The morning after...

22nd April, Saturday, 2pm.

Last night’s announcement was not enough. The people, the seven-party alliance, everyone thinks so. BTW, the seven political parties have a coalition for democracy, they have been the ones leading the strike, they also have an agreement and a ceasefire with the Maoists. Everyone else is in one big gang against the King.

The King’s speech wasn’t enough. He wants to still be constitutional monarch, he hasn’t agreed a timetable for real democracy, he still excludes the Maoists. Most people think the Maoists should be brought into mainstream politics. And they basically don’t trust the King.

Did I mention that one of the rumours about the Royal Family massacre was that Crown Prince Paras had done that at his Father’s request, in order to secure the throne? It’s like the Borgias, isn’t it? Or some ridiculous melodrama.

And someone said on the news last night that the King has shown nothing since taking office but his desire to be an absolute monarch. The compromise the King was offering might have worked weeks ago. But now it’s too late. I could have told you that! How come the King didn’t know?

Oh, and I don’t know if they showed you on the news, but yesterday afternoon, before the King made his speech, loads of official buildings had got trashed by demonstrators. People say that it was when the King started shooting his own people that the die was cast. People are just totally against him now.TodayAnyway, people weren’t too cheerful last night. Not morose, but ‘grimly determined’ springs to mind. This morning, everywhere (or everywhere I went anyway) was open. Thamel, and the streets around. Thamel, if I didn’t explain, is the small main tourist areas, a few street that look like a Tibetan version of the Million-dollar homepage, come to life.

Yep, everywhere was open, lots of people out, people ok, vaguely cheerful, at least they can buy food, etc. Then a curfew was called for 12. I’d asked the hotel staff when I went out, and they said no curfew today, but then just before 12, I was in the internet caff and the man said curfew was starting, and started pulling the shutters closed.

Earlier I’d seen a small group of protestors, Nepalis, passing the bottom end of Thamel (where the Walden Book Shop is). There were only maybe 50-80 people. Nothing much happened, they looked happy, most of the people in the street looked fairly happy. This was about 10am.

When the curfew started at 12 I went back to the guest house, but I couldn’t settle and wanted to find out what was happening, so I went out again. There were quite a few army about, blocking the end of our street. I went into Thamel, and there were still a few people around, nothing much open. I walked about, there were soldiers on all the roads out. They let me past, onto the big road East, the Tridevi Marg, without saying or doing anything, there were other tourists around, including a big group of people with their rucksacks, obviously waiting to be picked up by a special bus. There were soldiers hanging about this group.

I walked to where they were and looked down the road. From there I could see an APV and also a large truck, both with Army in, I think, but it was hazy and they could have been police. There was definitely a mix of both out.

I came back to the hotel, passing lots more army and emptier streets. Half an hour earlier there’d been people playing cricket, but there weren’t anymore. I came back to the hotel and we’ve just been sitting around since then. People are playing backgammon, or sitting about chatting. The French girls were playing Bob Marley, ‘Get up, stand up, get up for your rights’ and singing along.

We could hear demonstrating, from quite nearby – it’s all focusing on the Ring Road, part of which is not far from here, maybe a km. A bit further along the Ring Road is Gongabu and the central bus station. Loads of the protests have started there. I met a girl who’d been doing human rights monitoring for an NGO. She’d been there observing a protest and said it was horrible, lots of violence by the police.

At 1.30 and then again at 2pm, a military helicopter circled overhead. It circled around for a bit and then went off. I suppose they want to see what’s happening everywhere. We all wish we could see a helicopter’s eye view!

We’ve been hearing thunder, and it feels quite damp. I think it’s going to rain again (I haven’t told you about it yet, but there was a massive tropical storm on Tuesday (was it only Tuesday?) and it rained for two days. Then it’s got hot and dry again, and now it is starting to rain again. I wonder what effect this will have? This rain could change the course of Nepalese history!

OK, it’s now chucking it down. I don’t fancy going out in this, so I won’t go and post this now, as I was intending. I may as well tell you some of all the other tonnes of stuff.Last night I went out to the Old Orleans (where I’d spent most of the day) and had a drink with a load of people. Some people from the guest house, the NGO girl I met yesterday, and some other travellers they knew. It’s funny, there’s still quite a few tourists around (Old Orleans was packed), and because only a few places are opening now, everyone’s packed into the same places.

When everything’s open, people are much more spread out. Millions of restaurants with only a few tourists in. Like being in one of those sprawling Greek resorts towards the end of the season. Now there’s loads of people in one place, and everyone’s much more convivial – because of the situation, and wanting to talk.

There’s also lots of NGO people around. A lot of the Gap year, orphanage volunteering type. It’s not like the UN ambassador is drinking in Sam’s Bar.

Anyway, walking home last night, I saw that there was a small group of Army guys (or police, I couldn’t tell the colour in the dark) beyond the end of our road. They were huddled round, playing some sort of drum and singing softly. A Canadian tourist was telling me that in Pokhara the Army guys, after a few days, were trying to talk to the tourists. Saying, ‘Hello’, ‘How are you?’ The Nepalese people mostly weren’t talking to them of course.

God, it’s still chucking it down! If it’s anything like the storm a few days ago, it’ll be raining this heavily for hours yet...

In the end I read my book and slept for a bit. It's stopped raining now. And people are out again. There's been more demos this afternoon but the rain seems to have calmed things down a bit. Let's see what happens tomorrow...