a strike and a delay

holo,
on Thursday i went up to Nagakot in the mountains just on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley, as part of a work conference type thing... it was really beautiful, and we could even see mount Everest in the distance... just seeing those tall tall mountains is amazing.

Coming back i got dropped off in town and then caught a taxi home, what should have been a 20min journey turned into an hour nightmare and my first Nepali strike/protest experience. So we were driving around the ring road and we run into loads of huge trucks just blocking the road, so we bump off the road down a side track and then get back up onto the road further along and all is well until we hit more trucks and this time its pitch black, there are no lights and there are lots of big men wandering around the small small taxi and I was feeling a bit scared as although i sort of knew where I was I wasn't totally sure, and the men weren't letting us go anywhere. We were forced off the road and onto this track and ended up in one of Kathmandu's narrow, walled streets, in a huge traffic jam, which would be fine anywhere else, but here everyone is shouting and honking at everyone else, despite there barely being room for 2 cars buses, bikes, motor bikes, people, trucks and buffalo were all trying to surge past each other in the que... i think you had to be there to understand... the smell of pollution, the confusion about where i was, the dark, the noises, the lack of car movement was all slightly distressing... but i survived and made it home in time to pack some things together for my mini-break to Pokhera...

the reason for the strike was because apparently some man got run over by a truck and people decided to protest about that by blocking the main road around Kathmandu... hmmm

so now i am at the domestic airport waiting for the plane, which is delayed due the fact that the lucrative 'everest flights' were delayed by fog, and we cant go until they come back. This place has a very nice internet cafe, which you pre-pay for and get an exciting envelope which when you open it contains a code and password for the internet - which all seems a bit unessesary. despite such hieghts of technology security is decidedly lacking (I was able to walk out of the checked departure lounge area, back into the main departure check in hall and then back to the departure lounge without anyone checking me or batting an eyelid - the reason I needed to go back outside was to claim the points on my Buddha air gold card!!!)... also despite the presence of 2 cleaners in the ladies toilets they are SERIOUSLY disgusting... almost enough to make one vomit. yuk...

Anthony is well and is happily watching dodgy small planes take off and land. He still insists he isnt a plane spotter, and that he doesnt have a spotter jotter, but to be honest I think he is enjoying the fact we are delayed as he can sit around watching planes...