The Toronto Sun has a story that captures the essence of how we like to travel in Nepal: Homestays in a local village.

We at Embark love adventure, of course, but a big part of what we do is interacting with the locals on a level most tourists only dream of. We also believe in the places we visit and make every effort to give back to the local community.

In this case, homestays give visitors a chance to, as the story puts it, “stay with locals, eat locally grown food in their kitchen and even cook meals yourself.”

“We live like a family sitting and eating together with the guests. We discuss even personal matters and crack jokes with them as friends,” one man said.

Their motto is “‘Come as guests, go as friends.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

The best part is, in the village profiled in the story, only 400 of the 11,000 homestay guests last year were non-Nepali. What an opportunity to really see the local culture on a personal level!

So good for the folks in Ghalegaun, and thanks to the folks at the Sun for telling is about this.