Nepal has given our travellers some of their most treasured journeys. This week it is grieving, and so are we. A few honest words, and how to help.
Over the years we have sent a great many travellers to Nepal, and almost every one of them comes home changed by it. The mountains, of course, but more than that the warmth of the people who live among them. This week that country is grieving, and we are grieving with it. I wanted to say something honest here rather than stay quiet.
What happened
On 26 August a glacier gave way high on the Nepal–China border, above the Bhote Koshi valley near Langtang, and the collapse set off a landslide and a wall of water that tore down the valley for miles. Bridges, roads and whole villages were swept away. Hundreds of people have died, and at the time of writing many more are still missing, among them trekkers and tourists as well as the families who call those valleys home. The figures are still changing, and every one of them is a person.
The people behind every trek
If you have ever trekked in Nepal, you know the trip is carried on the backs of local people. The guide who reads the weather and your mood in the same glance. The porter who somehow smiles under a load you could not lift. The teahouse family who feeds you dal bhat and asks after your children. These are the people the mountains depend on, and they are the ones bearing the worst of this. Our thoughts are with them, and with the Nepali colleagues we have worked alongside for years.
If you have a trip to Nepal booked
If you are due to travel to Nepal soon, please talk to us before you do anything. Some regions are directly affected and others are not, and the picture is changing by the day. We are following the official advisories and staying in touch with our people on the ground, and we will help you postpone, reroute or hold your booking as the situation needs. If you are already in Nepal, call us. We would far rather hear from you and help than have you sort it out alone.
How to help, and how not to be cheated
The kindest thing most of us can do from here is give, and give to people who know what they are doing. Established relief bodies such as the Nepal Red Cross Society, and the larger international agencies working in the region, can turn your money into shelter, clean water and search efforts far better than a fund set up overnight.
And I am sorry to have to say it, but disasters bring the fraudsters out. Fake appeals appear within hours, cloning real charities to harvest donations. Give through an organisation's own official website rather than a link forwarded to you, and be wary of any appeal that pressures you to act this very second.
Nepal will need visitors again
There will come a time, later, when the most useful thing a traveller can do for Nepal is simply to go back. Tourism is not a luxury there. It is the livelihood of entire valleys, and the recovery will lean on it heavily. That time is not today, while rescue and grief still fill the hours. But when Nepal is ready to welcome trekkers again, we will be ready to send them, and we hope you will think about going.
Until then, our hearts are with everyone in those mountains. Nepal has looked after our travellers for a very long time. We are thinking of it now.
