Making sure that I looked like the local Sherpas, I strapped my bag on my head and took off my glasses, and made myself look a little more weary. The problem is that, well when I take my glasses off I actually can't see anything at all.
Anyway.
The first few days were fine. i walked past checkpoint after checkpoint without anyone batting an eyelid (My parents are Vietnamese so I have yellow skin)
On the third day I saw a large pair of pillars in the distance and thought "yelp - this is a big one"
So I took off my specs, muddied up, strapped my bag to my head and walked straight through the pillars.
Into the barrel of a rifle.
The little Maoist soldier yelled something at me in Nepali.
I reached for the sky and blurted out something about being an English Tourist and a little lost.
At that point I reached into my pocket and pulled out my glasses. I thought I was going to be shot.
Anyway. as I looked over his shoulders I realised I'd stumbled across a Maoist training camp hidden in the mountains.
Marching up and down to the sound of drums behind the rifle were a load of little Maoist rebels.
The man with the rifle suggested I turn around. I did. I thought he would shoot me as I tried to make good my escape. i didn't look back and ran until I collapsed. Then I spent the next 4 days with dehydration in a random Bed and Breakfast and the rest of the week, after having hauled myself out with a fever, in the tourist hospital on a drip watching Michael Jackson's "you rock my world" video on repeat. It was enough to make me wish the Maoists had shot me.
I won't be doing THAT again in a hurry...
