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the-south-asian.com October 2000 |
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TEE TIME IN THE HIMALAYAS Gokarna golf course in Nepal HimalayasOnce the exclusive game resort of the royal family of Nepal, Gokarna has now been converted into a sprawling 18 hole 72 Par golf resort that guarantees a secluded vacation without isolating one from exploring the wonders of Kathmandu and its nearby areas. The only danger is you may forget to play golf watching deer, pheasants, peacocks and monkeys in this thickly forested hidden valley near Kathmandu.... by Mukesh Khosla Nepal is one of those parallel worlds of fiction where everything is familiar, but the details are all different. Modern high rises looking down on wooden balconies from an age gone by. Sleek Nissans and Mercedez Benzes blaring through a crush of pedestrians and bicycles. Haggard looking tourists in trekking gear walking past Buddhist monks rotating prayer wheels. Plush casinos vying with ancient temples for the tourists' attention. Today, Nepal is no longer the 'Shangrila' of an era gone by. The image has somewhat receded giving way to chaotic modernism and an all encompassing pollution with the suburbs rapidly flooding over the green pastures that surround Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. Yet, for those keen to discover, pockets of the fading Nepal are still there. The Gokarna begul (hidden valley) is one of them. Just ten minutes from Kathmandu's Tribhuvandas Airport and a 20-minute drive from the main city center, Gokarna valley has not been touched by the hustle and bustle of the city. Once the exclusive game resort of the royal family, Gokarna has now been converted into a sprawling 18 hole 72 Par golf resort that guarantees a secluded vacation without isolating one from exploring the wonders of Kathmandu and its nearby areas. The golf course has a unique setting with the snow capped Himalayas forming its backdrop. The flavour of exotica is everywhere. One can stroll off the course and have a cup of piping hot tea at a roadside stall or wait for a peacock to strut pass before teeing off. Spread over 470 acres, the sylvan forest, according to legend, was created by a Buddhist monk thousands of years ago. Eye-catching clusters of thickly forested hills inhabited by deer, pheasants, peacocks and monkeys inspire the first impression of this resort. An ancient Shiva temple sits atop the hill. Looking down from this temple one can see dry riverbeds that have been transformed into grassy fairways by the Scotland based Gleneagles Golf Developments who designed this course. Gokarna is a far cry from the commercial golf courses. Here the pleasures of the sport are enhanced by a deep gorge, which runs through the bed of River Bagmati. Laid out within one tributary, holes One to Five have steep green hills rising sharply on either side. In the distance one sees Himalayan peaks framed against a crystal blue sky. Holes Six, Seven and Eight point to the adjacent Bagmati River, while the Ninth brings one to the start of another adventure. The Par 3, sixteenth, is over water all the way - teeing off from what will feel like one island and putting on the other. Trails meandering up and down and along the hills, through dense forest and open hilltops, down to the edges of the golf course, then back up to the periphery of Kathmandu.
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