Just when we were thinking that we were settling in to life here and thinking that we understood what was happening around us, something happens that completely takes us by surprise and makes us feel very alien again.

There aren't many main roads here in Nepal, but those that do exist are homes and sources of income to a whole mass of people. The thin strips of tarmac or gravel are tightly hemmed in by a maze of stalls selling everything from Britney Spears T-shirts to goats, workshops, garages and shacks that have been built on every spare bit of land and are home to sick looking dogs, cows, buffaloes and children.

Of course there are rules governing who could do what on the road sides, but like most rules in Nepal, they were either just ignored or avoided through the odd backhander here and there. Then, one morning earlier this week I noticed groups of people standing around on my ride in to work, obviously concerned about something. Soon after that the police arrived, looking nervous. And then the bulldozers.

Over the course of a couple of days, a strip about 10 metres either side of the road main Kathmandu road was cleared, flattening houses, shops, walls and petrol stations, from the centre of Pokhara to the edge of town. It looked like the aftermath of a war, piles of rubble everywhere and people milling about – surprisingly they didn’t seem angry, just frustrated and confused.

We were angry - it just seemed so pointless and wasteful and prejudiced against the poor who had no where else to live and other way of earning a living. Many Nepalis we have spoken to are not nearly so concerned. Apparently everyone knows the rules and this clearance has been planned for a while.

Two days later, shacks are already starting to reappear selling clothes and vegetables, just waiting for the next round…