A Little Bit Louder

I woke up this morning, finished packing my things and came downstairs to check my email, fb, and flight status. I got a message on my wall to give him a call before i took off because i might get stranded at the airport. So i looked on some of the news sites and lo and behold, BKK was being occupied by protesters, and the AOT decided to shut down the airport.

So, I checked with Thai Air, and they booked me a seat on tomorrow’s flight. I’m not too optimistic on anything getting resolved in the next day or two so I don’t have high hopes for that flight. Trouble is, I have a flight to HKG on friday evening. If I don’t get a flight to BKK tomorrow, I’ll miss that fight completely. If things don’t get resolved there, that flight might not happen anyways.

On a brighter note, I’m quite appreciative of the stable political situation in Canada. Being in countries where people openly want political leaders (and their supporters) dead isn’t the most comforting thing.

Now I’m trying to see if i can get to HKG via some other route and skip BKK altogether…. hoping that either Thai/Emirates or my travel insurance will pick up the tab. Travel insurance? yeah… when I called them, they weren’t quite sure what section i would claim this under and told me that unless the Canadian gov’t issues a “do not travel” advisory, they might not be able to help me out. It’s not like I just changed my mind and decided not to travel… the airport is shut down, and bombs are going off… what a load of crap. Isn’t this why I buy travel insurance?

One thing that has struck me here in the last few days is how eager people are to learn. Whether it is English, or something in church, people pay close attention, and try to learn new words, and concepts instead of simply getting enough of an idea of what’s being communicated and moving on.

I noticed that in church here, at least in the English service, and some youth groups, about half the people take notes. Maybe so that they can digest the English teaching at their own pace, or maybe because they understand and are willing to work for what they learn? I’m not sure that’s the case in back in Canada. In fact, I rarely see people value what they learn at church/youth/small group studies. Maybe we’re spoon fed too much, or maybe we take the access to teaching for granted?

I’m not sure what it is here, but it seems like my hair is growing like weeds. My hair is pretty shaggy now, my nose hair is growing quickly, and my facial hair gets really nasty really quick… though i might keep that… just to blend in with the nepalis even more. I can get a haircut for about 50 cents here… I think I may be better off waiting till I get back to Thailand or Hong Kong, (which I just booked a flight for!), but then I wouldn’t be able to say “I got a 50 cent haircut”.

Or “What to do? it sucks…”

So i’ve been feeling a bit sick yesterday and still not quite right today… In general, I’ve been feeling a bit run down the last few days…. i think it’s because i’m spending so much energy just trying to stay warm… looks like i need another trip to thamel to buy some warmer gear…

On another note, these guys:

want to kill the guy who lives 2 doors away from us. So now there’s a police checkpoint coming into our neighborhood. I gotta admit, i get a bit jumpy every time there’s a loud noise or someone bangs on a gate.

Kee Garn Nay, Katum Chha…

so apparently a couple protesters were arrested and then killed in the last few days. So the city decided to have more protests… “agitators” as they’re called locally, take to the streets in angry mobs and block the major roads… in ktm, this means the ring road, which we’re on the outside of … when that happens, buses don’t run, people don’t venture out if they don’t have to, and the city shuts down.

I didn’t get to see any of it unfortunately, but when we ventured out this afternoon, the city was eerily empty. Streets that are usually packed with traffic, noise, pollution, and people, were for the most part empty. A few people on bikes were around, and lots of pedestrians walking around, probably because there were few taxis and no buses around. Most stores and restaurants all had their protective steel shutters rolled down. I managed to find one open bakery to eat at, but every time there was nose outside, the staff all rushed to the doorway to see if the mob had returned.

Everyone seemed quite nervous as they wandered around trying to buy what they needed from the few stores that were open. If i were to imagine a post apocalyptic world, it would look something like this. On the way home, there were hundreds of people walking along the road as the buses had not started running again. It looked like some sort of mass exodus.

As weird as things were today, there’s a good chance that things will be back to normal tomorrow. Protests happen 2-4 times a month and this sort of thing is perfectly normal. I heard a micro (small bus) hit a motorcycle, and the mob torched the thing within minutes. For some reason i found this really funny… maybe it’s because i’m a jerk… or maybe because the Solomon, the guy telling the story, couldn’t help but laugh himself. The Nepali are pretty good at laughing at how ridiculous some stuff is. I wish I could have seen it myself.

Oh, and I got a Gurka Knife as a present from a former Gurka army soldier. It was pretty cool… though I’m not sure if it was just a nice gift, or if by accepting it, I just agreed to marry one of his daughters?