Traveling in Nepal While Local: Money Talks, Nepalis Walk

  • Post category:Travel

Starting in the mid-nineties, I had the opportunity to travel to Nepal as well as live and work in the country briefly. I also traveled and trekked a great deal during that period. Doing so, I learned a great deal about my country and people. As amazing as some of those experiences were, especially the treks, discoveries I made about some of our systems left me wondering if Nepalis are second class citizens in their own country.

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Trekking in Nepal While Local: Second Class Citizen in One’s Own Country?!

  • Post category:Travel

Starting in the mid-nineties, I had the opportunity to travel to Nepal as well as live and work in the country briefly. I also traveled and trekked a great deal during that period. Doing so, I learned a great deal about my country and people. As amazing as some of those experiences were, especially the treks, some of the discoveries I made and some of the experiences I had left a bad taste in my mouth, leaving me to wonder if Nepalis are second class citizens in their own country.

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So You Want to Volunteer at an Orphanage in Nepal? Don’t!

Earlier this month, the evening of April 5 to be precise, I gave a presentation at Wisdom Wednesdays series of talks at Paddy Foley's organized by NGN. The series, and therefore the talk, is about ETHICAL voluntourism. I volunteered to give the presentation as a contribution towards the organizer's efforts to #StopOrphanTrips to Nepal.

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The Ugly Face of Tourism in Mustang in The Nineties

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Jigu Lha, the seat of our guardian deity.

The influx of tourists to Mustang bring little benefits to the local people. On the contrary, the visitors not only have little regard for the ways and values of the locals but also question and threaten the most important aspect, and therefore, the very basis of their way of life: their religion (their spirituality).

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“The local people should improve the quality of their lives.” […] “But let them not wear ties”

Our political leaders and the Kathmandu elite have always been arrogant, self-righteous and patronizing when it came to the way they treat marginalized Nepalese.

Here's an example of that going all the way back to the early nineties when they opened and served up Mustang district as consumer products to trekkers and travellers.

Is it any wonder they are treating the people in the southern plains as they are now?!

Continue Reading“The local people should improve the quality of their lives.” […] “But let them not wear ties”