My second-last night in Kathmandu, Simon and I went to "the" casino in town. After 2 hours of playing blackjack and drinking free cheap (extremely expensive for Nepali standards) scotch until I was drunk, I stumbled out of the casino with 3000 more rupees than I started with. It's about 40 or 45 bucks, just enough to cover my Indian visa, and well over a month's hard-earned salary for many of the people around me. Simon lost his 1000 rupees, so I spent the rest of the night getting both of us proper drunk. It was a nice way to leave Nepal.

The massive protests ended when the King backed down and allowed for Congress to reconvene, but the Maoists kept attacking villages and blocking the roads out of Kathmandu because they were pissed off at being underrepresented. They, after all, had been fighting the King for the past decade and if the country has an actual fair election, nobody would vote for the Maoists. So we all got worried that this might descend into a Khmer Rouge or Bolshevic-style takeover. Let the people overthrow the government, then have the goons with guns step in.

As far as I was immediately affected, I still couldn't get out of the country by bus. I had arrived into the country on Saturday night. By monday afternoon I was ready to buy a ticket to Delhi. Monday night the revolution ended and I was told the busses would be running. Wednesday I tried to book a ticket but learned the Maoists weren't giving up power yet, so I was about to buy a ticket to Delhi again. Wednesday night, the Maoists declared a 3-month ceasefire and opened the roads. Friday morning I boarded the bus.

This has really fucked with my head. I've changed my entire itinerary from starting in Varanasi to starting in Delhi, to back to starting in Varanasi, to back to starting in Delhi, and this morning I finally, FINALLY woke up in Varanasi. Now that I'm finally here, I have no idea whatsoever what I'm going to do. But I'm here. I'm out of Nepal. That's all that matters.

As far as the Maoists are concerned, I'm keeping my eyes on the press but it no longer affects me directly. The ceasefire is nice and all, but nobody's kidding themselves that this is the end of it. The bolsheviks, for example, waited 'till October to take control of the February people's revolution. So we'll see.

I don't have too much to say on India just yet, except that everybody's a few shades darker on this side of the border. But then again I just arrived at 4 in the morning (it's now 11), after 20 hours of being hit on the head and knees on the aisle seat of a loud bumpy bus by people, bags, and goats boarding and leaving at various horn-honking stops. People shout more on this side of the border. That's about all I've noticed. Varanasi's neat, but I gotta get to bed to really think anything decent of it. Will post again soon.