A work in Trekking : Hard won Job

a lp gas cylinder common in Nepal

Namaste Everybody! Finally I managed to put together this blog and this is the starting and opening post! Give me ideas to make the blog better Thanks

In 1992, I don’t remember the month but it was shortly after I was admitted to Nepal Law Campus, Kathmandu my mom had sent me a letter saying she managed to send Rupees 2,000 [$30] which she borrowed from a relative and this was for my education expenses. She had to give her an ornament (dhungri-Nep.) as a collator for that borrowing. This message made me more worried for my education and expenses in Kathmandu where I didn’t have senior family members or friends who could support in how to keep up my education. I was afraid to use all the money sent by her so I used about half of it and rest sent back home. From that moment, I started to look for a part-time job aiming to make enough to pay the fees and food. As any big cities, Kathmandu had the crowd of people and sad thing I felt after not finding a job was maybe the entire crowd was like me – everyone seeking a job.

After realizing that without extraordinary qualities or higher level connection, to find a job is impossible, I ended up knocking the door of a neighbor Sherpa who was a trekking cook for a trekking agency. He also showed me his limits that he is not an educated man neither he has influence like a senior guide do to employ junior staff on a trek. After seeing and bothering him many times, he once said that he will take me on a trek and the job I had to do was called a spare boy.

My Mom at our House Lumsa, Solukhumbu Nepal

It was about a week's camping trek to Ghorepani – Poon hill in the Annapurna mountains. There were two spare boys including me.  Our job was to carry stove and fuel by one and food (to prepare lunch) by next. Because my companion was experienced he got the food and I end up carrying a stove and a LP gas cylinder. Later I learned that the trekking agency we were with had sent the LP gas as a 'taste' of alternative fuel for camping trek. Because the cylinder is cylindrical – not an easy shape to carry on the back of a human it was learned too impractical and none of the other agencies ever used such fuel support for cooking in the trek. Needless to mention but that was probably the most difficult job I ever did. Thanks to the length of the trek as it completed in a week. So, on my first trek, I happened to be a guinea pig to test alternative fuel plan for trekking industry of Nepal. Before or around that time fire fueled by wood was the common way to cook food. 

Because the money I earned from short trek was not enough to pay back the debt, my mom had and because I needed more money, I happened to work in another trek soon after the first one. The second trek was of nearly one month, one of the longest treks in Nepal, in Arun valley of eastern Nepal ending at Lukla after visiting Everest base camp. After the completion of the second trek, I ran down to Lumsa (my home village) which took only two days for me. I had enough to give my mom to safeguard her dhungri and little extra to share sweets and gifts to my family of course including my grandfather.

After returning in Kathmandu I had to keep working on treks at least 2-3 times per trek season to support myself and family back home. This is how I ended up in trekking industry despite being a law student.

Until next post best wishes to you all.