Update from Nepal - Volume 5
Well, we sare safely back from Pokara and tucked into the Mansulu Hotel for Tonight. We flight out to Bangkok Tommorow for one day. The trip was uneventful, if you ignore the driving, and the fact that the 190km journey to 6 hours - we averaged 30km/hr. Which was just as well as we weaved across lanes (well from side to side of the road), crossed across the road to avoid potholes which would have swallowed dogs and small children, Stopped for cows (if you have to be reincarnated - be a cow in India or Nepal) and climbed switchbacks which would have rally drivers squirming.
Nepal, is a third world country. This west has not done many favours to Nepal, when it brought across its promises of technology and tools. People flocked to cities and struggled, they have forsaken farms for the promise of a bet life in the towns, the air is cloudy and hazy with pollution. But what struck me most was electricity.
In a country dominated by mountains and shaped by rivers, electricity is an unreliable quantity. The most reliable electricity we had on the entire trip was in the Annapurna from Micro hydrostations which provided hamlets and villages with constant and consistent electricity. These hamlets are 3 and 4 days walk fromthe nearest road and yet you switch on a light and you have power, you plug in your iPod to charge and the lights go on and the tool charges.
This is considerably more than I can say for Pokara and Kathmandu - Both of the major cities have rolling black outs - scheduled and rigidally enforces. Stickers and posters emphase the importance of saving electricity, conserving water - “A drop saved is a unit generated”. The country is teased with snippets of hope - here is the promise of electricity, but we can’t invest enough to provide it consistently. Here are roads but we can not maintain them.
I hope that the change of government here will herald an era of prosperity, of investment in infrastructure and education, a level of de-militirization. I suspect that the new governments honeymoon period will be a short one.
Anyway, Tommorow Bangkok, the day after Home and family.
What an adventure.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Going shopping on the way home? Don’t be lured too much by the bright lights! NZ hasn’t changed much from when you left but the petrol’s gone up!