Where, How and Why?

What I personally consider the 'Epitome of Geography': Nepal and the Himalayas - Eastern Asia

Jess Claridge-Law

October 2, 2022

Introduction:

Where have I always yearned to visit?

Canada and the Rockies; Interlaken, Switzerland and Antarctica and Nepal. Pondering on the thought... Is there a region where we see both the Human and Physical elements interact with one another? Somewhere which embodies the idea of the so-called 'Epitome of Geography'. I felt Nepal perfectly encapsulated this. Through this story, I will demonstrate why!

NEPAL

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION OF NEPAL:

Nepal is a landlocked region, in South Eastern Asia, between Northern India and south of Tibet- an autonomous region of China. Below shows Nepal’s situation, borders, and nearby territories.

**Figure 1**. Locating Nepal in an atlas.

The 'WHERE?'

I believe Nepal is so much more than the mountains bordering it. It is indeniably rich with Hindu history and culture; where 80% of the population practice Hinduism. The Nepalese are incredibly humble, friendly and welcoming people, proud of their religion and land, and their cuisine!

1. Demographics of Nepal:

To begin, let's start with Nepal's demography:

2. Host to the World's largest Buddhist Temple:

3. Nepal and the Himalayas: a land of opportunity?

Currently Nepal sits on a GDP (per capita) of $1049.68 according to 'tradingeconomics.com', ranking it 102nd out of 196 countries.

Year by year, Everest climbing numbers soar, due to increased globalisation and dramatic technological developments. 2018 saw around 800 successful summits, creating an opportunity for Sherpas. Everest tourism has provided them with the opportunity to reform their lives.

The average cost for a group of Sherpa is $4000. This means per season, the approximate wage for a sherpa is around $6000; almost 5x the wage of a normal Nepalese worker. The Himalayas enable Sherpas to increase their annual salary, and to support themselves, and their families.

**Figure 4.** Climbers at Everest Summit in 2019.

I contacted an organisation, 'Summit Climbers', enquiring about interviewing one of their sherpa. Though, this proved to be more complicated than it seemed.

However, they did send through a video containing all the answers I needed; including the reality of a Sherpa, and how Mount Everest has shaped their lives.

The livelihood of a Nepalese Sherpa.

The 'HOW?'

As the crow flies, Nepal is 4,582 miles from the United Kingdom. I considered driving from the UK to Nepal. After research, I found a non-stop drive would take in excess of 120 hours! I investigated how much CO₂ a one-way car journey would emit.

According to 'nimblefins.co.uk' "the average person emits 221.4 grams per mile. I calculated the AGM (Average Gram per Mile) would result in the emission of more than 1,014,000,000 GRAMS of CO₂. Therefore I would need to fly to Nepal

I contemplated the option of a carbon-offset flight. Being an avid geographer, I felt it was appropriate to consider this idea. Though, I had the impression carbon-offset flights would be more costly than a regular flight

I tested this theory.

Pre-investigation:

I wanted to gather others' thoughts on what would prevent them from buying a carbon- offset flight, to see if their perceptions were similar to mine. Therefore, I designed a survey which I sent to family and friends.

I asked the question:

Question 1.

Results from my survey:

The pie chart shows that overall 81.8% would be 'likely/very likely' to take a carbon-offset flight, where 51.5% of people said they were 'very likely', were they given the option. Only 6.1% voted that they would be really unlikely to take this flight. Therefore, this shows that people are supposedly willing to reduce their carbon emissions; they also demonstrated in the next question the variable preventing them from taking a C.O flight.

Question 2.

Results to Q.2

I found the average age of my survey was 21.189. This shows that these perceptions are mainly from a ‘younger’ audience. An elder audience may have different thoughts.

Question 3.

I composed a word cloud with my responses from Q.3.

I found that from Q.2 on my Google Form, 'What would stop you from taking a carbon offset flight?', the main response was either 'It's too expensive', 'I can't afford it' and'The price/cost', 'It's significantly more'. Overall, the majority of the 33 people who contributed to my survey had the same perception; that Carbon-Offset flights are more expensive.

Here is a link to my survey! Flight Survey

This led me onto my investigation:

'So, how do prices of more sustainable flights fluctuate between travel agencies online?'.

I was curious to see if carbon-offset flights would be more expensive, and exactly how much more.

MY METHODOLOGY:

My data collection will be presented in a bar graph, showing the comparison between a Non-Carbon offset (NCO) flight and Carbon-Offset (CO) flight. I will use: 'Skyscanner', 'FlyGRN' and 'Expedia', searching for the cheapest Carbon and Non-Carbon offset flights.

AIM and HYPOTHESIS

To compare the prices between Carbon-Offset flights and Non-Carbon Offset flights between travel agencies to see if they’re financially viable for travellers. I hypothesise that the sustainable options will be more expensive.

RESULTS:

*I searched for flights from London Heathrow airport to Tribhuvan International, Kathmandu.

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1. SKYSCANNER:

I first searched for the 'Non-Carbon Offset' flight. The total journey would be 13 hours with the cost of £611 for an economy seat.

Alternatively, for the Carbon-Offset flight, I found that the cheapest flight was £687. A 12.4% price increase.

2. FLIGHTGRN:

Moreover, for 'FLIGHTGRN', there were no Non-Carbon offset options. Instead, I searched for the flight with the lowest % of CO₂ offset which was 4%. The option with the highest carbon offset was 18%.

Here, my hypothesis was incorrect! The highest Carbon-offset option was the cheaper flight.

3. EXPEDIA:

Finally, I saw that the flights on Expedia were considerably more expensive than the flights via Skyscanner & FLYGRN. Around 40% more in some cases!

Similarly with FLYGRN, the Carbon-Offset flight was cheaper than the Non-Offset option.

CONCLUDING MY INVESTIGATION:

Overall, I found that while my original hypothesis was correct for Skyscanner- where the Carbon-Offset flights were more costly, unexpectedly, these options via FLIGHTGRN and Expedia were cheaper.

Travellers should search for Carbon-Offset flights; 1. They can be more cost-effective, 2. Travellers can reduce their carbon footprint. I feel that there could be increased awareness of Carbon-Offset flights in a bid to do our part against global warming.

THE JOURNEY: Cowes, Isle of Wight to Kathmandu, Nepal.

**Figure 9.** Showing the flight route from London Heathrow to Inbira Gandhi, India to Tribhuvan International, Nepal. I traced the route which I found via the flightradar24 app!

01 / 13

The perspective of how far I'll actually be travelling!

My journey will consist of driving, taking a boat trip, a train ride, and 3 flights.

RED JET -> SOUTHAMPTON

Cowes to Southampton on the Red Jet hi-speed boat to the Mainland for travel services into London.

QUAY CONNECT -> SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL

Ferry bus to Southampton Central train station.

SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL-> LONDON WATERLOO

Travel from Southampton Central station to London Waterloo.

WATERLOO -> HEATHROW

Take either the Elizabeth or Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport.

HEATHROW -> INDIRA GANDHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

A grueling 8 hour flight from Heathrow Airport, London to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India.

INDIRA GHANDI AIRPORT-> TRIBHUVAN INTERNATIONAL

I would wait 2 hours and walk to the gate to catch my next 4 hour flight connection to Kathmandu.

TRIBHUVAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT-> KATHMANDU CENTRAL

At this point, I would be exhausted! I would pass through Nepalese border control. From nearly a whole day of travelling, I would take the train into the city centre to a hotel!

KATHMANDU, NEPAL!

After at least a full day of venturing on a boat, a bus, multiple trains, and two aeroplanes I would have made it to the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu.

BOUDHANATH STUPA

Part of my itinerary would include a visit to the world's largest Buddhist temple.

TRIBHUVAN -> TENZING HILLARY.

After spending just over a week in Kathmandu, I will need to take a flight from Tribhuvan International to Tenzing-Hillary airport in Lukla, Nepal.

TENZING HILLARY AIRPORT

Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla is named after the first two climbers to summit Everest in 1953; Norgay and Edmind. It's considered the most dangerous airport in the world, however, Lukla is the closest airport to the foot of Mt. Everest, and flying is the only option!

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Most dangerous landing in the world!

At 2860m, the geography of Lukla, with its surrounding mountainous terrain, and its short runway make it vulnerable to accidents.

We can see the number of mountains which border the airport.

WHY Nepal?

I chose Nepal and the Himalayas due to their intertwining nature of both physical and human Geography.

My spark in wanting to visit Nepal, and the Himalayas, began in 2015 when the Gorkha Earthquake struck the country. But, surely this would deter a 9-year-old, for life? Not me! After the quake struck, my class teacher, travelled to Nepal volunteering with humanitarian aid projects. According to un.org, humanitarian aid had reached up to 3.7 million people! She worked with local communities in Kathmandu.

9 year old Jess- a photo taken after Mrs H’s talk!

Once she had returned, my class sat down for 'Carpet Time' where she spent time telling us her stories and experiences in Nepal. Most people had dozed off after 10 or so minutes, however I sat absolutely captivated.

If I could travel to Nepal, I would love to connect with the charities, and aid projects which supported the Nepalese citizens during the disaster.

Most notable NGO's:

Americares

Save the Children

Oxfam

I found some photos which demonstrate the impacts and rescue efforts carried out after the quake hit:

**Figure 10.** Various images from the 2015 earthquake.

Travel 'bloggers' enhancing my desire to visit:

In 2017 I became enthralled by travel bloggers Kara and Nate on YouTube. The first video I found was their Everest Base Camp series. They documented each step of their expedition. Their ability to narrate each stage with such passion captivated me. These influencers succeeded in making 12-year-old Jess, behind her tablet screen, want nothing more than to climb Everest; though it's not as simple as it seems. I would love to one day fulfil this dream. It would be incredible seeing the real 'epitome' of Geography; plates shifting below me, as I would ascend towards one of the highest regions on Earth; base camp.

**Figure 11.** Screenshots from Kara and Nate’s YouTube.

More on 'Why'.

Further, Nepalese cuisine is one of those that I have found particularly interesting. My father, an extreme food connoisseur, found a Nepalese food shop whilst in Winchester.

**Figure 12.** Where my Nepalese culinary experience began!

Although only a small shop, it had a variety of interesting foods, so, we bought some…

Akabare and Bamboo- a sauce we mixed with rice and lentils. I enjoyed it, but it was a BIT spicy!

I tried the lentils, with a few other different sauces. I never really forgot this tasting experience, and fed my passion to visit Nepal.

Our 'local' shop- though 30 miles or so away- only had a limited range so visiting Nepal would allow me to expand my Nepalese culinary horizons!

The science behind the Himalayas; further igniting my passion:

I began reading around the idea of tectonics a few months after the Ghorka Earthquake disaster. I found the concept absolutely riveting. Recently, the 'Tectonics' unit in Geography, enabled me to learn about the theory of Continental Drift, proposed by Wegener.

I drew two diagrams which show 1. Continental Drift- the process which allowed for the formation of the Himalayas and 2. How exactly the Himalayas did form through tectonic uplift?

1. Continental Drift between the Indian and Eurasian Plates.

**Figure 13.** Illustration showing continental drift.

I illustrated the process of continental drift which led to the creation of the Himalayas. In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed the theory that Earth's continents were joined altogether; a 'supercontinent' in which he named 'Pangea'. Through billions of years, Pangea split, dividing into smaller landmasses over time, consequently this led to the creation of today's 7 continents.

India was its own landmass, located off the coast of Australia. However, over millions of years, India split from 'Gondwana', where it began moving towards the Eurasian mass. Moreover, when India passed the surface of hotspots, this heat sped up the movement of India's continental drift. Eventually, India collided into Eurasia which formed the Himalayan Mountains.

2. The Formation of the Himalayan Mountains.

**Figure 14.** The formation of the Himalayas.

Firstly, the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasion Plate through continental drift. However, as they met, neither of the two plates could subduct one another, due to the fact that they had a similar rock density. Therefore, the crust above was folded upwards, forming mountainous terrain.

The 'pink' area, shows the foreshortening of the plates, resulting in the seafloor sediment also being subjected to folding upwards.

The Himalayas are still growing today roughly at 1cm per year; Mount Everest is only becoming higher!

Conclusion:

Nepal, and the Himalayas truely capture how I define 'Geography'. From the physical element of tectonics to the social factors of humanitarian efforts. To visit these geographical phenomena- which had captivated me since age 9, would be incredible.

Behind the cover photo…