Peace descends on Nepal

FINALLY! Good news at least in one part of the world!

The mountain trekking and mountain climbing community would be rejoicing now. At least I am. :) The long awaited end to the civil war in Nepal has finally come to pass. And it would be wonderful news to the Nepalese as tourism (especially mountain trekking) is a key contributor to the country's economy.

In 2003, my friends and I made our way to the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) in Nepal despite the civil unrest. We were lucky that the situation was not so bad at that time. Prior to our trip, a few friends who went to Nepal got caught in Kathmandu when the city declared a state of emergency while they were there. They were trapped in the city for a few days before they were able to get flights back.

Our experience were a lot milder.

We were told beforehand that we need to pay "passage fees" ala "cukai pintu" to the Maoist during our trek. We were also told to insist on a receipt as there were many Maoist "soldiers" manning the Himalayan mountain treks. If we hold on to the receipt, we could show the said receipt to the next group of Maoist "soldiers" who asks us for such fees. The Maoist will honour that receipt and will not insist that we pay a second round. I can't remember now how much we paid for the "fees" but it was no small amount. It was definitely more than RM100 per person.

In any case, we did meet with the Maoist "soldiers" and they had rifles/guns with them. They looked quite ordinary except for the weapons. Val almost took a picture with them but we prevented her from doing so as we heard that the Maoist would also confiscate cameras from trekkers as extra fee payment. We got off lightly.

However, some other trekkers that we met were not so lucky. One group of volunteer workers from Belgium (I think) had to pay the fees twice because when the group split up to go on different trails, only one group was able to keep the receipt, Thus, the other group who did not hold on to the receipt was "taxed" again. Unfortunately one Belgian lady from the group had no more cash with her. She ended up having her very expensive camera confiscated as payment. The camera itself was worth more than 5x the fee!

We also met an American couple who had to pretend to be Europeans so as NOT to get "taxed" heavily. Americans were the least favoured folks with the Maoist as America contributed heavily and were strong supporters of the Nepalese monarchy then.

In any case, this new "peace" is certainly great news for all of us and we hope that it will last ... well, at least until after our next two trips there. We are eyeing the Everest Base Camp and the Annapurna Circuit. We are certainly looking forward to returning to Nepal again as this is a beautiful country with some fantastic treks and amazing scenery. Besides, the people are just simply wonderful!

Check out this site for photos from my previous trip to Nepal in 2003.