Spirit today is Glenn for rushing to take a picture of Chris when he fell off in the mud yesterday, rather than helping him to get up. Skidmark goes to Aussie Chris for an embarrassing slide on the grass after giving it the beans, even before we left the hotel yesterday. And Dick goes to Chris for the said fun and frolics in the mud and then trying to hide it by hosing himself down (he claims not) before arriving at the hotel in the evening. Chris was also the subject of ridicule when it turned out that he paid to have someone carry his bags to his room. Not so bad you might think, employing a local, but it turned out that the local was an old lady! Graham and Hugo suffered the same embarrassment but kept very quiet about it this morning.
We have a 'lie-in' and start riding at 9, which immediately means the temperature is up before we ride. The humidity is noticeable and you can feel it especially as we descend into the valley. The route today is all tarmac (barring landslide alterations) initially following the side of the valley, and we can keep up a good pace easily. The last few days' riding has be long and tough, so much so that even Alex is feeling it. Today's riding should be less taxing, which will allow us to recover a little.
In Nepal, like India, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, tarmac is never just tarmac. If it's not potholed then it's strewn with gravel, if it's not gravel then it's sand, or straw, or a random cow, or as Danny found out, a monkey. You have to ride prepared. Most commonly today, the black stuff was punctuated by a liberal sprinkling of sandy gravel, often on corners. Which is really not what you need.
When you're bowling along at a pace, sand on a corner is often a butt clenching affair. If you see it in time, you scrub off more speed than is usual for a corner, try and find the straightest line you can, and keep the bars loose. That's what I've found to be the key to riding in most challenging situations, that and leaning over a bit more. The bike usually knows where it wants to go, don't fight it, and you'll usually stay upright. Fight it by tensing the arms and things can get out of hand quickly.
I'm following a group, and Mark's wide, sweeping, ROSPA lines are immediately recognisable before his orange Klim helmet. In theory that means he'll see the oncoming truck overtaking a moped overtaking a bicycle overtaking a pedestrian who's being chased by a monkey, on a blind corner. Ok, not quite that bad, except for the blind corner bit. Mark is still with us, so I guess it works. Steve's lines are less exaggerated but they achieve the same result, he's always impressive on or off tarmac, measured but confident; he's still here too.
As we're on a main road we pass through more towns; yet more kids in uniform - this is a land of kids going to and from school! We initiate waving and the results are always heart warming. It's such a simple thing, to wave. And yet it often produces the most intense response from it's recipients; usually a genuine beaming grin and reciprocated wave. We spread joy and happiness wherever we go!
Almost the same applies to a toot of the horn, in the west it's used as a rebuke, but here, a toot is a 'hi', 'I'm here', or even 'thanks', yet another simple thing, but powerful. Like the wave I think it induces a feeling of worth; that person is worth waving at or tooting. Maybe the school kids go to class and tell their friends they saw a group of noisy motorbikes and the riders waved at them. On the other hand maybe they forget us in an instant.
The bikes with their loud characteristic exhaust notes are difficult to ignore. Accelerating hard they produce a deep, pulsating thud that you can feel in your stomach, it's a nice noise and the locals seem to appreciate it rather than reel from it like they would in Europe. The resident bikes are 125cc types or maybe even 220cc. They look impressive, but can't match the dynamics of the 500cc Bullet: the Rolls Royce of bikes in India and Nepal. If you ride one, you're a bit special. Imagine a group of Ferraris travelling as a group; that's us in Nepal, only on two wheels. We're special, see.
The lunch stop is at a place where the proprietor roasts and grinds his own coffee on a small table top roaster. He plays psychedelic music on his decent sound system and keeps bees on the roof. The veggie mo-mos (think dim sum) are good and we share this titbit with a group of French tourists who sit down near us on the roof terrace.
Because it's hot, I experiment with riding in different positions to get air flowing into my trousers. I pull out the pillion pegs and ride standing on them. It's a little awkward as have to have my arms straight down from my shoulders, like walking on all fours, but it does the trick with the airflow into my unzipped thigh vents. I can only do it for a few minutes at a time and not at all on the really twisty bits as I can't reach the rear brake. Then I try sitting on the pillion seat. That works well because my legs are almost straight out in front and I get the flow from the ankle upwards. My arms are straight too, but ahead, and I can ride like this indefinitely so long as it's not too bumpy. I imagine it's like riding a Harley Davidson, only without the bits falling off.
Our destination, Pokara is the most touristy place we've visited so far. The area around our hotel by the lake is full of trekking and tourist shops selling things to cater for what was tens of thousands of visitors per year. But no longer; the tourists have largely dried up since the Earthquakes a year ago, which is a shame because the disruption has largely gone. Businesses are suffering with the visitor shortage, which means prices are low, so it's actually a good time to visit and benefit the Nepalese economy that depends heavily on tourism. We do see the occasional foreign tourist though, usually drinking coffee in one of the many coffee shops here. There's a great range of restaurants too; Pokara is definitely worth adding to your Nepal itinerary.
Dinner at the hotel is beans and chips. Right nice, I say, right nice. With quiche, jacket potatoes and salad (washed in iodine and filtered water so it's safe to consume). Some of the more discerning palates in our party chose to sample the local restaurant scene and decide to dine out. Personally, quiche, beans and chips made a nice change from daal and rice (which I love, but variety is the spice of life).
So far we've travelled mostly westward from Kathmandu, but from tomorrow, we'll be heading north into the mountains and trekking country. Gerard knows the area a little as he was here trekking for two weeks immediately prior to our trip, so he can be our guide yet again. We're not actually going that high into the mountains, probably not even above 3000m but the cooler air will most definitely be welcome.
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