Tension in Nepal

I am not sure how much of Nepal hits the news in the west so I thought I would do a small update. A week ago several hundred thousand maoists descended on Kathmandu to "topple the government". So far it hasn't toppled but they are working on it. The city has been closed down for the last 6 days and it will continue to be shutdown into the indefinite future. Roads, shops, banks, etc are all closed down so food is getting a bit scarce and more expensive. The economy can't take much more as industry has been steadily declining because of the last few months of power outages, road blocks etc and now the current crisis. I went out on my bike today to have a look at the protests/demonstrations and so below are a few of the pics and videos. The protests and riots are an odd mix- street dance parties in some places and armed gangs in other places. The police and army are in high alert mode and are patrolling streets and supervising the happenings.

We are planning to go to Jumla in 6 days from now but in the current state that isn't going to happen...we'll see how it all goes.