After we discovered that New Dehli airport never sleeps, nor did we the night we had to spent there, we arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday the 18th. After 3 weeks of soviet bureaucracy, Nepal gives you a bit of a culture shock. We could just walk to a desk, show our passport and enter the country. This unlike Central Asia where multiple officials check every step of a strict procedure. This lack of rules and officials is exemplified by Nepal’s traffic. Probably the main reason that not everyone not driving an armoured car is not yet dead is the general speed. Due to cattle, bicycles, infants and donkeycarts occupying the same road as the cars they rarely pass the 30kph limit. We were greeted by Erni at the airport and he masterfully crawled his way through traffic to his house. During this trip we ran into some demonstration. Apparently the Maoists had tortured and killed a business man, putting the nation on edge again.

Erni and Herma do not actually live in Kathmandu, but in Patan at the other side of the river. So instead of going out for dinner near Kathmandu’s Durbar Square they took us to the one of Patan. This is said to be more beautiful than the other one. Both are filled with temples, the LP had 13 pages with temples for Kathmandu’s and 7 for Patan’s squares. Instead of going through all these pages we just opted to view the night settle in over the square from our rooftop terrace.

Dusk at Patan Durbar Square

The next day we went to explore Kathmandu. At the bank we found out that it was a holiday. The Nepali have about 26 holidays and every now and then the government declares a holiday at random. As such not everyone keeps track of these holidays, at least our host didn’t know this one. By the power of the ATM we did get money to do the usual tourist stuff in Kathmandu, but on our way back we found out that the unrest was increasing. Our taxi driver suddenly stopped the car and turned. Next he went with breakneck speed (50kph) back against the traffic. Quickly every other vehicle on the road was trying to do the same warning the oncoming traffic to turn back. Then we saw the course of this panic coming running down the street. An anti-maoist protest had turned into a riot and the police couldn’t control them anymore.

At home we heard that a strike was planned for Wednesday. This meant that the Kathmandu valley would be locked of from the outside world stopping us from getting to Pokhara. So we changed our plans yet again and quickly left the next morning to get away from the unrest and chill at the lake.

Chilling at the lake