Bandhas are almost as frequent as rains in monsoon season, and are certainly more crippling to Nepal’s infrastructure. We waited sipping tea and twiddling our thumbs for four hours to fill a Jeep with “victims” as Prakash likes to call our fellow passengers. By the time we finally got out on the road, the only route from Pokhara was blocked by a series of buses, because the bus fare was too low for the recent hike in petrol costs. Even motorcycles had a difficult time weaving between the buses and people blocking the junction.
Two days ago there was a strike by the people selling petrol, because they were forced to keep prices unreasonably low.
Last week public transportation created a bandha because fares charged to the public were too low.
The week before that students created a bandha because fares were too high.
Two weeks ago there was a bandha because students didn’t have books.
It’s never-ending. After nearly 3 weeks of the country being virtually shut down and crippled by the lack of transportation and communication among factions, we had a few days to get out of Kathmandu before another strike, bandha, or other shenanigans started again.
Our trip from Pokhara to Baglung was bandha-ed by a day. Next bandha, I’m taking a donkey.
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