Mafia’s Stranglehold over Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra

Mafia’s Stranglehold over Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra

Major General Mrinal Suman

The Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra is considered to be the ultimate pilgrimage. Taking a dip in the holy lake and offering prayers to Lord Shiva in his abode of Mount Kailash is a sublime experience. The feeling of celestial ecstasy overwhelms all.

Unfortunately, a number of unscrupulous entities have been exploiting gullible and trusting pilgrims through misleading promises. Very cleverly, a number of sponsored or paid-for emails are circulated to convince unsuspecting pilgrims about the credentials of the tour operators.

I received an email in June this year, purportedly sent by a pilgrim who was full of praise for Kailash Journeys. We (self, wife and a doctor couple from AMC) booked ourselves with the recommended tour operator for helicopter tour of 05 Sep 14.

Considering it to be our moral duty, I share my first hand experience here to caution those who may be planning to visit Kailash-Mansarovar.

The whole yatra is controlled by a mafia network that involves tour operators, hotels and the airlines. Tour organisation is terribly poor. Their sole aim is to swindle pilgrims and extort money at every stage. 

We witnessed gross inefficiency and mismanagement on the first day itself in Kathmandu when we found a large group of NRIs arguing with the tour operator in the hotel for misleading them. They had paid all the charges for the Yatra well in advance. On arrival at Kathmandu, they were informed that their visa to Tibet could not be managed. They were furious and blamed Kailash Journeys They had spent considerable time and money to travel from Canada and the US, all to no avail.

After spending a night at Kathmandu, we were flown in a small plane to Nepalgunj. It was utter confusion and total chaos at the airport. We had to wait for hours and were made to travel on fictitious names as the tickets had been purchased underhand. 

Next morning, we flew to Simikot by small 12 seater planes and thereafter by a 5-seater single-pilot helicopter to Hilsa. Our group strength was 51 and the single helicopter did 10 sorties of one hour each to transport all of us. We had to wait for long hours at every place to let the whole group fetch up. It was scary to see a single pilot flying continuously in high altitude area for 10 hours. When I spoke to him, he admitted that his feet had got swollen but he could not decline being on a chartered duty. From Hilsa, we crossed over to Tibet and reached Taklakot for night halt.

Thus, we had moved from Nepalgunj (490 ft) to Taklakot (13,025 ft) in a single day without acclimatisation. As was to be expected, a large number of pilgrims fell sick with varying degrees of high altitude effects. There was no medical aid available at all. Our AMC couple attended to all of them and administered oxygen to many. Unlike some other groups, we were lucky to have no fatalities. 

Although superior hotels have come up in Tibet, Kailash Journeys lodges pilgrims in filthy and unhygienic conditions to save costs. At Taklakot, we were lodged (three in a room) in a dilapidated barrack of a good hotel. All bathroom fittings were broken and nothing worked. WC was choked and shit was floating. There was no water in the bathrooms. Many guests found the conditions to be intolerable and hired rooms in the main building of the hotel at their own cost. Our AMC couple did not get a room till late at night and fell sick, waiting in the open. It was appalling, to say the least.

After the holy dip at Mansarovar, we were driven to mud shacks for the night halt and lodged 6 to 8 in a room. The conditions were filthier here. Everyone had to defecate in the open.  The whole area was like an open latrine with shit lying everywhere. Far superior accommodation was available across the road where Western visitors were staying. One felt small and humiliated. When asked, Kailash Journeys people replied that they could not afford it. 

It was the same scene at Darchen – filthy accommodation for us whereas many good hotels have come up in the area as it is the base for a number of treks that are very popular with the Western tourists.

Another trick tried by the staff at Darchen is to scare the guests that they might miss their flights ex Kathmandu as helicopter flights were unreliable. Thus, nearly 15 persons were convinced to abandon stay at Darchen and return to Nepal two days earlier.

Once they agreed, they were asked to shell out INR 6,000 each for additional expenditure. Thereafter, they were asked to pay for their stay at every place on the return journey, although they had already paid for it in the package. It amounted to paying twice for the same facility. It was pure and simple blackmail and extortion.

The return journey was equally mismanaged. Due to the availability of a single helicopter, it was a long drawn affair and most of the guests reached Kathmandu late and missed their flights and lost considerable money.

Here are excerpts of the experiences shared by three others.

Christine Patham

It is regarding the Yatra from 5 to 16 Aug 2014, undertaken with Kailash Journeys. I have never come across such a callous attitude, especially when dealing with the outdoors, adventure or high altitude. 

To begin with, they sent a deceptive mail on 03 August saying – “Kindly note that due to a land slide, the highway to Tibet has been closed. It may open within 2-3 days. So we request you to arrive at Kathmandu on your scheduled date. We will discuss further information after your Kathmandu arrival.” They made it sound normal. However, on arrival we were informed that we would have to pay INR 15,000 for a helicopter lift across the affected area.

Arrival at Kodari was chaotic as there was no representative of Kailash Journeys to help us transport our luggage or assist us with rooms at Kailash Hotel.  We had to bargain with the local people who literally snatched our luggage the minute the helicopter landed and were demanding up to INR 300 for carrying our luggage and would not release the luggage until paid.

We were kept in Kodari for 3 days which severely compromised our acclimatization schedule and reduced the recovery days between the long bus journeys. The coach drivers kept switching off the AC in the coaches and had to be constantly told to put them back on.

The final straw, bordering on criminal neglect, was on the return from Yumdwar and Darchen when 35 people with varying degrees of High Altitude Sickness were sent back in a coach with one Sherpa and 1 Chinese guide, with no medical assistance other than oxygen. 

  

They were made to walk from the border to Kailash Hotel (2 km) in rain, made to wait for three and a half hours for a room and then told that no rooms were available in the hotel. After half an hour’s wait in rain, a rickety 22-seater local bus was provided.  35 of us with our duffle bags were loaded in the bus for the precarious 3 km journey down a winding hill road to an alternative hotel. 

The next day, we were taken to the makeshift airstrip at 1100 hrs and told that we would be the first to be airlifted. We waited and watched the foreign nationals getting priority. As there was no representative of Kailash Journeys, the first group of Kailash Journeys left only at 1600 hrs, literally after people started shouting. However, only 14 people could be airlifted by 1830 hrs. Others were taken back to the same hotel. We had spent the whole day from 1100 to 1830 hrs in rain – without any shelter, refreshments or even water.

There are a number of hidden costs – INR 6,800 for porter, INR 1,760 for visa cancellation, INR 1,800 for hotel stay on return at Kodari and INR 30,000 for helicopter lift at Kodari.

I can only say that it is the Divine intervention that there was no loss of lives, as the pilgrims were mostly senior citizens. We are not the only group to have suffered this kind of service from Kailash Journeys.

Sarita Baluja

In June 2010, I made a trip to Mount Kailash with my friend Dr Shanthi Ranganathan (Padma Shri).

We had booked through Sita Travels, Bangalore for air travel to Kathmandu. For the Chinese permit, we were put in touch with another agency coordinator Gaurav Kataria. After lot of assurance from Sita Travels, we undertook our long desired Yatra. We were a group of 14 for Kathmandu-Nepalganj-Simikot-Hilsa tour. At Simikot, we were put in the chopper which brought the dead body of a Yatri from Hilsa in front of our eyes.

There was no orientation for this trip by the travel agencies operating in India and Nepal. Complete mafia!!

Shanthi ji and I were lucky to return with our baggage after waiting for two days at Hilsa due to non-availability of sorties. Families back home were in turmoil after watching the news. We learnt that the rest of our group had to wait much longer and even lost their baggage.

It was a Divine intervention for us!

Jaimin Shah

I, my wife & my daughter were part of a group of 18 people from India who had booked with Kailash Journeys. Our trip included Parikrama of Mt Kailash.

Kailash Journeys cheated us by clubbing our visa with 41 people of two other travel agencies who were visiting Mansarovar only (9 days tour) and had booked their return tickets accordingly.  

Our group became too unwieldy (59 persons). At Kodari border, some pilgrims reached late and the Chinese closed the office. As it was a group visa, all had to go back to Kodari for the night. As we had no bookings, we were put up in different guest houses without any kind of facility....just like orphans.

Next day we crossed border and reached Nyalam. Nyalam is small town with a few good guest houses but we were given a guest house with minimum facility. Our Dharamshala's are better. As per the schedule, we were to have two night stay at Nyalam for acclimatization. But we had wasted one day in Kodari due to visa issues. Hence, we had to leave the next morning by bus. After 11-12 hrs of drive, the bus stopped at one highway guest house with kacha zopda for the night. Here there was no toilet and no light. We felt humiliated and were at the mercy of the Chinese guide. 

At Diraphuk, the guest-house was dirty with no hygiene.  Most of the pilgrims were affected by weather, altitude and filth.  At night, our Chinese and Nepalese Guides informed us that we would have to go back the next day as it was a group visa. We were shocked as doing Parikrama was our main aim.  However, despite our repeated pleas, we had to come-back to Kathmandu without doing Parikrama.

We reached Kathmandu four days before the scheduled date. We approached the tourist police, the metropolitan police and the Indian Embassy. After four days of continuous efforts, the police agreed to record FIR.

In addition to the airfare Ahmedabad-Kathmanu–Ahmedabad, we had paid INR 70,000 as the tour cost. In addition, we had to pay for two days stay at Kathmandu hotel from our own pocket. Yet, we were denied the promised Parikrama.

Finally

A few aspects need to be highlighted here. High altitude areas are perilous without due acclimatization. It is foolhardy to challenge nature. Flippant and casual statements like ‘Yatra is very easy even for the old’ can mislead the uninformed and prove perilous for some.

There is no medical aid available whatsoever. Every pilgrim is encouraged to buy an oxygen cylinder to cater for emergencies. In case of medical emergency, a helicopter has to be requisitioned from Kathmandu and it costs Rs 1.5 lacs extra and may not arrive in time.

Weather in mountains remains unpredictable. There may be no flights for days, stranding pilgrims. There are no arrangements for stay and pilgrims have to pay huge extra costs for substandard accommodation. It is a well-organised scam.

Air transport in Nepal is unsafe and totally disorganized. Scene at Nepalgunj is worse than that of a bus stand in India. No manifesto, no tickets by name. At Simikot, whistles are blown to warn about the arrival of an aircraft. The runway does not even have a fire tender or ambulance. Against all safety norms, helicopters are refueled with jerricanes as a routine.

Helipad at Hilsa is marked with a few stones, no wind-sock, no smoke candle, no ground support equipment. As all flights are chartered, safety is totally neglected to make money.

It is suggested that the Indian pilgrims should avoid going through Nepal altogether. It is sheer mafia at work there. Indians are taken for granted, neglected and cheated. One is at the mercy of the Nepalese and Tibetan organisers.

Kailash Journeys must be totally shunned. It is the most unethical, unscrupulous and fraudster company.

Let us all wait for the promised Nathu La route to become operational. It will be much safer and will eliminate Nepalese tour operators.