Lukla in moral chaos
I have been working in Nepal for the last three years, so I am not technically a tourist and I can speak some Nepali, so maybe I was slightly more in touch with how things were going in Lukla last week.
Everyone had their own story and everyone was, of course, dealing with it in their own way. As a traveler on my own, I was open to listening throughout the four days of waiting to the kaleidoscope of responses to the unfortunate delay in flights back to Kathmandu. Strategies to deal with this kind of hold-up were available, but delayed and without a system.
The tension in the village on my arrival – two days before my confirmed flight to Kathmandu – was undeniable. To counter this I looked for supportive smiles and found none. I looked and listened for supportive and appropriate alternatives and heard none. I searched for an authoritative person but witnessed only individual hype as every guide or guesthouse owner was desperately trying to persuade his clients to spend exorbitant amounts of money to secure a seat – whether it was US$1,400 on a helicopter or US$500 to chuck someone already holding a confirmed ticket off their flight. A guide with some British tourists could not get his head around their refusal to sign a hospital bill reflecting their fabricated illness – the insurance company's investigation apart, the illegality and falsehood was outside his comprehension. All was a scramble for personal gain...as the profits from this type of corruption (and can we call it 'heartlessness' to take from those in distress?) would trickle down from one secret and idle hand to the next.
The incident of 'the flying chair' was unsettling. I witnessed that from where I was sitting on the bank overlooking the airstrip. To see a chair being flung through the glass of a top window was frightening. Of course the full story was not known. One can only guess at the build-up of fury and frustration of the two budget travelers who had had their seats handed on to those with sufficient funds to bribe. I was told they had now run out of money to pay for the incredibly expensive food in Lukla (Rs 150 for one slice of toast!?). What a disturbing memory to carry away from Nepal. I am so sorry.
Those that profit from these possibilities in Lukla know that people the world over will still flock to the most beautiful and famous mountains in the world , regardless of Nepal's unpreparedness for Tourism Year 2011. How sad that they do not show some pride in their heritage and share the joy of it with their treasured visitors in hospitality and open honesty.
Lukla is the richest village I have visited in Nepal and it has confirmed to me that riches, when quickly and viciously grabbed, can eclipse a national character of welcome and replace it with stony-faced indifference to the 'goose that laid the golden egg'.
Doreen Johnstone