It’s been a really bizarre couple days here in Kathmandu. Yesterday was Election Day as called by the King but nobody else really wanted to play along so he resorted to various draconian tactics like shutting off the cable tv & forcing public employees to vote. Some of his measures were laughably self-defeating: in an effort to assure citizens it was safe to go to the polls he ordered police and military to shoot anyone disrupting the vote. um, right. Makes me feel safe. On the bright side, he banned ALL vehicle from the streets. Since horns are more frequently used than turn-signals here, Kathmandu has never been quieter.

The trickle of shop owners defying the bandh came to an abrupt halt yesterday when almost *everything* was closed. Fortunately for us kitchenless visitors, one or two intrepid restaurateurs opened up on the QT. Not so intrepid was my trusty internet and laundry guy who was just closing (!) when I arrived at 10 a.m. I later found out he opened for about an hour but then something wigged him out. Needless to say, it was a desperately boring day. I did go check out the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Center for their afternoon sit. It was a pleasant enough way to kill an hour and even finished up with tea and cookies. While walking home to my guest house I was surprised to find an open book store (run by a german guy) and acquired a big fat fatty of a read: Salmon Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh. That should last me for awhile.

I emerged from the Tibet Guest House this morning at the late hour of 10 and was shocked to find 95% of the storefronts in high gear. When I arrived at the fully stocked Pumpernickle Bakery this morning and pilfered a paper from a neighboring table I discovered that the Maoists called off their strike last night. Not sure how the word got around so fast that they could actually bake croissants for this morning. It’s a remarkable transformation on the streets and one, I’ll admit, I’m glad for.

So now it’s time to get moving again but I wish I felt a little better. I can’t figure out if I’m actually sick but I did skip dinner last night - highly unusual for me. Breakfast this morning did not sit too well either so I might just need to lay low for one more day to let this gurgling stomach settle down. Fortunately the pharmacies are open again so I have access to an electric-orange version of the broad-spectrum antibiotic Cipro that appears to be made in Gujarat (I’m pretty sure that is not a FD&C approved color). Here’s hoping it doesn’t get to that point.

Sue Borchardt in Kathmandu on February 9, 2006 at 11:53 a.m. where everything is now open!

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