Today we experienced one of the most interesting rides to the airport we've likely ever had.
As mentioned in our last post, currently the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist and coalition of 33 political parties that broke away from the UCPM (Maoist) party have called a week long transit bandh (strike) calling for the postponement of the election and resignation of the government due to the election being held without the involvement of the 33 political parties.
When we say strike, it's not really what we would think of in North America. Basically the party sends out people to set up blockades and enforce a transit shutdown - sometimes using violence.
Many people, as well as the government, are against the bandh, and some have defied it even though doing so can be dangerous. Tourists are very welcome by most people in Nepal, as the money brought in by tourism has provided a lot of infrastructure upgrades, including running water to many rural communities. October and November are high tourist/trekking season and so many people do not want to participate in the bandh as it will hurt businesses in a highly profitable time. Generally it seems as though tourists are safe and the enforcers do not wish to affect us. Our hotel transported 4 people to the airport in the morning in the back of their truck and took our luggage with them to get it to the airport so that we could then just take motorbikes to the airport to make it easier to get past any blockades. It's also safer for the drivers, as in the morning they had to put signs in the window indicating they were transporting tourists. Trying to cross blockades without tourists could be dangerous. Motorbikes are much easier to maneuver through blockades of people and avoid getting lit on fire! (Apparently a few cars and buses were lit on fire yesterday).
So, at 1pm we found ourselves getting on the back of motorbikes - no helmets, day packs strapped to our backs and the biggest potholes we have ever seen - ready to be driven 25 km to the airport. If I hadn't seen the crazy skill these Nepali drivers have to maneuver around cars, bikes and people, I probably would have been convinced we wouldn't make it alive. We were still pretty nervous! I asked my driver if he was going to get me there safely and even he just said "I'll try".
We headed out of the village of Sauraha, past cows, goats, and tractors, and down the road to Bharatpur. Things were relatively quiet, mostly only other motorbikes on the road and the odd horse drawn carriage. Once we made it onto the highway it was a bit more exciting. Apparently in the morning there had been blockades, but when we got to the highway they were gone. There were even a couple of local buses going by - however, on the roof of the buses sat armed police with rifles pointed in all directions to protect them.
Dave passing by parked trucks
We passed by a large rally of people carrying the same flags we had seen in the rallies in Sauraha. Apparently they are all Congress party supporters who had flocked to the highway to help protect people against the bandh enforcers. We passed an armed police vehicle with more people on the roof with guns. At one point my motorbike driver was trying to overtake a fuel truck and so sped up, but the fuel truck veered right to avoid a pothole and we had to brake pretty hard. Instead of falling back we followed the fuel truck super close until it moved back over to the left and we overtook it, veering around oncoming motorbikes. On the plus side, the lack of many cars on the road meant it was likely a whole lot safer than usual!
As we got closer to the airport, the only vehicles on the road were motorbikes. We pulled up to a closed gate protected by military and our driver said something to him in Nepali. He opened the gate for our two bikes to go through and in we went. Our bags were there safe and sound. They had no X-ray machines in this airport, so we had to go through our packs with security officials (however, I can't say they were very thorough!). Once our bags were checked, we headed through the security to the waiting area.
In Nepal, men and women go separately through security so that they ensure a security official of the same sex is there to pat you down. I went through and she looked through my carry on luggage (again, not very thoroughly) and I waited for Dave who had to wait in line.
When we had left the hotel we had packed our toothbrushes and tooth paste together in his day pack, and when he went through security the guard was fixated on the fact that he had two toothbrushes. Even when he said one was his wife's the guard couldn't understand why he was carrying it then instead of me. Eventually I guess he figured it didn't mean Dave was dangerous and he let him through.
The plane arrived early, so as soon as it was ready we boarded and since everyone was there on time, we actually left half an hour early! (It's crazy how fast they usher people on, close the door, and just take off on these tiny little domestic flights). It was a tiny plane with one seat on each side and you could see out of the cockpit window. It was crazy watching us land and being able to see the runway as we approached (and a crazy concept that the pilots weren't separated from us!)! We arrived in Kathmandu about the same time we were supposed to take off! (It is only a 20 minute flight...as opposed to a 5-7 hour bus ride!)
We had called the day before to book a hotel so we had someone arrive to pick us up in the nicest and newest car we had been in the whole time in Nepal. It even had working seat belts in the back! What a concept!
There were quite a few cars and motorbikes on the road, though we got to Thamel pretty fast for a Tuesday afternoon, so I think it was quite quiet on the roads compared to usual. We didn't see any blockades or anything. Though we passed tons of armed police on the way, and in our walking around afterwards.
We are now enjoying a comfy and warm bed in Thamel and plan to visit Swayambhunath temple tomorrow (also known as the monkey temple). It sounds like we can walk there, so hopefully it won't be impacted by the bandh at all!
We heard from others who had taken the tourist bus here today and they said they met blockades and their bus was escorted by police through, but with the lack of traffic on the road it only really cost them an extra 1.5 hours (still likely around 7 hours - so I'll take the 20 minute flight and motorbike ride any day!)
We will be glad not to be here for Election Day, but are very interested to hear how it all turns out! Hopefully we don't have issues getting to the airport on Thursday for our flight to Delhi!
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