Less than one week into 2018 and looks like we already have the best travel video of the year — or at least, one of the best travel videos.

Milan Thapa is a Boston based freelance photographer and film-maker who has shot and directed a number of Nepali music videos including those of The Edge Band and Laure.

This guy right here.

Originally from Pokhara, Milan was in Nepal in October last year for his travel video project called Traverse Nepal. He traveled to various parts of Nepal — Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, Palpa, Bhairahawa, Dharan and Mardi Himal — to shoot almost 2 TB of footage consisting of over 1600 clips; and has finally released the final outcome, a 5-minute video.

Awesome, isn’t it? After all, it’s a double treat — great visuals, and beautiful music produced by Rohit Shakya.

The stunning video features Girish Khatiwada, Sisan Baniya, Samriddhi Rai, Srijana Regmi, Animesh Shahi, Sanna Gurung and Alis Rana, among others. Milan has named the video, “The Home Coming” and the tagline is, “There is no place like home.” So, why exactly?

“I was longing for the feel of home, the sense of belongingness and that gravitated back me to Nepal. I have seen abundance of sunrises and sunsets here, made tons of memories, both bitter and sweet, but one thing always remained the same — the debt of gratitude I owe to Nepal”, he said. “The video was not scripted. I just had an idea in my head and I just wanted to explore; and so I just went with the flow and filmed what I thought would make a pleasant watch in that very moment.”

But the filming didn’t exactly go as smoothly as he had hoped. “I had got arrested while using the drone”, he recalls. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I think the rules regarding the use of drones are unnecessarily strict. I mean, of course it must be restricted in certain places and areas but I don’t understand why one has to take permission to use it in just any corner of the country. Getting the permission takes time and I couldn’t have it because of the tight schedule I was running in.”

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. We’re glad to see the final result.

You can see more of Milan Thapa’s works on YouTube and connect with him on Instagram.