Maybe you remember me ranting about this before but it’s on my mind again lately. Nepal has tremendous opportunity and potential to be a vital economic and cultural figure in the region of southern Asia. The Kathmandu Valley has a remarkable heritage as being a trade center between Tibet and India, and it is a unique mix among the religious and intellectual philosophies or ancient cultures. Nepal does host a vibrant tourism industry and they have a lot of magic to share with the outside world, but it seems there is little else the people of Nepal have been able to pull together for their economy. They have gotten down subsistence farming pretty well, but that’s a system that can’t support the population levels and the modern social issues at the heart of Nepal. It has been a great benefit mutually to Nepal to get revenue and international exposure from the outside world and it is an intriguing experience for westerners to travel through the mysterious land. The mystic ways of the Nepalese have long allured the imagination of many adventurous travelers, but to be honest it seems like the charm could wear off. It has gotten much easier to travel to and access the wonders of the fabled land and now just about anyone crazy enough can make the excursion. Maybe after a while the Nepal experience will lose its novelty and, just like the Middle-Eastern countries when they run out of oil, won’t have much to fall back on for revenue and a national identity.

Nepal has its own kind of humor. It is reassuring that the people there have something to laugh about with all of the despair they could be facing: daal baht for every meal and emphysema in their thirties from all the pollution in the city. Pema has a television in the dining room of his lodge in Khumjung, somewhat of a rarity over 13,000 feet (remember, someone had to carry it up there). One of the choice viewing selections was the comedy duo MaHa (Madankhrishna Shrestha and Haribansa Acharya) performing live in Kathmandu. We gave it a try (to break some of the monotony) and was a bit of culture shock, and sensory overload for Rich. After an hour of incomprehensible yammering and a musical number that seemed to go on an infinite loop Rich scampered away and took some powerful sedatives, but the tune continued in his nightmares. Still, Pema and his boys got a good laugh from the routine. They say the people of Nepal love this comedy team and they help to ease the tension and to take some weight from the heavy issues. Shovan says he loves that show too. The way he explains it they do make a lot of fun of the government, but are “diplomatic and satirical” in the way they play it. They don’t mention any names or address anyone directly, but the Nepalese are in on the jokes.

As we were on our way back from Nepal at the end of October we finally got in touch with our friends and family and there were a few who were seriously concerned about our welfare. Nepal certainly is not a well-known corner of the world, but a feature article published in the November 2005 issue of National Geographic was alarming to those following our trek from the blog here. The article “Nepal: Inside the Revolution” gives a little background on the conflict between the insurgent “Maoist” forces and the King’s Royal Nepalese Army (RNA). The violent clashes have been predominantly in the western regions far from the capital city of Kathmandu and vicinity of Mt. Everest. The author Ed Douglas does portray the conditions as being grim and savage where guerrilla squads terrorize many innocent villages and where the RNA troops lay down force indiscriminately. The political situation is dicey, and I doubt the author wanted to hold onto that hot potato very long. I’ve heard a very creative theories about what machination are at work in the administration, but the author just gave the official version.

Today Shovan was telling me about his school “excursion” to the Chitwan National Park south of Kathmandu. I tried to envision the scene as his bus tumbled into the Terai jungle on the patchy provincial road. He says the Chitwan is famous as an Asian safari, and the word “safari” sent my mind off to a tangent on the Serengeti Plains in Easten Africa. “You mean like tigers and elephants?” I was way off. Shovan sternly set me straight that tigers are only in Asia, so Africa only has lions. I guess I haven’t watched “The Lion King” and “The Jungle Book” enough times to figure that out. I was also way off imagining the landscape. The Serengeti is a little sparse and arid, with a few desiccated shrubs here and there. A safari in Nepal is completely different, with dense jungles, running rivers, and perils shrouded on all sides.