Nepal 2007 Trip Returned, successful!
Karen, Debbie, George and Rob have all returned to the first world after a tough, but successful trip! Tough due to a late monsoon, and some bad advice on “short cuts” from local people who should have known better. Successful in that we went to six of our seven vaccine fridge sites and performed essential maintenance, and also worked on the school facilities in Lelep, Folay and Ghunsa. Successful too in infusing enthusiasm for Nepal, and our project, in the 3 who had never been to Nepal before—the magic is infectious!
We all met up in Bangkok and flew to Kathmandu on Sunday September 23rd. The first challenge was that both Debbie and Rob lost a bag each, and Thai Airways wouldn’t have either of them for at least a day. We threw the bags we did have on the chartered bus, and sent it on its way to the Terai, while we did our business in Kathmandu. On the Monday we got Debbie’s bag, but not Rob’s, and caught a flight to Biratnagar late afternoon and joined our staff on the bus. Unfortunately this put us a half day late and we only made it to Birtamod that evening, still in the Terai at about 200 ft altitude! As a bonus, Indra Manandhar, a retired Geography professor, and an old friend, was able to come with us on the bus ride and he entertained us with stories of his youth.
Tuesday the 25th we made Ilam for breakfast and after lunch in Phidim, commenced the long grind on the unpaved road to reach Gopetar late. At one point we contemplated camping at the side of the road as several trucks were stuck in the mud ahead of us. But after a couple of hours of chaos, we made it. Indra insisted we celebrate his birthday at 11pm, so we drank Rakshi while our cooks commandeered a local kitchen to produce our dinner of Dahl Baht.
Wednesday the 26th we drove another few hours to Singapur, a small village on the hairpin of the road to Taplejung, and after lunch started on the “3 hour” walk to the first health post at Hangpang. It was very hot, and we made slow progress, only making it to a school below Phulbari that afternoon. We did, however, provide entertainment for the 150 kids in the school, and they staged an impromptu “Nepali Idol” show for us.
The trip to Hangpang next day took another 4 hours, and the health post was swamped with mothers and kids as it was vaccination day. Our vaccine fridge had failed almost 2 years ago due to a bad charge controller, and I was there to replace it. In the meantime, vaccines was being brought in coolers from Taplejung on a monthly basis, and today was the day!
To be continued…………….
Report on Fall 2005 Trip
Phurba Tamang, Rob Rowlands and Canadian Clive Rubens have just returned from a successful trip to the Eastern Nepal Nov 6-23, 2005. Here's their report:
Highlights:
KCAP (the WWF funded Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Project) has been been effectively closed down by the Maoists
Only Taplejung and Suketar appear to be under HMG control
KSP facilities do not appear to have been affected by Maoist activity
The Folay and Ghunsa Schools, the Lelep Girls' Hostel and our vaccine refrigerators appear to all be working.
Trekking numbers are down significantly, especially from the US
A significant number of trekking parties use helicopters to and from Ghunsa
Flights to and from Suketar are less frequent, and less reliable than before.
The roads to Basantapur and Taplejung, while still challenging, continue to be improved.
The British-Nepal Gurkha organization, Kadoorie, has built many new suspension bridges recently
Our Trip
We drove in two tiny taxis with 3 Australian Doctors from Dharan to Basantapur , and started walking late on the 8th November. We only got to Panch Pokhari that night, a cluster of tea houses on the ridge at about 2800m.The views were stunning with absolute clarity in all directions. We could see Makalu, Chamlang and the tip of Everest to the north, and to the south, Jannu and Kangchenjunga.
The next day past Chauki to Gupha Pokhari was an easy stroll along the ridge. There was a District wide soccer tournament being held there, and a traditional Nepali bamboo swing (Ping) left over from the previous week's Tihar festivitities. At Gupha, we met a Maoist with a velvet touch who hit us up for the expected donation. We got away with NRs. 3000 each (US$42), and the Doctors with less, probably because the Maoists hoped to recruit them?
From just past Gupha the ridge drops precipitously to the Tamur river valley at 600m, but we took a bypass trail south to the Limbu village of Hangpang at 1400m, where we installed a solar powered vaccine fridge in 2000. We wanted the Aussie Docs to see it, and for me to check out the electrics. We arrived late, and stayed at a nearby house and early next morning the health care workers showed us around. This is a busy post, with 40-50 people a day visiting. The vaccine fridge was working, though because of an equipment failure, was only running during the day. The solar controller had "failed safe" and the full power of the 200 watt panels had boiled the batteries dry. Maintaining distilled water levels in lead acid batteries is the number 1 problem with solar systems in Nepal. We will need to have Lotus Energy replace the controller as soon as possible.
Our Australian friends left us here to retrace their tracks to Basantapur and Dharan.
Clive, Phurba 4 porters and I dropped down to Dobhan, which is under Maoist control. Despite this, the power station appears to be working again. Our "donation" receipt from Gupha provided us free passage, and we clambered up the marginal trail to Mitlung, arriving just on dark. The spotless tea house has been expanded into a lodge, with clean toilet and upstairs rooms. The following day we went through Sinuwa, which now has a new school building, possibly funded by DFID. The health post is however in ruins. Other updates since last year are new bridges across the Tamur at Chiruwa and Taplethok. We crossed at Taplethok and arrived in Lelep at Dusk.
By next morning, the porters with the new solar panel and batteries had not arrived, so we checked out the fridge installation in Lelep. This was the first fridge we had installed, in Lungthung in 1999, in a near derelict building that was barely able to support the solar panels. The Lelep VDC finally had their way, and moved the fridge and solar panels to the abandoned KCAP building in Lelep earlier this year. In the process, one of the batteries we supplied in May 2004 had "gone missing". A recovery party was sent to Lungthung in an unsuccessful attempt to find the battery - its location will remain an enigma! The lights we had installed in the Girls' Hostel last May were working fine, though we had only installed them in 4 of the 8 rooms. Reportedly all 40 girls were crowding into these 4 rooms to take advantage of the lights. Once the materials arrived, we installed a new 50 watt panel on the building, a new battery in the attic, and with several willing helpers, installed lights in the remaining 4 rooms. We had planned to install lights in the kitchen building, but it turned out that what we had thought to be one large kitchen had been divided into 4 rooms, each with 2 clay stoves for use by 4-5 girls. We did not bring enough lights for 4 more rooms, so elected to leave this until next trip.
The vaccine fridge in Lelep was well stocked and despite the poor batteries, was working well. We installed a new battery and a couple of lights for the healthcare worker to use. Previously the building had been wired by KCAP, but the Maoists had looted everything, even the copper wire in the plastic conduit.
We left Lelep late on the morning of the 14th November and made good time to get to Amjalissa by dusk. Yet another new bridge, this one at the north end of the Sokathom camp site. Enroute we met the first trekking party so far, three Brits having come from the South side over the Sinion and Mirga la. On the 15th we continued up valley through Gepla to arrive in Folay about 3pm. We dropped off our goodies for the Folay School and met the new healthcare worker, Tsering Dhonden. The previous worker, Yungdung Dorje was critically injured in a bus accident earlier this year, and now lives in Kathmandu.
We arrived just after dark in Ghunsa and stayed with Chumea at his lodge by the bridge. The locals all turned up to visit, and we went by Himali Chungda's house to check out the trekkers there. Jamie McGuinness, the Kiwi trekking guide based in Kathmandu (http://www.project-himalaya.com) was there with 3 clients as were a separate pair of Brazilian trekkers who had flown to Ghunsa. Thanks to Jamie's satellite phone and email, it was possible to summon helicopters for medical evacuations. However, since both the Police and KCAP no longer operate in Ghunsa, there is no longer any permanent radio, and rescues will require a runner to be sent to Taplejung. So much for progress. We will be looking at providing an HF SSB radio in the future, possibly in combination with the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA). We were delighted to see that the school was being refurbished by the village. The roof was in the process of being primed and painted, and the broken doors and window shutters replaced. Another room had a new cement floor. Still, there are still many items that the teachers are asking for, and we will be be working with a Nepalese NGO, REED and the Britush Himalayan trust to see some of these provided. The health clinic was clean and well organized. The healthcare workers job is shared by Pema Chambal Lama and Chitting Dandu. This is supposed to mean that either of them is always available to take care of emergencies, though this is not always the case. The maternal healthcare worker, Lemu Pema, has been successful with the birth control program, and caters to the needs of Folay, Gepla, Amjalissa and Yangma as well as Ghunsa. Only two children were born in Ghunsa this year. The pre-school program contunes to be successful, with the job shared amongst 4 mothers. The room was well organized with posters on the wall, though the toothbrushes and hand towels from May 2004 had all gone. We delivered a bucket of Duplo and a child's play tent to an enthusiastic, though snotty, groups of kids.
After paying salaries, we heading down to Folay through the golden larch forest. The pre-school kids were already using the play tent and Duplo we had supplied. The mast clamp on the wind generator on the medical clinic roof had broken, and dangled uselessly on its wiring. We were unable to repair the clamp, so removed the generator and stored it for the next visit, when I hope to have a new clamp. After many cups of tea, and eggs, we did a little maintenance on the solar lighting in the monastery, and donated my old 32 watt flexible PV panel to the studious monk. Chunduk, the well known, hunchbacked, Tibetan emigre we had known so well was killed in the same bus accident that injured Yungdung Dorje. His family treated us to a big lunch while an enormous Rakshi still held pride of place on the fire. Finally away at 2pm, with scarves cluttering our necks, we only made it to Gepla that afternoon. We stayed in the hotel and Phurba and I walked up to the new school, 200m above the main trail. This school was the site of yet another accident, when Tumahang, a carpenter from the village of Hellok, fell about 6m from the roof. He was seriously injured and died a month or so later, leaving a widow and 7 children. Tumahang had worked on both the Ghunsa and Folay schools and the Lelep Girls' dormitory. The fields of Gepla are quite extensive and south facing. There are good wheat crops here, and a water driven mill in the khola above the village.
There was no little time to waste if we were to make our flight from Suketar on Saturday, so we set off early on the 17th, hoping to get to Chiruwa. As it turned out we stopped in Amjlissa for breakfast, and at Tumahang's widow's house below Hellok for tea and photos late afternoon, so we only made it to Tamewa, at a tea house by yet another bridge to the West bank of the Tamur river. The tea house kitchen was full of people, who turned out to be a bunch of Maoists, possibly engaged in a futile attempt to extort donations from the trekkers who had helicoptered past them the day before! They left, noisily, at 5am on 18 November, leaving us alone thankfully. As we walked to Taplethok we met the Folay headmaster, Gonpo, and several others on their way back from Kathmandu. At Taplethok, there was a major mercantile exchange in full swing, trading in Cardamon. Huge 40kg bags were being filled, weighed and tabulated prior to being carried to Taplejung. Rumours of Maoist extorting their share of the bounty persist - each bag is worth about US$100. At Chiruwa we had a good breakfast but heard a disturbing story of a local teacher who had just that day been released from a 4 day abduction by a Maoist teacher. He had been made to walk, at night, without food, pointlessly, to several parts of the District, as punishment for some past deed. It was sobering to be amongst such suffering, just as we thought their grip was lessening. At the Thiwa Khola bridge we started the long climbing traverse to Suketar. This is a wide, well maintained trail, with a huge new bridge over the Sisne Khola stillbeing completed. Near Tagelum we dropped off photos from last year with a Brahmin family in the tea house. It was great to be able to deliver photos of people and I had made a special effort this trip. Another dusk arrival, at the tea house in Jogidanda, was rewarded with beer and surprisingly good dahl baht. We still had 6km and 400m to go to Suketar for a supposedly 11am flight, so we left early and made it to the airport soon after 9am. The Yeti agent berated us good naturedly about being late, but all looked well that we might fly out that day. However a few hours later came the "flight cancelled" rumour, and despite the promise of another flight the next morning, we knew our outbound flights from Kathmandu the next day were are risk. Of course the next day, even after a Royal Nepal Airlines flight had come and gone, Yet finally cancelled their flight for the week. Crestfallen, we made phone calls home, and started our escape by walking the 800m down to Taplejung Bazaar. There we booked a bus for the following morning, and pleasantly walked the length of the bazaar, greeting several acquaintances from previous trips. There was a big fire in part of the bazaar a few years ago, and it is being rebuilt in 2-3 storey concrete Terai style - quite a shock compared to the remaining low, close spaced wooden buildings.
We had good seats on the 30 seater bus, but as it left Taplejung we knew our comfort would be compromised by the appalling road conditions and hilarious overcrowding. By the time we crossed the Kabeli Khola bridge 3 hours later I counted 70 people aboard, including 10 on the roof. Clive and I took turns holding a sleepy 2 year on our knees and everyone jolted along good naturedly at less than 10km/h. The descent from 2000m to a river crossing at 200m took almost 2 painful hours, the road ahead only too visible. Finally we arrived at Phidim, a District center for Panchar. We still held hopes of getting to Kathmandu the next day, so hired a nice Mahindra jeep, and hurtled into the night. After another two hours of dust and mud we made it to a paved surface, and could triple speed. We spent the night at Rumke, then left at 3.30am on the 22nd to try to get an early flight from Biratnagar to Kathmandu. There was a short delay waiting for the police post outside Ilam to open, but we made it to the airport at 10.30am. Phurbas talked Yeti Airlines in to putting us on the "first flight", actual time unspecified! After multiple expired departure times we took about 3.30pm, and got to the Thai office in Kathmandu's Durbar Marg five minutes after it closed. Next day ominous stories of flights booked out for two weeks proved false, and Clive and I both made it out the next day and returned to our first world lives, only 3-4 days late. In my 7 trips to Kangchenjunga, this was the first to be disrupted by flights out of Suketar. The Bangkok taxi hit 100km/h as we headed out for dinner, and we knew the trip was over. The charm of Nepal remains undiminished and despite the Maoists, is a safe and pleasant travel destination.
Report on Field Trip May 2004
Rob arrived back in Kathmandu on Saturday 15 May after a totally successful trip, and reports:
Together with Phurba Tamang, Raj Kumar and two young New Zealanders, Julian and Brendan, we spent just under two weeks in the area achieving the following:
Confirmed continued operation of vaccine fridge at Tellok Health Post. This well staffed post has a good supply of vaccine, and apart from corrosion on battery terminals, the fridge is working well.
The Mamankhe fridge has less use, and the batteries were seriously short of distilled water. However the fridge is working fine.
The Ghunsa and Folay pre-school classes appear to be very popular and well run by the Mother's groups. We distributed clocks, toothbrushes, toothpaste and hand towels.
The medical clinic in Ghunsa seems to have overcome previous personnel clashes, in part due to the village's combined resistance to the external menace of Maoist extortionists levying "donations" from the small salaries we pay the three staff. We donated a baby scale to the maternal health worker and while only two babies have been born in the last year, the contraceptive program is working well.
The batteries in the Ghunsa and Folay Medical clinics were replaced. These were 100AH truck batteries almost 7 years old and have performed well. The new 98AH deep cycle batteries will last at least 10 years.
1500 copies of Hannah Nordhaus' Tibetan oral history books have been brought to Folay for distribution in the area. The local Tibetan community is delighted with the result. (see photo left)
The vaccine fridge at the health post at Lungthun that was installed by KSP in April 1999 is functioning again. In the only apparent good work achieved by local Maoists, the person who stole the two original 53 watt panels two years ago has been shamed to replace them, but with two 75 watt panels! They were "installed" by that person, but wired incorrectly, and we were able to
correctly wire them and together with a new battery get the fridge working again.
The Girls Dormitory at Lelep school was completed earlier, and most furniture (beds, shelves, chairs and tables) have now been completed. An adjacent kitchen building was being completed while we were there and the "hostel" is expected to be occupied "only by ladies" by the end of May. We installed a solar panel, regulator, an old battery from Lunghthun and lights in 4 of the 8 rooms.
The only sad part of the trip was witnessing the fear and intimidation the Maoists are exerting on these people. Its difficult to understand their methods, no matter how high minded their motives. We were not immune from their influence, and were forced to pay a donation of Rp 5000 (US$70) each, with an official receipt to provide immunity from future extortion! Explanation of the work we were already doing for the people fell on deaf ears, tending to confirm that they are ideologues blind to anything but their narrow view of Nepal's problems.
Girl's Dormitory in Lelep completed
The Girls dormitory at the Lelep school (see photo left) has been completed by KCAP and the Lelep Village Development Committee (VDC), despite the Maoist problems, with funds provided by two KSP donors: G-Systems and The Himalayan Fair.
Report from previous trip, Oct 31, 2002!
After 3 weeks, I got back today from Taplejung after a totally successful trip. The Maoist problem is certainly much in evidence, but they seem to be keeping their promise to leave trekkers alone.
We were able to fly straight into Taplejung on the 13th October, with crystal clear views of the mountains. From there it was the comfortable trekking routine, fully catered for the next 2 weeks as we traveled to Lelep, the health post at Lungthun and up to the recently opened village of Olangchangola at 10,000ft. Quite a big place with 63 houses, a huge Gompa and electric wiring everywhere (but no power station yet). A sad day to arrive as a woman had died in complications of childbirth (only a C-section could have saved her) so the village was in mourning. Very Tibetan in character, but the school only teaches Nepalese. The bonus was buying Chinese made Pabst Blue Label beer for US$1.50 a bottle - the village is only two days by Yak from the road end in Tibet!
We re-traced our steps a little to the Yanma river and in two more days up a stupendous gorge we reached the town of Yanma at about 13,000ft. 21 houses and a small Gompa nestled in the hillside, and a derelict school on the flood plain where we camped. The whole of our trip was over the Dessai holiday, so no teachers or kids in any of the schools. We did day trips from here - Colin got to within about 3km of the Tibetan border - I went East towards the Janak Himal and had great views of a peak called Pandra.