Nanohana Lodge

Kul Bahadur Acharya

Kul Bahadur Acharya is the proprietor of Nanohana Lodge, which was started by his father some 22 years ago under the name New Star Lodge, with just five guest rooms in central Lakeside. Since the very beginning, the Acharya family has been operating their family business in a sustainable manner, not just for the sake of saying, but also in terms of realization.

When the main Lakeside are started becoming more and more crowded just when he was preparing to expand his lodge, Kul decided to move to a more quieter location just opposite to his current residence. He shares a mixed opinion about the recent developments taking place in Pokhara as well as other touristic destinations of Nepal. He is happy about the better infrastructures and growing number of visitors, but at the same time, is very much concerned about the degrading natural aesthetics and traditional values of those places.

He believes in quality rather than quantity and that is why he is proud of the compliments he keeps getting from his satisfied guests, who often recommend his lodge to their friends abroad. Nanohana, the Japanese name for mustard flower, seems to justify the beauty of this small yet well-sustained property perfectly. The transformation of Nanohana Lodge from a one-storeyed building to the three storeyed building with 11 fully operational guest rooms was carried out solely from the proceeds of the lodge itself and without any external investment.

This accommodation provider has taken action to address one or more issues (whether environmental, social or cultural) which will contribute positively to the long term viability of the destination and hence their site displays a Caring for the destination rating.

Main area of focus in Caring for the Destination:
Environmental - water use management

Detailed description of the Caring for the Destination Initiative:
Kul Bahadur does not only preach sustainability, but is a step ahead in terms of implementation as compared to his competitors in Pokhara. He is very much aware that resources must be used wisely to ensure that our children will get a fair share of what we are using today.

Although Pokhara is naturally very rich in water resource, he believes that it must be used as responsibly as possible without wasting a single drop in vain. He could have installed some readymade (usually costly) solutions to minimize the use of water in the toilets of his lodge. However, he went on to innovate something very practical yet costing literally nothing at all, so much so that you could easily do so at home.

Unbelievable? Well, he will be quite happy to show you how his modified flush system that silently saves 2 liters of water on every single flush! The idea behind is so simple that it implements nothing more than a primary school knowledge of volume and space.