Namaste Banda

While I´m here I am close to a historic moment. To really understand this, you have to know a bit more about the history of Nepal.
In the past 12 years a lot has happened. 2001 is a very important year. For a long period of time nepal has been a relatively peacefull monarchy. The monarchy varied between a constitutional and an absolute one. In 2001, the then crownprince, shocked the nation. He murdered most of his own family including the King . In the same year the Maoist rebels, who have been fighting a ´people´s war´ since 1996 became more violent.
On their peak they conbtrolled 40% of the country. The government, nor the king, were able to put this to a stop. The king used his powers to change several governments without a lot of succes. In 2005 he abolished the parliament, during a state of emergency. In 2006 mass demonstration forced him to reinstate the parliament. Which in turn reduced his powers drasticly. A peace agreement was reached with the Maoist. In 2008 a Constitutional Election was held, but 4 years of negotiating didnt lead to a constitution.

In about 5 days a new Constitutional Election will be held. A 33 party strong alliance, led by a splinter fraction of the Maoist, want it to be postponed. They claim to need more time to prepare properly and arent satisfied with some of the terms that are part of the election.
To put strenght to their demands they impose a 10-day national strike onto the country, For many of us it was unsure what would happen. It turns out there was a general strike! But it only lasted for 2 days. The remaining days untill the Election they try, after heavy pressure by several (inter)national organisations to be a transportation strike.

For us tourists there is a lot of uncertainty. We should be safe, so far the attacks (bomb attacks, fires and rioting) have been scarse but directed at local (politicians) There are however reports of, empty, tourist busses being a target.
The tourist busses are running and get police/army protection to make sure they are safe. Local busses are not to be trusted. But movement has been limited. Here in Pokhara people just take it easy, even more then usual. But you do feel that somewthing is going on.
During my entire stay I've seen a lot of military and police and those amounts have only increased. During one of the daytrips I made with a Allie to lakes southeast we got confronted by heavily armed guards who were passing our guesthouse in the night. Allie got a real big surprise when she left the toilet in the middle of the night to see one of them in front of her. Apparantly also waiting for the toilet.. It really gets close then. The day after we came back we learned that 2 empty tourist went into flames just around the corner, Im really curious how it will turn out. Im sure the Elections will be held, but the aftermath is one big mystery.

My plans have kind of changed due to this. I may be longer in Pokhara then I want to. I had a great time over here. Filled with many superb nights, interesting and challenging yoga/buddhist courses but its time to move on! Thailand begins to arise in my thoughts more and more and I might go there by the end of November.