Sir.
Edmund Hillary Tells Tourists to Visit
Nepal
KATHMANDU,
May 4 - Sir Edmund Hillary, the first
mountaineer to conquer Mt Everest, on
Thursday requested foreign tourists
to visit Nepal in the wake of renewed
optimism of sustainable peace in the
country. “Tourists should visit
to Nepal to help revive the shattered
economy,” said a frail-looking
Hillary.
Talking
to the Post, he also requested tourists
to put Nepal in their list as a destination
to visit. “My feeling is that
visiting Nepal is pretty good. Things
are very much normal in Nepal,”
he said. Hillary, who flew to the Everest
region in a helicopter on Thursday,
appreciated the mountains as "superbly
beautiful". “After all, Nepal
has a great deal of natural gifts to
offer tourists.”
Asked
what made him keep coming to Nepal,
he said it is the close feeling he shares
with Sherpas and other marvelous Nepali
people. Expressing happiness over the
present trip, he said it was an exciting
experience to return to Nepal
With
climbing companion Tenzing Norgay Sherpa,
Hillary conquered Everest on May 29,
1953. Hillary, who has drawn worldwide
attention as a famous mountaineer, is
well known for extending praiseworthy
support to charity works like building
schools, hospitals and bridges in the
Everest region through his Himalayan
Trust.
Despite
the escalating conflict, he said, his
Himalayan Trust did not face any difficulty
in the past to run his charity projects.
“The trust spends around US$ 0.5
million annually for its projects,”
he said.
His trip
to Nepal, which was originally scheduled
a couple of weeks back, had been delayed
due to political disturbances. He landed
in Nepal on April 30 and is returning
to New Zealand on Sunday. Born in July
19, 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand,
Hillary served as a pilot during World
War II and earned renown as an ice-climber.
Besides
Hillary, other famous mountaineers are
also presently in Nepal to ascend different
mountains this spring season. Junko
Tabei, the first woman to reach atop
Everest has been attempting to scale
Mt Manaslu. Likewise, two other Korean
mountaineers having already scaled 14
mountains above 8,000 meters - Sean
Young Park and Um Hong Gil are well
into their attempt to conquer Mt Everest
and Lhotse Sar.
Even
as a series of political upheavals scared
tourists to visit Nepal in recent times,
the situation in the mountaineering
sector seems to be unaffected.
The latest
figures of Tourism Industry Division
(TID) shows that a total of 52 foreign
expeditions have received permission
to scale various mountains this spring,
a slight decline from 54 foreign expeditions
during the same period last year. “Generally,
mountaineers come to ascend peaks until
mid-May for permission. So, we are expecting
the number of expeditions this season
to exceed last year's,” said an
official at the division.
Source
: The Kathmandu Post
