Firsthand Foreign Affairs

You know your trip is off to an auspicious start when the flight attendant's departing announcement goes:

"We will arrive in Katmandu, ensh'allah*, at 2:15pm."

*means "god-willing"

Upon arrival in Katmandu, the trekking company told me there was a festival-- "you know, lots of dancing, singing . . . you know"-- so we needed to head for the mountains a day early. In fact, I learned a day later, an anti-Maoist group had scheduled a strike, closing the major highway we needed to take into the hills.

Nepal has been politically unstable for much of recent history. The monarchy was officially and completely abolished last May. In August, a Prime Minister was elected from the Maoist party. The Maoists, or the Communist Party of Nepal, have no actual relation to Chairman Mao-- China disowns the group.

Oh, the mélange of opinions on this new government! The Maoists were elected to a majority of parliamentary seats, so they must have strong support, right? The elections were considered fair, so I'll hope so. And then there is the clear opposition-- like the strike we woke up early to avoid. In the middle there are a lot of people that seemed to not know or care about what was going on.

About a week before we arrived in Katmandu, the new government instituted a curfew on the city. No live music after 10pm, and all bars must close by 11pm. Not surprisingly, this was met with a lot opposition (not only from our group . . . although we were pretty happy with the situation, considering it is an improvement over Bangladesh's Prohibition). I heard some talk that the curfew was to prevent locals from mingling and exchanging too many ideas with Westerners. And it might be so-- Communist governments seem only to function if you keep a good portion of the population uneducated, poor, and relatively just clueless. And limiting nightlife is only going to increase poverty in a place where there is huge potential for the tourism industry (an industry that the government, with all the political turmoil, is already doing a good job of stunting).

Despite a good deal of foreign aid, lots of resources, and some potentially promising political changes, Nepal still ranks low in terms of development. Really low. Ten lowest countries low. The Guardian has an interesting article on the situation.

Point being, we left Katmandu a day early for Pokhara and spent the night (where I took my first hot shower since leaving America! Yes!) We woke up at 3:30am, hoping to beat the strike.


We loaded in the van to drive from Pokara up to the trailhead. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes in the car, the driver stopped. The strike had already begun, and he refused to drive through it. We made a fast decision-- to get out and walk along the road, in the dark, through the strike, to the nearest trailhead.

Sounds scary, right? I was a little freaked out. But as it turned out, the strike only consisted of a few lines of rocks across the road, and a group men dressed in white . . . doing yoga?!

We watched the sun rise over the mountains as we walked through rural villages . . .

Our group on the road, as the sun is coming up.

Walking through clouds!

A small temple/shrine

Apparently, we walked through "Opportunity Village".

Baby goats! I stopped and chatted with this man-- he was excited when I told him I was a teacher. He's a teacher, too!

I remember learning in Social Studies back in junior high about rice terraces. Who thought I'd get to see in real life?! People grow rice paddies in terraces to make efficient use of the land-- can't grow rice on a slope.

Still on the road, long after the sun rose.

And this is how we ended up doing an 8-day trek in 4-days. Who knew anti-Maoists make toned calves?