Fuels rush in

Back to the old school (walking and biking)
Kathmandu

Thank all the 300,000 gods and demons of the Kathmandu Valley that the human "rights" activitists haven't been able to eliminate the pedal rickshaws here, yet. Pretty soon they're going to be the only way to get to the airport and get out of this country. (Seriously - during strikes people are known to take cycle rickshaws all the way to the airport.)

Why not go by land, you ask? Read the news items. The Tarai is constantly under strikes, road blockages and so on. The petrol tankers can't get through; the few that do manage to make it through must be escorted by Nepal Army personnel, and there just aren't enough of them. (You should see the rifles they hold - like something from a US Civil War museum.)

Taking a commuter bus through the Tarai across the border would probably be okay, really. Probably. If I weren't on the verge of vomiting all the time, I would consider it.

When (or if) I finally get well - the migraines are dwindling, but the hacking respiratory infection is still there and I feel like there's a ton of handmade Bhaktapur bricks on my chest - I will rent a bicycle. Getting around the city otherwise has just become unfeasible.


Nepal capital set to run out of fuel
AFP via Yahoo! News Fri, 15 Feb 2008 0:46 AM PST
Nepal's capital is set to run out of fuel this weekend as ethnic unrest in the south has stopped supply from neighbouring India to the landlocked country, oil officials said Friday.

Nepal strike hits petrol supplies
BBC News Fri, 15 Feb 2008 4:45 AM PST
Nepal is hit by a huge fuel shortage, largely caused by protesters blockading key roads in the south.

Disempowered

In the dark
Kathmandu, Nepal

The people who run the breakfast place were so glad to see me, I almost didn't get to eat. My long-awaited banana porridge went cold as I answered questions. Sangeeta Didi,* when did you arrive? Where have you been all this time? LONG time you not come to Nepal! How long will you stay? Sanchai na hunccha (everything all right?)

The only possible answer for this last one is a big smile, and: "Ahilye Nepal maa, sarbai dehri ramro chha." ("Now that I am in Nepal, everything is very good indeed.")

I always feel like I'm coming back to visit a family - one that's internally highly dysfunctional, but externally wearing the perpetual stoic game-face. Even the corrupt politicians and gun-toting commandos whose photos dominate the paper are followed like wayward relatives. Hmm, there's Bhattarai, haven't heard from him in a while...what's he threatening now?

But, it's official: this country is broke as a joke.

As previously mentioned, there is no diesel and no gasoline. This is because the Nepali Government can't pay its bills to Indian Oil.

After sinking to more than one billion (that's billion with a B) Nepali Rupees in debt to its creditors, India finally cut them off.

One billion rupees, can you imagine? I bet they were like, "uh....can we get ya next week??"

At first, I just thought I'd been given a hotel room with faulty wiring. But electricity is off more than it's on; power cuts are in effect eight hours a day. This was just increased from the previous six hours a day enforced since January.

We now get power from 9pm till about 1am and 6am till noon. Needless to say the few manufacturing concerns still operating in the nation are barely able to function. I am typing now in a downtown cyber-cafe running on some kind of battery backup.

If I had wanted to be in a place with no current, I could have just stayed in Ladakh.

Full news coverage here.

I'd better hit SEND before the power goes off. Din din ne, ek naya samasya aunchhu. (Every day, a new problem comes along.)


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*My real-world English name translates as "joyful religious song." The closest Nepali name equivalent is Sangeeta.