Area man returns after deportation from Nepal (Free Tibet flag)

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

It's back to the day job for William Brant Holland, international man of intrigue.

He's $20,000 poorer and with little to show for it, except a mark on his passport indicating he's been deported. And there's a letter of rebuke from the Nepalese office of tourism, which Monday banned him from Mount Everest for two years.

"They said they were going to go easy on me," Holland said. "They were very nice about it, really..."

...A $10, 2-foot-square banner carrying the words "Free Tibet" got Holland booted off Everest, the first victim of new regulations designed to avoid any unpleasantness over the Chinese government's plan to haul the Olympic torch to the mountain's summit, probably in the next few days.

Holland's plan to get a picture of himself at the top of Everest with the banner in hand backfired.

He said someone informed authorities, the flag was confiscated, and then he was told to report to tourism officials in Katmandu.



Read more: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-01-0156.html

---

i know it's bad, but for some reason i just find this amusing -- i have this image of an umpire on the mountain pointing to him saying "YOU! Buddy! Hit The Showers!"

I thought The Onion had rendered those words unusable by a "proper" newspaper.