Curfew day 3!

Curfew yesterday was 7am - 8pm and 11pm - 3am so made a quick dash out to the house and shops at 6.15am only to get back and find out that today's curfew is 11am - 6pm. We weren't the only ones, everyone was rushing around the shops to re-stock on food. Amazingly there are newspapers and lots of fresh vegetables on sale.

 

The curfews have kept us stuck in the Pacific Guest House for the last 2 days and there is no sign of an early end to the curfews. Check BBC news for detail of what is happening elsewhere in Kathmandu but suffice to say no dramas (apart from a bread shortage) at the PGH. We had some excitement yesterday when a truckload of police arrived outside and searched a nearby house - all quite casual, no smashing down doors - but came away with nothing. Yesterday we were planning to go out when the daytime curfew ended at 8pm and before the night one started at 11pm but decided not to when we found there was a blackout protest (just what it says, everyone turns there lights off). The owners of the PGH told us they had to switch of the lights otherwise they ran the risk of a brick through the window. Although most in our little road blacked out, watching from the rooftop, we could see plenty of lights round the city.

 

You get as good an idea of the political situation from the BBC as we do here from the local papers. It seems like a standoff, the political parties in alliance with the Maoists are claiming the strike and demonstrations were a success and will continue with the demostrations. The government will of course continue the curfews as long as there are demonstrations planned. Is this the start of the end game? Hesitate to speculate on what might break the deadlock.

 

Need to get off and give others a chance to e-mail. Keep watching the news but don't worry, we are safely tucked away in the Pacific Guest House.

 

Bye for now

Roshan