|
| |
|
POST, PHONES AND
THE MEDIA |
| |
|
|
| |
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.
Just remember that all these options for keeping in touch are just that
- optional. Nepal is still a great place to fall out of touch.
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.
|
| |
|
