The visa on the arrival line goes quickly, and I’m in a taxi to my hotel in no time. There are hundreds of shops. Guiding services are available with plenty of options, cheap outdoor equipment and small grocery stores crowd the bustling downtown. It smells fantastic, and in no time I’m eating curry. I talk with some guides and worry about the cold. It’s January, and I’m planning on going up to over 17,800 feet with temperatures around 10 to 40 degrees Celsius.
Nepal is developing as a country, there is no question. This causes hiccups, but the country is working through big changes with the dedication the people are known for. Great, simple food is everywhere. Hotels are matching the demands of foreign tourists. There are plenty of activities for idle hands. In 2011, Nepal has set a goal of receiving 1,000,000 tourists. Last year, they had more than 500,000 visitors, as reported by the hotel staff.
I don’t know whether to admire the country for a lofty goal like this, especially when you look at the “very” developing infrastructure. They are aiming – and being scoffed at by their newspapers for this – to have the equivalent to one week’s worth of Denver International Airport’s arrivals.
In the month I spent here, I met some of the quirkiest, happiest and genuine people on the planet. They seemed few and far between, though, as the tourist circuit has formed a weird relationship.
The mountains are amazing. Peaks measuring 8,000 meters escort your walk up valleys with turquoise water, green firs, and titanic rock walls.
I have to be honest here: I wrote the negative post first and find whatever I type here as a glossing over of how I really feel. I decided to write two posts as I walked the road to Manang. The good doesn’t deserve to be contested by the bad, online at least.
For all the negatives, there sure are a lot of positives in the beauty of the mountains and people.
This, in comparison to the negative one I wrote before, is the post everyone writes. I came, I experienced, and it was pretty!
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