Comparing politics and tourism in Nepal and Colombia
and we're back this is the Colombia calling podcast I Richard mcll your host here in Bogota Colombia you'll never guess where this week's guest is based we are speaking to Nares dahal who is in Nepal you are the first guest in 539 episodes uh of the Colombia calling podcast to be based in Nepal so welcome uh n on the Columbia calling podcast thank you so much Richard it's it's I didn't know I was the first one to to talk I've had someone in in in zier I've had someone people in Australia and then of course European countries North America other South American but Nepal might be the most far adrift so far yeah that's really a proud thing for me to say there you go it's really nice do no it's an absolute pleasure the reason why we you know we were put in contact with one another through through uh a an online sort of uh podcast um I would say sort of sharing uh website but the reason why I thought well nepo could work because there are very there are a great number of similarities between napo's politics or past previous politics and that of Colombia and then of course a lot of the geography of course they're not exactly the same but there's a similar geography in that well we would say Himalayas but I know you guys say him Himalayas um you've got the the mountains and then of course you've got lowlands where I know it's Rhino and tiger country like chitwan which is not dis similar to the Colombian yanos and so I thought maybe we could talk about not only the geography not only the the politics but the policies towards tourism because I know that Nepal gets a good amount of Tourism and Colombia is a is a growing uh destination and yet we really could use uh I would say advice from places that have had tourism for a longer period of time of course Nepal had its uh Guerilla Insurgency which is over now fortunately but Colombia obviously still does and well who better than someone who has two different travel agencies in Nepal it's the Himalayan scenery tracks and Everest luxury holidays uh well NES can give us a bit of a Lowdown on what goes on in Nepal so let's start NES it's like you are originally from the United Kingdom from Southampton but way back way back your uh your ancestors let's say or your your your family is from was from Nepal I would say so what took you I mean why did you decide to leave Southampton in this on the south coast of England and start a new life in Nepal okay thanks for asking me this it's a regular question I get from everybody else from the OB obiously everybody I do so to be honest uh it was not my choice first thing first I was uh I came here with my father he wanted to do some business here in country in India actually and then later on he we sifted to Nepal and my father he decided to stay here for a while I had to too so still being a child of around like 12 13 years at that time when I came to a completely Eastern Society with lots and lots of cultural socks lots and lots of language issues it was pretty hard at the beginning but so since I started my schooling here as my father was staying here I I did I did my schooling in an army school over here developing the mentality among the friends living among the people and uh just seeing the cultures looking at their Hospitality welcoming nature everything like there are lots of things and of course the Himalayas like you told at the beginning so these are the things that actually stopped me here I could never go back so uh when I did my first trkking to the UN reason it just like I thought like okay no never I'm not going back to the UK again yeah I might go to travel but never going to leave in that place again because I have to promote this place like you said there the like Colombia itself is growing its tourism right now while Nepal gets lots and lots of tourists still we are expecting much more and much more because there are so many loopholes there are so many weak points that people need to care about there are new ways of Tourism that we need to introduce like the the New Concept which has never been introduced to Nepal just sustainable tourism has the term that has come here but the newer concept of regenerative tourism Which is far more advanced far more like Diversified concept it does not even come up over here people whenever even I ask them about it they say just never heard of it so these kind of loopholes this kind of uh you know like misconceptions among people that goes from this country to other countries I just wanted to close them and having that ambition having that passion it just stopped me in the Himalayan country Himalayan Kingdom yeah it was a kingdom not a kingdom anymore but stopped me here that that's that's what I would like to say that um that the whole uh the events around I guess it was was it a a brother or a nephew that that sort of I guess kind of went mad and killed the whole royal family or something that was something I remember reading all that see it was actually not a brother that so this is still uh I would say controversial topic it doesn't have a clear view that who killed who but they say the so the major King is King birendra his family is there they having dinner and his son um I'm still again getting confused with the name I think dendra yeah so he was the prince yes and it is said by many of the live audience inside the palace that dendra was the guy who got mad who got drunk and then was suiting everybody else everywhere so till now the conclusive kind of thing is similar to that but it's not still concluded it's been almost 20 years now the the king that King King bindra and his old family was massacred even the the same the prince he also died on the way of his treatment is it is said that he sought himself after killing very I remember reading about it of course it was as he saying was 20 years ago and it obviously was a very um destabilizing effect in the country and I think uh I think that's a a lot of the sort of similarities when we talk about Nepal and and Colombia are are this issue of uncertainty and instability but before we get into the that kind of politics and so on I mean if you move to Nepal and Katmandu uh here when you were 12 your formative teenage years were already in in cap mandu and you had to learn the language and you settled in and then you said that that uh the pivotal moment was to doing the Anna Perna circuit which I think I did in 1997 or 1998 so that shows you how old I am from POA right that's that's the city yes no right now it's not it doesn't leave from po there is a place called basis and it goes much more farther you did the Anapa circuit most probably from basis right now it goes up to a place called dapan so a fourwh drive it goes up to that place even even in dry days let's say there is a v you remember manang where the lake is I remember I remember pun you remember poon Hill yeah that's the you come and then that you return back and that's almost the ending point of the circuit I we saw I think you can see some some ridiculous amount of mountain ranges it wasn't the clearest day but it was still spectacular it is it is always spectac I would say like unor circuit I would say from my personal experience itself it's one of the best you know like best ones in Nepal even I have done some tracks in India I have not done in in South America at all I really want to do the match P something but say likea circuit it's it's Majestic it's in in regard in terms of views you want to see the Himalayas you want to see the mountains you go to that place I everybody else whoever wants to come here okay it's crowded first thing first but there are ways you can go there are ways you can see it Grandy everything lots of things are there yes n i mean you saw even though even when I was there there was a a welldeveloped uh sort of infrastructure for tourism um and but you saw opportunity obviously to to build on this and you saw a a a a window for yourself to to set up uh uh your agencies and I I think this is very interesting because in Colombia we are uh I mean we get around well the the best year we've ever had has been 4 million foreign tourists to the country I don't know how that um uh I don't know how that compares to Nepal but at the same time I'll give you a second to to answer that but um there are places that are already over touristed and over visited in in Colombia one of those being the coastal city the coastal Caribbean UNESCO heritage site of car henna and I wonder how you said that like for example the Anapa is you know gets crowded but there are ways of doing it I wonder how in your experience of taking people to places that might be uh you know super saturated with tourists how how do you deal with that I mean how do you also deal with tourist expectations okay so there you go I really wanted to talk about this thing because that was the biggest loophole that he talked about so basically like okay so first thing let's avoid the CR that's the first Moto that we always avoid the crowd because there are where there are people our clients might not want to go there because we brought them by telling them okay we're going to S this this this this this these are the things that you're going to be involved in these are the activities that you're going to involved in freck me if I'm speeding up hey just stop me if I'm speeding up and doing that that makes a little bit of uh you know offensive moments among the clients that we deal with so what we basically do is for example like I told you if you are going for the Unova circuit then basically people now to start from a place called dapan which is almost near to the Village of man which is almost halfway of the circuit you kill almost most of the villages you skip most of the villages so what we do like I told still there are are roads and there are still hiking trails that you yourself Richard walked on during 1997 or 1998 right so those hiking trails still being preserved we choose those rules longer experience it more that you wanted like you come here you don't just come for the mountains you come here for like I told we are promoting regenerative tourism something else should come out of it promoting sustainable tourism something else should come out of it because South Asia or Asia itself it has the uh you know like 8% of total world's carbon emissions still we still want to reduce it Nepal wants to reduce it I'm not so sure about how government deals with it but we want I want my company wants to so these are the ideas that I focus on and accordingly I plan the rots me and the like we are Partners we have got people who cre ites we describe the requirements of clients and then we deal with the best way that they do not go with the crowd or even if they do they get a better experience like they meet people they they they you know involve with the people even we you know whenever they go to manang Valley so manang is uh right now it's uh one of the best place for you know wine making and alcohol making places in Nepal it is producing one of the best alcohols here it's called manang Valley and we we we take them to that place rather than just staying in the ma area where people are mostly staying so take them there you want to test Point okay test point if you don't want to do it okay don't do it we have other options to do visit people Mountains go to un explored places because let's say tio Lake it's one of the most explored like so much crowded during the Pig season which is just going to start or has already started I would say but if you don't want to go to that crowded place there are places like render Lake we call it let's go there because it's not about where exactly you want to go it's about how you're going to experience it so that's how we've been dealing and like you said like Colombia experience like four million tours in a year you said well that was our best year ever is 4 million we're a very big after after the covid we experienced like last year in 2023 uh Nepal tourism board declared that we got 1 million tourists just 1 million which is pretty pretty small for now but after was a huge huge achievement and we're expecting by 2030 we will have around 10 million so wow that's a pretty good aim we need to have that's a that's a big I mean with yeah exactly our our tourism industry wants to grow to 10 million uh quite soon I wonder how it can be done I was just looking is that the the estimation for 2024 in Nepal will be around 1.2 million tourists but it's yes it's a huge amount for when you think of the size and and channeling the Anna perer and chitwan and and the himalia it's it's a huge amount yeah now I would like to tell you so basically like you had you had like Richard you you we are just talking about here some little things okay like Anapa or Everest or let's say the CH now there we go so there are that's the loophole we saw we are getting 1 million clients just for the three places let's imagine how much we can get if we just promote the unexplored places there like you said CH there's a place where we guarantee around 80% of Bengal tigers spotting 80% chance that's a huge chance and that's called Bia National Park which is in the far west region that's a place where people would like to go now and uh we ourselves are sending around like in in a season we are sending somewhat around um 50 to 60 clients to bir their National Park in a season so that basically counts to 10050 in a year which is a which is a pretty big amount I would say so that's how we can diversify we have places that are unexplored we can take people to that because there are people that that want to do it and uh so policies and lots of other things are different places but you want to go somewhere you can go somewhere and the and the government how is the government Oran organizing this I and forgive me for for saying um but I guess like here there's a lot of corruption here is in Colombia we see corruption I mean it's right in your face is it the same in in Nepal it is the same PA Richard I would like to say I'm I'm literally so much frustrated with lots and lots of okay I'll share you a few an that I have personally had my experience when I was doing Fring I don't care what people think about it but I'm gonna say because people need to hear Yeah so basically corruption is like you said it's right on your face here too so you go for okay recently I just went to uh renew my driving license I was on a line of around two hours and when I this completed registering and there came an agent kind of agent I would say and he just asked me can I get some expenses so that I can drink Che because I helped you with something and I asked him what did you exactly help him with that so he just went away that's just a small thing now if you hit on tourism I would say okay there are places that that uh more than just normal permit fees they charge a lot more let's say kumbu itself kumbo for Everest so it used to take 2,000 Rupees NPR Nepali currency from one person as a tourist whoever is visiting there not from Nepali but from foreigners they were taking 2,000 NPR per person this year not this year just this season they increased the price okay within a year they increasing prices now I would like to like this is the question from me to kumu itself so what are you contributing exactly in kumu what are you giving you are the local government there they are the local governments there now what are they contributing exactly are they making paths are they making the routs that are safer are they making even the roots that are already there are they managing in properly actually no there's this like what's the meaning of taking a permit fee it's for the people over there it's for the tourists that go that they're taking it from tourist and tourists need to have that's a tax so you need to get the tax done obviously but you are not getting so these are the ISS this is just one example this is just one anecdote Richer there are lots and lots of other things so and and it it has become corruption is like a habit for a normal individual as well whoever goes to take service like okay give him 500 he's going to do your job that's what kind of mentality has been already developed because you want to save time and they won't have money and say no to it it's a crime but you can say no to it and uh so if you talk about government let's say the tourism Ministry it's like okay we need to bring more and more tourists we need to bring more and more tourists but they don't know how and they don't want to take advice from the people who already bringing tourist so that's that's the biggest problem yeah so you get the feeling that it's desire for income in the country desire for income in the pocket and also let's just increase the numbers we don't know how but let's just do it okay the government I mean it's like that's they want they want more figures but they don't know how to do it it's it's the government here Works something like this there is a ministry under the ministry there are multiple governmental organizations that work with it but the people there they have never ever worked in the industry of Tourism so I would I would give you a simple example manasu which is the just earlier circuit route of anaba and which is newly it opened in 1998 I guess or 1992 I actually forgot the DAT similar to the time you traveled but so that place is one so they charge $100 is for from uh September till November per person for a permit for a restricted area permit it's called restricted because it has an open border with Tibet so it's restricted so they they Lo lessen their people to go there that's fine they charge different prices for different timings that's because of more number of tourists they want more money so that's how they doing that's fine okay it makes sense now last time it it was just uh last May ail actually April end that I was myself uh taking seven clients of my own from our company to Mustang region it's Mustang or Mustang whatever you call it it's also uh it's kind of a Forbidden Kingdom the last Forbidden Kingdom people call it uh it was separated from Tibet long time back and then later on Nepal recognizes as its own reason it still has open border with Tibet so it's considered restricted and it is such a perfect place to go to it it is Lively it's a live Museum you feel like time traveling because there are monasteries which are from E centuries as well which is pretty pretty pretty amazing thing to do that's pretty cool yes and uh I still have clients who ask me NES can I do trkking in Mustang there are clients who ask me and I would say I would not suggest doing that because there are already roads there are four lane highways that take four-wheel drive Jeeps to that reason and I really have to say sorry but the hiking trails are destroyed in that reason and they they say just okay fine so now I would like to connect this thing to the seven people that I took from Bulgaria toan so I went myself to issue the permit of Mustang the restricted area permit and the people there the guy who was stay sitting there the government official he asked me a thing like the tour was of 5 days and he asked me why is it just a 5 days and then I told him like they are going for a Jeep drive that's why it's for 5 days and he's like how can you go to Mustang on a je I'm not going to issue the permit at all huh that was a that was the time I had a very big conflict with him and I asked him only one question have you ever been to Mustang sir have you ever do you know what that place is and he just asked and then but how can I just issue like there is no option of like Zip T in the permit issue section and I just told him there is no option for it then you should add it that's what you do it's technology time baby you don't have you know like options you don't have free thing to you can just add on Gip chores at it so that you can the permit don't ask me the question like why are you taking the people in jip because you can that's why you're taking because there are noing TRS that's why you're taking it so these kind of problems they always you know like demotivate me to work on it but like I told you I went to Mustang anyhow hooker heu the permit same day because I had a big bunch of fight with it he issued the permit the next day I I flew from here to bokra and the next day I I just went on the route so Mustang I want to okay now I would like to remind you when the Anapa circuit you passed by Zs if you remember maybe and if you remember so so those places are a part of mustan but lower the people we take we we were taking them to upper part which needed a restricted area permit it's called lanang it's a really beautiful place to go Richard but I I took them anyhow it was such a beautiful thing and I forgot everything I forgot all those policy makers I forgot all the governments when I took that because it was such a beautiful place to go to Yes uh so so what what I'm thinking about is is that once you've dealt with all of this uh let's say the complications that arise when you're when you're dealing with officials who become uh like uh Little Kings in their in their jobs but then you get to these places and it makes it well I guess not worthwhile but you can forget perhaps some of the complications some of the difficulties that you've had yes yes it's such a fantastic thing you know like you forget everything let's let's move on a little bit NES I because I'm obviously very keen on on talking about sort of similarities and and dissimilarities with with Colombia as well this being a Colombia podcast but you know I'm not letting up the opportunity to speak with someone from Nepal um you have in just as us and I guess I don't like saying uh developing countries but I guess it's the only way of describing it at the moment but you have uh you suffer from major natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes as we do here as we have hurricanes floods earthquakes volcanoes we're now in uh ELO so it's not raining at all when we are waiting for lania and we're waiting for floods and rain but everything is messed up because of global warming how how have you been affected there usually we like you said we are mostly affected by the floods so summer summer is one of our worst times you know like the major problem I would say is the roads the roads are just made on the Hills you go and the landslide comes up because the I don't know like the seismic waves of uh that create that was created by while building the roads maybe maybe or maybe there has not been much research on that actual thing I'm not so sure but that is the major issue we have Richard here because once the rain comes you have to have the mentality that you are not going to get out of katm city or wherever you are staying in this inside inside cund city as well you would see lots and lots of Cl just coming right on the so this is one of the biggest problems I cannot give exact reason why it's happening but I think the engineering can be an issue or maybe how however deep we do however well we want to work with this is going to create problems but when I see Japan let's say they they face a lot of tsunamis they face a lot of volcanic eruption like I said in Colombia they there a lot of hurricans earthquakes still their roads are intact their buildings are intact that means they are they have moved Way Forward so that also reminds me like okay so maybe something else is missing in the technical team or maybe um the research team or maybe like we were discussing previously the corruption can be an issue as well this is it is we have we have a really big big issue of it like like in Colombia how how good is it with the RADS I wanted to know uh and and not good at all um not good at all we've got better we've got better but to cross with Venezuela or Ecuador or Peru uh we are in our infancy the excuse used well there are several excuses um one is being uh the geography because we have the sort of uh I would say the the two to three early cordas or mountain ranges of the Andes so that's difficult uh and then of course sort of Swampy lands and then jungles um and then the next one that people use a lot is the armed conflict in the country which has been going since uh 1964 more or less um and so a lot of areas are off limits and even though that the even though the let's say the government um the government influence is increasing there is still so much of Colombia that is uh underpopulated and in areas that are controlled by armed gangs for the um trans shipment of of cocaine and migrants and weapons and everything else so that has limited amount of uh infrastructure development but in the last 10 years I would say there's been a big increase that's it's still not good for a country of this size look looking at the neighbors we look jealously at our neighbors um because of the conflict uh air travel between the cities and intermediary cities is very uh common and not expens low prices have increased recently but uh still very reasonable especially if you're a tourist you can fly almost anywhere for a number but there are things that are are very much overlooked and then of course as we said the corruption you in some parts of the Caribbean area in order to have the concession to build a road you have to um apply for the concession after building each kilometer because so much money has been stolen so then they say you finish a kilometer and then they say well you have to apply again and then you apply for it and it and you know this takes so long um it does because you have to pass a bill like like in a parliament and and and I was thinking there's another comparison is when you have a flood or a natural disaster how is is the government and and the armed forces and so on are they good at responding are they are they rapid responders to this yes yes exactly they they they respond rapidly more than the government did the Armed Forces they usually do they they have it because the government here Works late it works but works late like today the flood has happened the armed forces have already rescued so many people they have been sending helicopters lots and lots of things and then there comes up the Prime Minister there comes up the ministers who who would like to just go there meet the people and the the support here is considered monetary just monetary like okay you have had problems okay so we are contributing this much money to you each family who has been the victim of GLS who picking up landslides rather than managing the areas the secur areas for next time so okay the mentality has become like this okay people are people are always going to stay in there so if it happens again next year we're going to pay them we're going to give them some like kind of donations so that they can again continue to live at the same place doesn't matter so there there's not been any solutions created to it from the government Le but like army they they create houses they they make they have been making they've been doing a really good thing because Army here doesn't work in borders they have been especially work working for the people itself whenever people are in disaster or other things and there has been the Armed Forces like um uh there's APF we call it I'm police force that's a police itself which is mostly focused on disaster management and even the Border complex as well the armed police forces are implemented in the borders rather than the armies armies are usually passive for now but whenever they are doing they're doing it pretty wellx do you have especially from with India so uh it is I I will give you a real life example I forgot the names but it has been happening at so many places that I don't need to give you examples I guess there is there are open borders open borders in a sense like there are just pillars at many places uh which are borders to India just pillars no security at all no border check post at all people just go and come back go and come back so there are some places I forgot the names I think it was in a district called Ro Hut which is near to chitan and uh so there there has been a family whose house a day before was in Nepal a day later was in India because the pillars were moved already so this this kind of events this happened but still the government is not doing any sort of things right now there's there's a big issue of one thing like there is a place called kalapani and there is a place called lipad Dura in a very far western part of Nepal it's called darula so those two places are still a conflict like Kashmir is in the conflict of is it of Pakistan or India and similar to that it is considered the case for kalapani and limpia Nepal has accepted it in its mass Nepal has even done census in there to calculate the population how many people are living there there's no local government like exactly established at that place but there are Villages so Nepal has been taking good care of people as well if they want to over there but India still considering that part as their own so this kind of Border conflict we have it here espec with India I like the idea of a very socially aware Army and we have the Army engineers in Colombia which come in and do when there's been a flood they come in and and put up military Bridges and things but it's not so it's not as aware as it should be because we have you know we have the conflict so and it's internal going on yeah I mean we do have uh there's always some issue with Venezuela um but who knows I you mentioned something about the military sending out helicopters and so on and I can remember and I remember very sadly so I think it was 2006 as an army helicopter went down with members from the NGO WWF yes yes yes there were there were people it they crash I I mention it CU I work completely not properly aware of it that I remember but I remember because I read some news about it some years back yes I know that well yes yeah I only remember it because I worked at WWF in the early 2000s and a good friend of mine was on the plane and she on the on the on the helicopter and she died yeah like you know these things happen unfortunately we used to travel her name was Jennifer Hedley we used to travel every day from London in the same train to the uh to the headquarters and so you remember these things unfortunately and this kind of gives me a segue into the next thing is like you know for me Nepal I remember I went with my stepbrother back in those days it was great the aniper and a trail was the best thing white water rafting on on a river there and chitwan we didn't see any Tigers but that's fine it was still incredible um but obviously I have an image in my head as well of my friend but and this leads me to my question is like when someone says Colombia to you in their Paul what do you think of okay I've seen Narcos in in great so basically all I have not read much much things about Colombia so always so Aros always reminds me of Paar which is like Netflix it so pcar as a God and so I never never knew like his stories unless I saw it in Netflix when I saw the the whole of the series I was manipulated too like and uh I thought like okay this guy was doing pretty well leave leave behind his his things about drugs but he was doing pretty well but later on when I when I read about him after a month and lots of other stories lots of other things and then I as went like that was the worst thing ever I heard because Mouse insurgence it killed 17,000 people here in Nepal and not sure how many thives PA has destroyed and that was that gave me a very know like bad impression at first and then later on somewhat like I looked at the geographies like you told me at that time how how good it that place and lots of other things like South America guys it's really beautiful and uh so not much but uh later on I just came to know like Colombia is not just about publ Cobar and drugs it's it's a different place it just has not been into the spotlight but it has lots of things not so sure of like I've not done much research like I said but there are few things which you know like they always give impression like like you told me like at beginning when we were talking you told me the mouse ingen see because you remember that PR well because it was yes all over the world and that's how the impression still people have that sort of impression because my clients themselves they ask me that thing those things sometimes and uh it doesn't surprise me at all as uh they that was what the impression of Neal was long time back and it still remains in people's minds as as that and sometimes people even ask me is it safe to visit there do you still have Civil Wars over there so those kind of things and I my question to you is how people how safe people feel the tourists usually feel when they are there because the great Guerilla War it's still happening very sad they can't be internal conflict how how how safe people feel that you Colombia is a an incredibly hard destination to sell and that we have a growing tourism industry and growing despite an internal armed conflict despite Naros and the history of Pablo Escobar is is incredible but for I would say 99% of all people that come they will never see any of the conflict they will never be in regions of the conflict myself as a journalist yes I've been down to places all the journalists I know have been to places and people who work in like NOS have been to places but there's no reason for a tourist to go to these places you could go to a hundred different destinations in Colombia and never know that there was an armed conflict but of the war or but the problem is that the the reputation and the you know it continues it's it's impossible to leave it behind as it's ongoing of course and cocaine is a major industry it's a globalized uh you know product and it's very difficult to lead that behind especially when you have a character as uh flamboyant as Pablo Escobar image and I don't think I forgive me if I'm wrong but I you know I knew about the maist Insurgency in in Nepal around 2001 I think it was then or 2002 and it must have started and so on yeah it was very bloody it was very I remember you know a lot of of terrible things but there was no in my mind and correct me uh there was no figure that became like the image of the maist Insurgency for us in the international Arena uh like Pablo Escobar uh there was no let's talk uh you know if you think of Mexican Insurgency the in um in the south in u the zapatistas they had that image of um God subcomandante Marcos he was there and then you think of other ones or like they say you know the Cuban Revolution with Fidel Castro or chear the Argentine but you had these images but I can't think of an image for nepo but at the same time you know obviously it's in my mind because I remember I remember when it started and I I I Devour the news so I mean obviously when we are talking to travel agencies when I'm talking to travel agencies in in the United States more than anywhere the UK uh French the Germans they don't really mind they they know they're going to be okay uh but it's the us because it's their sphere of influence we are so close we're only three hours flight really from or three and a half hours from Miami um and of course Miami is full of Latinos uh Colombians Venezuelans Cubans and they have a different mindset to what is happening in the country as well uh so when I talk to in travel agency the first thing that they're always asking about is security always always always and I I guess that you're getting that a bit but not maybe not as much so um we've been talking about image country image really is is what we're talking about at the moment and you know we were discussing the maist uprising in Nepal you said up to 177,000 people were were killed Colombian conflict is far greater than that and obviously has been running for a long period and and and the country image that you have to obviously sell as a travel agent uh to to I guess uh do you do direct sales or do you work through do you work through other agencies in in other countries okay so uh our base is the organic clients because me myself I'm a tech guy search engine optimizations a lot and we we rank in a lot of things and like I told you I use the loopholes to rank to get the business so that's how you found me uh kind of Yes actually because from Nepal like like you told me I'm the first one you ever talked in Nepal regard regarding the Himalayas or whatever and I'm I might be one of the first person from like one of the first person from Nepal I think to like promote myself promote my business promote lots and lots of things promote Nepal basically to podcast because there are really less I think or maybe none maybe none because whenever I search like I use search engines a lot and whenever I search for Port regarding Nepal forcast regarding Himalayas I just found foreign speakers not not any Nepali speaker so I'm a foreign speaker Foreigner to to be honest so basically there there is no Nepali speaker that does this kind of thing and like I told you I found the loophole as it started no well very good too and I think as we we wind this down I mean we've talked about natural disasters we've talked about the need to uh divers ify and tourism of course sustainable tourism but also regenerative tourism I've talked about this on on other touris on other podcast but um how obviously if you're going to receive 1.2 million tourists in 2024 which is it's a big amount of tourists in a country am yes it's a country of what 30.5 million uh people more or less yeah yeah yeah just 30.5
million it's it's a big amount and again like I said but so tourism is a is a growth industry for employment and yet I know that there's a a sort of a a a drain on resources because people still have to leave the country to find work okay so here we go about this so basically tourism is about the skills that you use I I would like to say yeah you know it more than me I guess it's it's more about skills and here like like you're telling there are employment opportunities but let's say basically the Nepali mindset is finding an easy option not just Nepali mindset any any any of the world the human mindset itself is finding an easy option you would like to live in a comfort zone so there are lots and lots of employment opportunities that you basically get while you go from here to other countries then just finding over here and if you just see to reison so this is the one place which brings uh which gives employment to lots and lots of people with almost less like really less investment really less promotion here uh but it needs skill Human Resources if you talk like another biggest uh income generation Source in Nepal is from the tech the technology really people here yes so how I will tell you not working inside the country but working for people outside the country giving service outside the country that's how people have been basically able to earn enough and that's how they pay the taxes and that tax so this is one thing another thing is our major source of economic is not selling the products from here except for the services like like tourism itself rather than this there has been I would say really really Less sales on any production that happens here and people have even stopped producing things because they wer ease like I told you go somewhere find better job not better job even not normal job like like we discussed previously they will go to Saudi Arabia they will go to Dubai they will go to Qatar and they will work in mines they will work in oil Industries they will work like slaves literally like slaves because the countries over there they would never want like they just want work that's all they want they will not care where you come from they you will you will have to work there mhm still why they work there is is the conversion amount yeah Forex you bring dollars in here you bring uh the reals in here you get convert it gets converted to a use amount you can Flex basically if you have a house in kandu you can easily Flex over here so the social status lots of other things and working in tourism industry even if it creates opportunity it's hard to work here it's really hard you you need skills you need ideas you need uh lots and lots of things you get demotivated so soon like almost a year back me myself I was all demotivated so badly because we were not ranking properly on uh on our highest sales approach we were not ranking anywhere proper but it took time once once we got it we got it we you need to have patience over here which yeah people are really hard to find so it's the am reason you know it's say it's it's a a relief I'm not taking a benefit but it's a relief to hear that attitudes are somewhat similar in Colombia as well is it is it well you know the Dream well obviously the dream would be to have an easy job in the country and and earn in dollars and you know convert into but the the reality is so many people will try to get to the US and then thees sent back are a huge uh so it's pretty similar here too because remittance even more than tourism remittance is the biggest income Source in Nepal so that's it's that's such a it's such a fragile uh thing to lend to lean an economy on um it's so but I'm seeing so many so many similarities I mean tourism can a massive massive driver for the economy and employment we have a really low level of English language speakers in Colombia for the obvious reason is tourism is new for us um when people complain I always say well you know you're coming to a Spanish language country you need to know something but that's you know T that's me being uh difficult because uh you know tourism it's about service it's about the service industry it's about exactly so uh I I see things and of course where these you're you know where these people go when you're talking about Saudi Arabia and Qatar or or or wherever there's no human rights there there's no human rights at all that's the country with worst Cas scenario people die and still they don't care yeah it's pretty shocking um but I think we've covered a lot and I I love that we've covered the sort of country image issues is there as I finish this is there a a concerted like is there a a tourism body government tourism body because here in Colombia we have uh it's called proexport and it's uh sort of Colombia is Passion or Colombia's passion and every year or every couple of years they change the country slogan um the the country slogan right now is Colombia is the country of beauty something something like that we've had a few different ones Colombia the only risk is wanting to stay which was of course a play on on kidnapping and of course being being beautiful do you do you do have that kind of thing for Nepal as well yes yes Nepal tourism board that's what we rely on because that that they are the ones who make policies and they their slogan is Lifetime experiences yeah well that's quite good lifetime experience yes yeah and but uh that's my secondary slogan I would say my first one will be see you in the Himalayas well and you're taking the key site that everybody goes to and using it as your as but we don't have a key site we don't one of our problems we have uh you know so many different um departments which is what we call States here and each one really has something that's amazing or or a region uh like we've got a coffee region which is just spectacular beautifully obviously you have the Andes obviously the Caribbean coast the Pacific coast with the whale watching uh the desert up by Venezuela there's just too much and so to try and pick one destination would be doing a disservice to the rest of the country but I can see why you would say you know uh you know the Himalayas welcome you I see that I can see why you say that um well I'm going to say again NES uh I'm going to promote your um your agencies Himalayan scenery tracks and Everest luxury holidays luxury holidays thank you so much excellent um I'm sure they're easy to find I actually wanted to ask you one thing Rich so yeah so before before rolling it out so let's say in theal I would say like previously I talked about the policies that we here and time and again our policies keep on changing not according to the condition of the environment but according to the condition of the people the choices of the people for example recently I would say we our company has gone in a like a small loss it's not a loss for for such a big company like us but a sort of loss like we had PIV like helicopter tours to Everest so this is one of the most luxury experiences people can do over here and and uh so basically we sell helicopter tours which is one of the most expensive thing as well to do in Neal but what happened was the monsoon has almost come to an end and there has been proper weather clearance in the mountains still the the civil aviation Authority Nepal is not allowing us to fly into the Everest region showing us the reason of uh the previous cres that happened due to weather and they are just saying that within five minutes the CRA if the weather changes the helicopter is going to crash rather than telling that there's going to be a safe landing we'll have to implement safe landing we'll have to offer some other options in the meantime so they're basically scared of those things and they're changing the policies how common is it in Colombia uh well I mean helicopter tours things of that nature are very there's not too many um of course top top end you have to be very careful of course because of the weather the changeable weather in the Andes uh one short trip that that people do is from the city of medin to a place called guatape which is flying out of the valley and up and over but if there's any fog or Smog or anything it just can't happen um okay but in terms of in terms of internal or domestic flights there is an airport in a place called Manis sales that airport is purely decorative every day uh National flights are cancelled because of low cloud cover and so on H you know there have been here okay I would like to say here the flights get canceled not due to weather but just because of the airlines choices ah yeah uh sometimes not always but sometimes it's usually for us it's weather um but it you know obviously I know it's a difficult thing but obviously you prefer to a on the on the side of of safety um it's got to be it's got to be really difficult uh up there as well especially if it's just the airlines deciding or or the civil aviation Authority deciding it it might seem on occasion I guess at your end maybe they're waiting for a more lucrative uh exchange between you and the Civil a Aviation Authority we have we have we have lots of with them it takes a whole different podcast to talk about those conflicts oh yeah another time another time now so thank you so much for your time and for staying up late in catmandu to talk to us it's still the morning okay Richard so I okay to be honest I work till around like 12 or 1 a.m. to be honest is pretty hard over here you have to focus on and everything that a website doesn't go down like the the if there are some booking cancellations if the notification doesn't come up you'll have to work with that apis blah blah blah lots of things so I work late night it won't be a problem for me to stay late but yes thank you so much for taking time I really appreciate I really liked when you when you messaged me saying that I'd have to take my sons to the school I really like that I wanted to ask you how is it like being a father because I'm just 26 uh see I'm 48 um and being a father has been the most rewarding uh experience it's it's absolutely exhausting and exasperating but at the same time I just love spending time with my sons I have two sons I love spending time with them and I love watching them grow up and uh and you know everything is is just fascinating there I mean there are times I just want to throw my hands in the air but then you remember they're just children they're just children um amazing but yeah uh I I cannot speak uh more positively about it because I I they're good boys they're they're good boys so it's it's a it's good fun um but uh yeah I will follow your progress for when you have children there um we will we will keep in touch somay obviously please once I have a child I'll see her with you rich not there you go there you go well listen we've been talking to uh Nares dahal of the Himalayan scenery tracks and also Everest luxury holidays look them up online he's a tech guy so he's all over the place uh I've really thoroughly enjoyed this conversation we've jumped around a lot but it's you know the the the the the main connecting um thank you for your time uh n thank you so much it's been a real pleasure thank you thank you so much Richard it's I really like talking with you it's been great I'd like to keep in touch once again some we will be in touch NES these things in this day and age there's there's no way of of falling out of contact yeah exactly exactly we just met on it's really good thing this has been the Columbia calling podcast episode 539 I've been talking to NES dahal of Everest luxury holidays and Himalayan scenery tracks uh can you imagine we've been talking from bogot to katman do that's Colombia to Nepal of course those of you who are interested please sign up on patreon.com colia calling to support us check out Emily Harts substack just Google Emily Hart substack she gets puts all of her writing up there uh and we'll be back next week with another episode that's Colombia related and thank you again for listening bye-bye and stopped
2024-10-16 18:20
