Sunita Pandey

Born and raised in Pokhara's Lakeside district, Sunita speaks English, Japanese and German fluently, and gets by in several more. Her real language is context. She is the guide who explains why the prayer flags are those five particular colours, who tells you the history of the gompa you are standing in, and why the festival in the next village is the one you did not know you needed to see. Her speciality is the cultural circuit — Chitwan, Lumbini, Kathmandu — and the valley day treks most visitors miss entirely.