Paving over Paradise

One of the greatest experiences I've had in my life is trekking through Nepal. I had a chance to explore the rich diversity of the country, from the cattle-choked metropolis of Kathmandu to the arid deserts bordering China in the North to the lush jungles approaching India in the south. But one of the highlights, above all, was hiking the 150-mile Annapurna Circuit, which many have called — hands down — the greatest trek in the world.

The Annapurna Circuit takes hikers from lush rice-paddy filled valleys, the Marsyangdi, up over Thorong La, a 17,769-foot high pass (higher than any place in the continental US) and back down into the Kali Gandaki valley, a wide, dust-filled journey between cliffs that's mystical and magical and exhausting and ... wonderful.

And now ... it's being paved over with a road.

Ethan Todras-Whitehill writes a wonderful piece about it in today's New York Times ("Last Footfall in Nepal" — read about it here). It really is a tragedy — although, of course, the locals who are against it are those that make money from the trekkers ... which is only about 15-20 percent of the population. To everyone else, the road represents progress.

Ugh.
What price progress when we're paving over paradise?

If you'd like to read more about my adventures in Nepal, check out my book "Nepalese Travel Odyssey" (available here or here). This isn't a book about the Annapurna trek, specifically — more about the wonders of Nepal and the adventures I had just getting around the country. If you ever dreamed of having far-off adventures, it will give you an idea just how "exotic" far-off exotic places can be.