Female porters at Friendship Bridge, Nepal 17th October 2006

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CameraCanon EOS 5D
Focal Length135 mm
Aperturef/2.2
Exposure1/3200 sec
ISO200
Date Taken13 Apr 2006, 00:00

The story behind "Female porters at Friendship Bridge, Nepal"

The Friendship Bridge is the border between Nepal and Tibet/China. But though it is a big strong Bridge -rebuilt after the first one washed away- vehicles are not allowed to cross. So in effect this creates two narrow and totally congested dead-end streets connecting at the Bridge. As this is one of the few bordercrossings available, endless streams of cargo trucks and tourist buses arrive from both sides. During the spring climbing season -April-June- it is even busier with many hundreds of climbers, guides and Sherpas going across to climb Everest, Xixapangma, Cho Oyu and more.
All cargo and luggage is being divided to porters, young and old, male and female, who bring it across the Bridge while the owners have to show their papers and get their forehead measured for high temperature – a result of SARS.

Amazingly hardly never anything gets lost, while the contents of any one of these The North Face duffel bags is worth more than these strong women will earn in a year of portering.

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