I have worked as a guide since 1999 and was the only person in Dolpa to complete formal tourist-guide training. Through a local NGO, I have since trained twenty-seven others.
I find guiding more satisfying than my earlier work as a teacher. Yet local bookings are so scarce that I often travel to Kathmandu to find agency work, earning between 600 and 900 rupees per day.
Local tourism income mainly reaches porters. Even they compete with workers brought from neighbouring districts or the Everest region. Dolpa could supply almost everything a trekking group needs, but we require more training, particularly for guides and cooks.
Dolpa has avoided major tourism damage only because so few visitors come; that gives us time to prepare, not permission to remain unprepared.
Support staff are often charged higher prices because shopkeepers assume anyone travelling with tourists has plenty of money. Tourism should also be complemented by handicrafts, vegetable farming, herbs and mushrooms so the district does not depend on a single activity.
Some schools and gompas have received donations, and sanitation, food availability and medical care have improved modestly. Trails and bridges are better, and more people speak Nepali and some English. But services remain extremely limited, and good teachers still come mainly from outside.
A trekking route needs more than scenery; it needs trained local people, safe infrastructure and communities able to supply what visitors use.
Education is the missing foundation: without it, Dolpa’s residents will continue watching outsiders fill tourism jobs they could perform themselves.