No Visa For You!

As we enter day four of the nationwide strike it is becoming increasingly evident that I will not be getting my 1 year visa this week. So with our extension up as of Thursday I had to walk on down to immigration today and get a tourist visa extension for another 15 days. With a little extra money handed over this went easy enough, but yeah, no business visa for me yet.


Essentially I have to stick around Kathmandu until I get this thing worked out, which keeps me form doing the trekking I really wanted to do here. I've been wanting to get out to the Annapurna area for a month now, and as we get closer to the monsoons, the less pleasant that trip looks. The pass I want to go over that leads from the Nar Phu valley area in the north back on to the Annapurna circuit also becomes more avalanche prone as more snows swept in from the monsoons begin to cover the adjacent slopes. Sigh. If I don't go through that pass it means not only missing the sight of some rare blue sheep, but also back tracking a couple days to get to the main circuit.


The more I deal with this whole visa process the more I wonder how needed the whole process of people checking the flow of people and where they are really is.
 When did we start caring so much? I mean throughout history people have moved here or there and as I don't recall anyone checking paperwork in most ancient literature, I wonder when this became the accepted way to handle things. I also find it interesting that many people who are often in favor of free trade, are however against the free movement of people. As long as people follow and respect the local laws and customs, who cares where they are from. Sometimes the whole process kind of makes you feel like a cow who wandered off your farmers plot of land, and now this other farmer has to figure out what to do with you now that you're grazing in his field. Governments shouldn't view people like cattle, we're not their property.