A terrifying thing happened about a while ago in my neighborhood. After a night out in the touristy area of Kathmandu, Thamel, two of my friends - a very tall Aussie man and a rather tall (remember everyone is tall to me) German woman decided to skip the taxi cost and walk home down a main street called Lazimpat Road.
After a few minutes, a gang of about three motorbikes drove up and out of no where threw what they they were several large concrete stones at them, hitting the man in the shoulder and jaw and the woman in the calf. It turns out, as my girl friend's husband explained, that it is a common occurrence for perpetrators to attack male and female couples by throwing a stone aiming at the guy's head, so they can knock him out and rape the woman.
Like I said, terrifying.
However, they both handled it amazingly well, and have spread the word (as I hope I am doing now) to everyone to be safe not sorry and take a taxi at night.
Disclaimer for those back in the States that might worry: Please don't. I live in a super safe neighborhood, and am very careful about walking places in groups or taking taxis at night. Also KTM is generally a very very safe place, especially considering that it is truly the big cit-ay of Nepal.
After a few minutes, a gang of about three motorbikes drove up and out of no where threw what they they were several large concrete stones at them, hitting the man in the shoulder and jaw and the woman in the calf. It turns out, as my girl friend's husband explained, that it is a common occurrence for perpetrators to attack male and female couples by throwing a stone aiming at the guy's head, so they can knock him out and rape the woman.
Like I said, terrifying.
However, they both handled it amazingly well, and have spread the word (as I hope I am doing now) to everyone to be safe not sorry and take a taxi at night.
Disclaimer for those back in the States that might worry: Please don't. I live in a super safe neighborhood, and am very careful about walking places in groups or taking taxis at night. Also KTM is generally a very very safe place, especially considering that it is truly the big cit-ay of Nepal.
