One mostly amusing sidenote happened on my first morning in Kathmandu, which was also the first day of the general strike.

I woke up early and took a walk around town. On the corner coming into the tourist area, there were about 20 Nepali policemen in riot gear. Thinking this might make a good blog posting, I discreetly took a long-distance picture from way up the street. I then started on my way not thinking anything of it.

As I walked, one of the policemen came over to me saying that photos were not permitted at that spot. It wasn’t that they minded getting photographed (Nepali soldiers typically seem to like posing for photos), but for what was behind them. I should have known from all my previous visits that that was none other than the US Embassy.

I said of course I would delete the photo, but he said no don’t do that. You need to see our commanding officer. So they ushered me into a room inside the embassy and began to take an “incident report.” They said I shouldn’t worry, it happens all the time, but they were certainly thorough, taking flash pictures of me, my camera, the offending picture, and so on. After a call to their supervisor, they told me I could go. But I can only imagine it would have been a lot harder if I had had another country’s passport!

Needless to say, they had me delete the picture from my camera, and I didn’t take another.

I’m not sure how much Western media has reported of the current events in Nepal, but some of you have probably heard about the general strike that has been in effect since yesterday, the day we arrived in Kathmandu. The Maoist party (formerly revolutionaries and more recently part of the government) were forced out of the government last May amid bitter recriminations. Since then, they have been calling periodic strikes, some of which we had to avoid during our last visit.

The Maoist party has used the symbolic May 1 as a rallying point for their cause. As many as half a million people have gathered in Kathmandu for rallies and potential political action. It is hard to tell how many really believe in the cause, as there are reports that some participated because they felt they had to or just to get a free bus ride to the capital. But regardless, the Maoist leadership is determined to shut down the country until the current prime minister resigns and allows them back into power.

The protests have been peaceful so far, but the normally throbbing commercial areas are almost dead. Some shops are open but almost closed to the street, since the shopkeepers need to close the gates in a hurry whenever a crowd of Maoists come by. The main danger is extortion – the Maoists fund their cause by asking each shopkeeper to give a “donation” of a few thousand rupees ($40 in the US, but big money in Nepal). In a way, the tourist areas were more liveable without all the honking cars and hawkers, but it is obviously not a good scene.

So what about our trek? It was pretty tricky since we had to get permits and it wasn’t clear the government offices would open. But open they did and our organizer triumphiantly returned with all the permits two hours before our flight to Pokhara, the second city of Nepal and a way station on our way back to Jomsom, described in earlier blogs.

How to get to the airport when all roads are blocked and no vehicles are on the street? Nepal has been coping with this mess for so long that it has developed alternative realities that sort of work. The Maoists have no intention to disrupt the tourist trade, the lifeblood of the country and a good source of income for many of their followers. Blocking the airport Bangkok-style would accomplish nothing except antagonizing the world. So the Maoists permit buses marked “Tourists only” to pass through the roadblocks. The airport itself was operating almost normally except for the masses of people trying to find transport in to their hotels.

Our transport to Kathmandu airport was in a rattletrap old bus from a shared bus stand set up on the edge of the tourist district. There were of course not enough buses and it was therefore packed, but it got us there quickly on the streets that would have been jammed with traffic on any normal day.

Arriving in Pokhara, our guide Kinna Sherpa found one of his friends in an army uniform and got him to take us into town in an army truck. Pokhara is small enough that we actually could have walked it in about an hour, but that’s no fun with luggage.

In the morning, we’ll get up at 5:00 to get transport before the morning strike starts. With any luck, we’ll be on the first flight to Jomsom and walking from there on with little effect or knowledge of whatever might be happening in the cities. At the end of the month, we travel directly from Pokhara to Delhi, so we shouldn’t even need to leave the airport in Kathmandu. So please no one worry – we’re experienced and we know how to stay out of trouble.

Assuming we do get on the trail tomorrow, we may not have any more posts for a while. But rest assured, no news is good news.