Pokhara: Sports & Activities

There are numerous outdoor activities for travelers to enjoy in Pokhara.  In fact, this is one of the main reasons why people travel to the area.  Visitors can enjoy hiking in the surrounding mountains, boating on the local lakes or more unique adventures such as whitewater rafting and paragliding.

• Boating – There are numerous lakes all throughout the area.  Travelers can rent boats and get out on the water.
• Whitewater Rafting & Kayaking - Pokhara is the starting point for many of Nepal's best river adventures. Raft on the mighty Kali Gandaki, Marsyangdi, Trisuli or Seti rivers, or learn a new skill and challenge yourself on a 4 day kayak school. For more infomation see the listing for the highest reputed whitewater adventure companies -  Rapidrunner Expeditions and Paddle Nepal. 
• Canyoning - Canyoning is one of the newest adventure activities to hit Nepal.  Imagine abseiling, jumping, sliding and swimming down multiple cascading waterfalls to crystal clear pools below!?  This is damn good fun!  One of the best Canyoning sites is located within a day trip of Pokhara.  Check out Paddle Nepal, GRG's or Adrenaline Rush.  Note - Canyoning can be combined with whitewater rafting or kayaking trips on nearby rivers, creating the ultimate multi-sport adventure itineraries.
• Caving – Many travelers visit the tourist caves but it is actually possible to bring proper equipment and do some deep caving.  Mahendra Gupha cave is the best place for doing so.Hardcore Nepal are one of the only companies to offer a caving expereince.
• Hiking  - The mountains of the area are known for hiking.
• Mule rides – Travelers can ride mules or horses through the smaller mountains of the area.
• Paragliding – Travelers who know how to enjoy this sport can do so if they bring their own equipment and head over to Sarangkot.  Visitors who aren’t skilled should make plans with local experts.  Ask around to get advice on who to see for enjoying this activity.
• Parahawking – Take paragliding one step further and fly with trained birds of prey.
• Swimming – Phewa Lake is attractive for swimming (a free of cost), and the water quality is generally very good (there is loads of fish and plant life in the lake as evidence to this). For the best swimming spots it is a good idea to hire a boat or hike around the lake away from the Lakeside shore as many locals use the lake

Dry Fish

Fresh fish rapidly deteriorates unless some way can be found to preserve it. Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Open air drying using sun and wind has been practiced since ancient times to preserve food.^[1] Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation. Bacteria, yeasts and molds need the water in the food to grow, and drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food.

Fish are preserved through such traditional methods as drying, smoking and salting.^[2] The oldest traditional way of preserving fish was to let the wind and sun dry it. Drying food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. The method is cheap and effective in suitable climates; the work can be done by the fisherman and family, and the resulting product is easily transported to market.

Stockfish

Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore. The drying racks are known as fish flakes. Cod is the most common fish used in stockfish production, though other whitefish, such as pollock, haddock, ling and tusk, are also used.

Clipfish

Over the centuries, several variants of dried fish have evolved. Stockfish, dried as fresh fish and not salted, is often confused with clipfish, where the fish is salted before drying. After 2–3 weeks in salt the fish has saltmatured, and is transformed from wet salted fish to Clipfish through a drying process. The salted fish was earlier dried on rocks (clips) on the foreshore. The production method of Clipfish (or Bacalhau in Portuguese) was developed by the Portuguese who first mined salt near the brackish water of Aveiro, and brought it to Newfoundland where cod was available in massive quantities. (q.v.). Salting was not economically feasible until the 17th century, when cheap salt from southern Europe became available to the maritime nations of northern Europe.

Stockfish is cured in a process called fermentation where cold adapted bacteria matures the fish, similar to the maturing process of cheese. Clipfish is processed in a chemically curing process called saltmaturing, similar to the maturing processes of other saltmatured products like the Parma ham.

Other

• Bacalhau is the Portuguese word for codfish and in a culinary context refers to dried and salted codfish. Fresh (unsalted) cod is referred to as bacalhau fresco (fresh cod). Bacalhau dishes are common in Portugal and Galicia, in the northwest of Spain, and to a lesser extent in former Portuguese colonies like Angola, Macau, and Brazil. There are said to be over 1000 recipes in Portugal alone and it can be considered the iconic ingredient of Portuguese cuisine (but curiously the only fish that is not consumed fresh in this fish-loving nation). It is often cooked on social occasions and is the Portuguese traditional Christmas dinner in some parts of Portugal.
• Baccalà (in Venetian Language: bacalà) is sun-dried stockfish, rather than salt cod. In other parts of Italy dishes made with salt cod are given the same name. Baccalà dishes made with stockfish are soaked for several days to soften the fish. Salt cod, which is already soft, is also soaked to remove excess salt.
• Balyk is the Russian term for the salted and dried soft parts of fish of large valuable species, such as sturgeon or salmon. Over time, the term has come to apply also to smoked fish of these species.
• Boknafisk is a variant of stockfish and is unsalted fish partially dried by sun and wind on drying flakes or on a wall. The most common fish used for boknafisk is cod, but other types of fish can also be used. If herring is used, the dish is called boknasild.
• Daing (also known as Bulad or Tuyô) refers to sun-dried fish in the Philippines. Almost any kind of fish is used, but the most popular variant uses rabbitfish (locally known asdanggit). Cuttlefish and squid may also dried this way^[3] The amount of drying can vary. In the labtingaw variant, the drying period only lasts a few hours, allowing the fish to retain some moisture and texture.^[4] In the lamayo variant, the fish isn't dried at all, but simply marinated in vinegar, garlic and spices.^[5]
• Dried squid
• Fesikh is a traditional Egyptian fish dish consisting of fermented salted and dried gray mullet, of the mugil family, a saltwater fish that lives in both the Mediterranean and the Red Seas.^[ The traditional process of preparing it is to dry the fish in the sun before preserving it in salt.
• Gwamegi is a Korean half-dried Pacific herring or Pacific saury made during winter. It is mostly eaten in the region of North Gyeongsang Province such as Pohang, Uljin, andYeongdeok where a large amount of the fish are harvested. Guryongpo Harbor in Pohang is the most famous. Fresh herring or saury is frozen at -10 degrees Celsius and is placed outdoors in December to repeat freezing at night and defreezing in the day. The process continues until the water content of the fish drops to approximately 40%.^[10]
• Hákarl is an Icelandic food consisting of a sleeper shark that has been fermented and dried for four or five months.
• Ikan masin is a dried fish which is salty. It is a Malay dish and it is often accompanied with rice.
• Jwipo is a kind of Korean fish jerky made by pressing, drying and seasoning filefish.
• Katsuobushi is the Japanese name for dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna, sometimes referred to as bonito).
• A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish,^[11] that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.
• Kusaya is a Japanese style salted, dried and fermented fish. It has a pungent smell, similar to the fermented Swedish herring called surströmming.
• Maldive fish is cured tuna traditionally produced in the Maldives. It is a staple of the Maldivian cuisine, as well as Sri Lankan cuisine.
• Mojama (Spain) consists of filleted salt-cured tuna. The word mojama comes from the Arabic musama (dry), but its origins are Phoenician, specifically from Gdr (Gadir, Cádiztoday), the first Phoenician settlement in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians had learned to dry tuna in sea salt so they could trade it. Mojama is made by curing tuna in salt for two days. The salt is then removed, the tuna is washed and then laid out to dry in the sun and the breeze (according to the traditional method) for fifteen to twenty days.
• Niboshi is the Japanese name for dried infant sardines that are both eaten as a snack and used to make soup stock. They are also eaten in Korea.
• Obambo is dried tilapia, prepared by cutting the fish open and drying it in the sun for several days.^[12] It is popular among the Luo and Luhya tribes, who live along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Traditionally, fishing was strictly forbidden during the rainy seasons, and people relied on obambo caught earlier and preserved.^[13]
• Karuvadu is dried fish, prepared by sun drying it for several days. This procedure is traditionally seen in coast of Tamil Nadu in India. Various species of fish are sundried and storage timeline of these dried fishes varies from several months to years based on species.
• Tatami Iwashi is a Japanese processed food product made from baby sardines laid out and dried while entwined in a single layer to form a large mat-like sheet. Typically, this is done by drying them in the sun on a bamboo frame, a process that is evocative of the manufacture of traditional Japanese paper.

Water activity

The water activity, a_w, in a fish is defined as the ratio of the water vapour pressure in the flesh of the fish to the vapour pressure of pure water at the same temperature and pressure. It ranges between 0 and 1, and is a parameter that measures how available the water is in the flesh of the fish. Available water is necessary for the microbial and enzymatic reactions involved in spoilage. There are a number of techniques that have been or are used to tie up the available water or remove it by reducing the a_w. Traditionally, techniques such as drying, salting and smoking have been used, and have been used for thousands of years. These techniques can be very simple, for example, by using solar drying. In more recent times, freeze-drying, water binding humectants, and fully automated equipment with temperature and humidity control have been added. Often a combination of these techniques is used.^[14]

History

Salt cod has been produced for at least 500 years, since the time of the European discoveries of the New World. Before refrigeration, there was a need to preserve the codfish;drying and salting are ancient techniques to preserve nutrients and the process makes the codfish tastier.

The Portuguese tried to use this method of drying and salting on several varieties of fish from their waters, but the ideal fish came from much further north. With the "discovery" of Newfoundland in 1497, long after the Basque whalers arrived in Channel-Port aux Basques, they started fishing its cod-rich Grand Banks. Thus, bacalhau became a staple of thePortuguese cuisine, nicknamed Fiel amigo (faithful friend). From the 18th century, the town of Kristiansund in Norway became an important place of purchasing bacalhau orklippfisk (literally "cliff fish", since the fish was dried on stone cliffs by the sea to begin with.) Since the method was introduced by the Dutchman Jappe Ippes around 1690, the town had produced klippfisk and when the Spanish merchants arrived, it became a big industry. The bacalhau or bacalao dish is sometimes said to originate from Kristiansund, where it was introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese fish buyers and became very popular. Bacalao was common food in northwest Norway to this day, as it was cheap to make. In more recent years, it has become less of an everyday staple and mostly eaten on special occasions.

This dish was also popular in Portugal and other Roman Catholic countries, because of the many days (Fridays, Lent, and other festivals) on which the Church forbade the eating of meat. Bacalhau dishes were eaten instead.

Beautiful Tourist Place Sylhet Jaflong

Jaflong is a hill station and popular tourist destination in the Division of Sylhet, Bangladesh. It is located in Gowainghat Upazila of Sylhet District and situated at the border between Bangladesh and the Indian state of Meghalaya, overshadowed by subtropical mountains and rainforests. Jaflong is famous for its stone collections and is home of the Khasi tribe.

In early 2005, Laskar Muqsudur Rahman, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Sylhet Forest Division, observed that Jaflong that he heard in his boyhood as the 'lungs' of Greater Sylhet was at stake due to on going encroachments and establishment of unauthorized stone crushing mills. He took initiatives to recover the land and establish a recreation-cum-botanical park named as 'Jaflong Green Park'. The first foundation stone for the thematic Green Park at Jaflong was laid by Laskar Muqsudur Rahman, Deputy Conservator of Forests in 2005 with the cooperation of local forest staffs led by Forest Ranger Mohammad Ali. Nonetheless, at the inception it was a challenging task due to local conflicts and procedural constraints. The forestation program in Jaflong Green Park has been started under supervision of the joint forces, Jaflong Foundation and Forest Department. They have jointly taken up the forestation program with about 100 hectares of grabbed land. Under the forestation program, various types of trees, including hybrid Akash-moni, are being planted in the park to maintain ecological balance.

Mughal Architecture

Mughal architecture is an architectural style developed by the Mughals in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries throughout the ever changing extent of their empire in Medieval India. It was an amalgam of Islamic, Persian, Turkic and Indian architecture. Mughal buildings have a uniform pattern of structure and character, including large bulbous domes, slender minarets at the corners, massive halls, large vaulted gateways and delicate ornamentation.^[1] Examples of the style can be found in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.The Mughal dynasty was established after the victory of Babur at Panipat in 1526. During his five-year reign, Babur took considerable interest in erecting buildings, though few have survived. His grandson Akbar built widely, and the style developed vigorously during his reign. Among his accomplishments were Humayun's Tomb (for his father), Agra Fort, the fort-city of Fatehpur Sikri, and the Buland Darwaza. Akbar's son Jahangir commissioned the Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir.

Akbari Sarai

Mughal architecture reached its zenith during the reign of Shah Jahan, who constructed the Jama Masjid, the Red Fort, the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, and the most famous Mughal monument, the Taj Mahal, as well as many other fine examples of the style.

Tomb Of Jahangir

While Shah Jahan's son Aurangzeb commissioned buildings such as the Badshahi Masjid in Lahore, his reign corresponded with the decline of Mughal architecture and the Empire itself.

Agra Fort

Main article: Agra fort

Agra fort is a UNESCO world heritage site in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. The major part of Agra fort was built by Akbar The Great during 1565 AD to 1574 AD. The architecture of the fort clearly indicates the free adoption of the Rajput planning and construction. Some of the important buildings in the fort are Jahangiri Mahal built for Jahangir and his family, the Moti Masjid, and Mena Bazaars.The Jahangiri Mahal is an impressive structure and has a courtyard surrounded by double-storeyed halls and rooms.^[2]

Great Humayun's Tomb

Main article: Humayun's tomb

14 years after the death of Humayun, his widow Hamida Banu Begum built the Humayun’s tomb in Delhi. The mausoleum of Humayun is located in the centre of a square surrounded by typical Mughal garden in Fatehpur Sikri. It is said to be first mature example of Mughal architecture.^[3]

Buland Darwaza

Buland Darwaza, also known as the Gate of Magnificence, was built by Akbar in 1576 A.D. at Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar built the Buland Darwaza to commemorate his victory over Gujarat and the Deccan. It is 40 metres high and 50 metres from the ground. The total height of the Structure is about 54 metres from the ground level. The Buland Darwaza is approached by 1,000,000 steps. The Buland Darwaza is made of red and buff sandstone, decorated by carving and inlaying of white and black marble. An inscription on the central face of the Buland Darwaza is based on Christian belief (advice given by Jesus Christ), and hence shows Akbar's broad mindedness in matters of religion.^[4][5]

Haramsara

The Haramsara, the royal seraglio in Fatehpur Sikri was an area where the royal women lived. The opening to the Haramsara is from the Khwabgah side separated by a row of cloiters. According to Abul Fazl, in Ain-i-Akbari, the inside of Harem was guarded by senior and active women, outside the enclosure the eunuchs were placed, and at a proper distance there were faithful Rajput guards.^[6]

Jodha Bai's Palace

This is the largest palace in the Fatehpur Sikri seraglio, connected to the minor haramsara (where the less important harem ladies and maids would have resided) quarters. The main entrance is double storied, projecting out of the facade to create a kind of porch leading into a recessed entrance with a balcony. Inside there is a quadrangle surrounded by rooms. the columns of rooms are ornamented with a variety of Hindu sculptural motifs. The glazed tiles on the roofs from Multan have an eye catching shade of turquoise.^[7] The mosque was built in honour of Jodha Bai, mother of Jahangir and wife of Akbar. Her Mughal name was Mariyam Zamani Begum and this being the reason that the mosque was built in her honor in Lahore’s walled city. Jahangir built his mother Mariyam Zamani Begum’s mosque and is just 1 km away from the tomb of Akbar near Agra at a place called Sikandra.
Buland Darwaza dominates the landscape. Historian `Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni writes that it was the highest gateway in Hindustan at that time until today.

Inscription

A chronogram is inscribed on the central archway composed by Ashraf Khan, one of Akbar's principal secretaries that reads,
'In the reign of King of the world Akbar, To whom is due the order in the country. The Sheikh -ul-Islam adorned the mosque, Which for its elegance deserves as much reverence as the Ka'ba. The year of the completion of this magnificent edifice, Is found in the words,"duplicate of the Masjidi'l-Haram"' ^[8]
Sheikh Salim Chishti Tomb
The Tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti is famed as one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture in India, built during the years 1580 and 1581, along with the imperial complex at Situated near Zenana Rauza and facing south towards Buland Darwaza, within the quadrangle of the Jama Masjid which measures 350 ft. by 440 ft.[1] It enshrines the burial place of the Sufi saint, Salim Chisti (1478 – 1572), a descendant of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, and lived in a cavern on the ridge at Sikri.[2] The mausoleum, constructed by Akbar as a mark of his respect for the Sufi saint, who foretold the birth of his son, who was named Prince Salim after him and later succeeded Akbar to the throne of the Mughal Empire, as Jahangir.

Jahangir

Jahangir features architecture vanished from the style; his great mosque at Lahore is in the Persian style, covered with enameled tiles. At Agra, the tomb of Itmad-ud-Daula, which was completed in 1628, was built entirely of white marble and covered in pietra dura mosaic. Jahangir also built the Shalimar Gardens and Nishat Bagh, and their accompanying pavilions on the shore of Dal Lake in Kashmir. He also built a monument to his pet deer, Hiran Minar in Sheikhupura, Pakistan and due to his great love for his wife, after his death he went on to build his mausoleum in Lahore.

Shah Jahan

Rather than building huge monuments like his predecessors to demonstrate their power, Shah Jahan built elegant monuments. The force and originality of this previous building style gave way under Shah Jahan to a delicate elegance and refinement of detail, illustrated in the palaces erected during his reign at Agra and Delhi. Some examples include the Taj Mahal at Agra, the tomb of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) in the Lahore Fort and the Jama Masjid at Delhi are imposing buildings of his era, and their position and architecture have been carefully considered so as to produce a pleasing effect and feeling of spacious elegance and well-balanced proportion of parts. Shah Jahan also built sections of the Sheesh Mahal, and Naulakha pavilion, which are all enclosed in the fort. He also built a mosque named after himself in Thatta called Shahjahan Mosque. Shah Jahan also built the Red Fort in his new capital at Shah Jahanabad, now Delhi. The red sandstone Red Fort is noted for its special buildings-Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan-i-Khas. Another mosque was built during his tenure in Lahore called Wazir Khan Mosque, by Shaikh Ilm-ud-din Ansari who was the court physician to the emperor.

Taj Mahal

Main article: Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal, a World Heritage Site known as the "teardrop on the cheek of time" according to writer Rabindranath Tagore, was built between 1630–48 by the emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Its construction took 22 years and required 22,000 laborers and 1,000 elephants. Built entirely of white marble at a cost of approximately 32 million rupees^{[citation needed]}, it is one of the New7Wonders of the World. The building's longest plane of symmetry runs through the entire complex except for the sarcophagus of Shah Jahan, which is placed off centre in the crypt room below the main floor. This symmetry extended to the building of an entire mirror mosque in red sandstone, to complement the Mecca-facing mosque placed to the west of the main structure. Shah Jahan used "pietra dura", a method of decoration on a large scale-inlaid work of jewels.

Shalimar Gardens

Main article: Shalimar Gardens, Lahore

The Shalimar Gardens (1641–1642) built on the orders of Shah Jahan in Lahore, Pakistan, is also on the UNESCO world heritage list.

Aurangzeb and later Mughal architecture

An 1858 illustration of Old Delhi in India, the capital city of the Mughal Empire

Further information: Bibi Ka Maqbara

In Aurangzeb's reign (1658–1707) squared stone and marble was replaced by brick or rubble with stucco ornament. Srirangapatna and Lucknow have examples of later Indo-Mughal architecture. He made additions to the Lahore Fort and also built one of the thirteen gates which was later named after him (Alamgir). Aurangzeb also built the Badshahi Mosque which was constructed in 1674 under the supervision of Fida'i Koka. This mosque is adjacent to the Lahore Fort and is the last in the series of congregational mosques in red sandstone and is closely modeled on the one Shah Jahan built at Shahjahanabad. The red sandstone of the walls contrasts with the white marble of the domes and the subtle intarsia decoration.
Additional monuments from this period are associated with women from Aurangzeb's imperial family. The construction of the elegant Zinat al-Masjid in Daryaganj was overseen by Aurangzeb's second daughter Zinat-al-Nissa. Aurangzeb's sister Roshan-Ara who died in 1671. The tomb of Roshanara Begum and the garden surrounding it were neglected for a long time and are now in an advanced state of decay. Bibi Ka Maqbara was a mausoleum built by Prince Azam Shah, son of Emperor Aurangzeb, in the late 17th century as a loving tribute to his mother, Dilras Bano Begam in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The Alamgiri Gate, built in 1673 A.D., is the main entrance to the Lahore Fort in present-day Lahore. It was constructed to face west towards the Badshahi Mosque in the days of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Another construction of the Mughal era is Lalbagh Fort (also known as "Fort Aurangabad"), a Mughal palace fortress at the Buriganga River in the southwestern part of Dhaka, Bangladesh, whose construction started in 1678 during the reign of Aurangzeb.

Mughal Gardens

Main article: Mughal gardens

Mughal gardens are gardens built by the Mughals in the Islamic style of architecture. This style was influenced by Persian gardens and Timurid gardens. Significant use of rectilinear layouts are made within the walled enclosures. Some of the typical features include pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens. The famous gardens are the Char Bagh gardens at Taj Mahal, Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, Delhi and Kashmir as well as Pinjore Garden in Haryana.

Mughal Bridges

Shahi Bridge, Jaunpur was constructed during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.