Sipping tea and coffee in moving ‘Sky Café

• Laxmi Prasad Sapkota

Parbat: Cliff Sky Cafe has come into operation in the district headquarters Kushma Bazaar.  The Sky Café built over the river Kaligandaki has been set up by the operator of the bungee jump bridge called ‘The Cliff’.

It is claimed that this type of cafe has been brought into operation for adventure sports for the first time in Nepal. The construction and operating company of the bungee jump in Kaligandaki has stated that the sky cafe has been brought into operation.

According to Raju Karki, the operator of The Cliff, the wire has been hung on a high cliff on the bank of the river Kaligand, similar to the wire used for sky cycling. In the cafe, benches and tables have been constructed by attaching wooden planks to the iron.

A table is hung on the wire through the pulley, the ‘cafe’ slowly moves through the pulley on the wire above the scary river. Customers staying there will be able to travel in the open air while eating the food they have ‘ordered’ at the start of the journey.

“The Cliff has become synonymous with other adventure sports, including bungee jumping. We’re working on building as many different adventurous games and infrastructures as possible, and Sky Cafe is built on the same concept, “said Karki.

Yuvraj Joshi, another operator of The Cliff, said that the Sky Cafe is being operated at an altitude of 228 meters above the Kaligandaki River. He says that even in the early stages and even when there is no publicity, an average of 50 people sit in the Sky Cafe every day and drink juice and coffee.

Stating that they have invested around Rs 9.5 million for the cafe alone, he informed that a fee of Rs 2,500 per person has been fixed to enjoy travel in this Sky Café while eating.

According to Ishwar Karki, who has been overseeing the administrative work of the company, vaccination card has been made mandatory for those who come here for adventure sports.

It has been kept in operation by allowing only a small number of tourists to enter by taking turns. Due to that, the tourism sector does not have to remain closed like in the previous Covid-19 phase of the transition, he said.

“In the past, we had to shut down, but now we don’t have to deal with smart lockdowns as we did then,” he said.   “Tourists have all benefited. Despite the Corona infection, daily bungee jumping and swinging, traveling in sky café are equally crowded, he said.