Yesterday there was a random, I think it was maoist, demonstration in the street by the internet cafe in Baneswore. It's probably safe to say that Nepali communists are about the most unintimidating breed of revolutionary imaginable. There were maybe 20 underfed teenageers in Avril Lavigne shirts waving their skinny arms and chanting slogans around a burning tree branch in the road. It was business as usual beyond the 'roadblock' and after a nice meal at the UN haunt restaurant, Bakery Cafe, Dan and I saw a huge cow licking the leather seat of a motorcycle and just started laughing hysterically while watching it for at least 5 minutes.
Today on the way back to Baneswore we passed a caravan of bare steel bus chasis being driven by guys in what looked liked barber chairs percvhed in front of a naked engine block, with nothing else but wheels and a gas tank on the whole vehicle. 5 of them passed by in a strangely nonchalant pack.
Again, we had to get off the bus and walk to Baneswore because of a flaming (in many senses) demonstration. This time it was tires burning in the street, and a guy in all black who was maybe 4' 11'' wielding a broken piece of bamboo making his 'mean face' and trying to puff his chest out. Motorcycles were just driving right between the tires, but the buses were too big to run the 'roadblock' without getting fiery tire goop stuck to them, so we had to hoof it . On the way to baneswore we met another VSN volunteer who informed us that the whole intersection and its shops were closed due to a larger demonstration. So we hopped a taxi past the tires and are now in the tourist mecca of thamel. there ya go.
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