Missing Diary Entries - Kathmandu

Hi Folks

Sorry - lost power as I tried to load the diary entries (and lost all the work I'd done) so have had to gather my senses again before facing typing it all up once more. So - here we go:

27 December 2008 - Bandipur
Today has been heavenly. We woke up early, about 6am and at 6.30 headed out into the early morning light to see if the rain of last night has finally cleared the skies to give us views of the Himalaya (ed note: a mere drizzle as we arrived yesterday evening - the first time we've been properly rained on so far!). We walked up onto the ridge and were rewarded with a valley below sat in a 'white lake' of low cloud with dark ridges protruding through nearby, and the peaks lit in the distance. It was beautiful.

We gently wound our way back into the centre of the village which is utterly charming - beautiful old houses and wooden shop fronts, a paved street (no vehicles allowed in the village) a couple of little temples - all very tranquil with villagers waking up and going about their business. We found a little tea shop where they made delicious cinnamony tea for us and gave us fresh samosa (from a bowl of 100 samosa that they took to the nearby boarding school). We slowly wandered back into the heart of the village and found a little dial up internet to check our emails.......we have lazed gently all day, interspersed with tea stops, samosas and coffess - the perfect rest day. We managed to gird our loins and walk up to the high point to see the sunset before strolling back into town. We have noticed that late afternoon is a popular time for people to come out to play. Sport is very popular - in particular badminton which is played in the street. There is also a sort of ball of rubber bands that lots of kids have that they throw of kick like doing football tricks. The atmosphere is one of a peaceful community.

Bandipur is absolutely fascinating. A beautifully conserved Newar village - they are controlling development strictly and investing in renovating all the particularly old merchant houses along the main street (there really is only one street) - the buildings are often painted a tan colour with black or very dark carved wooden windows, shutters and doors. Bougainvilla and poinsettia are all in bloom and it's simply lovely.

28 December 2008 - Bandipur - ?
We left at 7am and were treated to pretty good views of the massive Himalaya to the north as we descended the steep road - soon dropping back into the low cloud that has sat in the valley each morning. We had tea and breakfast (potato fritters with plenty of chilli!) with the lovely lady at the bottom of th hill who had looked after us before the climb up to Bandipur 2 days ago. Then we pushed off, pausing only in the main town of Dumre for me to buy one of the lovely pink saris I see all the local women wearing... with no end goal for the day, other than to make as much headway as possible to Kathmandu , to make tomorrow as easy as we can for the final leg into the city, it made for a relaxing day just ticking along and enjoying the ride, which was lovely. We stopped for snacks at the major road junction of Mugling. This is a fairly nasty place - full of buses, noise and food stalls but with a real frontier town feel about it. When Andrew went to pay, the guy asked for a far too high a price (he wanted 100 rupees - we knew it should cost only 40) Andrew handed over 50 rupees, told him to 'get stuffed' and walked away. The guy made absolutely no move to challenge Andrew and we calmly cycled away. No doubt they try it on with every foreigner who finds themselves there changing buses. We do get overcharged from time to time, but as long as it's within reasonable parameters, we're fine with that. But blatant rip offs are insulting. At the start of this journey, we wouldn't have had the knowledge of prices, or the nerve, to do what Andrew did today - just one of the 'skills' that you gather on a journey like this - but one we suspect is of no real value back at home!

Our lunch stop was in an ordinary village with a peaceful feel about it and a very nice lady gave us a feast of samosa, aloo curry and boiled eggs with milk tea, plus chocolate bars, all for 120 rupees (about 1 pound, 10p)......the kilometres seemed to pass pretty slowly all day - plenty of long gentle climbs - but by 4pm we had done over 90km and it was time to find a place to stay. Typically, having seen plenty of options all day long, they somewhat dried up now - but after asking around we were told of a guest house 4km on. At around 4km we saw a rather ropey restaurant with ropier-still rooms. We decided to press on 1km further and as we passed through a small settlement, still looking for the guest house we'd been told about, I saw a restaurant and 2 guys moving a sign for it that said 'guest house'. Hilariously, the same guy from the first place was there behind the desk! He'd jumped onto his motorbike, overtaken us and rushed to get the sign put up. You've gotta laugh! It's very basic and very cheap and we've done 98km which is more than enough for today. However, I'm convinced that just around the corner will be the guest house we were told about - it'll be a nice-looking place with a garden restaurant, I'll bet! Still - that's all part of cycle touring - you can't go 'just a few km further' to see if you can find anywhere better - or at least not very often and certainly not when darkness beckons - so it's inevitable that we have to plump for the odd ropey place, but also really enjoy it when we find ideal places, just when we need them. All part of the adventure!

29 December, 2008 - ? - Kathmandu
Guess what!? No lovely guest house around the next corner - in fact it's a very good job we stopped when we did as the next towns were all pretty grotty and had a real frontier feel, with lots of itinerant workers loafing about. One place we stoped in for tea was particularly intimidating and had a very dangerous feeling about it. We moved on quickly.

Although the ride into Kathmandu is only about 50km, it was a really tough ride - basically all uphill and then a colossal almight steep climb up and over a pass before dropping into the Kathmandu Valley.....Once into the city, we had a wonderful time weaving through narrow streets packed with shops selling brassware, fabric and more - it had a real bazaar feel. Very few cars but plenty of cycle rickshaws, people, cycles and a few motorbikes. We found ourselves in Durbar Square - the temple centre of Kathmandu - an incredible world heritage site (one of 8 in the Kathmandu valley) and there we were, just pedalling through it! It was wonderful, beautiful and great fun.

6th January 2009 - Borderlands to Tibet border to Dhulalghat
A good, but utterly exhausting day. We headed up towards the Tibet border, leaving our tent at the camp site to dry out - it was sopping wet with condensation. It is a long, rough, steep 19km from there to the border and it took 4 HOURS! We were in bits! Most of the climb was very cold, but when we finally reached the sunshine (once it cleared the mountain peaks) it turned quickly into a sweaty exercise. The border town of Kodari is a grubby shantytown of ramshackled huts, with the usual long line of trucks along the road waiting to cross the border. The cheery customs guards let us through a police check, 2 separate iron customs gates and right onto the bridge that crosses the gorge between Nepal and China (all without any ID at all, standing in no-man's land!). In the middle is a painted red line and 2 chinese officials. We were absolutely gutted that they wouldn't permit a photograph here, although I don't suppose it's very surprising - but it would have been wonderful to have a shot of us and the bikes on this border as the farthest East we can cycle.........nevermind. We spent a couple of minutes on the bridge, then started the return descent. Much of the road is rough going, largely due to extensive damage from landslides, but beautiful waterfalls line the route - they must be spectacular during the monsoon - they're pretty impressive even now! Down and down again we came and reached Borderlands to pack up our now-dry tent. Then on again to Barabise. Here we stopped for food ... there had been very little in the way of teashops and food outlets all day and Andrew was in meltdown - incoherent and grumpy. A plate of chow mein, a boiled egg and potato curry sorted him out! It was a bit too early to stop for the day, but we were knackered - the huge climb during the morning had really taken it's toll. Twice I'd had to get off and push - virtually unheard of during this whole trip!

Knowing that we want to reach at least as far as Dhulikhel tomorrow, which involves over 1000m of climbing, we knew we should press on further. We'd spotted another 'resort' place a bit like Borderlands, with a beach and even a pool beside the river. We made our way there, hoping they would let us camp again. After lots of up and down, we finally reached there after 4pm with the sun getting low in the sky. To my irritation, they wouldn't let us stay as camping isn't allowed and they sell their oen tented accommodation only as part of an activities package. The fact that they didn't have any guests was not enough to persuade them to let us stay. They assured us that Dhulalghat was only 5-6 km away and we knew this involved a climb up and over. With time now a presssure we set off again, feeling very weary and sore. The long climbs are really bad for my knees, but they also seem to increase the number of rotations in a day which really wears on my hips too. We were both exhausted when the 6km marker came and went and we hadn't even started the climb yet. 11km on we finally rolled into the little town of Dhulalghat and found the only guest house in town - a filthy hole, but it's home! Naturally it is at the top of 3 very steep flights of stairs, so with the tiredest legs in the world, we hauled all our bags, then bikes up here. We were exhausted and hungry, so set out for multiple servings of momo (steamed ravioli-type things), coke, potato curry and chocolate. We've shamefully not washed for 3 days - here there's nowhere to wash but the last 2 days we could have had hot showers, but for some mysterious reason, didn't (the cold?). How stupid! We're now desperately filthy as are our clothes, and gagging for a shower and launderet. It's our own fault. We think we'll crawl the long climb up back to Dhulikhel tomorrow morning and rest there for the afternoon. We're absolutely jiggered!

Ed note: We have just received an email saying there's a delay on our Chinese visas. Not conclusive yet as I'm sure a backhander will help - but our departure for Tibet, scheduled for tomorrow morning, may be delayed until as late as Saturday. Grrrrr! We'll keep you posted!