|
Brunei
Cambodia
China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Laos
Malaysia
Nepal
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
vietnam
travel tips
Free Consumer
Reports
|
NEPAL
Communications
Nepal isn't nearly as isolated as it once was. Email access and
international direct dialling are available in all the tourist spots,
and you can keep up with news via satellite TV and international
newspapers. The post is still as slow and patchy as ever, though.
Telecommunications
There can be no better illustration of the emerging electronic village
than the private telecommunications centres that have sprouted in
Kathmandu and other tourist areas. Like glittering electronic oases,
they offer Internet and email access, international direct dialling
and fax services. Most accept payment by credit card, too. Simpler
telephone-only outfits, which advertise themselves with the acronyms
ISD/STD/IDD (international subscriber dialling/standard trunk dialling/international
direct dialling), can be found in nearly every town of consequence.
Most district headquarters have government-operated telephone offices,
which are slightly cheaper but considerably less user-friendly.
Post
Post takes at least ten days to get to or from Nepal - if it arrives
at all. Postcards and aerogrammes go through fine, but envelopes
or parcels that look like they might contain anything of value may
go astray; even sending things registered offers no guarantees.
During holiday times, when backlogs develop, postal service employees
are rumoured to throw out what they don't have time to process.
If you know in advance the address(es) of where you'll be staying
in Nepal, you can receive post there. Otherwise, have people send
letters to you care of poste restante in Kathmandu or (less reliably)
Pokhara. Mail should be addresed: Name, Poste Restante, GPO, Kathmandu
(or Pokhara), Nepal. To reduce the risk of misfiling, your name
should be printed clearly with the surname underlined or capitalized.
Mail is held for about two months, and can be redirected on request.
American Express handles mail in Kathmandu for cardholders and those
carrying Amex cheques. US citizens can receive mail c/o the Consular
Section of the American Embassy in Kathmandu.
When sending mail in Nepal, there's rarely a need to deal directly
with the postal system. Hotels and most guest houses will take mail
to the post office for you. Book and postcard shops in tourist areas
sell stamps for a nominal extra fee, and many also have their own
mail drop-off boxes (just make sure they're reliable). Where no
such services exist, take your letters or cards to the post office
yourself and have the stamps franked before your eyes, or wait to
send them from Kathmandu, where they've got a higher probability
of reaching their destination. Never use a public letterbox: the
stamps will be removed and resold, and your correspondence will
be used to wrap peanuts
Media
Despite only 40-percent literacy, Nepal boasts more than 1000 newspapers
- an outgrowth of two noble Brahmanic traditions, punditry and gossip.
A few are published in English. Of these, however, only two dailies
- the Kathmandu Post and the Rising Nepal - are widely circulated,
and outside the Kathmandu Valley even they are hard to find. The
Post is marginally the better of the two; the Rising Nepal carries
mainly government and palace press releases. Several English-language
weeklies are stronger on analysis than news, and are aimed principally
at political insiders. The Independent (published Wednesdays) is
the most readable.
A number of magazines are published in English, the most interesting
and easy to find being Himal, a bimonthly journal of environmental
and development issues that's published in Kathmandu but covers
all of South Asia. Spotlight, a weekly, tries to be a sort of Nepali
Time or Newsweek, and actually carries some good features on Nepalese
current affairs.
In Kathmandu and Pokhara you can get a wide range of international
publications such as the International Herald Tribune, USA Today,
Asian Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek.
The rapid spread of cable and satellite TV is sending tremors through
Nepalese society - Indian pop videos, Hollywood movies and all the
advertising broadcast with them are having a strong influence on
youth culture, and will undoubtedly challenge traditional values
and attitudes about morality and parental authority. At any rate,
more and more hotel and guest house rooms have TVs, and you can
catch CNN, BBC World Service, ESPN, Nepal TV and movies and sitcoms
in both English and Hindi.
Despite the rise of TV, the government-run Radio Nepal is probably
still the most influential of the nation's media, catering to the
illiterate majority of Nepalis and reaching villages well beyond
the circulation of any newspaper. With a daily format of traditional
and pop music, news bulletins, English language lessons, dramas
and development messages, it has been a powerful force for cultural
and linguistic unity, though in recent years various ethnic groups
have pressured the government to provide programming in their native
tongues. The station carries English-language news bulletins daily
at 8.15am and 8.15pm. There are also local FM stations, including
a couple of English-language ones in the Kathmandu Valley. If you're
travelling with a short-wave radio, you can pick up the BBC World
Service at 15.31 MHz (19.6m) between about 8.45am and 10.45pm. Alternative
frequencies include 11.75 and 9.74 MHz. |
|
|
