Happy Birthday to me!

Well, it's my birthday today. I've arranged a small party for later, this monring I went and had a leisurely breakfast at 'Mike's Breakfast' - Kathmandu's legendary breakfast institution, and this afternoon I went with Kirsty, a British journalist, to see Nepal become a secular republic!

Today was the day when they tabled the proclamation putting the army under parliaments control, making the King pay taxes, making Nepal as secular state and a load of other things. It's not technically a republic yet, but a big step nearer. We went to Singha Durbar, the parliament building and joined the crowd outside, hanging about and waiting to see what would happen. After a bit a big cheer went up and the crowd set off marching down the road waving their banners. We tried to follow after a bit, but lost them (Nepali demos move really quick).

On the way back up the road we saw men painting over the billboards with King's slogans on - they're embracing the idea of being a republic pretty quick! We also passed boys painting slogans in red paint on a wall. We stopped and asked them what they said and they were about Prachandra ('Maoist supremo' they explained) speaking in Kathmandu tomorrow. We also saw posters, which had obviously only just gone up, advertising the same thing. This will be the first time he's spoken in public. Obviously seizing the initiative, now there's been some progress, and wanting to present himself as the voice of the people - there's a real power vacuum as the seven party leaders are just infighting and not engaging with the people's movement at all. All very exciting.

Incidentally, there's nothing about this yet on BBC or other western websites - even the nepali news sites only cover the proclamation, not the Maoists breaking cover. Don't forget, you read it here first!

Will write more soon, have been to the mountains and back and had a great time. Hope to go trekking soon.

Much love,

Soph