Like every year, Pushpraj Rimal, a tour planner and taxi driver in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, was looking forward to September for his business to boom.
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business → look → September
But what he got instead was a series of cancellations by tourists after catastrophic floods last month killed more than 1,450 people and destroyed key highways, deeply impacting the Himalayan nation heavily dependent on tourism.
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floods → get → tourism
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children → kill → future
4The Nepal floods question: When the Himalayas collapse, who gets warned?
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who → collapse → ?
“It is still a lockdown kind of situation,” the 42-year-old told Al Jazeera nearly a month after the disaster.
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old → tell → disaster
Pushpraj, who speaks Nepali and Hindi, works on commission for several hotels and trekking companies in Kathmandu and the scenic town of Pokhara, known for its lake nestled in the Annapurna mountain range.
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who → speak → range
Pokhara also serves as a base for Himalayan trekkers.
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Pokhara → serve → trekkers
Nepal’s tourist season peaks after the monsoon ends in August and the skies are clearer.
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skies → end → August
Tourism attracts thousands of international travellers, accounting for nearly 8 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product and employs more than 1 million people.
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Tourism → attract → people
Last year, Nepal saw more than 1.15 million tourists visiting the country, nearly a third of them during the September-November season.
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tourists → see → season
But the floods this year, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse along the Nepal-Tibet border in the north, have pushed tourists away from the unaffected areas as well.
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floods → trigger → areas
“I had rented two cars for two months, but I have done one fourth of the business I usually do in a season.
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I → rent → season
Tourists generally start pouring in from September, but most of them have cancelled this year,” he said.
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he → start → them
“I will get no commissions from the hotels or trek organisers, nor has the taxi business worked well.
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business → get → hotels
I am now waiting for the season to end.”
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season → wait → ?
Rimal has two children, Hema, 14, and Rahul, 12, whom he had promised a tablet this Dussain, a prominent Hindu festival that usually falls in October.
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that → have → October
“But it seems impossible now.
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it → seem → ?
I will have to break their hearts and my promise to them for the very first time.”
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I → have → time
Seeta Nepali, 61, and her husband, Ramakant Nepali, 68, sell homemade buttermilk on the highway connecting Kathmandu to the tourist towns of Pokhara and Chitwan.
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Nepali → sell → Pokhara
The couple, who also sells cottage cheese in their neighbourhood, depend on these daily sales to make ends meet.
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ends → sell → sales
“Our town may not have been destroyed by the floods, but the floods reached us by way of no buyers.
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floods → destroy → buyers
We could earn nothing for 11 days after the flood because the road was blocked,” Seeta told Al Jazeera.
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Seeta → earn → Jazeera
“Even after it reopened, only government vehicles were allowed to pass.
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vehicles → reopen → ?
Now, some tourists are coming in, and we are able to sell, but it is not even half of what we used to sell earlier because there are far fewer people. …
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we → come → what
We are making barely one-fourth of what we would usually do,” she added.
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she → make → what
British national Alexa, who goes by a single name, had planned to visit Pokhara and Dhulikhel, a hill town near Kathmandu known for its cultural experiences and homestays, with five of her friends.
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who → go → friends
But the flooding forced the group to cancel their trip.
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flooding → force → trip
“It was going to be our first time in Nepal, and we had booked two cabs from Kathmandu airport to Pokhara in July itself along with hotels, trekking and camps.
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we → go → hotels
When we learned about the disaster on the 26th [of August], we had to cancel everything,” she told Al Jazeera.
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she → learn → Jazeera
A traveller from Japan, who asked to remain anonymous, said the washed-out roads and bridges were the least of his concerns.
“We could have taken flights, but the situation and environment due to the floods, the stranded dead bodies could be deadly for me and my family, so we chose to cancel this time,” the father of two said.
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father → ask → two
Others like Tapas Kumar from India changed their itineraries instead of cancelling their trips.
“Our son is based in the United States.
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son → change → States
He was concerned about us and insisted that we cancel Nepal for now.
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we → insist → Nepal
So we found a middle ground.
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we → find → ground
We cancelled Pokhara and extended our Kathmandu stay for all of the seven days,” Kumar, who was travelling with his wife and friends, told Al Jazeera.
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who → cancel → Jazeera
Many foreign tourists said they were also checking travel advisories issued by their embassies in Nepal before cancelling or rescheduling their trips.
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they → say → trips
“Some people also got scared and misunderstood the information and safety measures issued by the embassies of other countries in Nepal and chose to cancel their travel plans.
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people → get → plans
But we want people to know that Nepal is open and safe.
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Nepal → want → ?
Only some parts need to be avoided,” Surendra Thapa, charge d’affaires at the Indian embassy, told Al Jazeera.
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Thapa → need → Jazeera
On the other hand, the embassy of the United Kingdom issued an advisory on September 11, warning that the floods had made many areas unstable and it was difficult to guarantee safe travels within Nepal.
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it → issue → Nepal
The US embassy issued a similar advisory, stating many areas were unsafe and designated no-travel zones.
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areas → issue → zones
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
