Kathmandu:

Situated in the Myagdi District of Dhaulagiri zone, Ghorepani and Poon hill are one of the favourite tourist destinations of Nepal. The usual route taken by tourists, which passes through Birethanti, Ulleri is steep and risky. However, there is another route that is easier and less risky. To promote this alternate trekking route, which passes through Beni, Rakhu, and Tatopani, a documentary called Ghorepani — The Ultimate Destination has been made by director Bikash Kumar Shrestha.

The premiere show of the 40- minute documentary produced by The Himalayan Media International was held at the Nepal Tourism Board on April 21. The programme had to undergo last minute changes as the chief guest, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prithvi Subba Gurung, could not attend the premiere.

As any other function the programme included a couple of speeches, but unlike others, these were followed by a folk song by singer Loknath Sapkota. It was a satirical song about the unemployment of young men in Nepal.

Though the audience had to wait for quite some time the screening of the documentary, it was worth the wait. The scenic beauty of the rural parts of Nepal was splendid. The documentary was well structured as the major landmarks of the trekking route were shown along with certain historical anecdotes about those places.

Certain unknown facts about those places made the documentary interesting. The ritual of people where they drink live yak’s blood, which is believed to have medicinal values, was especially striking. The fact that one can see planes and helicopters flying at the same or even lower level than the height one is at, mesmerised thje audience. The picturesque scenes of the ray of sun travelling through different mountains like Fish Tale, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu seen from the Poon hill during sunrise was breathtaking.

The premiere show was also organised as charity event for singer Binod Gurung, who is suffering from brain tumour. An amount of Rs 10,000 collected from the sale of tickets was handed over to Gurung.