Namaste from Nepal: We got the Bandh Blues

After driving about 5-6 hours yesterday, heading north of Kathmandu to start a trek in the Lang Tang national park, we encountered a political road blockade called a bandh. Apparently the town official had been collecting money for water but not providing any, so as the Nepalis do, they set up a road block and wouldn't let anyone through until they got their water. There have been over 500 bandhs in the last year. A bandh is a kind of strike for any reason (a kidnapping, lack or services etc.) but it always involves the prevention of driving in a given area, they even have them in Kathmandu, and there are occasional attacks on people who break the strike rule. As you can imagine all work stops as well.

In our case, when we encountered the Bandh in a very small village the locals to let us pass since we were tourists and basically they wanted our business (staying in a hotel/eating their food etc.). After getting through that first Bandh we kept driving for about hour when we got to a police road block and we didn't have as good of luck this time. We ended up walking about 10 minutes to the closest town to find a hotel. Our guide and driver led us into probably the most disgusting place I have ever had the privilege to sleep in, but really there weren't any other options available. We woke up really early to finish the drive to the beginning of the trail, but when we got outside and talked with some locals they told us there was another bandh at the end of the town. We tried every which way to convince them to let us pass, but to no avail. Then we found out that even if we did get past the second bandh there was a landslide that made the road impassable. So instead of our first day of hiking, we spent 10 hrs in the car, heading first back to Kathmandu and then here to Pokhara. In addition to losing a day of trekking/sightseeing, the roads here are pretty gross (i.e. way too much exposure to exhaust from huge trucks coming in and out of India). It was kindof interesting to see Nepali politics in all its inconvenient glory. And stay tuned for pics from our trek in Annapurna, which made everything totally worth it!