No End to Politically Aggravated Lunacy!

Yup! I found the perfect expansion of NEPAL as it stands today (sorry.. as it is moving into the future...) But just to put it to record... we used to once say it stood for "Never Ending Peace and Love" (not perfect "inglis" but the message was there), which was given up a long long time ago. We had hung on desperately to this till about 1995/96, when all hell finally broke loose! Mention that nowadays and you might be stoned (literally or transcendentally)...

I cannot describe exactly what I feel nowadays towards my beloved nation. I am patriotic, there is no doubt about that, but this is not blind love. I can SEE a lot, and what I see makes me want to vomit!

Ours is a country who could have sat still and still gained. Every Nepali loves that, we are a pretty lazy bunch anyways, and can be contend with very little. Crushed between two giants, we have had the best that can be had from these massive economies, considering our situation. The cost of existence in Nepal is still comparatively low. I have lived in Ghana in West Africa for the past few years, and the cost of living in a country that produces little and has very little industrialization is very evident, where everything is astronomically expensive. We still have the benefit of open borders, our currency pegged to the Indian Rupee, and a good "understanding" between smugglers and police that releases enough chinese goods to make every citizen happy.

So, it is clear that there was no reason to "have eaten the tail of a goat" (bakhra ko puchhar khane)... if we had just stayed calm, kept ourselves peaceful and patient (you would have thought that we would have learnt a bit from the teachings that came out of Buddha's extreme starvation meditation which brought about enlightenment), we could have benefited a lot from these two 21st century superpowers.... actually, we still can, but we might just have reached the point of no return!

No, but we are Nepalese people, lovers of momo and buffalo meat! I think we have the brain the size of the buffalo meat inside those damn momos! We are lovers of proverbs (like "aphnu khutta ma bancharo hanne") which is exactly what we like to do (wake up countrymen, those proverbs are there for us to learn from them, not prove it!)... So we go forward and prove "lata ko desh ma ganda tanderi", "nepali ko salla kharani ko dalla" and "gu kotaye ganauchha" . How hopeless are we?

I think there will be lots of you who share this sentiment, specially as we get closer and closer to the threshold level of proverbial Nepali patience.

But I do not want to dwell on this. I am out to write about politics and politicians, I am raving mad and I hope I can draw blood!

I cannot believe there can be any other country in this world (OK, which is not ruled by a dictator or a bunch of gun toting teenagers) where a lawmaker, a leader elected by the people to review the laws of the land, can defend attacks on someone else's property and injury to people as a form of "self-defense"..

A country where it takes forever to form a government because the politicians cannot stop squabbling..

A country where mass murderers can become saviors overnight, where criminals with a track record can represent the same people they conducted their crimes on.

Where unions who represent the masses who need employment are out to shut industries or create an environment where industries cannot survive

Where the only education you can get (at least nowadays) is how to burn tires and throw stones at the police and how to bring a country to a standstill.

Where does this come from? I thought we were reasonably smart people, who discovered how to eat "sisnu ko jhol" in case of emergency, learnt how to preserve "saag" by making "gundruk", were talented enough to enjoy and cultivate the art of insta-ballad ("Dohori") etc.. When did we turn from this into sheep, following the lunacy of these politicians who cannot see beyond their own asses, with their heads stuck up you know where...

OK, I cannot continue, at this point I am thoroughly disgusted, my threshold is reached. (let me go and vomit now!)

The Melting Himalayas

photo: The Everest Range, copyright socialtours

The importance of the Himalayan Range in controlling global temperatures have been well known, but not enough is being done to actually monitor it on a regular basis, providing reliable data to help find ways and means to save this planet.

Was relieved to see an article come up on the BBC website based on a conference done by ICIMOD highlighting this problem... hopefully this will raise awareness.

read it here

The Fascination of Masks

This is truly interesting. Had a chance to see 365 Krampus (demons) do a walk in Zams, Tirol, in Austria. Creatures in hideous to plain silly masks came in droves, from different parts of Tirol, to participate in this run, on a real cold saturday evening.

Apart from the boyish fascination I have of cultural events such as this, it makes me wonder. Every where in the world, almost in every ethnicity, you see something to do with masks.. with this need to be someone else... someone you are not! I wonder what led us to do this, and how did that transition happen, from being just social food gatherers to trying to be someone else!

Thats really interesting, isn't it?

The Spectacle of Terror

I cannot help watching live telecasts of the so called "War on Mumbai" on the CNN/IBN website. Its live, fast paced journalism, but somewhere I cannot help wondering if the channel is also capitalizing on its newly found popularity. I hear too many words like "exclusive", "our correspondents are tirelessly working", in typical high pitched hyper-fast reporting that is typically Indian... Even on a low volume, it sounds loud for some reason.

So I end up thinking, is this really responsible? A friend of mine in Mumbai, wrote a small note on facebook outlining her feelings at this moment, and tried to put it to perspective. I have to thank her for bringing this to light. You would think that India was under attack at this moment, if you watch the news channels.

It is terrible all right, over 140 people have died so far, and there is no describing the horror of actually being in that situation and having a loved one injured or dead. But do we get the same level of sensationalism and media interest when murder, rape and torture happens in Sudan or the DRC?

picture taken from NYTimes article on Rape Epidemic in Congo

There is a world outcry because it is India, and somehow, India is an important place for the world. India is also loud, and has a presence that can be felt in this world. Sudan and Congo do not have that. Hence, one does not have to be too loud about their feelings towards the atrocities going on there.

I would love to see Michael Moore take on the media in his next movie and their marketing of terror. I hope he still has some energy left, after all his fights!

Gastronomic Guide to Thamel

I have started writing a gastronomic guide to Thamel, the tourism district in Kathmandu. Its up at the website www.iknowagreatplace.com and you can find it directly here. This is a new initiative from www.responsibletravel.com and is a wonderful place to add your travel tips... or to learn about them.

Trekking back on track!

Going by what is being reported, we might be just back on track, after seven/eight long years of being in the slump. News reports are now showing that the trekking business is rebounding back in giant leaps. Looks like "change" (the big buzzword nowadays in the world) in government was what was required in Nepal too. 

picture courtesy: rajesh k.c www.rajeshkc.com

Even the Khumbu reported choked villages in October, full of trekkers, and situation of not finding accomodation starting to happen. Read this in this Nepalitimes Article. 

It is difficult to say if this is a blessing or a curse. Tourism entrepreneurs who are reading this might have a shine in their eyes, and even have tears of joy (we are back in business! yaaah!) but the trekker who wants to peacefully enjoy his walking holiday will be like, how can I avoid this rush (damn, sounds like mass tourism!)

There is good news for both parties though. And you can read it in that article hyperlinked above, or in the synopsis right here. Some years ago, the idea of a trans Himalayan trekking route, stretching from Pakistan, and including Tibet, Nepal for most of the way, India and Sikkim began to emerge, and was called the Great Himalayan Trail. The idea was to create this trail that would take several months to complete, but would offer options for people to enter at a particular point and exit at another, giving rise to possibilities of several custom trips (and side trips)... this might save the industry in Nepal... creating increased possibilities for both industry professionals and for the clients alike, so that everyone does not have to tread the same ground.

This has multiple benefits of course. The trekking dominated tourism of Nepal, has mostly been limited to the Annapurna Region, the Everest Region and the Lantang Region, in that order. It is not that trekkers do not go to other areas, but few and far between (good for them, but a small critical mass is required for the industry as a whole and the infrastructure to develop). Also, for too long, these three areas have been the only ones to benefit directly form the tourism Dollar (Oops, should I rather say Euro or Pound?) so its high time the rest of Nepal (which is equally if not more beautiful) gets its share too.

Only recently has new routes such as the Chepang Hill Trail (to Chitwan), Renjo La Trail (Everest Region), the Tamang Heritage Trail (Langtang Region), and Nar Phu Valley trips (Annapurna Region) been worked on and marketed. Good news is trekking these new routes can result in (thankfully) smaller number of other trekkers.

Of course, traditional off the beaten trails like Dolpo, Kanchenjunga, Gauri Shankar Area and Humla have always been there and are reasonably developed, but for normal holiday makers with normal budgets, these are a bit expensive.

So, for the benefit of the Nepal Travel Advisory 

ADVISORY: 

1. Time your trek in the beginning or end of the tourism season. This will ensure that the villages are not crowded. You will also do something really responsible by doing this. Help spread the tourism season a bit more. Nepal is still beautiful. So when is this

Spring before season timings: early Feb or late April, May

Fall before season timings: End August or Late November, December

2. Be drastic, and choose to come in summer. Yeah, yeah everyone talks about the monsoon and all, but there are tons of areas in the rain shadow, and trekking in summer can be real real cool up there! Places like Manang, Mustang (ok, thats a bit expensive), Gosainkunda etc, can be real fun. We actually even have a big group coming next year in June - (peak summer/rainy season)to go up to Everest Base Camp, and i tell you, they WILL have a blast!

3. Forget the race to EBC, ABC, Kanjin Gompa, and try some of the Off the Beaten Trails... You will notice a drastic difference in the charm of trekking there.

4. Wait a few years, train a lot, and hit the Trans Himalayan Trail for three months, from Pakistan to the Northeastern border of India.

See you in the mountains!

Internalizing Environmental Responsibility

I can see that it is getting progressively more and more complicated to "put your money where your mouth is" in the world of responsibility. As we "develop" ourselves, we generally get more and more "irresponsible" if we live normal lives, and unless you turn yourself into a eccentric ascetic, you might as well be ready to compromise heavily on what you believe in. I think a beggar in the streets of Kolkata is more environmentally responsible than I am, though I might consider myself the more "sensitive".

Living now in Austria for short time has reinforced the Western dominance in the world of environmental degradation and energy consumption. Agreed, most things seem unavoidable, but I feel that life in air polluted Kathmandu beats living in Austria in terms of environmental responsibility if calculated in terms of "per capita negative impacts".

I work in a cold cellar, with a heater on (I try to turn it off from time to time) and with the onset of winter, its also dark, so I use lights. Everything around me guzzles electricity, and the moment I walk out, I need to drive to go anywhere, mostly alone, as public transport is few and far between where I live. The mailboxes are always full of junk paper, which I would rather not have in the first place, and I need more energy to cook each meal, as I also have to drive to the grocery to bring the stuff back, usually alone in the car. Everything I buy has tons of packing on it, usually plastic, the fruits even have a small brand stamp, which I have to chuck. I could go on, roping in all facets of responsibility, but I think the point is made.

The one thing that I can appreciate is the waste disposal mechanism, where everything is sorted, recycled or vanishes out of view. I think, in Kathmandu, I produce less than one tenth inorganic waste than when I am here, except my waste in Kathmandu is probably on the streets, later taken away to ugly open dumping sites! On the trek, I probably produce very close to zero inorganic waste!

It is also true that one can live a "green" life even here, but I am just a normal person, wanting to live a normal live, albeit a slightly "greener" one.

Unfortunately, in this world, we are all moving towards the lifestyles of the west, and though one might think that "progress" is when Kathmandu will be like Vienna, I am glad I will probably not be there to experience it.

A nation of contrasts!

It is a day of mixed feelings for me today. Early this morning I got alarm emails from Nepal and the UK concerning the student protests in Kathmandu over the alleged YCL murder / assasination of two youths in a remote district. As stoic Nepalese, we have come to terms that these events are regular normal happenings in Nepal. However, we have clients currently there and their safety is our prime concern. Events such as these always bring the same emotions of hopelessness, sadness, and frustration knowing what potential Nepal has, and how we are effectively throwing it all down a drain.


Later, I read about Subina Shrestha and Dawa Steven Sherpa, and my heart lightened up. Subina is a good friend who was a finalist just last week for the prestigious Rory Peck Award for her outstanding journalism in the Irrawady Delta in Myanmar. She was the first journalist to reach there, posing as a buddhist pilgrim from Nepal.

Dawa Steven Sherpa, a fellow entrepreneur in Nepal, is making us all proud of his innovative conservationist skills, in the world arena. He is only 24, has reached three 8000 + m peaks, Mt. Everest twice... and is a beacon for conservation efforts in mountaineering, and is winning awards right, left and center.

Nepal proves to me more and more regularly, how badly we suck as a country in providing a good environment for the citizens of this country, and how vast the differences are in terms of education, thinking, and understanding of priorities. The students on the streets today are also a proud, fierce lot, but I personally believe that their thinking a bit clouded by the political motives dictated or brainwashed by politicians with ulterior motives, into their young and angry heads. So they go on disrupting live, business, education in the name of change, without realising that they are stomping over their own ingenuity, creativity and potential.

When will Nepal realise that all we have to do is SIT TIGHT. Create a stable country, a stable political environment and sit tight. China and India, in between whom we are fortunately sandwiched, will carry us through!

Where is the Industry now?

This follows something that I have written about before, but it is important in my mind that we revisit it. Where is the tourism industry in Nepal today?

The tourism industry had taken quite a hit in the 10 or so years of insurgency in Nepal, which finally seems to have closed its chapter. We have other problems, but hopefully insurgency at a nationwide scale as before will not come now that the Maoists have come overground.

However, the industry proved its resilience, growing even during some peak turmoil years, after the initial shock and lowest point in 2001. I personally think that part of this growth was also a global trend, fueled by the 9/11 attacks, the Bali bombing, the Madrid bombing, and the London bombings, which all proved to people that there were worse problems than in Nepal, and really, we are not really safe anywhere. So people kept coming, and the tourism industry had enough people coming to keep it striving. It also did other things.

It made the industry resilient. The industry had learnt that they have to fend for themselves, and traditional agents in the markets were quick to be disloyal when the advisories went sour. This made companies making efforts at reaching to the market, going into trade fairs, starting building better websites and marketing direct. Clients now are dealing with better websites, service, and more professional companies than before.

Companies are also now more conscious of market requirements and responsibility issues. In 2006, a project on marketing of sustainable products of Nepal by UNEP, SNV, Nepal Tourism Board and the Nepal Government, got over 50 private sector operators join the Sustainable Tourism Network. Several of them got selected for the MAST project and received training and even attended some trade shows as part of the marketing effort. It does not prove much, but shows that operators are conscious and willing to make changes for the market.

Internationalism is also coming in. Nepal recently hosted a major international mountain biking championship, actively does an international kayak championship every year, and boasts the highest marathon in the world, the Everest Marathon, which starts at 5350 meters or so at the Everest Base Camp and ends at 3440 at Namche Bazaar. (interesting fact: the first race was won by a Nepalese trekking cook!)

So the message is: Nepal is more than ready. If anything good came out of the insurgency, it did make the industry more resilient and professional.

Competing with the "developed" world: Issue # 21 - Travel

Frankly, I have not counted the issues, I have to admit. I just put in # 21 because I am quite sure that the list extends beyond this, and I might continue this series (lets see!). This comes first hand, trying to travel to the UK right now for WTM and years travelling in the "developed" world - for business and to compete in the global travel market as a Nepalese entrepreneur.

Business is about opportunities, and one has to be able to pounce on them. This means the ability to quickly get to places where the opportunities arise. Unfortunately, for a large part of the world, travel has several hindrances, and the biggest hurdle is the visa.

You are guilty unless proven innocent, and the visa official is the judge. We have to prove that we have no intent to stay or seek employment. All this sounds OK, countries have the right to check this. But how can this be proven.

1. Are you employed? If yes, give us originals of your salary sheet for at least three months to six months and a letter of temporary leave from employment.

2. Are you self employed? prove that you have an organization. Is it legal? Give registration papers, and possibly bank statements, to prove that this is not a paper organisation.

3. Are you married? do you have children (you might consider coming back to)?

4. Who invited you to the UK? Do you have papers to prove this? Originals please, no emails or faxes! Can this organisation please prove that you will go back once the business is over? (by the way, there is not much chance that an organisation from "our" parts of the world would have enough money and zeal to actually travel on their own, without having to get an invitation)

5. Have you booked your tickets? Return please. We want to make sure you are coming back. So there is no chance that you can change your dates without spending big money, even if the opportunity arises?

6. Are you applying from your home country, or a country where you are a resident? If not, please go back there to apply. (no way you are allowed to change your itinerary)

7. Do you have enough personal savings? please give us an original of your six monthly bank statement of your personal account.

Finally, after all this preparation, you might get a visa (or you might not!).

Compare this with someone coming from the UK, or the US, or the EU into Asia, or Africa or Latin America, specially in some countries with entry visa that can be bought at the airport, or have a limited gratis visa.

How can WE compete in this globalised world?

btw, I have not been refused the visa!