Sacred monument on the Himalayas . Photo by RMT .
“ In the 90 ’ s there were thousands of visitors coming to trek in Everest , Annapurna and Langtang regions . We guided many groups there . When camp trekking was the trend , we used to carry every single thing from Kathmandu . We would carry Italian pasta , Italian tomato sauce , bread , a variety of canned items such as tuna , meats , exotic fruits , and we ’ d carry along some fresh vegetables too . Thinking of it now it seems strange , but it was the norm back then because we were under the impression that these items were luxurious and that this is what our clients expected from us . In order to cater to their need for familiarity and comfort , we would only provide western food , like muesli and cereal for breakfast , canned pineapple and mango as a snack , pasta with pelati for dinner … The only local products we used to buy were firewood . Along with the fee for the wood , we would pay a small fee to pitch our tent on local grounds and to use the kitchen ,” recounts Mr . Dhakal . “ We made the observation that even though thousands of people were coming to visit these areas of Nepal , barely any money was going into the pockets of the local communities . The firewood and other fees would barely make up the sum of two dollars . As time
went by it seemed increasingly ridiculous to me to be bringing all of these ingredients from the city . I think that the perception back then was that the locals had little to offer , but that was far from the truth . We still had to bring many ingredients from Kathmandu , but we began to buy some fresh things like milk and produce from the locals so that we could decrease the amount of canned goods . At the same time , the trend was slowly shifting from camp trekking to teahouse trekking , where locals began to give accommodation in their tea houses , later turned into lodges . Camp trekking used to be very expensive because the manpower required for it was disproportionate compared to the number of trekkers , tea house trekking on the other hand was much more reasonable in price . We also observed how all the visitors would just go to Annapurna , Langtang and Everest regions , which are indeed very beautiful , but there is so much more to Nepal than these places , and besides for Kathmandu Valley , all the other regions of Nepal would barely see any foreign visitor .”
CAMP www . insidehimalayas . com by Royal Mountain Travel
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