Public Announcements

Once in a while, I decide to spread news around however limited my bandwidth is. I get an average of twenty people reading my blog everyday but I still feel this civic duty to tell people of injustice in society.

I have a journalist friend working at Ass Tee who recently went to a month long trekking holiday to Nepal and Tibet. She was with 3 other friends and I have been getting updates from her sporadic email updates.

Well she's back and seems very happy with her little adventure except for a nightmarish episode toward the end of her holiday.

Seems that two of her travelmates' hotel room was broken into while they were sleeping inside the room. So imagine being robbed all the while you are sleeping soundly...

This email that I am attaching is gonna be a long read. But please help to spread....I cannot believe myself doing this....I've always thought these emails were fake....

So this was what my friend told us:

Hi everyone,

as some of you many know, I just got back to Singapore
after a month long vacation in Nepal and Tibet. It was
great. Both countries are amazing, a lot to see and
learn. However, four of us travelled together and a
burglar came into the room that two of my travelling
companions were sleeping in and made away with all
their cash. We had trouble with the rogue hotel and
travel agency which did nothing to help us and in fact
told us we were horrible.

Read the letter below to find out more. I've asked
some of my friends to help me translate the letter
into various languages and post them on travel
websites in their country. I hope you can help me by
forwarding the letter to your friends so as many
people as possible are aware of these two rogue
companies and not use their services when they travel
to Nepal. They certainly do their country a great
disservice.

Will write to you more about my trip at later.

Cheers,
Weichean

And the attachment is here:

Date: 28 September 2005
To: The Joint Secretary, Tourism Industry Division,
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation,
Kathmandu
cc: Director, TP & RD, Nepal Tourism Board
cc: Inspector, Tourist Police
cc: Trekking Agency Association of Nepal
cc: Hotel Association Nepal
Reported By: Mses. Arlina Arshad & Ng Hui Cheng,
Dorothy
Re: Complaint Against 
(1) Himalayan Glacier Trekking agency; Post Box 20062,
Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel: +977-1-4421780, 4411387 Fax:
+977-1-4412383, email: hgtrek@ccsl.com.np,
info@himalayanglacier.com.np
(2) Hotel Courtyard, Kathmandu G.P.O.Box 463,
Z-Street, Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel: 4700476,
4700648 
On 21 September 2005, between 1230am and 6am, an
intruder entered our hotel room, #408, through the
open windows. He made off with all our cash, amounting
to USD2,000, and some belongings (Two Buddha statues
and a black money-bag.)
By luck, we escaped with our lives. If we'd woken up
while he was there, we fear what could have happened.
We would likely have been killed to silence us.
On discovering the missing money bags, we checked the
room to be sure what was lost. We recorded this
information on paper. We discovered our ransacked
bags, camera, passports on the window ledge
immediately outside our room. All cash was stolen.
At once, we notified reception/hotel manager on duty,
and our travel agency (Himalayan Glacier Trekking) of
the burglary. Hotel staff hesitated to come up until
we stressed the urgency of the crime over the internal
phone.
When the hotel manager finally did show up, he shook
his head, calling the crime "impossible" to have
happened - Until we showed him the empty bags outside
our ledge. They did not seal off the crime scene
despite our insistence. We took the initiative to snap
a photo of the items on the window ledge as evidence.
We insisted on making a police report at once. The
manager refused at first, saying it would be "bad for
the hotel".  We insisted. Himalayan Glacier Trekking
staff, Mr. Naba Raj Amgai, who'd arranged this Nepal
visit for us, assured us that a police report would be
filed on our behalf, as we were due to leave for Tibet
that very morning for a week.
We reminded this agent to communicate to the hotel
that a police report MUST be filed within 24 hours to
allow us to claim insurance (AIA Insurance,
Singapore).
We told Mr Naba to keep a copy of the photo as
evidence of crime, but he said it was not necessary
and the hotel and he "would handle the matter".
Upon our return from Tibet seven (7) days after the
crime, on 27 September 2005, we were stunned to learn
from the tourist police that despite the assurances
made and our reminders, NO POLICE REPORT had been
filed by Hotel Courtyard or the agency. Their excuse:
They needed us to be present in person to lodge the
police report. We'd anticipated this but Mr Naba had
assured us repeatedly there as no need for us to be
present.
Mr Naba had also assured us that he'd faxed the hotel
our passport copies and list of stolen items and their
value (which we had prepared before we left for Tibet)
on 21 Sept, and the hotel had faxed this to the
police. This was not so, the police later told us. The
police had no documented record of the crime, or the
aforesaid fax.
Tourist police inspector Rajendra Bista confirmed
hotel owner, Mr Pujan Pradhan, had called him. But
only THREE (3) DAYS AFTER the crime, and in a "very
informal way through a short phone call". "Too late,"
said the officer. "You should have made a report on
the day of incident,'' he added.
We couldn't claim insurance because of the delay. We
approached Himalayan Glacier Trekking for help. Its
Executive Director, Mr Sagar Pandey, said: "We're not
responsible for what happened at the hotel". Mr Naba
added that the agency had already done its best by
"faxing a copy of our passports to the hotel (for the
police report) on 21 Sept (crime date), plus our list
of stolen items + value. They then said they did not
know if the hotel had followed through with the
police. In this regard, the agency confessed they had
failed to follow up with the hotel, although they had
assured us they would.
This morning (28 September 2005), when we spoke to the
hotel owner Mr Pujan Pradhan to resolve the issue, he
admitted he "was wrong" for not making the police
report on time. He said he'd get the tourist police to
give us another report stating the report AND AN
INVESTIGATION (which did not occur) was made on the
same day. And that was all he could do. "We are not
responsible for lost items in the room". He added: "We
can't do anything about this. It's even written in the
law".
He refused any suggestion of cash compensation by his
hotel except a re-dated police report. We refused. By
this time, the agency representatives Mr Pandey and Mr
Naba had already taken off. We were unable to consult
them more fully on Mr Pradhan's offer.
Blackmail:
We found Mr Pandey back in his office. If we wanted
another police report, Mr Pandey had a demand: We had
to sign a document to say that we would not alert the
public about what had happened. "You all four sign a
document to say you will not publicise bad things
about my company. Then I will give you a new police
report."
"Is this a barter trade?" we asked, incredulous.
"Yes, it is" he said.
We declined to the blackmail, and left his office at
once. Even at this point, his last priority was his
customers. His first priority: himself. Worse, he was
asking us to be dishonest to the law. Both the hotel
owner and Mr Pandey had insisted this was the way
things are done in Nepal.
We choose not to believe that justice can be skewed
like this. It is fair, just treatment we seek. Hence
we make this complaint report, through the proper
channels.
Their callousness, lack of responsibility & disregard
for the law; their "blaise" attitude alarmed us.
Worse, security had been breached under their watch.
USD2000 was stolen under their roof. Rather than
assisting us promptly, they blamed us for being "not
friendly". They even accused us of being unreasonable
to seek recourse from them. Mr Pandey even told us off
at his office: "Why should we be kind to bad
customers."
My friend and I could have lost our lives. When the
crime happened, we did not blame anyone, not the
agency or the hotel. We did not kick up a fuss. We
followed as Mr Naba had advised. Our ONLY request:
Please make the police report within 24 hours so we
can activate insurance. This single task, they failed.
On top of it, they did not follow up either with each
other or with the tourist police. We were the ones who
pressed for action.
Action:
We hope that Nepal's service culture will not be
marred by the errant companies such as Himalayan
Glacier Trekking and Hotel Courtyard. It mars the
image of the country, where tourism is an integral
part of its economy.
We trust the Ministry will take a serious view on such
rogue companies that affect this crucial industry. We
hope strong action will be taken. For instance, a
blacklist, or formal written warning.
Unlike these two companies, we believe that the
Ministry is true to its vision and will follow through
with this complaint promptly and effectively.

Arlina Arshad (Ms), Journalist, The Straits Times
(Singapore),
Ng Hui Cheng, Dorothy (Ms). Media Manager,Singapore
History Museum,

I'm gonna meet up with her real soon to find out more about her trip. Not just this unfortunate incident but all the wonderful tales of trekking and dishy trek guides.