As the blog's name says ... about nothing!

Statutory Directive! You gotta love the Asian English.

Grain in the road. I guess the farmer must want you to run over it. This is very common on the back roads.

An elephant sauntering through Sauraha.

An Joo displaying the latest Nepali hair beauty treatment

The NAF comes to Bharatport.

Fixing the flat tire. The size of this shop is very typical. One room!

Not a very interesting week.

I did take a ride to Sauraha, the main resort for the Chitwan, about a 30 minute ride. I met some Western Canadian tourists and had a nice chat. This is the off season so I imagine deals are out there. Got a flat rear tire while right in the middle of Sauraha. Fortunately, there was a bicycle shop RIGHT there. With the temps reaching 108 degrees, this was not the day for a long push. He went right to work and was finished in 15 minutes. It was more than awesome that he had a new innertube for a motorcycle tire in stock (as you can see from the picture, he didn't have a lot of room for inventory). And he didn't charge me for labor. 450 NRs (about $6.00).

Shivani Air is not flying, once again for a stupid reason. This time, the Airworthiness Certificates for our aircraft must be renewed annually. Since our date was WED, 15 JUL, some whiz at CAAN determined that a visit and audit was necessary on TUE, 14 JUL and, shockingly, no Shivani Air management had thought to put in the renewal paperwork early. The plan was for our management and CAAN to arrive on Buddha Air in the AM, do the audit, have lunch and catch the last Buddha Air flight to Kathmandu. They would then take the paperwork to the Ministry of Aviation for the required signatures and put it on the first BA flight on WED AM so that we could continue flying on THU AM. Geez, at least they had a plan. I simply banged in sick for the day and went to Sauraha. Much more pleasant that way.

The new (and first and LONG awaited) budget from the NC (Nepali Congress, the body that currently rules since the king was deposed) was announced on TUE. It seems that this budget did not provide for pay increases for government workers, such as those at the Ministry of Aviation. So, they decided to bandha and so our paperwork remains in place at the Ministry. Flying has been cancelled through SUN and that may be optimistic. Frustration does not do it justice.

It seems the entire country is bandha(ing). You might think that it is the Maoists who are causing all these problems. Not so. Some will close down an entire district demanding that the perps of a murder be caught and compensation be given to the family. Or perhaps a pay or job dispute. Or after someone is run down on the highway, family members demand compensation. It seems that any group, sensing an injustice, will bandha. This is choking an already embattled economy. Things are tough enough without setting up road blocks and shutting down traffic. I did fly twice to Simara on WED. It is just North of the Indian border and is a vital avenue of commerce. From the air, I saw the longest line of trucks imaginable in both directions, stopped and parked for the day due to bandha. Nepalis act puzzled when I try to explain the US version of bandha. Oh well, come back tomorrow!

I was going to use this time off for a trip to Pokara (about a 3 hr ride) but deferred due to the threat of bandha.

After nearly hitting a goat, I was told that custom requires that I must pay compensation to the owner if I run over his goat, chicken, dog, water buffalo or whatever. It can be hazardous to refuse to pay. Actually, I can understand this. People are very poor and much of their wealth is in their animals.

Stay tuned!