Photo courtesy of Nick the Russians CollectionClick above for rest of his flickr set.
We wake early for the 7 hour bus ride to Pokhara having purchased our ticket the night before. As we start the walk to the bus stop we notice the protesters are already gathering. The street we are supposed to depart from has barricades on both sides with army personnel in riot gear. We walk up and down this street but there are no vehicles of any description. I leave Nick with our bags and run back to chat to the hotel guys who sold us the ticket. They call the company and inform me the strike has canceled all buses but they might be running tomorrow and we can use the same ticket. I tell nick the great news and we start walking through the protesters in search of a taxi to the airport. We wander aimlessly through the town not passing a single vehicle. Finally we see a tourist shuttle bus returning from the airport heading for Thamel we flag it down and jump aboard. The bus has to drive right through the blockade but the Maoists reluctantly let it through. We gather a whole bus load of tourists and drive through the blockade again this time they bang the bus a bit with sticks. We get to the airport and within half an hour are on the 20 min flight to Pokhara. We get off the yeti airlines flight and see the amazing mountains for the first time. It looks like green Australian peaks except where these end steep snow capped peaks begin. These are several times the taller and appear where you would expect clouds to be. They look fake almost like someone has painted them. After lunch we hike the 3 km to the Baglung bus station to see if we can start our trek early. It seemed we underestimated the extent of the strike. Turns out there are no vehicles whatsoever in all of Nepal. As we start the walk back we decide to do a practice hill with our backpacks. Super steep and from the top we see a Maoist protest heading into town. On the doctors order we have been taking Diamox since landing in Kathmandu that night I notice my nose feels tingly when I touch it.
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