One of the reasons for the existence of the Indigenous People’s Trail is its originators’ stated intention to get tourists to visit the lesser known, but equally beautiful mid-hills area of Nepal, rarely seen by outsiders. In doing so a small proportion of the external currency spent in the country goes direct to people normally excluded from Nepal’s tourist industry. One of the principal ways this happens is by tourists purchasing bed and board.

So far, so good. The ethical trekker setting off on the IP Trail knows that his/her money will go directly to the people that provide those much needed creature comforts, principally a roof over our heads. What could be fairer? That warm glow of doing good in an unequal world bringing a quiet sense of satisfaction to meld with the scenery and pleasures of the trail. If only it were that simple.

So let’s illustrate this deceptive principle and have a look at accommodation.

Rose and I stayed in a variety of rooms in a variety of establishments along the IP Trail. Some nights we lay back and stared through the gloom cast by 20-watt light bulbs at soggy cardboard ceilings covering plastic roofing. We bedded down next to corrugated iron walls that ran with condensation from our breath, the only ventilation being provided by the holes in the roof through which daybreak dawned. Thin, ill-fitting plywood walls do not do much to keep warmth in or sounds out.

Most nights we played the, “would my wife stay here?” game. Only twice out of seven nights was the answer a solid, “yes”. On another three, it was a definite “no”. This is not to suggest that our wives are not up for adventure – both have travelled extensively, one of them has even been caught snacking on those well known southeast Asian delicacies of deep fried spiders and red ants. However, even these open minded souls would have struggled with being asked to sleep in rooms festooned with an odd assortment of building workers’ old socks and prayer flags, on beds recently vacated – and probably not changed – by said workers.

But there were always beds. Most of them also came with pillows and a very heavy duvet. Unfortunately, because of the night-time cold and poor ventilation most of the bedcovers felt very damp. It did not seem like they were being routinely aired between occupants. Only once was it so cold that we put them over our sleeping bags, mostly we placed them underneath as extra padding and insulation since most mattresses were thin and did little to soften the wooden bedboards.

It will be apparent from this account that a sleeping bag is a necessary item of kit, both for comfort and cleanliness. Although we never experienced any bedbugs, this might be because we tended to sleep with our bags wrapped tightly around our faces on account of the night-time cold. Perhaps that is doing an injustice to the people we rented rooms from, some of which were excellent. Chief among these were the ‘homestays’.

And here is the liberal dilemma. Actually there are two dilemmas.

Firstly, prices are cheap. We were charged – for two people – anywhere between 700 and 2000 Nepalese Rupees for dinner, bed and breakfast. It is just a paltry few pounds/dollars/euros. And Nepalese people are incredibly honest, only once did we feel we were being overcharged, albeit marginally, and this by a family of traders who were running a shop, tea-room and ‘hotel’ and knew the cost and value of everything, even charging for the hot water. We do not believe we were ever charged a special ‘tourist price’. Most times we did not even ask the price before agreeing to stay. We often gave a little more than was asked for or refused the change, depending on how we felt about the people we stayed with.

But not too much. We neither wanted to distort the market by encouraging the view that tourists are there to be ripped off – after all many young travellers are actually not well off at all – nor did we want to rub our relative wealth in the faces of people who we were staying with. Where people had been genuinely welcoming and inclusive of us, we were more generous. Our limit was, however, 2000 rupees, equivalent to the most expensive room we stayed in.

But who gets the money is another story; the second and more difficult liberal dilemma.

Nepal remains a hierarchical society. In the 1960s, the century old law that strictly cemented caste rights and privileges by birth and ethnicity was dissolved, but discrimination and exclusion of previously lesser castes from the political process pervades. For example, twice as many Tamang people, a historically marginalised group, live in poverty compared to the national average. Alonzo, our guidebook writer, gets pretty frothy about this in an online diatribe about the problem of well meaning NGOs funnelling aid into a narrow elite that essentially cements their power. We experienced this at first hand.

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Although the wife and mother of the household spoke no English, the patriarch did and encouragingly, so did his daughter and his precociously intelligent six-year-old granddaughter whose eagerness to learn preoccupied Rose all evening as she brought book after book to talk over with him. These premises were an officially designated ‘homestay’ on the trail. We had absolutely no complaints about our stay and wrote as much in his visitors’ book.

It was only in the morning and upon reflection later that we realised we had experienced a part of Nepalese society that some would like to see changed. Our host was a Newari person, a people who originate in the south of Nepal and in the Kathmandu valley. The local area was mainly populated with the Tamang. As noted above, for many centuries the Tamang have been marginalised by others, including the Newari. Many Tamang lost their ancestral lands and became indentured labourers.

As we left the homestay, our host helped us find the path through his fields and proudly told us about how much land he owned and how much money he made from selling grass to the local villagers to feed their livestock. With a shock, we realised we had clearly wandered into the midst of the age-old Nepalese caste system. We were acutely reminded of Alonzo’s warning.

One can picture the scenario. Ten years ago, in an effort to bring much needed money into an impoverished area, well meaning members of the international community found locals willing to set themselves up as hosts for adventurous trekkers like Rose and Wandering man. Ironically, the people who stepped forward were not necessarily those for whom the ‘Indigenous People’s’ Trail was designed – i.e. the local Indigenous People – but the existing wealthy elite. How much of our paltry room and board fee can be considered to have helped the poorer members of that society is highly questionable. This became even more an issue to us when we discovered that the other western couple a day ahead of us on the trail had also stayed in the same place. Indeed, they then preceded us in renting the very same place as us the next night and then again two nights later.

None of this is to denigrate the wonderful hospitality of the people we stayed with. We would write the same glowing notes in the visitors’ book again. But one other incident made us uneasier still. Although we saw nothing but kindness in being shown a shorter path out of the valley that we would never have found without help, our host was also insistent we took that path, rather than the official route that took a loop through two other villages. One of these was the home of a even more marginalised tribal group, the Thami.

Perhaps we read too much into it, but we were left with an uncomfortable feeling that we had been steered away from something. Our host knew the official route because there was a map of it on his wall. Indeed comments were made about the inhabitants of the second village we were missing out on as not being very nice people. Was this an example of the age-old caste system in operation? Was the poverty of these villages something we were being ‘protected’ from? I guess we will never know for sure.

So, after these reflections, here is our advice on how to select accommodation so that your small contribution to the local economy goes as far as it can.

The ‘official’ IP Trail homestays have plaques on them, which clearly identify the house as an approved homestay and are of great quality. They will tend to be the most obvious potential accommodation buildings. The owners will have been taught what western tourists expect, however basic. Simple things like a rubbish bin in the room were only found in these establishments, never in any of the more basic lodges we stayed in. There is a kind of set homestay model that they all follow.

You might choose to stay in lodges. Some lodges will be commercial, run by families, whilst others will be official village lodges. They tend to be places where passing truck drivers, itinerant workers or other Nepalese travellers will stay. They will be cheaper but less salubrious, although our very first night in a lodge was filled with more family laughter, inclusivity and shared humanity than any of the other establishments we stayed in.

However, if you ask any Nepalese person if there is a room nearby, they will say yes and offer a room in their own house. This may not have a bin (or much in the way of walls/roof etc.) but if you are willing to compromise a bit then you can get deeper into a true cultural understanding. You will then stay in less ‘official’ places, and have a greater chance of benefitting more of the local community who will really appreciate your small financial contribution to their welfare.

Our advice is, therefore, to look around and scout out for the presence of homestays, lodges and other houses. Do not stop at the very first place you see because all this will mean is that the same establishment gets a tourist’s cash each time another person passes by. We are absolutely sure there were other bed and breakfast options that we never explored or located because, just like the other trekking couple ahead of us, we stumbled into the first one we found. Only on the last night, in a village devastated by the earthquake of 2015, did they and we diverge, suggesting that even in the most dilapidated of circumstances options existed.

Mind you, this was the one where Rose and I had to barricade ourselves in the room overnight for fear that one of us would stumble about in the middle of the night and fall to our doom from the unguarded ‘balcony’ to the hard ground below. That night’s accommodation and the experiences surrounding it was, however, the stand out highlight of our trip. Just a shame it definitely did NOT pass the “would my wife stay here?” test!