26 Nov - 11 Dec: Nepal

The day after Asia left, our ever-popular guest house had a large party arriving meaning I had to move out, and back into Thamel, the noiser, busier part of Kathmandu. Luckily Big Tom was once again there on hand for a meal and a Tibetan beer. Having both just sent friends back home it was good to catch up on what we'd been up to for the last month.

I had a flight home booked for around the 22nd December, but staring down almost 4 weeks to get there, I decided to re-book. Tourism season closes rapidly across Nepal at the end of November when it becomes too cold to be on any of the high treks, and generally pretty cold anywhere once the sun goes down. The left about two weeks, much more managable. I'd planned a week or so to ride to Jomsom, a town found at the top of a rocky trail through the mountains that looked a fun ride, then a second week heading down to east Nepal. Apparently ther's not much there apart from tea plantations, but it would be a diversion and quieter than Kathmandu.


That was the plan! The reality worked out that my bike would rarely start on a morning and had to be pushed down a hill and bump started, not ideal, but it got me to Pokhara, starting point for the Jomsom ride. Hoping things would improve after tightning up the battery terminals (they shake loose often givn my undersized battery and the huge bumps every few kms on the road). Sadly, the next day my bike wouldnt start at all, no worries, excuse for a lazy day in a very chilled out town with plenty of coffee shops and a big scenic lakeside.

The next day, bike starting fine, I set of up to a viewpoint on a hill high above town for a test ride to check everything had returned to being ok. It was fine for 3/4 of the way, then while I was taking photos, the engine died. No big problem I thought, but it wouldnt start no matter what afterwards, rolling downhill, trying to bump start just produced a feeling the engine was turning over, but not firing into life. More pushing up and the rolling downhill was having me thinking of calling a truck to get it back to Kathmandu. However, one last chack revealed the old nut of a blown fuse. New fuse installed, and whilst it wouldnt start through the normal key-ingition, a rolling start downhill was fine and got me back to Pokhara.

Stopping for petrol on the way (daft but I was almost out) again meant I couldnt start for love nor money. With nothing left to do but push back to the hotel, fortunately an Asian Aussie named Kevin appeared to give me a push. He'd been riding around Europe for 5 months on an old Kawasaki that kept breaking down and had received so much help he was happy to give some back, what a stroke of luck!!

We went out for dinner later to talk about biking and for me to say thanks before the next day brought the trouble of firstly trying to recharge my existing battery, then when that didnt work, sorting a new one. Its never easy finding parts that fit in Asia where BMW bikes arn't available, however after most of the day searching (it was Saturday here which means most shops close) one turned up that seemed a better fit than the cheap Indian battery I'd been riding with. Charged and installed, my bike fired up first time and was running well. Then I got a puncture.

Dinenr with Kevin

3rd battery in 6 months... fingers crossed!

First one of the trip after 6 months! Having missed the opportunity to ride to Jomsom, I was on the way back to Kathmandu to a friends wedding there, about 10kms outside the town the front end after bouncing through a big pothole started to wander vaguely about the road and something clearly was wrong. Pulling into a bus park at the side of the road, the front tyre was as flat as could be. I'd decided not to carry spare tyres because they're huge and heavy, also I'd heard and believed there were tyre repair places in every small village in Asia. Luckily that was true, so re-inflating the tyre using a can of sealant goo bought in Turkey did its job of getting enough pressure in and sealing the hole that I could slowly wobble to the next village and get a porper patch put in. All in all it took 5 minutes and Rupees 100 (about 80p) to be sorted with a good as new setup!

The culprit

Getting fettled

The rest of the ride to Kathmandu was easy enough, just taking it easy at first to check the fix was working. No sooner landed than I found a good hotel on a quiet street for £4/night with a big garden and gas powered hot shower - luxury!! Most places have solar showers that basically dont work when the weather is like it is currently.

Riding to the wedding traditional style -
3 up on a 125cc scooter...

Weddings happen at 'party places' like this

The bride and groom

Partying into the night

Setting up the slack-line

Wobbling along the line

Over the next week or so, I took in a traditional Nepali wedding with Suraj (bike exporter) and his family which was a blast, just music and free drinks all night as they'd done the official part the day before, tried out slack-lining, essentially tightrope walking, with Mattes, a German guy who'd brought a set with him. After that, its been packing clothes and buying Christmas presents which then wont all fit in my bag.

I'd just missed a couple, James and Cat (http://www.jamesandcat.com/) also motorbike tourers, who've just headed to India and filed the following on Facebook [lnaguage alert!!]:

I want my fooking tyres, im sick of being followed around like a fucking idiot, no i won't take a photo with you, i want to be able to sit in piece and read my book, leave my wife alone, no we wont pay 300 rupes to go 1km in a rickshaw today, and no i wont let you keep the change, stop sitting oppsite me and fucking staring at my wife with 20 of you mates. India you can do one i have had a fucking gut full!!! Note - i may just be sick of it today, it does get to you and i can be very annoying im actually starting to understand why some celebritys get so pissed off. If your prepared for it its ok, but when you got stuff to figure out you just dont need it!!! India is excellent BUT its really really hard work unless you in an area full of tourists!!

You have to laugh at times, it was probably harder work than I'd admit at times and it seems everyone who's there with a girlfriend/wife is taking on twoce as much stress...

Today is Saturday and this time tomorrow I'll be going through security checks in Kathmandu's Tribuhavn airport en-route to Delhi-Amsterdam-Leeds. The last two weeks have involved a lot of hanging around and waiting so it's a great feeling to be set for home to catch up with friends and family not seen for six months.

I'll have to do a post summarising the whole ride to Nepal, but thats probably best done from England with a cup of team and hot fire roaring away!