Kathmandu Travel Forum

Do you think it will be useful to keep a semi-permanent post on the situation in Nepal.....?? VT'ers in Nepal, who have just left Nepal and who are coming into Nepal can contribute.....

Those of us who are in Nepal at the moment, can post updates...

What do you all think?

A current update is that....

There is talk of no curfew today, but there is a mass rally by the seven parties in Kathmandu at 1300 hrs, to mourn the four people who have died during the clashes in the past five days all over the country.

So far the curfew has not been announced, though there was a night time curfew from 2300 to 0400 this morning....this is a good sign....

Pokhara has a day time curfew (0800 - 0600hrs) and so has Chitwan....

There are no unrests direct in the trekking areas....travel by road is not recommended at the moment due to the hassle and the chances of reaching into town to a recently announced curfew...

I got back from Nepal 10 days ago, while i was there the situation seemed quite ok. Yes there were armed forces on street corners with guns, but the people seemed very stable and we didnt see any unrest. It seems to always be(over there) in the papers and the news about the problems going on, but we didnt havnt a p roblem walking the streets of kathmandu

There is no curfew today and the likelihood is that there will be curfew from 2300 hrs again tonight....

There are protests going on in different parts of the city at the moment...we have heard of Sundhara in Patan, Khumaltar, Bhaktapur, Pepsi Co. (behind the airport) etc.... and a big gathering is expected in the center of town, but has not materialised so far for some reason.

What about this Japanese tourist who got beaten up by the police at Pokhara/Lakeside on sunday(thats what the media says)? Was he playing Che Guevara, too?

Sorry, was not able to update during the weekend....not due to the unrest, but since I was moving house.....

UPDATE:

No curfew....tourists are moving around quite easily.....barring areas with demonstrations....

Tourists joined in again yesterday in a peaceful demonstration by tourism entrepreneurs in Thamel.....yes, they have started it too....

About 20,000 people rallied in Balkhu yesterday....things are moving ahead in Nepal....

I will give it 15 days max....for the government to topple....or for this whole movement to fizzle out.....and things will come back to normal...as has been all this time anyways...

The Japanese Tourist who got beat.....was I believe trying to take the pic of the guy throwing a rock at the police or something like that.....the demonstrations are no place for tourists....period....also did not help that a japanese looks pretty Nepali I guess....

Tourism areas:

Pokhara....lots of demonstrations....still can go...as you can virtually start trekking from the airport.

Chitwan.....No NO ....too many demonstrations...no gaurantees that you will be picked from the airport...too far to walk...and boring too...

Everest Region.....Best area to go now....fly to Lukla an dthen you are in a dream world...no maoists, no protests, no suicide bombers, no international politics, no TV, only you and the nature....

Langtang....another good place to go...close to Kathmandu, no protests, can walk from your hotel if required in Kathmandu....

Air travel is ON.....all domestic flights are taking off...the airport shuttle is fully active....so all you have to do is come to Thamel and wait for the Shuttle....

UPDATE:

Its raining today.....all night and drizzling the whole morning....and there are more cars on the streets...but mainly to take advantage of the lull caused by the rains....

Yesterday there were more demonstrations....tourists joined a peaceful rally in Thamel joining hands with local tourism entrepreneurs as a show of defiance....one British volunteer got hurt when police baton charged the demonstration....thousands were on the ring roads...

Tourism : Tourists still did their rounds, some of them on bicycles....advice...take a guide, they know better roads, and understand the signs on the streets....of whether to take that street or not, whether protesters are advancing etc....as before, avoid areas of unrest and you will be fine.

Prices of commodities have shot up....petrol etc...is scarce...but not completely unavailable....

Tomorrow there is a peaceful protest by musicians at Soyambhunath through silence and singing songs...at this world heritage site....at 0845 am....

Hey Oddyeti,
How is everything? I presume you are safe. Can you give us some color on the latest developments?

UPDATE:

Thanks you guys....for asking about me.....am safe....at least after I got freed from prison......was detained for protesting in Thamel....on Tuesday...and freed after a 39 hour detention....

actually tourists also staged a peaceful demonstration....somedays ago...

Since two days...Kathmandu has a daytime curfew as thousands and thousands of protesters gather in the outskirts of town chanting anti-king slogans....

We are hearing that the King might make a nationwide address at eight PM today...if that happens, things could return to normal pretty fast...if not, I will keep you guys updated....

at the moment though...am stuck at home with a slow internet access...stupid curfew in place....

UPDATE:

King to address the nation at 1900 hrs today....probably ending the deadlock finally....hopefully....he does not have many options anymore...

About 500,000 people are on the streets demonstrating peacefully and security forces are allowing them to do so....a good sign....

more soon......

UPDATE:

Well, the Kings proclamation "to restore the government to the public" was not taken well....as the public seem to be demanding a republic now with no King....demonstrations were immense today too....and it is not recommended to come to Nepal in the near future....but the pressure is immense and this cannot last too long.....it is a matter of days now for this issue to be resolved....one way or the other....

Oddyeti,
I am at wit's end today - have a NONREFUNDABLE ticket for KTM arriving 5/24 leaving 6/16 - was really hoping the people and the king would reach some kind of workable situation after his proclamation but it really seems like no end in sight - have no idea what to do. From the blogosphere it doesn't seem like us bideshi's are in danger but don't want to spend my entire vac under curfew... I can change my travel dates for an extra $300 but need to come home by end of August at the latest, any idea if things might calm down to any degree of normalcy by July-August?

UPDATE:

Another Curfew from 9:00 to 20:00 on Sunday....This thing will continue for some time....the King just made one Royal Proclamation...he is not about to make another in a couple of days....

Snow Lion: having said that....5/24 should be allright to come in...this thing cannot linger for so long....if we go on till then, Nepal should become a sight to see, with daytime lootings and murders....I personally expect the most this will go will be another week or two....much before the time you will come in....

Now, you are right...you bideshi's are safe....however, how it affects travel plans depends on what you are doing....let me know and I will send you an opinion on that....

I personally have sent tourists trekking even during these times into Langtang, Annapurna and the Everest Region.....safaris are impossible (also not recommended in May anyways) rafting impossible...cannot transfer the clients...etc....

But if it is work in Kathmandu...you can be quite sure that the curfews will not continue till then.....I will be back on the streets protesting (and get arrested again) should it go beyond another week....am getting incredibly cooped up here at home...and not able to work the way I like....

oh and btw, the mobile phones are down....landlines work....and the internet of course is still on....as can be seen from this post....

The king is getting mighty unpopular with these curbs on rights.....

There is a chance that he will declare Nepal an Emergency State....the situation could not be more worse if he does that....but like I mentioned before...the heated protests cannot last that long.....it has gone on long enough already....no protestor has that much steam....

OK.....I think this post can be thread finally....there has been a major shift and the bubble has burst.....it is again reasonable safe to come into Nepal.....I say this because the maoists have not accepted the royal proclamation.....but that is not much different from what the situation was before....so that is OK.....also this was accepted from the maoists...they are insurgents after all...but the pressure is also high on them....and a few days after parliament sits again....Friday....I think that the ceasefire will be declared....unilaterally first and then bilaterally.....so travel into Nepal will be fun and safe again...

Hooray!

Namaste Oddyeti daai(didi?):
I haven't been visiting this forum much lately but saw your reply, seems like things have changed very much for the better, so my friend and I are leaving for KTM on the 22nd as planned, malai dherai khusi laagyo!!!:-)
So we are mostly planning on traveling around the valley, would like to see if any lamas are giving teachings in Boudha since it's Saka Dawa, our specific plans will depend on that. We would like to see Dakshinakali, Namo Buddha, Pharping, Sankhu, Bhaktapur, and would like to trek to Nagarkot if we are lucky to have any clear days this time of year. We have friends in Patan and Boudha so we will be spending a lot of time there.

cool....you are coming at the right time.....tapai ko nepali dekhera molai pani dherai khusi lagyo.....tapailai nepal ma swagat chha.....

there is a semblance of peace in the country now....and things look pretty normal...there is a lot of political movement going on, but that is good for the country...at least we do not have the violence....

when you here look me up....call 9851021984 (I might be on a trek or something as you come in, but regardless give a try) or call my office at 4412508 (in thamel) to know...

be good to meet up

We just got back from Kathmandu 4 days ago, Everything is quite back to normal. We went out to Pokhara by taxi. NO PROBLEMS ON THE ROAD. Yes, there are some military out there on the check-points outside Kathmandu but they never bother us. They need tourist more than anything now. Most hotels are empty and Thamel area is very quite.