Namaste :-)

It has been too long since I last released my colourful thoughts into the world of twowheelswhirled so I am going to make up for it by sharing some colourful photos instead. Everything has been moving so quickly since we left Tibet and my appreciative side is having trouble keeping up with the pace - therefore it is great that I get to share some pictures with you from Nepal (as promised a waning moon ago :-) Yep, we still have photos that we have not shared from the Tibet ride or from Mount Everest but we have over 1000 photos to go through and our departure is creeping closer than ever thus putting pressure on our time. We are going to post these later when we return to the UK with some special reportage :-) In fact we have some plans up our sleeve that will give twowheelswhirled an interesting continuation from our current trip...

Anyhow, back to the photos - K has already written some accounts of the trip so I will fill you in on some finer details :-)

After much downhilling, a border crossing and then further descents we spent our first few hours in Nepal riding our bikes. We were really charged up and excited, we had no guide book, only our map which showed the route. We did not know where we were to stay that night but luckily the signs for the Last Resort came into view.

We rode along the canyon road with the river following alongside but way down below.


This is the town which we rode into that is adjacent to the Last Resort - well on the other side of the river that is (the river is visible way down in the gorge on the left hand side of the picture)


We had to carry our loaded bikes up some steps (thank goodness that K was fed milk and cookies when she was a child) and then we pushed them across a rather long pedestrian suspension bridge that was a great test if you should suffer from vertigo. This is the view from the bridge looking down at the raging water below. Makes you want to bungee jump from the bridge, right? No? Me neither :-)


It was a great result - The tents were spacious inside and we had private parking for the bikes outside. We were surrounded by bamboo forest and beautiful flowers.




After recovering for a day we loaded the bikes up and continued on our way. This is the suspension bridge - the local kids liked to line up in rows and grab hold of metal roped sides and would try to wobble the bridge as much as possible in order to strike fear into any foreigners that may be crossing.


Surely we could reach Kathmandu that day... :-)


The ride started pretty well, with our rest we were recharged and full of gusto. As we rode it was great to see some of our friends rafting on the river below much further downstream from the Last Resort. This is moments before the boat had gotten turned over by the swift current from the recent rains.


It was a great undulating ride through more spectacular scenery...


The road surface varied in quality :-)



Small villages were built high up on the steep slopes which were more often terraced in order to make the most use out of the land which was cultivated to grow corn and other crops.




Cows were in abundance - something that we had not seen since we left India. It seemed that every home had one or two.



One of the larger townships looking quite rustic.



I had to stop K from diving in and joining these guys fishing, it has been hard for her to control her angling spirit on this trip with such great rivers accompanying us en route.


The road soon began to climb up a valley - we had been told by some of the friends that we bumped into at the Last Resort that there was only a small hill. This is a fair description after you have come from Tibet....we rode up and up.

The unrelenting heat did not help, the temperatures were also way higher than those in Tibet which we had become accustomed to. K was overheating and had to occasionally stick her head under cold water sourced from nearby streams and rivers and provided by taps at the side of the road in the most strangest of places.


The view was great...


...but we were still riding up, we were waning (but still smiling) and quite far from Kathmandu, we would have to find accomodation, this became obvious when K started lose it a bit and my teasing did not help :-)



Phew, we found a decent hotel in Dhulikhel, the proprietor was exceptionally welcoming.


...there was much artwork from a local artist adorning the walls, there was not a free space remaining.


As we headed out the next morning the proprietor was very encouraging and told us it was all down hill and would only take us about an hour to do the 30kms into Kathmandu. We thought this was a bit ambitious, but we were glad to know it was going to be downhill. The roads were good and almost traffic free in the first 15kms...


...but as we got closer to Kathmandu the traffic became heavier and the urban sprawl became endless but we were overwhelmed to be reaching our goal which was to ride into the city.



Now onto Kathmandu scenes...

Kids playing football in front of a shrine.


Amongst UN officials driving around town in cars there was an abundance of police. Nepal has quite a bit of unrest as it goes through it's transition to a democracy - violence is an everyday threat to peoples lives and police checkposts are everywhere as a result.


The streets were lively, traffic battled with pedestrians on the narrow streets and the architecture, though crumbled, was amazing and held many surprises.




Temples were dotted amongst the secular buildings. At the weekend there was much puja being offered as children played around the shrines which became a centre for community activity.


A streetside snack stop.


Sorting cotton on the streetside.


Ah, another common sight - we would often see dogs waiting patiently outside the butchers shop, waiting for pieces to accidently fall there way.


... and now Trek has branched out from bikes apparently and now distributes gas cannisters, too.


The streets of Thamel... the touristy area.


We took a walk to the Swayambunath temple which is located way up on the hill - important to pilgrims because Sakyamuni taught a sermon there.


We had to climb over 300 steps to get up to it and it was hot - everyone, including us, was really suffering in the heat.


Looking back down from the top with Kathmandu sprawled out below.


The beautiful stupa...


...and smaller monuments.


There were also more prayer wheels to be spun...


Next destination was Pokhara to buy an Enfield - yep our plans did not work out due to cost but smilin' K has an Enfield now :-) We decided to leave town the next morning and to get back to Delhi to get our motorbikes. Before getting on the bus to the border I was plesantly surprised by the arrival of coffee - see how happy it makes me :-)


I was still smiling even after spending hours on this bus on swervy roads up and down mountian sides. There was never a straight moment throughout the journey which was broken up by a few rest stops, a protest and the occasional bit of maintenace when the driver would hit the leafsprings with a hammer...


We went to Lumbini - the birth place of Buddha - as our last stop in Nepal. This is the remains of the monastery, there was also a stone marking the *exact* spot of Buddah's birth...


...and this beautiful peace pagoda. Between the birthplace and the pagoda are many modern monasteries built by countries all over the world (e.g. China, Japan, VietNam, Austria, Germany, Thailand, etc.)


That night the clear sky was decorated witha rare sight, a perfectly aligned planet to the moon that was very reminiscent of the symbol of Islam.


Until next time...

Hello from Manali!

Apologies for the silence, we haven't been in a internet cafe for ages! Ah, it's been an interesting time :) We left Delhi for Amritsar and, except for a slight problem actually *finding* the right road off the ring road (it's not like they would signpost Highway 1 - a main artery!!! - or anything :), it was a pretty uneventful 475kms. It was our biggest day on motorbikes in India but no where near as challenging as that day to Panajii :) The biggest challenge was keeping cool as it is *very* hot, especially in all our riding kit. We stopped twice at places just because they had air conditioning...one was a McDonalds with a drive thru! :)

To get to Amritsar you have to go through Haryana (Amritsar is in Punjab). They would seem, by their road safety signage, to be one of the most safety conscious states....but we saw more road carnage than any other day on the road, so it doesn't seem to be working! We did learn that "whisky is risky" though :) Punjab is the land of Sikhs and it was a very different part of India than we have experienced (it's a nice different :). We arrived and it was a madhouse! You would have thought that *everyone* thought Amritsar was the place to be. Lucky for us we were again offered an escort to our hotel by a couple of young men on their motorcycle - it is so nice to have that assistance at the end of a long ride when the map is not the best :).

I was not feeling great - I seemed to be picking up the start of a cold that the bad air quality of the ride did not improve on. We found a place to eat and then headed to bed....not wanting to try the cold water shower (brrr! :). A couple of hours after we got to sleep I awoke to a fit of coughing that I couldn't shake and I sent the lovely A (not very awake herself) to ask the guys at the front desk for a cup of tea - hot always helps my throat when it gets like that. It eventually arrived and I could again breathe and swallow and we got back to sleep. We slept late and I was feeling better, but not great, so after breakfast we went off to find the Golden Temple - the most famous Sikh temple. Word in LP was that the marble paths were too hot to walk on by noon (you have to leave shoes outside) so we...hot-footed it over there :).

It is a beautiful temple - surrounded by water it seems to float in the middle. There were long and very orderly queues (unlike Ajmer :) and we watched as the masses of visitors walked around the complex or bathed in the water. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and had a rest before it was time to head to the border to watch the flag ceremony. When it was time we both piled on the Enfield and headed out of town. The LP says that the ceremony is at 5:30 and we arrived at about 4:30 so we could have a look around and get a good spot.

The Enfield had a little problem on the way out - the chain seemed to be hopping a bit when you let off the throttle. They had just put that new cog on the rear so I had a look at the chain tension and I could see that the chain was off the teeth...and there were no teeth on the cog!!!!! Yikes. I told that mechanic when he put that new cog on that it needed a new chain but he said no, it just needed a cog (as I know from bicycles and my own motorbikes - you always change the chain and cogs together). We were in a spot of trouble as the bike won't go if there are no teeth on the cog. When we went to ask if there was an Enfield shop around we were told that the ceremony started at 6:30...hmmm, that might be enough time...and there was a motorbike shop up the road. So off we went.

We found the shop but the mechanic said that we have to go to Amritsar - he didn't have the parts. So we made the hard decision to fore go the flag ceremony so we could get out of town the next day...oh well. We very cautiously rode towards Amritsar being careful not to load the chain - it's 30kms back to town. We made it back safely and miraculously found the Enfield shop right where the guy said it was... and they could fix it right then - woohoo! We agreed a price (650 rupees) and I handed over the cash for the "boy" to go off and buy the parts as two guys started taking the Enfield apart.

First the rear wheel has to come off for the rear cog to go on, but the Enfield has an interesting design...they started to crack open one of the outer engine cases, drained the fluid and proceeded to pull the entire clutch assembly and it's case just to get to the front cog! A bit extreme for a part that wears as quickly as the drivetrain - on my Fazer there is a small cover for the front cog and it's a 2 minute job to get to it. It was nice to see that everything looked in good shape in the transmission, though :) Forty five minutes later I had a fresh drivetrain and we were on our way - the proprietor having giving the bike a test ride and pronounced it fit to ride (with that little head wobble that they do all over India :). On our way back to the hotel we stopped in a different part of town - much quieter - and had a lovely thali (Punjabi thalis are a speciality of the region :).

The next morning we were up decently early, packed the bikes, paid the bill and had some delicious tea (for me) and coffee (for A) from the street stall (the guys at the hotel would have gotten us coffee from here if we asked for coffee, so we went direct :). Then it was on to the bikes and off towards Dharamsala! We were a bit tired of straight boring roads so it was with great pleasure that we passed Pathankot and headed into the foothills and the curving and climbing roads - woohoo!!!! The Enfield handles like a dream! We found our way up the mountain to Dharamsala and the Enfield was giving me a tiny bit of a problem with the fueling....but it was climbing like a trooper on the rocky road, which was good :). Then we headed even farther up (through the military zone! strange to be so near the peaceful Dalai Lama) to McLeod Ganj where we parked the bike (not the only Enfield by a long stretch!!!!) and found a place to stay. We also ran into another guy on an Enfield that we had met on the road earlier in the day...turns out he's from Luton, just down the road from A's neighborhood :)

Simon has been riding around India on his Enfield for the last 6 months and he is on his way back to the UK just before we head back - we have already arranged to meet up for a beer :) We also found one of the few places in McLeod Ganj that has beer (and coincidentally the place that Pierce Brosnan eats when he comes to town - the British connection, eh? :) and sat down to chat about this and that over a few beers. We had a great time!

The following morning we headed back down the mountain with plans to return, if possible, for the Dalai Lama's 70th birthday celebrations - McLeod Ganj is a great town and we would like to spend more time there. The Enfield gave me a few starting problems in the morning and seemed to be having that fueling problem again...I had talked to Simon about it and I checked the plug and it looked fine - it wasn't running lean or rich. Hmmm. We got moving and I just put up with it, planning to have the Manali mechanic look at it when we arrived. The Pulsars were never this much trouble!!!!! It was a bittersweet ride that morning...the roads were fantastic, but the Enfield was troubling me and then it stalled on me and wouldn't start at all (even when I swore at it :)! Lucky for us we were on a hill and I turned the bike around and bump started it and then vowed to find the next Enfield mechanic and have him sort it out.

That turned out to be about 35kms outside of Mandi :) We pulled in and the mechanic listened to my story (lucky me, I could find one that spoke English! That was very lucky as this was a small town) and then had a look at the bike...kicked it over a few times and told me it was a problem with the compression. Yikes, I don't like the sound of that at all! He pulled the small cover that accesses the tappets and found that one of them was tight, so he sorted that out -they are hard to adjust, it looks like a cup and cone adjustment when you need to get it tight enough so it doesn't rattle, but loose enough that it moves freely. He then adjusted the ignition spark a little bit and took it for a spin. Then he sent me off for a spin and when I came back he told me that he thought that I needed a new piston ring. GREAT....not!

The guy had done a great job diagnosing the problem and making the bike run - when I took out for a test ride I thought we were on our way, it was running so much better. Rana, the mechanic, did say the bike would be fine to ride if we were going to stay on the flats but not if we were in hilly country - we could go to Delhi on it no problem. I felt he was a good mechanic so I asked how much and how long...we were still a fair ways from Manali, but we could stay in Mandi for the night. He said about 1500 rupees and 4 hours - he would have to go into Mandi for the machine shop. So I said yes (we can't go to Leh with a compression problem) and they started pulling the Enfield apart...I hadn't even had the bike for a week and it was having major surgery!!!!

It was great to watch the bike break down into it's component parts...again :) and to watch Rana work. When they pulled the valve block off you could see the blackness of the piston - what a mess. The exhaust had been clear, not smoky - I checked when I bought the bike and A had been following me for 2 days, she would have noticed. Rana then pulled the piston and checked the rings...they looked good...hmmm. Then he had a look at the valves and decided to check for a leak...yup, the exhaust valve was leaking - this was the same tappet that had been too tight. Now it needed new valves. So he packed the parts onto the scooter and headed off into Mandi...we went for a walk and then waited.

About the time we expected Rana back Arun showed up - Rana's cousin - and asked what he could do for us. He was very nice and it was obvious (though no one said) that Rana was delayed. We asked where we could find some dinner and then Arun most graciously offered us the use of *his* Enfield, which just happened to be the same as mine but a couple of years older :) We opted to let him ride his bike and we would take the Pulsar (the trusty Pulsar!!!! I didn't mention that Rana and Arun both dissed Pulsars but we all know which bike has been fabulous for 4 months on the road and which one has been in the shop twice in one week :).

We went up the road to the only hotel in town, parked the bikes outside and sat down near the window - all three of us. Then it was decided that we would have a drink, so 3 mango Slice bottles were brought over. It was all very strange and we could tell there were things not being said but finally Arun said we should come to dinner at his house just down below the hotel - we shouldn't spend the money. Knowing looks were passed between Arun and the hotel owner. Well, we don't say no to an offer of home cooking or not having to buy dinner :), so we said yes. Then we told him that we should arrange to stay at the hotel for the night and he said why spend the money...we can stay at his house...if we didn't mind. Wow, this was all very nice. So it was decided and after more knowing looks were passed between Arun and the hotel owner we headed down the hill, stopping to pick up some of our things, buy some water (for us) and some fresh veg for dinner.

We arrived and had a bit of a thrill at the hill climb up the dirt path to the house (that was fun, but A walked up with our stuff and the veg :) and we parked the bikes and got a very warm welcome from Arun's wife and 2 year old daughter...both very shy. It is the Indian tradition to treat guests as gods so we were feeling very fawned over. We had cup of tea and Arun kept us entertained. He is a basketball coach at a school in Chandigarh (the most modern and clean city in India - a designed city not unlike Milton Keynes) and his wife is a lecturer in Sanskrit. They were on their school holidays at their family property in this village. Arun and his wife both have several degrees, Arun played basketball on the national level for Maharashtra and his English is very good. Chikoo, the little girl, was adorable and she played a game of peekaboo all evening - peering at us through the window, which caused lots of giggling on her part, and being very shy in our presence.

Dinner was served and we ate first (as is the custom) and it was delicious!!! Dal and rice, some marrow (which they called pumpkin and was stir fried) and some curry all followed by fresh mangoes ('tis the season :). We were then installed in front of the TV while they ate their dinner. Then there was more conversation and it was time to go to bed - good thing, we were knackered! We both slept incredibly well - it was so quiet! In the morning it was raining and there was a wonderful breakfast of tea and paratha and then we all rushed off in various directions - us to the bike shop and Arun to take his wife and daughter to the local school.

We arrived to Rana's shop to learn that the Enfield had been rebuilt overnight - Rana worked until midnight! The bike had new valves, a new piston and had had the cylinder bored - and it had to run for 2 hours to seat everything. We were not going to be on our way anytime soon. So A went across the road and brought tea for everyone and Rana occasionally fiddled with the bike but it was all about waiting. After about an hour we went over for more tea and some breakfast for the boys (we were stuffed from our paratha breakfast :). Then it was time! Rana took the bike for a spin and came back, he told me I needed to go take it for a spin. So I went up the road and it was great...just a bit of clatter, though. Then I took it up the hill road and it seemed fine...and then as I was going up one section I started to loose power again...then it stalled! Ugh. I couldn't get it started either. Double ugh.

I tried to bump start it going back down the hill and it locked the rear wheel - maybe the insides were not happy at all.... :( So I put it in neutral and coasted down hill without the engine running. Arun hopped on when I arrived (Rana was working on another bike) and the bike started right up! :) OK, so problem, but probably not a big problem. A few more fiddles and some more adjustment of the ignition and the test ride was good, then Rana went up the hill with Arun on the back to make sure that there was no problem with power and came back satisfied - he gave me a 10,000km guarantee on the piston.

We packed up and got on the road to Manali...WOW. The Enfield was running great, that was good, but the roads were just AMAZING. (ATTN Mr. Brown - the 30 kms to Mandi were 30 of some of the best kms I have ever ridden on a bike!). Swoopy curves, up and down the hillside, just heaven. The Enfield is much more planted that the floppy Pulsar so it was pure joy to ride, even the oncoming cars/trucks/buses coming around the corners on my side of the road did not unsettle me :). We took the turn north towards Manali and followed another river up - more great road - and then it started to get congested as we got near Kulla and then it was pretty busy all the way into Manali which is a bit of tourist hell. Luckily we followed the LP recommendation and headed for Old Manali and we are in a nice guest house.

A's asthma did not like the dusty road up or the exhaust fumes though - especially the long tunnel that didn't seem to have any light or ventilation! - and we have spent a day recovering. It's probably not all the air quality - I think that whatever I had in Amritsar I passed on to A (hey, what are friends for if we don't share??? :) and she spent the night coughing.

We have decided to change our plans in light of new information...if I thought Dharamsala was bad when it came to foreigners on Enfields, it's got nothing on Manali - *everyone* has an Enfield and they are all heading north :) We had also talked to Simon in Dharamsala about the route (he had just done it) and even without knowing that we were having respiratory problems he said make sure we have a mask to cover our faces as it is very dusty on the ride up. I still have a cough and A is trying to recover from hers...about 300kms of the road to Leh are going to be dirt, and it's altitude...why push it? We also don't have time to do justice to Ladakh - it would be an in and out trip just to say we have ridden it and climbed the big passes. There is a beautiful pair of valleys just to our east, no one goes there, the roads and views are supposed to be exceptional and we have the opportunity to see some beautiful and old Tibetan art that has survived the Cultural Revolution because...it's not in China :) What more could we ask for?

On the emotional side, the river looked great on our ride in, and Manali is a great place to go rafting, but we would rather ride the motorbikes. After the last 7 months of travelling the attraction of the "highest" pass and an enormously challenging road (steep, rocky, lots of river crossings) isn't as much of an attraction as some serious natural beauty and remote, unchanged villages - it is still attractive, just not as attractive :). So we (after much discussion) are going to spend our time there and we might even have time to make it back to Dharamsala for the Dalai Lama's birthday...but we aren't rushing it, we want to enjoy ourselves :).

More photos coming!!! Catch you later.

We are in Delhi...and I am now riding an Enfield :)

The train from Varanasi to Delhi was a whole lot better than the train from Gorakphur to Varanasi! We had a sleeper (non-A/C) and it was much cooler - we actually got a bit chilled overnight. The train was 5 hours late in arriving though and it was back to being sweaty by the time we got in. We hopped a rickshaw back to our favorite Delhi hotel (after much bargaining....we are seasoned travellers now :) in Manju ka Tilla, dropped our bags, ate some of their delicious momos and headed into town for a reunion with the Pulsars.

As usual, there was a lot of waiting around (this *is* India :) but finally the bikes arrived and were sorted out by the "boys" at the shop and we were ripping it back to Manju ka Tilla before dark. I had a look around while we were waiting and I was still thinking about the Enfield that we nearly rode back from Nepal....so I had a chat with the boss at Tony Bikes (where I originally bought my Pulsar) and arranged to come back this morning and talk about a swap.

We got some business sorted this morning (got A some coffee at Cafe Coffee Day, got money, sorted our flights with Gulf Air...got A some coffee at Costa Coffee :) and then we headed over to Karol Bagh. I was immediately sent out on a test ride on a 2004 Enfield Bullet Electra 350. It was a good looking bike and it has electronic ignition (we don't want points if it is going to be wet, and the monsoon is targeted to hit Delhi on July 2nd), the only drawback is that the shifter is on the right and the brake is on the left - this is the reverse of all modern bikes.

I was a bit concerned, but I got used to the weird shift pattern on the Pulsars, it can't be that hard :) Well....it is. It is very strange...but I would rather be on a Bullet than a Thunderbird (the cruiser model with all mod cons :). My first ride I came back telling them there was a problem with the gears and that the front brake didn't work at all - this is key, because when you react and accidentally step on the shifter trying to brake you would at least have the front brake! :) They explained the shifting and made sure I was not treating the beast like a delicate flower - if I want to shift I need to send a clear message with my foot. They adjusted the front brake, too and on the second test ride it was better and it was a go...if we could afford it.

Now that I was happy (I had a list of things that needed to be fixed) the boss took my Pulsar for a ride to see what he would value it at. He came back happy and told me my bike was in excellent shape (I had taken good care of it, I wasn't surprised :) and we started talking money. We did a swap with with the value of my bike coming up 5500 rupees less than I paid for it - in real money that is about 65GBP or US$135 for 4 months of use and all those kms! Excellent!!! I will treat the Enfield just the same, so it should also hold it's value - 3 people came in to look at it while they were fixing all the bits - when I sell it back in a couple of weeks.

We had a bit of work done in preparation for the mountains - we both got new, grippy
tires. They are dual sport type tires, not full knobbies, but chunky all the same. I also got new brake pads front and rear and the rear sprocket needed replacing (I only paid for the tires for both bikes and one set of brake shoes). They went a long way to sorting the front brake...we will see how the new shoes wear in. The bike sounds great, the ride is a bit firm, but it should be fine. I loved the Pulsar, but it's nice to have a bit of change and a challenge, too :)

The plan is to head out early tomorrow morning and head for Amritsar - we wanted to go there before we left for China but we ran out of time. Then it will be mountain roads for us as we head to Dharamsala and on to Manali and then the road to Leh. We will hit the Kardungla (the highest pass) and look around Ladakh and then ride south and head down through the Spiti Valley. Then it's over to have a look at the Garwhal Himalaya and then back to Delhi to catch our flight out on the 11th. We will keep you posted, as we can.

Photos will be forthcoming! I know you want to see the new bike :)

Later! Must go pack :)

Namaste :-)

Rambling thoughts from a stray mind...

We are waiting for a train to take us back to Delhi. Apparently there has been much rain there over the last week which has brought about a premature increase in mosquito breeding and the threat of dengue as a result. I am preparing myself mentally for the discomfort of my skin being covered in repellent and the relentless temperatures. Still, I am very excited to be going back to the city that brought me so much culture shock back in November.

Part of me is still in Tibet somewhere or is that part of Tibet is still in me? Should it be the latter I hope that it remains so. I am still deeply touched by the Tibetan people and their sense of internal happiness. It is true that each day could be our last, therefore we should start each day anew and live in the present. There is happiness to be found in such philosophy :-) The landscape has filled my soul with natural beauty, although now when I think of Everest there is a mark in the shape of a black tarmacked topped road rudely cutting through the beauty of the region like an ugly black strike through :-(

Nepal I feel so unfamiliar with, I really have no right to speak of it with any true knowledge. No guidebook and not much time there resulted in it being a transit country for us, it is however a country of beauty and a mix of cultures that would be worth exploring further in the future. My memories of Nepal are the ride down from the Himalayas and the dry arid environment of the Tibetan plateau into tropical heat and humidity. We did some great cycling to Kathmandu particularly our toughest day on the bikes which was a true test of character :-) I am surprised that I managed to survive the bus journeys on the twisty roads - about 3% of the roads were straight. This is a recipe for disaster when you suffer from travel sickness as much as I do. Choking diesel fumes through the window, coupled with a lack of aircon (in the case of the ride from Pokhara to the border) and the heat would normally ensure that nothing but torture would follow as the bus blasted horn and swerved back and forth. Luckily I adopted a concentration, a method of mind over matter and focused on the view out of the window, my gaze fixed at the same angle and distance from the bus for the duration. Anytime I strayed from this fake horizon my stomach would churn. My eyes were quite tired after several hours of this and I did not get the best view! But I made it :-)

Now in India, the chaos has become a familiarity and it is less disconcerting. I love how everything is so organic, breathing and flowing. The people that we meet who are "students" and want to practice their English (and eventually take us to an Emporium of some sort) are too obvious now and are laughable. The tricks to extort cash from us are all here in Varanasi but now they are far much more amusing and occasionally frustrating. We have been with a couple of young travellers over the last few days who are grateful for our company - their having been in India for only the two days that they have spent with us. I feel empathy when I see the wide eyed expressions on their faces as they view the intimidating environment that surrounds them and try to make sense of it or to try and find something familiar. I remember how that felt, even if you have been on the road for a while, India has a uniqueness that cannot be prepared for and you find out truly what it is like at best when you are in the deep end - a bit like having a child :-)

Time is pressing and so are my eyelids. The temperature in our room at night is at least 35C and I am not getting enough sleep in the heat. Maybe we shall splash out on an aircon room at some point...

...we are off to get some food for our fifteen hour journey in the soft sleeper carriage... no AC. Gluttons for punishment I tell you :-)

Until next time...

OK....the border to Kathmandu!

We almost rode by the Nepal immigration office - we were amazed at being all so suddenly back in the third world, that we were definitely not in China anymore! - but they waved us over and we flashed our visas and were on our way. The climate was tropical and the buildings were simple structures, small children and dogs were everywhere. We also realized that it wasn't as late as we thought - Nepal is over 2 hours different in time zones.

We had targeted Tatopani hot springs as a stopping point, but it came too soon and we were not ready to stop. We had been riding all day, but most of it had been down hill and we were exited, so we decided to push on. A few kms down the road we saw a sign for The Last Resort, one that also included the word ESPRESSO...you know what A's vote was going to be on that count :) I remembered the Last Resort when I had been reading about whitewater rafting in Nepal, it sounded like a good place to try.

As we neared the Last Resort the road all the sudden started to go up (I know, how can that be? It's all down hill to Kathmandu, isn't it??? :) and the legs were talking to us and reminding us that it had been a bit of a long day since we left the cave. We spotted the bridge over the gorge (did I mention they also do bungee jumping???? :) and we pulled over and I drew the short straw and walked over the bridge - 250m about the raging river below :) - and asked about a room for the night for 2 very tired cyclists just arrived from Tibet. The price they quoted us was not at all cheap, but food was included and before I could get a word out the Legs of Steel (those would be my legs, A's are made of Ti :) had already said YES!!! (the gall! they didn't even have the courtesy to check with A waiting on the other side of the bridge :)

I walked back over the bridge told A the good news and somehow we found the strength to wheel the loaded bikes up the stairs, across the bridge and down the stairs to our tent. They immediately directed us to the showers and said we could do paperwork later (we must have looked a sight! :). So we unpacked and hit the showers and I headed to the bar for a beer...where I ran into Zach and Imo, the couple that we went to Nam Tso with! They had spent the day rafting the river and were tired. We chatted for awhile and I brought our first bottle of Everest beer back to the tent - it was cold and delicious and we toasted our best day on the bikes! After dinner (an all you can eat buffet! perfect for hungry cyclists :) we gladly fell into our beds and slept the sleep of the very tired.

The next day it was wet and we were not ready to move on - we were not ready for a city after all the rural scenery of Tibet...and we were missing Tibet something wicked (not that Nepal isn't nice or anything :). We watched the bungee jumpers (not for me - the excitement of our recent days riding was so much more exciting than a few seconds of free fall could ever be), ate good food, read....relaxed. It was nice. That night it really shelled it down with rain and I was thinking that we were going to have a wet ride into Kathmandu, but when we woke up it was lovely and sunny!

As we left the road was going down and we were thinking that we might make it all the way to Kathmandu...but then the road went up and then down and up again...and it was getting hot. We had just had a fabulous descent (after a hard climb) into a small town where we crossed the river. From there is was false flat up the next canyon - it looked flat, but if you turned around a looked you were going up hill. Then the heat started to get to me, I am not good in the heat, and I had to stop and put my head under one of the water spring pipes on the side of the road. We were drinking lots of water, too (bottled, not from the spring :). We finally spotted a cafe and we stopped for some cold drinks - perfect! Just what I needed.

We knew from the map that we had a bit of uphill to come but we still thought we might make it it all the way, if not, we would stop at Dhulikhel. Well...it was a whole lot more up than I expected and our altitude experience wasn't helping as much as I thought it would (the legs never got stressed in Tibet because the lungs always gave out first :) I bonked on the last climb and we barely made it up to the top of the mountain - yes, mountain! Dhulikhel is a hill station with beautiful Himalayan views (not visible due to clouds) and it is a beast of a climb that just goes on and on while your legs just won't stop complaining.

A was the star of the day - after the heat got me in the morning and the bonk in the afternoon, I was toast! Pushing the pedals took all my reserves and A led the way into town, found us a great place to stay and even carried her heavy bags up the stairs to the room - she was just as tired as I was, she just had a better attitude :) We sat on the bed for almost a half hour, too tired to shower, but A moved first and soon we were both clean and ready to clean out their kitchen :) We chose the Nepali thalis from the menu and we were soon feasting...it only got better when the guy loaded my plate for a second time with rice and all the trimmings :) Now we felt better!

The next day we decided on a easy start to our day - it's only 30kms to Kathmandu and we were told it was an easy ride, nearly all downhill (it's no lie, either :). We headed out more recovered that I thought I would be and the weather was lovely. As we neared the city things got a lot busier! Soon we were pedaling past the airport and into town where we had an interesting time through the narrow and muddy streets finding Thamel and then the hotel - we had arrived!!!!!

We stored the bikes in the luggage room and headed into town. Hmmmm. Kathmandu is....very western. For all of the exotica we have seen over the last few months this was not what we were looking for. It's not to say we didn't like it, but we would only spend as much time as necessary there. When we turned up the next morning (Tuesday) at the Indian Embassy it was clear we would be in town until Friday - visas take 72 hours to process. That was cool, we needed to rest, sort our stuff...decide what we were going to do next :)

That is about the extent of the story on the bikes...A has a lot more to say, I am sure :). We are heading back to Delhi in a few hours and we are pretty excited to be seeing the old Pulsars tomorrow for our happy reunion :) And it's hot here, but the heat is not killing me, which is also a good thing - it's 35C/95F in the room at night even with the fan going full blast! A just told me it's 39 in Delhi now and it's supposed to rain rain rain tomorrow....no problem, the bikes probably need a bit of a wash :) It rained on us in Delhi when we left, no surprise we are going to get wet now that we are back :)

Later!

Road to Everest....

When we were on our way up the pass and on to Everest Basecamp we got caught behind a group of 5 Land Cruisers...behaving badly :) We laughed at them when they ripped it up down the road and then stopped (in the middle of the road) and all the guys piled out and had cigarettes or relieved themselves - it's a dirt road and wide enough for one vehicle, when they stopped they stopped traffic.

It turned out that they were road engineers and were stopping to check out the road. We thought they might have been the builders, checking on how it was holding up, or maybe they were looking at paving it for the Olympics....turns out it's the latter:

High Way: China Plans Everest Road from the WSJ

It's a very sensitive topic...in India they are tearing China apart in the paper...

India in a fix as China plans road to Everest from the Times of India

Greetings from Varanasi (aka Benares)!

We had an....adventurous journey from Lumbini (birthplace of Lord Buddha) in Nepal to Varanasi (right next to Sarnath, where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon). It took a rush to the bus at 6:20 am, which raced to the border where we got out and got a rickshaw to carry us and our luggage to Nepal immigration, then over the border (woohoo, welcome back to India :) then into Indian immigration and then on to a bus. Getting the bus was a bit of a nightmare...it was supposed to leave at 7:30, but the bus we were on sat for awhile and when we asked when it was departing they said 8:30....hmmm, why did we rush our lovely cups of chai then???? :) Then the bus driver drove like he was from Kerala (maniacally :) and we were making fabulous time to Gorakphur and it was looking like we would make our connection to the Varanasi bus (a bridge was out so there were no direct buses to Varanasi) when it all went pearshaped...the bus broke down and they were unable to fix it with electrical tape (we are not sure what was wrong :) and they sent all the passengers up to the road to find alternate transport the last 10kms.

One of the guys on the bus was very nice and flagged down an autorickshaw for us and they told the guy we wanted the bus station and they told us it was going to be 10 rupees for both of us....we got dropped at the train station *and* they wanted 10 rupees a person. But, it ll worked out...we hooked up with the other foreigners ) on our bus and it turned out that they were also going to Varanasi, so we got our tickets and we endured the longest, hottest train journey I have ever done! It was supposed to be something like 6-7 hours and it ended up being over 9 hours and the temperature (from my watch thermometer) was 39C (100F!) for most of the journey but dropped down to 35 (95F) for the last couple of hours. We each drank about 3 liters of water and didn't need to use the loo the entire journey - we sweated all that water out! We travelled cattle class and sat in the upper bunk (under the fan) for the first couple of hours before we could claim seats on the main bench.

Today we swam in the hotel pool and had an afternoon tour to Sarnath and tomorrow morning we depart at 4:45am for our dawn visit to the ghats (that is what you come to Varanasi for - to see the Ganges :). We have a boat ride and a visit to a couple of Hindu temples on the plan as well. We also went to the train station and (painlessly) purchased our tickets to Delhi on the overnight train tomorrow night, so we will be back on the motorbikes by the weekend :):):)

A is still alive and her stomach is in good shape (she just devoured her first masala dosa in months and she is grinning like the Cheshire Cat :)....she will produce some of her lovely commentary tomorrow afternoon when we get online (the train leaves at 7pm) and let you know what's on her mind. I will update you on the last bit of our ride from the border to Kathmandu, but we are on the iWay system at the hotel, so I can't get any photos up, but I will get them up when we get to Delhi, I promise :)

Catch you all tomorrow!!!! Must get to bed so we can get up heinously early :)

Hey all :) We are in Pokara...

and heading for the Indian border tomorrow morning, first thing. We have been waffles! We have had such an amazing time riding motorbikes around India and cycling in China and Tibet we have just run out of steam - can anything we do from now on measure up? So we have been doing not much of anything except enjoying where we are (and in A's case, recovering from Asian dodgy tummy syndrome :).

After much waffling yesterday we finally bought bus tickets to Pokara to chase down a lead on an Enfield that we could buy and ride back to Delhi. It was a nice ride on the bus, with a nice lunch included :), and we got to see more of the Nepalese green scenery as we meandered in the canyons (and stopped for a half hour...because the boys were running? We have no idea, it wasn't a race, they just closed the road for school boys to run on the road...in their school uniforms on a Sunday. Very strange :) on the 200km journey. Pokhara is a nice little town, much more mellow than Kathmandu (and especially Thamel). We like it, but with the monsoon upon us, the Annapurna range of the Himalayas, usually visible across the lake, are shrouded in cloud...it's a shame, but nothing we can do about it. One (I think it was Annapurna II) poked it's head out of the clouds for about 10 minutes right after the rain stopped, but it was soon back in hiding.

We arrived early this afternoon and were met at the bus, in the pouring rain, by lots of taxis. We were incredibly lucky and found one that was reasonable and the guy directed to a nice hotel just up the road from where we wanted to go - the motorbike shop, Hearts and Tears. The shop is run by a British guy and it is a GREAT shop - and he is very nice and way into bikes (we got to see photos of his past rides :). The shop has a great reputation and we were impressed....but we were also daunted at the thought of owning a third motorbike between us (even if it is easy to sell in Delhi) when the 2 months in China have so severely depleted our cash reserves. China was a lot more expensive than we expected - not surprisingly, I guess, as they ramp up for the Olympics next summer - but it was well worth it, and we wouldn't trade that experience for anything! We are going to get our butts back to Delhi ASAP, still stopping at Lumbini (birthplace of Buddha - it's near our border crossing) and Varanasi (holiest city in India), getting the Pulsars and heading to Leh as soon as possible.

Yesterday A was feeling much better and we decided to do some sightseeing in Kathmandu so we headed down to Durbar Square to start our morning....we were not impressed. It's a World Heritage site, but it's also a public square with tons of locals...and the regular trash, dogs sleeping, traffic, etc. However, foreigners are expected to pay 200 rupees to go in - it's not even cordoned off, so everyone (local and visitor alike) just walk around unless you get spotted by the ticket seller and called over to pay your fee. Needless to say we were not impressed and we didn't pay to go in, we just went to a small restaurant with a window overlooking the square and got some breakfast :) After that we headed to Swayambuth - a big Buddhist stupa on top of a hill.

Swayambuth was excellent! It was quite a walk to get there, through normal (non-touristy) parts of Kathmandu. It was great to get out of the totally westernized Thamel area!!! At the bottom of the hill there is a long section of prayer wheels, some massive ones in their own buildings, too, and then there are 316 steps to climb to the top. It's a nice walk in the shade and yesterday it was hot and sunny, so the shade was welcome (the heat was getting to me). This stupa, and the Buddha eyes on it, are one of the famous sights of Kathmandu, so it was nice to see it up close. There is a small village up there, temples and tourist shops, but it's still really nice - the views across Kathmandu are fabulous! The stupa is reputed to have been around for 2000 years and is one of the places that Buddha gave his lessons. After that we walked back into town by a different route and then got lunch...by that time we were all touristed out. We gave the Shiva temple a miss (we have seen several amazing Shiva temples - Ujjain, Madurai and Tanjore, to name a few) and a similar stupa on the complete other side of town.

Last night we decided to have a proper Nepali meal and we went to the "Typical Nepali Kitchen" and ordered our thali....WOW! It was fabulous!!!!! Some of the best food we have eaten in the last 7 months! There was a paneer curry that was delicious, a spinach dish, mixed veg and of course dhal. We left over stuffed but happy :)

We have lots of photos to put up (we took over 1000 between Lhasa and the Nepal border!) but the connections here are slow...and in Pokhara they are not at all cheap! They are 3 times the cost in Kathmandu! So you will have to wait, we will get some photos up, but it may not be until we get back to Delhi. Patience.... :)

Namaste! :-) :-) :-)

Back down to Earth after living so high above the clouds for over a month and also back down to nasty stomach bugs - eeewww! I have had a few days of sickness and have been laid up in bed however a dose of antibiotics and some care from K has put me back onto my feet again :-)

I am still in disbelief when I think back to our cycling trip from Old Tingri to Kathmandu, it was truly the most awesome part of our whole trip so far. When we descended through the clouds and passed through the Himalayas I felt as though I was in a dream. Kathmandu is a place of complete contrast in comparison to those days of wilderness which we spent on our bicycles. There are many people here in Thamel and it is a hybrid of Camden town and Elis Brigham, there are even hairdressers that will make you some natty dreadlocks, you can get a complete makeover if you wish to look as though you have been on the road for years :-)

I am missing the high altitude and mountain peaks :-(

I am missing my bike too. We have passed them onto a mountain biking hire company today :-(

We did get our Indian visas today though so we are preparing for the next part of the journey :-)

We have plenty of photos but I am not sure when we will be able to get them up - the internet is painfully slow here but the Dalai Lama does say that we should thank things that test our patience! :-)

I love bicycles :-)

Kilometres and kilometres of gloopy, muddy and wet dirt road,
     descending
          and descending
               through
                    the sky.
Lone riders in thick fog.
     Deathly drops hidden by the moisture, leading down,
          down,
               down,
                    to the aggressive river below.
Waterfalls and rock all around and I feel small.
     Endless road down into
     the unseen and unknown.
We could be descending down to
hell.
Such was the heaven of Tibet...

...one of the last places on earth where nomads dwell

I love riding bicycles and I cannot wait to share the tales with you but for now... thanks for reading :-)

From Lhasa to Nepal...

The night before we left we went to our favorite bar and had the last dark beer we would have until we return to the UK :) The people that run the place are really nice people....and they have a puppy!


The following morning Tashi, our driver, and I packed the bikes on the roof of the jeep. I had gone out early and chased up some foam pads and some rope and Tashi did a great job of firmly fastening them to the roof. I tried not to worry about the bikes (and if they would be ridable) when we hit the dirt road to Everest.


A and I had toyed with the idea of riding to Yamdrok Tso but we never got around to it...as we drove up the pass we we awed by how much of a leg burner it would have been! It was a great ride up and it would have been a great, if killer, ride up on the bicycles, too...I was glad we didn't try to do it all in one day on the bikes though :) The view from the top was good...but not as good as the pass itself :) Because of road construction we had to turn around and go back down the pass and take the northern part of the Friendship Highway and take a shortcut to Gyantse for the night.


Little did we know that the short cut was a dirt road! On my map is was a real road, but we were learning that Tashi was a bit of a dirt demon. He has been driving for 17 years and knows all the roads (and tracks that pass for roads :) and he took us on a great one - through small villages and across wide open valleys - at high speed and skidding all the corners :) We shortly arrived at Gyantse and we went for a walk to the monastery and to get our first look at the Kumbum and the originals of the eyes that are tattooed on my belly :)



The following morning we toured the monastery and the Kumbum - Kumbum means 100,000 images and there are at least that many images in there! There are tiny chapels and larger chapels on each level of the building and we went in all of them. Inside each chapel there is a statue and the walls are covered in Buddhist images....it was AMAZING, to say the least.



In the afternoon we made our way to Shigatse. This was just a stop to pick up our permits but it turns out they have a wonderful monastery there (if a bit touristy).


The next day we headed to Sakya Monastery which is also quite special. There are 2 monasteries there - the northern and the southern - the former was founded in the 11th century and is currently in ruins and the latter was founded in the 13th century and is undergoing some heavy renovation. The buildings in town (except the assembly hall of the monastery which is always in red) are painted a very unique grey with red and white vertical stripes - as we drove/rode across Tibet we could see the villages that are under the influence of the Sakya order.


After Sayka we headed to Shegar to stay for the night. We got up very early to head for the pass and our first real views of Everest! We got a bit of a late start, but Everest wasn't cooperating anyway and was covered in cloud when we arrived. Slowly the clouds cleared and we had a great view! It was beautiful and an amazing sight to see - Everest and Lhotse on the left and Cho Oyu on the right.


We continued another 60 or so kms to Rongbuk monastery where we really had a great view of the big beast (the big rock in the background, not the horse :)


And then we went 4 more kms up the road in the jeep to the tent village (where we would stay the night) and then A and I headed out on foot to walk 5 or 6 kms up to basecamp and beyond. That is the big boy on the far left, with the cloud caught on the top, and you can see the glaciers coming down into the valley on the right. At the lower end of the moraine field it gets very flat and that is where they have put basecamp (it's out of the photo, but we will post more photos later :)


The next morning it was another early departure. We wanted to ride from Everest, but the agency said we could get out at Tingri and not before :( Since the protest that caused all the permit problems was at Everest, the Chinese are very sensitive about the area and caution was required (we did not want to get sent back to Lhasa....or worse!).

It was wonderful to find out that we were taking another dirt road shortcut to head to Old Tingri and it just so happened to be the route that A and I had planned to ride, so we at least got to see it (it was beautiful and would have made an amazing 2-3 day ride!!!!). There was a checkpoint just before we got into Old Tingri so it was just as well that we didn't try to ride it. At Old Tingri we unloaded the bikes and....they were in beautiful shape!!!! I had been so worried (we really wanted to ride and not have to take the jeep the rest of the way). The rough roads could do no damage with Tashi's fabulous strapping job.

We all had a great breakfast and then said our goodbyes - Tashi taking our fellow travellers to the border in the jeep as we packed the bikes and rode off down the road.


As we left town we were fabulously elated! WE WERE RIDING THE FRIENDSHIP HIGHWAY!!!! We had planned this for so long it just felt great to be riding it....finally!!! 3 kms out of town the pavement turned to dirt and we didn't see pavement until we hit Nyalam, 30kms from the Nepal border (and then it was only paved in town :). Fabulous!!!! A was a very happy bunny as she much prefers a dirt road to a paved road....especially when we are on mountain bikes :)


We almost always had a snowy mountain view - the road parallels the Himalayas and then hangs a left to head through them.


Our first night we camped in a canyon near a road that headed up to a monastery (no traffic :). The weather was good - dry and not cold at all with a fabulous night sky filled with as many stars as could be packed into one sky! We got a good start the next morning after pumping some water from the river and then we stopped at a small Tibetan restaurant for lunch to fuel our bodies for our first big pass. And it was a good thing, too as that pass was hard work at that altitude!!!! But it was really good fun and a beautiful ride, too :).

The second night we camped at the bottom of the pass - between the 2 big passes - next to a river. The first pass was 4950m and we were going to start our next day climbing the 5050m pass :) The valley was gorgeous and the nomads dogs stayed well away (which made A VERY happy :). We had a lovely afternoon of sun and watched the herders bring in their flocks, we made some soup and then it was time for bed.

Overnight the clouds rolled in and we woke to some serious frost! Not surprising as we were camping at 4800 meters. The tent and bags kept us toasty warm and in the morning I fired up the stove and warmed us up with some tea and porridge. It took us a bit of time to get out of there as the fog didn't lift until almost 9am and we had to dry our stuff out before packing up....


It was a great ride up the pass and even better when we started the descent - it's supposed to be a massive 4500m down to the Nepal border and we were ready for it!!!! :) As it was, it leveled out and then the afternoon headwind kicked in with a vengance. We spent an hour fighting the wind on the flat (and slight downhill) and going nowhere fast...like only about 10kph! and the wind was pretty hefty, maybe 40-50mph, so we started to look for a place to camp.


I spotted something that looked to offer some protection and headed over to check it out. We dropped off the edge of a bluff and discovered that there were some caves in the bluff...this looked promising as the wind was blowing so hard we would have a rough night if we set the tent up in the wind (this was wind that was hard to walk into!). We found the perfect cave, not tall enough for the tent but perfect to slide the thermarests and the sleeping bags into and it was calm in there! We cooked up some noodles and crawled in. We had a surprisingly good night's sleep and headed out into the cloudy morning (no need to wait for the tent to dry :)


It was a long day through some amazing changing scenery! We started in the clouds on the Tibetan plateau...


...dropping down 2000m to Nyalam on some great twisty mountain roads (where we stopped and had a good lunch) and then we dropped down some more, through misty rainforest and on some very muddy roads clinging to the canyon walls, the last 30kms...


...to the Nepal border! We had no problems crossing the border - the Chinese let us out and the Nepalese let us in :)


The journey through Nepal is coming...catch you later!

Namaste! :-) :-) :-)

We have made it to Kathmandu - successfully :-) We are happy and healthy and had no problems with the police, so don't worry! :-)

We have lots to tell and lots of photos... but you have to wait as we are KO'd. We have plenty of time - we need to get our Indian visas and decide what, if anything, we want to see in Nepal before we cross the border.

Patience!