Warning about Nepal

pav_is_god

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This is an email I received today about someone's experience in Nepal. It may serve as a warning to some who are thinking of travlling there in the present climate.

Hi everybody,

I hope that you are all well. I am safe and have not been injured.

I've spent the day deciding whether to write this email or not. In the end I thought it was important to write it because its made me see the world differently, serves as a warning to those considering travelling to dangerous countries and helps me to come to terms with what has happened. Many of you have expressed a desire to visit Nepal. I urge you not to do so until the troubles in the country have ended. If you know anyone who is planning to travel to Nepal please pass this on to them.

I was travelling to Royal Bardia National Park in the far west of Nepal. This is meant to be one of the most amazing areas for wildlife in Nepal. It contains many rare species such as tigers and river dolphine. We were in the Bardia district driving through some fields when suddenly we heard gunfire. At first it didn't register what the noise was. Gradually the sound of automatic fire became louder and it became clear the fire was directed at us. The bus driver stopped the bus. A woman on the bus screamed and a man on the bus shouted get down. Anyone whose ever been on a bus in Nepal will know how crowded it gets. This made it almost impossible to fall right down to the ground and I ended up with my bum sticking up above the line of the window.

Time was very hard to judge but after a while we evacuated the bus and scampered down into a ditch. The road was raised above the level of the land. As I looked up I could see two people who had been hit by the bullets. One man was already dead and his widow was holding him and had become histerical. She no longer seemed to be aware of the bullets still being fired. The other man had been hit by two bullets. One had passed through his chin into his neck the other had hit his upper arm. He was writhing about in pain and his top which had been white or light grey was now completely red. An old man was coragously trying to stay with him but as the firing continued he came down to the ditch. I was completely terrified and trying to curl up in a small a ball as I could. We all had our hands in the air. After a little while longer we made a dash across the field to the peasant huts. Half way there the firing started again and we once again fell to the ground. In the distance we could here the sound of a helicopter approaching. The group I was with made a final dash for the hut and made it inside. Some of the local women were already hiding there. I crawled under the table and lay curled up in the fetal position.

When the helicopter arrived a short battle followed between the Maoist rebels and the army helicopter. Finally after what seemed like forever the firing stopped. We walked back to the bus with our hands in the air and got our belongings. The man who had been shot twice had got down into the ditch and was groaning in pain. I tried to stop the bleeding with my travellers first aid kit but didn't do a very good job.

Somebody came with a bed base and some straw. The closest medical post was in the nearby Maoist village. Despite the fact they had just been firing at us we felt we had no option as his position was getting critical. We took it in turns carrying the four posts of the bed and finally got to the village medical post. When we got there the doctor took his pulse and said his heartbeat was irregular and he was going to die. I don't pretend to understand the politics here but for some reason the Nepalese who had been unbelievably brave under fire didn't want to touch the young man (probably barely 20) as he was dying surrounded by Maoists. Also the villagers said that it was impossible for us to get him to the army hospital his only chance of surviving. There was nothing I could do but hold him while he died. At one stage the helicopter came back. The crowd scattered and the dying man pulled me over on top of me and hugged me tightly.

After he died I stopped thinking about him and suddenly realised where I was. There was no possibility of leaving at night so we had to stay the night at a local Nepalese guesthouse. The next morning our one desire was to get out of there alive. If it were not for the other Nepalese passanger who looked after me from then on I don't know what I would have done. A local bus comittee had been established to find out what had happened but I had no intentions of hanging around for it. The town had a decidedly scary feel to it. I called the embassy and although they couldn't do much for me it was good to know that somebody knew where I was and what had happened. Eventually one of the other bus passengers came running to the guesthouse and told me to get moving. A bus had come to the village that we could leave on. We jumped on and with the help of the other Nepalese bus passengers I got back to Kathmandu.

This was a very very lucky escape. More than that I found out later just how remote a location I was in and how bad the information getting out was. The newspaper got the number of people dead correct 2 bus passengers and 1 other person. They got everything else wrong however and the article looked like it had been written by the Maoists. It said the fighting started when we were stopped at a police checkpost and that the bus was caught in the crossfire. It also said that the bodies are still on the road as nobody can get into the hostel territory. It is impossible to get there now but one body is in the village. The list of mistakes went on and on. There was also no search for the passengers of the bus. Some continued there journey further to the west while some like me went back to Kathmandu. If I had been shot in the initial gunfire I doubt that anyone would ever have known what had happened. So we just had to accept what had happened and get on with life.

Please do not visit Nepal during the current climate. If you do stay only in Kathmandu. All other areas have Maoist present. In the nervous atmosphere that this creates with both sides composed mostly of young boys it only takes one error of judgement to end up dead. This incident also illustrates that just because you are a civillian does not mean you are safe. We were on a civillian bus with no army in sight when the firing started.

I will stay in the relative safety of Kathmandu until my plane on the 11th of December to Thailand. Its a surreal feeling. Besides the newspaper article that isn't worth the paper its written on and my clothes soaked with the victims blood its almost as if nothing has happened. Still eating at the same places in Kathmandu and seeing the same blend of locals and tourists. Only somehow everything feels different.



Best wishes,

**********
 

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The guy is an ignorant idiot and deserved every bit of trouble he got into. He probably had preconceived ideas about 'peace loving tibetans' etc. The maoist rebellion in Tibet is no secret. Reputable travel books publish warnings and a quick browse of the travel advisories is all he needed to know that Tibet is not a safe place.

What next little writing campaigns is he going to come up with. Is he going to be amazed at getting hijacked in Iraq, or his pockets picked in the crowded streets of Lima. Maybe he'll inform us all to avoid Australia when he gets stung by box jelly fish after swimming out of Rockhampton in December.
 
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