OJM Travel Blog

OJM welcomes the fantastic support and co-operation  from the staff and parents of Forbes Childrens Nursery, Edinburgh.

Working together we will raise more money to sponsor poor and marginalized children of Nepal.

Our Director, Oliver, met with Michael and Tharese, owners of Forbes, on Friday 11th Sept.

Money raised will go to Rainbow Childrens Home in Pokhara, Nepal.

Staff from OJM Travel will also be involved in supporting staff at Forbes to teach Nepali kids songs, cooking Nepali recepies and discussing the culture and different lifestyles of Nepal.

visit Forbes Childrens Nursery
visit Rainbow Childrens Home

OJM have partnered up with Carbon Offset Scotland (COS) to provide a genuine, local carbon offset service which takes the form of  woodland regeneration at Balmuick Farm, Perthshire, Scotland. Only 1.5 hours away from the OJM head office in Edinburgh.

We encourage our customers who offset to visit their trees being planted and see what a wonderful and sustainable project this is.

COS are considerate in their tree planting and recreate traditional woodland with trees native to the area and in turn encourage the regeneration of wildlife habitat.  They use local knowledge gained from generations of experience on the farm and expertise of tree planting partners to plant the right trees in the appropriate places.

All trees are planted in reserves and managed woodland where they will live their natural lifespan and meet their biodiversity targets.

How does planting trees offset carbon?
The trees store the carbon, thereby removing it from the atmosphere and offsetting the pollution.

What is the process?
As an example lets imagine a flight.

• For each flight, the distance and the number of kilograms of carbon emitted by the journey by the passenger are calculated.
• The carbon dioxide emission calculator is based on emission factors provided by U.K’s DEFRA for short and long haul flights. The calculations used are based on data from the U.K. Assumptions: the aircraft is fully occumpied.
• 1 tree can store 734 kg of carbon dioxide.
• 1 tree costs £8.50, the necessary amount needed for the offset is added to the price of the customer’s ticket.
• The customer receives a personalised Offset Certificate and the satisfaction they know they are fighting climate.

Over 100 countries, over 25,000 hotels to choose from, by working together we enhance our service and choice for OJM customers.

Thanks to all those who organised the excellent programmes, it was nice to talk to people who took such an interest in the Himalayas and took home our leaflets.

Dog flies business class for $32,000
An Israeli woman identified as Rivkah paid $32,000 to allow her dog to travel in business class with her from Paris to Tel Aviv.

Rivkah, 60, paid for an entire compartment to carry her, her boxer “Orchuk” and a vet on the four-hour flight. Airline El Al had to remove several seats to make room for Or’s cage.

“I didn’t think for a minute to leave Or, my little Orchuk, with the cargo,” said Rivkah. “I’ve been raising him for eight years and four months in France. I also didn’t mind having other passengers sit next to us.

All that mattered to me was to have my baby with me during the flight so that I can take care of him.”

Rivkah preferred not to discuss her payment to El Al, because she believed any price would have been worth it. “He is my child, not a dog. And he deserves the best,” she said.

El Al told the Haaretz newspaper in Israel it had never had such a request before. “But after the lady explained her special relationship with her dog and expressed her willingness to pay extra in order to fly with him, we agreed.”

By Sasjkia Otto, www.telegraph.co.uk

OJM’s new partner offers airport transfers, door-to-door, in Scotland and Newcastle areas.

Alistair White’s company, Travel Pods, (a BNI member) excels in service and value.

Any vehicle to suit our customer’s need is available to drop and pick up customers from the airport. Never again do they have to worry about how they’re getting to the airport, or who’s picking them up if the flight is delayed, Alistair and his staff monitor all flight times.

OJM will be at the Mela Festival Sunday 9th August.

 Pilrig Park, Edinburgh 12.00 – 17.00.

This is taken in Dunche, Nepal where we started our Gosainkunda trek. These are two of the assistant guides that accompanied us on our expedition, Laxman Rai and Khem Rai , it was a pleasure to get to know them and their help was invaluable.

Without them, or people like them, trekking groups like ours would never get up the Himalayas, (or if we were to get up, we’d likely be very lost, tired and hungry!) They also made sure we all returned safely, their knowledge and fitness was incredible.

Whilst we were coming back down through the Helambu region I hurt my big toe by kicking a rock when I was preoccupied with the view. I had to go a little slower, also my boyfriend had pulled muscles in his knee and we were split from the main group, Laxman and the head Sherpa Tshering stayed behind and found us places to sleep with local families and made sure we were watered, safe and foot sure.

They kept offering to carry our bags and finally near the end of one day I gracefully gave my bag to Laxman  who carried it to the next place to sleep without even breaking a sweat!

The Sherpa Guides have had some tough times with tourists in the past, and it is really good to see that there are appropriate organisations now that make sure pay is fair and also what is expected of them is realistic. The International Mountain Explorers Connection (IMEC) has a good porter guide i can recommend and worth taking into account when planning your trek.

We invited all the staff to come and eat with us on our last night in Nepal and this was really nice to sit together and eat. I hope to be able to work with some of this team again next year, great company and the dal bhat (the local staple food) was amazing!