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Anyone trying to do business in Nepal must negotiate daily shortages of diesel and power. Most of Kathmandu is without electricity for at least four hours every day due to poor maintenance of hydro-electric dams — yet Nepal could be exporting power to India if it got its act together. Roads in the capital are more pothole than tarmac and the pollution is shocking. Traffic jams are compounded by queues of as many as 200 motorbikes and cars waiting for petrol — on the days when garages have any petrol to sell. A steel manufacturer of Indian origin complains of running out of raw steel stock. ‘And even if I make my goods, often I can’t get them to market.’ It’s estimated that in the past five years over a million Nepalese have gone abroad to look for work — mainly to India, Malaysia and the Middle East. ‘It makes it hard to employ good people here,’ admits another Indian businessman. ‘Or to persuade the staff I do hire to go the extra mile.’ Add to this Kathmandu’s poor mobile phone reception and broadband connections; BlackBerry addicts shouldn’t even think of applying for a visa just yet.
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‘We were hoping for a new Nepal,’ a teacher says to me over a delicious but unintentionally candlelit supper of bitter gourd curry. ‘Now we know we’ve been lumbered with more of the same.’ She is referring to political developments in the past year, after King Gyanendra was pressured in April 2006 into giving up absolute power. Since then an interim parliament dominated by a seven-party coalition has been haggling over the new constitution, a political stalemate in what was supposed to have been the cornerstone of a peace process after ten years of armed communist insurgency. April 2007 saw the anti-monarchy Maoist rebels join the political mainstream, with five senior ministerial portfolios in a new government. But the entente is fragile. Having seen what violence and extortion have achieved for the Maoists, other rebel groups are now pitching in with their own violent protests. Elections promised for this month have been postponed to the year-end.
‘The four wheels of the cart are unequal,’ says a fashion designer, talking about caste disparity. She remains unimpressed by developments such as the golf resort. ‘Profit will not trickle down to ordinary people. We’ve had 200 years of Brahmin [upper caste] rule, and this new constitution has changed nothing. The power is still with the King’s Men.’
Some, like the social activist Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, are campaigning for a civil rights movement. With subsistence farming a way of life for 75 per cent of the population, and literacy rates hovering around 50 per cent, the challenge, as Chaudhary sees it, is to build an inclusive, accountable system in a country more loyal to ‘tribe’ than ‘nation’.
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Nevertheless, you can just feel the economy simmering. Local demand reflects signs of nascent consumerism. Television, formerly state-controlled, now offers around 50 international channels, many showing commercials made in Nepal, starring Nepalese actors or models, for a wide range of imported goods. India and China compete to export manufactured goods such as cars to Nepal and increase their foothold in its economy. Packaged, branded foodstuffs such as family-sized bags of Lay’s crisps and sliced local bread can be found alongside Heinz baked beans, Garnier toiletries and — I kid you not — Charlotte Church DVDs. Glass-fronted shops display Tag Heuer watches, Adidas sportswear and Baskin-Robbins ice cream; I recommend the Almond Crunch.
Nepal is in transition, trying to work out what it wants to become. Alongside the cheap backpackers’ hostels are the offices of half a dozen national airlines with such alluring names as Buddha Air or Yeti Air, offering $135 flights around Mount Everest for tourists like me who lack the inclination and stamina to make the ascent to base camp. At dinner I meet yet another type of tourist: members of the Hong Kong Gardeners’ Association, in Kathmandu to visit the stunning Garden of Dreams, newly restored (at a cost of $1 million) with lush ponds, pavilions and fountains. Like the pilgrims on the Buddha trail, the British government has also recently shown faith in the kingdom, pledging assistance worth £13 million to Nepal’s Peace Trust Fund and a minimum of £23.5 million in debt relief until 2015.
Kathmandu is a city itching to take off economically. Though not yet Tiger Woods, you might say, Nepal’s handicap is improving. It just needs the courage to reach for that Big Bertha for the fairway ahead.
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