Riding the world: In Kathmandu

12/3/12

Headed out back to Sonauli, a bit more traffic this time but still less than I expected. The road itself is great fun tho, I think I will be doing it again at least once more. When I got to the border they asked to look at my passport, which had me worried, but they didn't seem to care that the bike had already been in the country for a week. Just filled in the form and paid the NRP3200 for 29days. There is a problem of the fact I have to go to Kathmandu International Airport to get another 29 days? I don't understand why, it's that or head out of the country then back in which I cannot do. Oh well it'll all work out somehow.

Some nice terraces on the way to the border

13/3/12

Spent the day walking around Lumbini, which was nice. Meet a guy from China and ended up giving him a ride to the border as I had nothing else to do in the afternoon.

It doesn't look as competitive on the building as it did last time i was here.

14/3/12

Rode out toward the west unsure of where I would end up. It was another strike though so the roads where empty, this time with people sitting across the road or even trees which had been dragged onto the road. As always as soon as the police or even the protesters see my face I get waved through. I did find out that this strike was about the plains people some are after title for land, so I think they should keep up this practice and keep the roads empty.

Definitely some nice river in this country.

I had some trouble finding the main road when I left Lumbini so only made it to Kohalpur, nice enough little town and good road all the way there. I also saw a picture at one place where I had dinner of a bridge out near the border. Looked pretty cool so decided I will try and find it.

Now that chopping board has been used for a long time, bit of wood with your meal sir?

15/3/12

Even with traffic there wasn't to much on the road, so much nicer than India traffic wise. Was a easy ride out to Mahendrnagar, got there about 13:00 so went out to find Jaluga Pur which is a 1.5km long suspension bridge out to Dodhara, unfortunately about 500meters from the bridge the wind came up so when I got there you couldn't even see the other side because of the sand.

Big bridge. For foot and bike traffic only, a bit of a squeeze when 2 bikes meet, especially with the loads some have.

I'm completely undecided on what to do tomorrow, I was hoping to head up to Jhulaghat to take some photos of the India side where I had taken photos of the Nepal side about a month ago. Unfortunately according to the bus time for a one way trip, this is my best way of finding out how long it may take me. 12hrs each way for the bus is definitely not do able as a day trip, bugger there is a town closer but it still sounds like would be hard to make it from there and back in a day.

16/3/12

Woke up with out any idea of where I was going to today, once on the road I decided against heading up to Jhulaghat, just too far to go for a couple of photos. So I ended up riding all the way back to Butwal, not far from Lumbini, nice easy ride day even if it was most of the day.

Just chilling in the goat hammock.

17/3/12

Headed out for Kathmandu, when I stopped for money at an ATM I went to get back on the bike and had a flat tyre. 4” nail straight in. Lucky there was a tyre place about 50meters away so got it fixed easy. Once I got out of Narayanghat the road become a lovely twisty sweeper road following the river. This carried on till about 30km out of Kathmandu when the road become bad, very bad. Didn't take to much to find the Thamel area, but did take a while to find a hotel. I had used wiki travel to find one that sounded good but of course when I got there I found no where to park. After a bit of hunting I finally found somewhere at the north end of Thamel.

From the back of a broken down truck on the side of the road.

18/3/12

Just spent the day walking around trying, and failing, to get myself orientated properly. Kathmandu is definitely cleaner now than it was in '99 but then I still cannot find where we stayed last time.

19/3/12 to 23/3/12

Heard about a place that does real bacon last night so went there for breakfast, mmmmmm bacon it's been sssssooooooo long since your saltiness has been in my mouth. It's definitely more expensive than I expected here and very touristy. Was great to finally meet with a friend of a friend who has been driving into India and back while I was there. Nice to talk to drivers again.

Went for a day ride out to Trishuli but decided not to go any further as the hazelol.