both on board, transfer transit and  even at the New Delhi airport. I will fly via Delhi Airport again. It was fairly cheaper and pleasant flight. Thanks Air India. Hope people who suffered from those bitter experience do no have to experience again.

 

Mountain Flight with Simrik Airlines.

Simrik Airlines

I have never been to mountain flight before and did not even thought about doing one anyway. When I mentioned about my plan for mountain flight, some of my childhood mates even made me scare by highlighting recent plane crash, hostile weather during the flight, less experience pilot and unbearable turbulence.  Well, I neither blame my mates nor criticize their opinion because some of these accident had had happened in Nepal domestic and mountain flight before. I understand their concern.

I heard lot of stories about the mountain flight in Nepal, many of them had strong opinion saying "this is not good, that is not good, plane was very old and unreliable, poor service" and so on. Well, I choose to fly with "Simrik Airlines" - one of the Nepal's emerging airlines in domestic aviation sector. The time I received the boarding pass, the customer service was was very impressive and excellent. Front desk staff were very friendly, welcoming and customer focused. Also, we been offered cup of coffee due to small delay - thanks for this :) Passengers were looked after very well - I can see happy simile in customers faces !!. 

Mt. Everest and Mt. Lotshe

The plane seems very new, clean, comfortable. Steward greeted us, even the pilot came in-front of the door and welcome us - its was very nice of them. Soon we took off for the mountain flight, during that one hour I am feel very privileged to be in that flight. First Simrik Airlines's hospitality on the ground, second services they offered to the passenger while on board. As soon as we started to see the mountains, the crew "I remember her name Sarita Manandhar" start walking towards every single passenger explaining different mountains names, heights and so on.  This is in fact extremely helpful for the person like me and I am sure other felt the same. I would not know which one is Mt. Everest and which one is Mt. Annapurna. Her excellent experience in mountain flight as well as her command in communication skills had been an instrumental during the flight. Not only that, we were even allowed to go to the cockpit to take a picture of beautiful mountain. In the pilot cabin, pilots were very friendly, communicative and very welcoming. I have never been to cockpit before and yet this was another great experience. 

With Sameer Bhai

It was a good day as we saw almost all the mountains. They are indeed very beautiful. At the end of the flight, we were again greeted by the crew and handed a mountain flight certificate. It was simply fantastic.

If anyone would like to go to mountain flight in Nepal, I strongly recommend "Simrik Airlines", they are professional, experienced and very welcoming. Thanks to Simirik Airlines for making my day enjoyable.

Playing with mathematical sign 

School math is something I do not do everyday at work however it does involve whenever I am trying to solve some computing issue. Yesterday my colleague came with piece of paper to solve some very simple numbers by using mathematical sign. It look very simple but takes a bit while to figure out. I am sure mathematician, teachers, professors in this field will solve this in a minute. I find very interesting and also took me while for all except the number 8.  

This is however not complicated  I am sure this will not get in your head instantly  Try it without using Google or YouTube and tell me if you can finish in 5-10 minutes. 

Technical Engineers won the  HK - Ísland Bandý Cup 2013

Inga, Finnur, Ragnar, Anil, Siggi, Ari

Programming, network & system administrating, High Performance computing and technical support are daily jobs for guys from the university of Iceland, computing services. These Guys plays a key role in heart of IT and HPC center in Iceland's academic institution. However, they often gather after work or even during lunch time to get out from chair and do some exercise. This has helped in social activity too. Interestingly they have also acquired extensive skills on how to play bandý.

Inga, Finnur, Ragnar, Anil, Siggi

Although they have been playing bandý for a quite sometime however, the nerds never had a chance to compete with other professionals. Until last year when they played against good team from Iceland, they realized there are lack of skills within the team - obvious for technical nerds :), soon after some tips for those we played against, we were invited to play a tournament yesterday. 

Anil received his top scorer award

I was very pleased the performance of the IT center's guys. They have not only played well but

demonstrated professionalism in bandý and beat all the team. Some of the excellent skill were shown by individuals. The crowd just loved it; out of seven game we won six and lost one. Also, I scored the highest goal and awarded a golden ball :)

I am sure if we play regularly with the best team and compete in several tournaments, we can play with any international team - at least I think we can do it. 

Hope for the Best

It was not a long ago when Iceland became the first country in northern Europe that needed international financial aid by IMF and other Nordic countries. Since then there has been tremendous changes in the country, well most of them were bad, tax rises, food price rise, pay cut you just name it. However, last year, I read the news in national newspaper that Iceland has paid back all the loans that was granted to Iceland back in 2008. Well, we had an general election recently, the coalition  government is formed. They have promised to ease the housing loan and help people from difficulty. The current Prime Minister even promised to write-off 25% on house loan - I am not sure how true is or this is fake promise. Well we will have to wait and see. Many people are not very optimistic about their new promises. But, personally I am positive and hoping they will bring the country in right direction.

Won Bandý Tournament Iceland.

Bandý is very popular name in Nordic countries but it's English name is Floor Ball. We made up our team from my work colleagues and registered for the tournament. This year we won the competition by losing only one game out of seven and became the champion. I scored 11 goals and received top scorer medal and cup.

This shows if we practice professionally and play more tournament, my team is ready to compete with any international team :)

63 degree North -Trondhjem, Norway

I am always fasinated of Northern part of Europe. This time I visited place called Trondheim in Norway. Very beautiful, great sceneary and lots of greeneires. 

Trondheim 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Overview_of_Trondheim_2008_03.jpg