Birat Anupam/RSS 

Itahari: Michael Hider is from Germany. He has recently trekked to the Makalu Base Camp along with his wife Jutla Haider and her friend Katrin Zaglauer. They were excited to be under the canopy of Nepal’s mighty mountains.

”I love the mountains of Nepal”, Michael said while talking in Langmale and Makalu Base Camp. Michael, who has been in Nepal multiple times, however, has concerns about poorly equipped infrastructures. ”I found trail-like roads in some places,” he said, ”I think trekking trail must be natural and very safe.”

His wife Jutla has another concern about the poorly constructed road. ”The road from Khandbari to Num was very bad,” Jutla said, adding, ”It is better to have no road than to have terrible roads.”

She said Germany also has some off-road but they are forty times better than what she has seen in Khandbari- Num area.

Jutla’s friend Katrin Zaglauer shares a similar opinion. Speaking in fluent English, she said she loved the MBC trek, the local Sherpa village and the culture but not the infrastructure. ”I think it will be better in the future,” she expressed her expectation along the MBC trekking trail.

Anna-Mari-Trlin, a recent trekker from Italy, has a similar sentiment. ”I was very scared of the landslide areas,” Anna said. ”I do not love this type of trail.” Her boyfriend Matteo Bedendo has a similar sentiment. Matteo stated there needs to have better infrastructure in beautiful trekking trails like the Makalu Base Camp trek.

Not only foreigners, but Nepalese trekkers also have concerns about poor infrastructure. ”We were about to end our journey from Dobato as we had to return after being unable to cross a rivulet in the heavy raining days,” said Madan Khabas, a trekker from Taplejung.

He said his team had to wait a couple of days to cross the swollen creek. ”Had there been proper trail, this would not have been an issue”, complained Madan. Similarly, Ujjwal Basnet, a trekker from the Sankhuwasabha district itself, said it was heartrending to see the damaged trail, haphazard landsides and poorly constructed trail.

”I was very scared to see a huge landslide area along the bank of Barun river”, said Basnet, ”The rope in Shiva Dhara was unreliable.”