Strike in Nepal

Well we did not end up getting to Bandipur as there was a "strike" in Nepal. A strike in Nepal is not like any other country we have come across. People do not strike of their own free will but are forced to close their shops/ businesses, no cars, motorbikes, busses or truck are allowed to drive for fear of being stoned / beaten or killed. These strikes or bandas are forced on the general population by political parties usually the Maoists to protest something or other.

Anyway on the morning we were supposed to leave we met in the lobby with Nick, our other trek group member and the General manager of Himalayan Encounters, the company that runs the treks in Nepal for Intrepid, and our new group Leader Kusang Sherpa. The manager advised us that the leader we had met yesterday had some family problems and was no longer able to take us on our trip and that Kusang would be our leader now. He also advised that due to the strike we would not be able to leave Kathmandu until after 4pm and would therefore go directly to Besisahar to start the trek the next day rather than Bandipur as per the itinerary. We were quite happy with the change of leader as it had been very difficult to understand the man we had met the day before.

We went back to our room and rested for another hour or so and at 9.30am we headed out to the little restaurant we had breakfast in the day before for our 100 rupee breakfast of 2 eggs, potatoes, tomato and brown bread toast with butter and jam + a cup of Nepali tea (like masala chai).

As there was a strike on most of the shops were shut we headed back to the hotel where Catriona managed to have a massage and David started to read the book he had bought the night before "The long way down" by Ewan McGregor and Chalie Boorman. Luckily we were delayed as we realised we had packed the spare memory cards for the camera in the bags we were leaving at the hotel! We also mad sure all the spare batteries were fully charged.

We met up at 4pm again and eventually after much delay set off in a small van for the 5 1/2 hour drive to Besisahar with Nick, Kusang and our two porters Balaram and Milan. We made it to our hotel at 11pm where we had some soup for dinner and set off to bed about midnight.

David, Catriona, Milan, Kusang, Balaram and Nick