G4T #50: Ben Ayers - Insights on Social Change in Nepal's Khumbu

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

This month's podcast is one of the interviews from our recent trip to Nepal. We administered the interview to Ben Ayers, the founder of Porter's Progress, an NGO devoted to supporting the porter who carry heavy loads on their backs up the Khumbu Valley of Nepal. Today he works for the dZi Foundation, a community development NGO that works throughout the Himalaya region.

In this podcast, Ben discusses how the Khumbu has been modernized and transformed in recent years, and the challenges that this presents to Sherpa culture and society today.

Please support these worthwhile organizations...

• Porter's Progress
• dZi Foundation

G4T #49: Environmental & Social Change in Nepal - Part 3 - from Nepal

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's podcast is a report on my fieldwork experience in Nepal. More details are provided in the blogs below, but this audio post may be accessible for some. The podcast covers the following three topics:

Part 1 - I discuss the administration of our photograph survey in Nepal and some of he challenges and adjustments made in doing that

Part 2 - I talk about trekking in the Khumbu (Mt. Everest) region of Nepal, where about half of the interviews took place

Part 3 - There is a short soundseeing clip from the Durba (Palace) Square of Patan, the former city-state on the south bank of the river, across from Kathmandu

I found a fast internet connection at the Kathmandu Airport for US$5/hour -- so this is going up as I leave the country.

FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Set of photos

Enjoy ....
Alan

Photo: Part of Patan's Durbar Square (a UNESCO World Heritage Site, by the way...)

Additional photos of Nepal can be found at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew

Nepal Tourism Research - Namche Bazaar and Beyond

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

7 January 2007

6:30pm

I had yak steak for dinner tonight. It was lean and a bit on the tough and stringy side, but not gamey. We are staying at the Panorama Lodge in Namche Bazaar and I was hoping to have a room with electricity to recharge my camera and computer batteries. Unfortunately, the deluxe rooms that have that are currently unavailable for some reason. I do have a light bulb, but no outlet. So instead, I am charging everything in the restaurant, where there is one plug. My camcorder battery is fully charged now, and my computer is about half charged. My one dead camera battery is currently plugged into the outlet charging.

... For the full text of this blog entry go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-namche-bazaar.html

Photo: the Mong La Pass, at about 13,117 feet -- the highest point on our trek.
FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Set of photos

Nepal Research Project - Into the Khumbu

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

5 January 2007

I am sitting on the roof of the domestic terminal of the Kathmandu Airport. Our flight was scheduled for 6am departure -- it is now almost noon. Initially the delay was due to fog in Kathmandu -- something is occurs almost daily. In fact, we did not even leave our hotel until about 9:30 because we knew all the flights had been delayed.

For the full text of the blog entry go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-into-khumbu.html

Photo: Yaks crossing a wood and wire bridge -- notice,too, the firewood stacked under the rock.

FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Sets of photos

G4T #48: Environmental & Social Change in Nepal - Part 2

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's podcast is part two of my discussion of a research project that I am undertaking in Nepal. This first podcast in this series discussed the "problem statement" -- the environmental and social change issues and how we framed them. In today's podcast I discuss our research methodology and the theoretical rational for the methodology. We will be using photographs to elicit responses from residents Kathmandu and the Khumbu region. Theoretically, the methodology is focused on Social Exchange Theory.

G4T #47: Environmental & Social Change in Nepal - Part 1

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

In today's podcast I discuss a research project that I will be undertaking in Nepal. This is the first in a series of podcasts that will take you through my experience in initiating and doing this field research. This first podcast discusses the "problem statement" -- the issues and how we framed them. It is based on a proposal that I wrote with two colleagues this past summer to the US National Science Foundation. The proposed research was to examine the perceptions of Nepalis in the Khumbu region of Nepal (near Mt Everest) of environmental and social changes over the past 40 years. As a major trekking region, tourism is one of the key elements that we identify as affecting change in the Khumbu.

Links to items cited in this podcast:

1. InnerToob.com
2. Tourism, Recreation, And Climate Change, edited by C. Michael Hall and James E. S. Higham
3. PL376 - Planning for Sustainable Tourism - Northern Arizona University
4. The TPN Travel Show podcast - host: Doc Martin