I am a regular hiker of the weekly hiking program organized by the Company where I am working in. In the beginning, I refrained from hiking as I had the common prejudiced notion that it is unnecessary to spend personal holidays in office activities. Later, however, I joined the hiking program ignoring the notion. I felt fatigue and physical pain in the first couple of hikings. Later, I got used to it and realized the essence of hiking. At the end of the day after five to six hours of hiking …

people generally get tired physically. But on the hand, in the long run, one gets a peaceful mind, a robust physique, develops good relations with fellow hikers, and understands the socio cultural and socio economic values of the rural area to some extent. We will lose nothing by hiking except our excess weight and a few millimeters of our belly. From hygienic point of view, it is not exaggerated to say that we gain a lot by hiking.

Physical exercise is essential to maintain a good health and efficient performance. IT professional like myself and other office workers do spend whole weekdays in a chair or staring at the computer and are mostly engaged in mental activities and move only ten fingers all the time. Do we foresee how dreadful our physiques will be if we don’t start to think about how to be healthy right now? Have we thought how will we maintain good eyesight after spending most of the time in front of the monitor during workdays? Morning walks, outdoor and indoor jogging, for instances, have become very common and a good way to maintain the health to some extent for urban people. But this may not include ascending and descending terrains, which is also necessary for the human body. Going for hiking at least once a week is an opportunity to travel up and down the hills and mountains for at least five hours certainly provides a balanced physical exercise. This type of exercise is more favorable for the cardiovascular system that normal walking and trekking seldom have.

The real essence of a place and heart touching views of majestic mountains, jungles, bare earth and blue sky cannot be felt without being in the place itself which can be achieved easily by hiking for sure. During hiking we not only breathe fresh air but also let our eyes swim to the real depths of natural beauty and greenery. Hiking provides us opportunity keep us away from our daily works, which is essential for the efficient use of the brain. Unnecessary thoughts will be drained out and the brain will get a full rest during hiking helping us generate innovative ideas and thoughts which we seldom feel during workdays. Walking, ascending, descending, crossing the rivers, jungles, scaling the cliffs and being lost inside the floating clouds, dense fog, going to hot and cold places are great experiences that one can have from hiking.

Hiking can be a good platform to understand fellow hikers can be one of the important benefits of hiking. During hiking, the employees get chance to be acquainted with each other and can share ideas and feelings which they may not get chance during working days. This is more relevant for the new employees in an organization who generally hesitate to mix up in a group activity especially in a bigger company. Informal interaction is useful to make formal interaction smoother. Activities like hiking help develop the interpersonal relationship that could be a great asset for a successful career. The hidden qualities inside a person are exposed during such informal activities. Hikers sing, make jokes and share personal experiences during hiking, which could never be experienced during weekdays when people are quite busy to meet deadlines of office activities. Moreover, we also learn how to overcome the unexpected weather and outdoor environment, which is not common at home or in the vicinity. This develops the prompt decision making capacity that would be useful in our daily home and office activities.

Nepalese people, who are residing in the towns of the mountainous region of the country, are among the luckiest ones to have numerous hiking spots in the vicinity than those outsiders who spends thousands of dollars to grab the same opportunity. So there will be no option than regretting ourselves in the future if we do not take part in such adventurous and exciting activities right now. If communication media were sufficient to know about the world and to feel the real essence of natural beauty, tourists from abroad would never have come to Nepal to see and touch the far-flung parts of the earth and would not have praised the overwhelming natural beauty. They are spending a lot of time and money to achieve things that we are ignoring in our own country. This type of weekly hiking program could be an exemplary milestone to enhance internal tourism and could be spread over the country if other organizations follow our company’s path in enhancing such excursions.

All in all, hiking has been a tremendous experience for me, has helped me maintain my health, enjoy nature, and know people better.