Places on Facebook for Iphone

I have been a great fan and a regular user of Foursquare for about a year. Mayor of 9 places and about 20 badges so far. And I loved it. I still do. But things will change from today. Though Facebook Places is still not available here in New York City, I am sure it will be in no time. And there is no doubt that I will be one of the first ones using it.

What this means is, applications like Foursquare (and Gowalla and so on..) are going to be kicked out of business in no time. This is the ugly truth of the way businesses work around here. When you have 500 million users constantly visiting your site, there is nothing much a great innovator can do. They just become the good guys who give you nice concepts for you to grow your own business. Even being one of the most extensive users of Foursquare, I will start using Facebook Places pretty soon. Why would I have to open another application to check in (which in fact, only does check-ins), when I can have ‘Facebook’ do it?

While Foursquare was doing great, with rewarding and revenue generating features like partnering with companies like Starbucks and Whole Foods; all that may not be enough ground for it to stay in business now.

UPDATE: While it seemed as if Facebook Places was getting unveiled along with Foursquare and others as partners, it appears that they were not even given early access to the API. So much for good intentions from Facebook!

The region was also attractive to students coming for higher education primarily in distinguished schools like the Yale University and University of Connecticut. Around the turn of the millennium, there was a good influx of Nepali students to these schools along with other private schools like University of Bridgeport and Fairfield University. Most of these students land jobs or setup businesses in small but booming cities like Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and New Haven. And the suburbs of these cities provide a great environment to settle down and raise a family. Metro North Railroad provides a comfortable commute to New York City which attracts a lot of professionals who want to keep their career-focus while enjoying a decent family life.

Fresh resettlement of refugees in CT towns like Ansonia is adding strength to the growing Nepali community in the area. It will be great to see these Bhutanese refugees representing Nepali culture raise their families here and live the American Dream.

GetInNepal is also working on knitting this community stronger by organizing special functions during Dashain, Holi & New Year and also providing information about the area to visitors, students and professionals.

Connect with Nepali community in the area

Earth Day-Nepal 2010

My parents hesitated to get a property so far away from downtown since you had to encounter foxes and wild dogs to get to it after dark. Less than 30 years to it, all the eye can see from here is lumps of concrete. Forget the paddy fields and our football playgrounds, even the trees that covered the Ring-Road sides were gone the last time I went back. My sister back home told me yesterday that the old well they used to get their drinking water from went dry last week.
Kathmandu truly looks like a big mess and a catastrophe waiting to happen. It gives me chills to even try to relate to what happened in Haiti. ‘Hariyo ban Nepal ko dhan’, which means Greenery is Nepal’s wealth, sounds like a verse lost in distant history. On this day – Earth Day 2010; lets raise our voices to spread awareness on this subject. Lets stop this onslaught of concrete, lets bring our essence, our life, our true ‘hariyo dhan’ back to Kathmandu.

Know More about Nepal

Time to say good bye to 2066 and welcome 2067.
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Nepali New Year 2067.
Get In Nepal Family!

Visit and contact us at http://getinnepal.com

Nepali New Year 2067

Nepali New Year falls on the second week of April; precisely 14th of April this year. Nepalese all over the world celebrate this day in different ways. Since its a national holiday in Nepal, this is a great occasion to meet relatives and celebrate the past year while sharing wishes for a bright new year ahead. And since the weather is so pleasant this time of the year, its a good day for an outing or a picnic. Traditional celebrations of Bisket Jatra is also celebrated in the town of Bhaktapur during the new year.

“Navavarsha” is the nepali word for New Year. So, a happy and prosperous Navavarsha to everyone from Get In Nepal!!

A typical day for a Nepali starts with a morning worship and a fresh cup of tea. Eastern Nepal (including the world famous tea producer: Ilaam) is the major source of tea not only for the country but the whole South Asian region and abroad. Eastern Nepal and parts of Indian Darjeeling and Sikkim are home to the world’s finest tea gardens. Some people in Nepal take additional rounds of tea/coffee in the morning because normal work-hours begin a little late (around 9 or 10 AM). Unlike a light breakfast, they take a decent size morning meal which is Daal-Bhaat. Daal is primarily a lentil soup and Bhaat is plain rice. The southern Nepalese plains are the major producers of rice among other crops.

Daal-Bhaat is always accompanied by a curry which can be any vegetable or meat product. Everyone is so used to with it. A day would not formally start without a heavy Daal-Bhaat in Nepal. The afternoon lunch is light and can be anything. And finally, dinner is again Dal Bhat. The dinner gets richer with a variety of pickles and side dishes.  A cup of tea or two anytime during the day is never unusual.

Daal-Bhaat is so important that its not just a food but an integral part of life in Nepal. While visitors may find it a little bizarre, Nepalese are so used to and always enjoy two courses of Daal-Bhaat a day. Even Nepalese who have been living outside Nepal for years including us, still take at least one course of Daal-Bhaat (usually dinner) in a day if not two.

Besides the all-important Daal-Bhaat, there are other typical dishes like Gundruk (dried and fermented green vegetables leaves. Usually served as soup but can be eaten in a variety of different ways), Kwati (Soup with 7 or 9 different beans), Aloo Tama (Bamboo shoot and potato usually served as soup), Khir (served as dessert), Sekuwa (dried and roasted meat..ohhh…they are so good!!!) etc. Momo (A kind of Dumplings) is one of the major Nepali dishes which is believed to have been inherited from Tibet. Momo makes a great lunch. It can be chicken, pork, buff and veggie and is served in almost every restaurant in Nepal.

If you are visiting Nepal, don’t miss to try the traditional Daal-Bhaat, or Momo or the Sekuwa. Nonetheless if you ever wanted to have something out of the traditional cuisine, you do not have to worry because a dish to your liking and taste is always around the corner. You can always hop in to any of the abundant western style fast-food restaurants including the recently opened KFC and Burger King!!

Kumari originated from the tradition of virgin worship in 6^th century. Certain formalities have to be followed through before one can seek Kumari.  A Kumari is selected at the age of 2 to 4 who satisfies all 32 conditions of perfection. These include having Shakya as a family name, having black hair, black eyes and blemish free body.  Once she is selected as Kumari, Nepalese believe that the spirit of ancient Goddess Taleju starts residing in her body and purifies her old memories and impurities. The girl is then believed to be reborn as the Goddess Taleju herself. The mystery and power of the Goddess are embodied in the girl through make up. A ‘tika’ is glued in the girl’s forehead which is eye of wisdom that sees through all the things in nature. Her ornaments are believed to have divine power.

A Kumari is not supposed to talk to anyone and seldom makes public appearance. There are 10 reigning Kumaris in Nepal. The ones from Kathmandu, Patan and then Bhaktapur are regarded as the most prominent and powerful. They remain “Kumari” until their first period around the age of 10. After that, the hunt down for the next living Goddess begins.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Content & Technology Licensing from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

We liked this post because it talks about helping yourself and others through great quality links on your website. Sites like ours that provide information about Nepal can benefit largely from these practices. And it is equally important to those sites who are into optimization, branding and targeting real customers. I have seen a lot of good Nepali websites with great content that are lost in search engines. So it is better if you utilize this scalable strategy in passing links, content, link juice and in return, benefit from it.

It talks about the importance of creating quality back links for big websites as well as smaller sites that seek deeper links and distribution. The idea basically is, allowing others to take content from your website to republish it on their own domains so that there is a back link to your original content. Because of the way search engines work with duplicate contents, the link juice will flow back to your original product which allows your content to maintain domain authority, page rank and search engine rankings.

To make most of it, you need to make sure you are getting clean, ‘follow’ed links back. Specially if you are a smaller site licensing to bigger sites, you can get cannibalized by the higher domain authority if they are not properly linking you back. You may also want to create a self service portal where they can come in, agree to your terms and conditions and download it free without your assistance.

So in conclusion richer content and good quality links are really important for websites in this Google-World. However you may try to target or optimize the  page, it will not be rewarded unless there is really good and rich content. Content drives traffic. A website will be rewarded if it has potential to drive traffic and the only way to drive traffic is content. So lets think and use SeOMoz’s idea. Lets help others and benefit in return.

Bio Gas in Nepal

International workshop on domestic bio gas was successfully held in Nepal. It took place at the Hotel Hyatt in Kathmandu from 10-12 Nov 2009. There were 150 participants from 25 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and USA. It was sponsored by SNV/Nepal (Netherlands Development Service-Nepal) and ADB (Asian Development Bank). The objective of the International Workshop was to exchange knowledge and experiences between practitioners, experts and policy makers on the dissemination of domestic biogas plants.

The dissemination of domestic biogas plants around the world is sharply rising, both in terms of numbers as well as geographic coverage. More than 35 million units had been installed by the end of 2008, most of them in China and India, providing about 175 million people access to the multiple benefits of biogas use. Equally important is the fact that more and more countries around the world have embarked on market based national programs on domestic biogas. To efficiently and effectively utilize both public and private resources and to prevent unnecessary failures, it is paramount to broker knowledge and experiences between the various parties involved.

The first session of the three-day workshop was concentrated on experience sharing through discussion on various thematic groups; i) Private Sector Development ii) Realization of multiple benefits, program success; concretizing impact iii) Energy for all partnership. Second day included a field visit to Bela VDC in Kavre district, interaction with beneficiaries (farmers) regarding slurry utility and production of the gas. During lunch in Dhulikhel, participants enjoyed the panoramic Himalayan view in a pleasant sunny weather. Afternoon session back in the Hotel was focused on exhibition called Market Place where 18 Chinese biogas manufacturing companies had participated on their won cost, which was very attractive and useful for all visitors. Nepal Biogas Promotion Association (NBPA) and representative from Chinese companies signed a MOU (memo of understanding) regarding technology transfer and business dealing between two countries with interested private companies.

Last day of the workshop was concluded with commitment and evaluation, which involved the celebration of the 200,000th biogas installation in Nepal. The closing ceremony was inaugurated by President of Nepal Dr. Ram Baran Yadav with prize distribution to the masons, farmers and companies. It was the mega event of the workshop where all key delegates gave their congratulation messages to the biogas sector of Nepal.

Nepal is considered one of the leaders in bio gas installment and usage in the world. It has been possible due to the availability of resources and initiatives from the organizations/people working for this cause. And events like these will definitely expand the strength and reach of this alternative source of energy in the country.

Nepal has the best weather

“Heaven on Earth” – thats what people say who’ve been in there. And Nepal lives true to that title. Not only does the pristine landscape mesmerize you when you get to see it but its also the year round weather of Nepal that has no match anywhere in the world. I see how weather makes all the difference around here in US, whether its a holiday, a vacation, a short trip, a long-drive or even just a work-day commute; a glowing sun and a pleasant temperature makes everything so lively. When its harsh snowy winter (it’s terrible here in the NorthEast), you long for the summer days and when it finally does arrive, before you know it, you are into the scorching suns and the hot humid airs.

But if you’re in Nepal, regardless of the time-of-the-year, you can always afford to go out without a jacket on a winter day. And its never funny if you are on a full-sleeve around Nepalese streets during summer. You wont need an air-conditioned room anytime (unless, of course, if you are trekking up in the himalayas).

Nepal typically has four seasons.
March-May : Spring
June-August : Summer (Max ~ 100F)
September-November : Autumn
December-February : Winter (Min ~ 50F)

Clothing : Apart from an umbrella during the monsoon (in summer) and a jacket/coat for winter evenings, you don’t need much.

While there is nothing to worry about any dangerous winds/snow/storms throughout the year, Spring/Autumn is still the best time to visit Nepal.

To get current weather conditions in Nepal, visit our homepage or contact us for any further information.

Business-Standard.com from Press Trust of India / New Delhi talks about ADB’s big support to tourism in the region:
“The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved $57.5 million (around Rs 265.6 crore) in grants and loans to India, Nepal and Bangladesh to develop major tourism sites, including Buddhist sites.”

(Press Trust Of India) PTINews.com talks about Nepal hosting the 3rd International Himalayan Travel Mart:
“With the objective of promoting Nepal as a prime tourist destination and to explore its tourism products to the international market, the country will host the third international Himalayan Travel Mart and 43rd Congress of United Federation of Travel Agents’ Association (UFTAA) from November 20 to 24.”

EconomicTimes.IndiaTimes.com talks about Emirates airlines planning to increase flight frequency to Kolkata:
“With the introduction of additional flights and competitive fares, we hope to boost travel enquiries by approximately 25% to and from the city,” said Mr Orhan Abbas, vice president, India & Nepal, Emirates Airline.”

All these are welcome news. These steps will undoubtedly lift the standards and increase the influx of tourists in Nepal. We are also excited and supportive of the government’s latest efforts to boost air traffic and update the airports.