The first ever Himalayan Vegan Festival /

The first-ever Himalayan Vegan Festival was originally scheduled for 2021, but the global health pandemic led to a postponement. The original plans were for the festival to take place over consecutive weekends in Kathmandu, Nepal and Thimpu, Bhutan, but due to ongoing travel restrictions in Bhutan, it was decided that Nepal would host both weekends. So after more than two years of planning, postponing and rescheduling, the Himalayan Vegan Festival finally took place over two weekends in Kathmandu and Pokhara in Nepal.

The list of speakers was impressive and included Dr Susianto Tseng, President of the World Vegan Organisation, and Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Indian Parliamentarian and founder of People for Animals. We were truly honored to stand alongside so many experts in their field who had traveled from all over the world to share their knowledge and experiences. The list of esteemed speakers also included a trio of plant-based food innovators: Seth Tibbott, the vegan food pioneer and founder of Tofurky, Derek Sarno, vegan chef and co-founder of Wicked Kitchen, and Abishek Sinha, CEO and co-founder of GoodDot, the leading plant-based meat producer in India.

Also present and speaking at the festival were Ken Spector of HappyCow, the go-to website for vegans worldwide, award-winning conservationist and founder of Save Elephant Foundation and Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, Lek Chaillert, and Dr. Harsha Atmakuri, the director of Maa Ka Doodh, a groundbreaking documentary exposing the dairy industry in India. The chance to attend the world premiere while in Kathmandu was an opportunity we didn’t want to miss, together with other delegates we unpacked a local theater to watch this challenging and thought provoking documentary.

After working across the region supporting hotels, resorts and restaurants in their efforts to embrace the burgeoning demand for vegan and plant-based foods, I was invited to lead a series of talks and workshops with guests and hospitality professionals who attended festival.

While in Kathmandu, festival delegates were hosted by The Soaltee Kathmandu which provided a perfect base for the duration of the festival. Considered one of the best hotels in the city, they have previously welcomed groups, conferences and guests from all over the world with a wide range of dietary requirements. They certainly embraced the vegan concept and provided a wide variety of plant-based dishes during our stay. We loved that they created a vegan counter at breakfast and we also loved the chance to eat idli every morning, the perfect start to the day.

We were made to feel very welcome by Ms Pratiksha and Mr Sharma during our stay at The Soaltee, we enjoyed talking to them about future plans to offer more vegan food, and they also invited me to a special vegan lunch, prepared by Chef Vinay Singh. Getting the chance to really sample his culinary creations was a highlight of our time at The Soaltee, the momos were divine and the pea and potato cakes served with a trio of chutneys certainly hit the mark too.

When they contacted us after the Himalayan Vegan Festival with the exciting news that they were hosting their own 10-day vegan festival to coincide with World Vegan Day, we were over the moon. We can’t wait to have the chance to return to Kathmandu and see how they have further developed their plant based offerings at The Soaltee.

Pokhara had a lot to live up to as a host city after the excitement of Kathmandu, but they had an ace up their sleeve. The simply mesmerizing and ever-changing views of the lake and mountains will stay with me forever, and I’m pretty sure the other delegates feel exactly the same way. Whether on a boat ride on the lake to enjoy the sunset, or an early morning ride on the Annapurna Cable Car to admire the view with fellow delegates including Yukari and Priyanka, everywhere you look in Pokhara make you feel alive, we are excited to return and explore the area further.

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Also well versed in hosting large and diverse groups, the excellent Pokhara Grande was our home during the festival weekend in Pokhara. They outdid themselves by ensuring that the festival delegates were not only welcomed with that renowned Nepalese hospitality, but that the chef and his team worked tirelessly to create delicious vegan food, including vegan croissants for breakfast! It’s not every day we eat vegan croissants so we definitely jumped at the opportunity. Our breakfasts at Pokhara Grande also include regional favorites like dosa and idli, which always make us happy. At other meals we enjoyed a wide and varied selection of vegan curries and stir fries, which meant that going hungry was never going to happen during our time in Pokhara Grande.

The festival would not have happened without the generous sponsors, including award-winning Vegan Travel Asia, the region’s leading vegan tour operators. Offering small group travel that supports communities while respecting the environment, it’s no surprise that they were recently the winners of ‘Asia’s Responsible Travel Award’ at the World Travel Awards for the second consecutive year. We partnered with them to create vegan tours in Cambodia starting in December 2022, while leading the first-ever vegan tour to Everest Base Camp in October, supported by vegan mountaineer Kuntal Joisher, the first vegan to climb Mount Everest.

The first ever Himalayan Vegan Festival was an incredible experience and we were blessed to have the opportunity to be involved and meet so many inspiring vegans from all over the world. For anyone considering a vegan travel adventure to Nepal, we are sure that any time spent in both Kathmandu and Pokhara will pay off on so many levels that they were the perfect host cities. This was our first glimpse of what Nepal has to offer, and we are excited to continue our own vegan travel adventure to Nepal in the very near future.

Paul Eyers is founder of Vegan Food Quest. Vegan Food Quest have become luxury vegan travel specialists as they continue to find, eat and write about the best vegan food in the world.

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