Life During the Unrest: Kathmandu, Nepal

The afternoon before we left Kathmandu, Meggan and I walked around a bit to capture what it's like during a general strike.  The Maoists have basically forced the country to shut down to protest the current government.  Since we have left, the strike has been lifted, but according to Maoist leaders, the initial 6 day strike is just a "trailer" to what's to come if the government fails to meet their demands.   While we were there the full strike was on, which meant that absolutely no businesses (other than hotels) could be open and no cars or motorbikes could be driven.  Anyone not abiding would be retaliated against.  To give you an idea how serious this is, there was a restaurant in the building next to our hotel discretely trying to serve food from their second story location.  From our room we could hear the Maoist cadres yelling at the owners and later throwing bricks through the windows.  

As foreigners, this definitely made us uneasy, but when we were walking around both the Maoists and the Police were very friendly to us.  As friendly as they were to us, it was apparent how much tension there is between the two parties.  This is why we decided to leave Nepal, not because of any threat to us, just trying to avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As of today, there doesn't seem to be much progress in Nepal's unrest, both sides have had unsuccessful negotiations and there has been more violence.  After meeting so many wonderful Nepalese and having made some great friends there, we hope there will be a peaceful resolution soon.