Back to Kathmandu, Nepal -Part 1- [nov 28-Dec 28 2019]

challenge

+9345m/-11478m

ROUTE

407KM

TIME

17 days

off road

210KM

Sylvia

We're back in Nepal after seven months in Canada. Before our trip, we spend three weeks in Belgium and enjoy catch-up time with our family. Four grandsons and Frank's niece's daughter keep us busy, playing, running around, reading good night stories, cuddling the babies and laughing out loud at the jokes of the two older ones. Moments I cherish until our next visit.

Before I start the story, I want to share some good news. You might remember that I suffered digestive issues for almost the entire trip last year. But guess what... no running to the loo, no problems since our arrival! Only Frank has been affected by it for one night. My immune system must be healthy after a seven-month acclimatization in Asia last year. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, there are still many weeks to go.

First breakfast in Nepal - KGH Kathmandu

Nepal doesn't feel like home, but it feels good to be back again. There is something about the people and the mountains that draw us back. The roads are still Nepali, and the counting in German - read story about Kyrgyzstan - starts quite quickly. My spirit, on the other hand, is much better than when we started last year, no tears and no swearing...yet. I have learned that cycling and pushing up is always worth the effort. The reward is either a beautiful view on the Himalayas or a perfect campground, even better, a room with a hot shower.

In the first three weeks, we cycle from Kathmandu to Pokhara on small mountain roads, visiting Ghorka and Bandipur, two beautiful little towns. Ghorka was the epicentre of the 2015 earthquake, almost destroyed and rebuilt, except for the palace that is still under re-construction. Both places are not on the classical tourist road and up in the mountains but worth a detour. Bandipur, a small old Newari town, preserved the existing architecture of the previous century. It is just sad that artisans and rural life have been replaced by restaurants, shops, loud music, and very high hotel prices.

View from Gorkha Palace - Manaslu - Dhaulagiri and Ganesh peaks

Along the road, unexpected friendships start or grow stronger. We meet Nienke, a Dutch woman living in Scotland, who biked the Annapurna and Manaslu trail circuit. In the past, she was a professional Mountain Biker, but a severe back injury prevented her from pursuing her career. Bikepacking both circuits in winter conditions is very impressive. She is so happy to be back on her bike, that even the harshest conditions can't erase the big smile on her face.

There are also daily calls from Madhav, our friend from Chitwan, who makes sure we are safe and books hotel rooms at the best rate for us. One of them is the Hotel Guru in Pokhara. It is a family run business, where owners and staff always meet you with a smile.

Or Katalin and Matthias, a German-Swiss couple. Katalin is originally from Germany and works together with her Swiss husband for a Canadian NGO based in Vancouver, called Himalayan Life (himalayanlife.com). Katalin met a Belgian cyclist last year, Trien from Gent, who spent two weeks with them. We 'virtually' know her. Trien and Frank chatted a lot on Instagram. The world is tiny! As we get to know Katalin and Matthias a bit, we, I, am impressed by their life choices. Two passionate people with incredible energy and the will to improve the lives of Nepali street kids and Nepal in general. Calling them inspiring is not giving them enough credit. They are so much more. I let you read their blog and discover how they try to educate and help street kids, how Matthias helped to build a recycling plant that recycles 20% of all plastic bottles of Nepal employing more than 60 people.

Katalin and Matthias show us the mountains around Pokhara

Or just the people we meet and connect with, like when we help in the field harvesting the rice and sharing lunch.

The farmer - the real farmer vanished and let Frank do the job for 2h

Going home after a day of work on the fields and a shower in the river

And of course our friendship with Siyam, our Bangladesh friend. He will cycle with us for two weeks from Jomsom to Pokhara. Everything we do is a premiere for Siyam. First passport, first flight, first time abroad, first snow, first time camping with minus temperatures, first time in high altitudes, first Christmas, and so on. There is a whole new world waiting for him, and he is ready to enjoy every moment. The big smile on his face doesn't seem to go away, even when we traverse landslides, climb steep hills or cycle down bumpy roads. Before he leaves, we ask him what he liked and what he disliked about his trip. He loved the freedom, the first experiences and the possibilities for the future, and he disliked the fact “that society in Asia or elsewhere is still not ready to see coloured and white people as equals ” On the road, people thought he was our guide or working for us. None of the people we met thought he could just be our friend.

Siyam on his way back to Pokhara from Jomsom

Enjoying the view by sub zero temperatures

The time we spent together enriched all three of us, and hopefully, Siyam will keep exploring the world and dream big.

Below some likes and dislikes of our trip so far:

Likes:

no diarrhea ...
my new camera Sony 6000 with 4/18-105 lens - it allows me to capture people's face without getting to close
my new Salsa Fargo bike with internal speedhub Rohloff
our new thermos
my snacks

Our first batch of treats. Thank you sister and Team Nepal 😉

Dislikes:

Nescafe - I know I sound like a spoiled brat
Chowmein - if I can avoid to eat it, I do
Nepal road conditions

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Some quick facts about Nepal if you are interested: The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal,[12] is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is located mainly in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. With an estimated population of 26.4 million, it is 48th largest country. It borders China in the north and India in the south, east and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km (17 mi) of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains,[14] subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and the largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic country with more than 20 different ethnic groups with Nepali as the official language. Furthermore, Nepal is the birth place of Budha (Lumbini), has never been colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. It has been a Hindu Monarchy until 2008 and is now a secular republic. Nepal also has one of the largest biodiversities of the world. (Wikipedia)

Frank

After a summer in our Vancouver nest, catching up with friends, it is time to get back on the road to wrap up our Himalayan circumnavigation started in June 2018. New Start...new bikes. We gave a well-deserved break to our Salsa Mukluk and customized 2 new Salsa Fargo equipped with Rolhoff to challenge them on the original but anticipated project.

Chatting with locals along the road. Always a good excuse for a break

At some well known and loved Nepali sceneries will succeed long while cycled Indian provinces that I am very excited to rediscover. As usual, no predetermined routes, more some bearing to follow with the flow, juggling with the weather, road conditions and the source of inspiration coming from the people we will meet. Feeling free to decide what the next hour-day will be. Willing to be surprised and travel such that surprises will happen. We will be 2 sponges sucking in cultures, emotions, landscapes. Feeling the time passing wrapping us slowly...because travel by bike is about that.

The main “Hwy” between Kathmandu and Pokhara is a nightmare for cyclists. A narrow paved - well, Nepali style pavement - saturated with noisy, smelly traffic. Buses, trucks and numerous tourist forms of transportations.

We plan to stay alive and have some fun, so, away from hell.

We are heading to the Mid Hills and their constant ups and downs. At least we know it will be sand, mud, rocks and gravels. We also know about Nepali road grades... always between 8-15%, a heritage from the British time.

Kathmandu is at 1200m, after 3 days catching up with local friends, we hit our first 10km climb to leave the Kathmandu valley, its pollution, behind us.

It is beautiful and sunny. Not totally acclimatized to the altitude and the heat, the wake-up call is quickly knocking us down. Not totaly down but enough to put our pride on the side and eventually start to hike the loaded bikes. I am always looking over my shoulder for Sylvia. She caught a cold during our family stopover in Belgium. I can hear her coughing. But damned, she is pushing hard and manages to stay on the saddle. I wish she gives up pedalling and instead pushes so I could finally go for one more curve of the road proudly and soon off sight start to push pretending I could have done more. It feels like we are both willing to challenge the other. Like a dog marking its territory, we want to mark our determination and fitness level.

…awe cycling! Off road is highly rewarded in many ways

The Mid Hills can peak at 2500m. In many countries, they would be seen and expressed as mountains. Mountains in Nepal are more after the next rows of Mid Hills when suddenly the massive wall of the Himalayas blocked the horizon impressively with peaks topping 5km+ higher than the last row of Mid Hills. This is something unique to Nepal. The Mid Hills are roughly 40km wide, sharply cut by deep valleys. Their slopes have been fashioned for centuries by human beings. Farmers carving steep slopes in terraces to grow rice, wheat, canola, mustard, digging more large spaces to grass Ox, goats, cows, farms forming small settlements, villages hooked to some impossible terrains. Villages connected only by a network of trails, endless stairs, everything creating an unbelievable harmony not even disturbed by the human presence. Nepali people are among the nicest people you can meet in Asia and South Asia. Always smiling, great sense of humour, still showing how happy and proud they are that you spend your time in their country. The deeper you explore Nepal, the deeper you reach their heart and their beauty.

Nepali Momo’s….12 pieces for 1$…perfect snack on the road

While parents are working hard shoveling sand, rocks and gravels along the rivers for road constructions, children stay around making fun with everything.

Monkeys are common up to 1500m of elevations. They are living in community so when you see one, … you will be quickly surrounded by dozens

WE LOVE NEPAL

Seven days of dust, sweat, superb campsites with views on the white Himalayas and we arrived in Pokhara. Each visit of Pokhara unveils a more touristic but still a great place to be. Yet, we can question the future. The Chinese, like in the rest of the world, are investing, speculating and make things happening.

A brand new Pokhara international airport, to be inaugurated in few months, will drain - at least this is the idea - rich Chineses and East Indians and so transform what used to be in the 70’s a hippie place where only mushrooms and hashish were driving backpackers to nirvana in a cheap trip to a full resort where Tourism is now associated with $$$$. Local businesses already suffered by outside competition. Boutique hotels squeeze guesthouses and small family hotels with spa and swimming pool. Victims will be the local family business, but not sure anyone at the end will be real winners. Only time will tell.

We met Siyam last year in Bangladesh. We met through local cycling community forums. Bangladesh is not what we can call a tourist destination. In a quest for info about cycling through the country, he found our post and offered to cycle with us for about 10 days. In his 20’s, cycling with a couple who is fighting the ageing process could have been challenging and “awkward.” It turned out to be a great experience. He was our guide, interpreter, our negotiator (read the story about Bangladesh) while dealing with an annoying and mandatory police escort for seven days.

We talked cycle touring, mountains, snow, cold, high altitudes, wild camping, loneliness.... all weird and strange feelings for a Bangladeshi. We promised 2019 would be the year where words will mean something to him. Two days after we settled in Pokhara, Siyam showed up in the lobby of Hotel Guru, our favourite family hotel business.

Preparing dinner before sunset. Temperatures drop down far below zero within few minutes

Preparing dinner after sunset….bloody cold

Fire keeps us out of our cozy tents for a couple of hours. Running out of wood and we find shelter in our warm sleeping bags for the next 12hours. Sunset is around 5:30PM

Pokhara is at 800m. Siyam flew for the first time and owned his first passport. Soon he took off from Dhaka; everything became new for him. Everything. And he was ready to explore the new world at 200%.

Siyam brought his bike, his tent and a box of matches to experience camping in sub-zero temperature with an 8000m peak and a campfire. Never been higher than 300m, or so, never step in snow, never known temperature under 7c never biked downhills or uphills longer than a couple of 100 meters.

Altitude sickness began at Kathmandu, frost on the tent is when the night was at negative temperatures, cold is ...cold. Hard to define cold if you never been in ...cold, snow is white and can be slippery, and yes, when you start to cycle at Jomsom ( 2800m) it is a lot of downhills to get back to Pokhara. Not mentioning, and I should maybe, the 25km long steep uphill that took us over the last pass from 650m to 1300m before going freewheel to Pokhara.

Classic photo with the Dhaulagiri in the background

The road from Jomsom is known for constant landslides. That road is never boring

Our last camp was on the ridge above Pokhara and Fewa lake. In the morning, Siyam discovered that you could be above the clouds and not necessarily be in a plane.

The Pokhara Peace Pagode seen in early morning from Saranghkot ridge

It was 2 weeks of friendship and amusement. Siyam spent moments with himself sometimes. Probably trying to digest all these new feelings, Youtube videos can not replace reality and reality can be huge sometimes. As massive as the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri that we were able to contemplate with a non-stop blue sky. Everything has to stay in perspective, challenging to realize and accept that that ridge reaching the summit of the Manaslu at 8163m is not runnable, Siyam!

I know it looks like doable from where you stand at 3000m Siyam, but if you want to try....be our guest

Siyam left loaded with images and new thoughts till next time.

One of our last lunch on the road before Siyam will fly back to Bangladesh

NepalFrank JanssensDecember 27, 2019Eastcapades Frank & Sylvia

The Story