24/3/12
Had a chat to the lady at Sam's Pub and found out about a new road which gave me a plan for a ride. Out to the Tibet border finding somewhere to stay before the turn off to Jiri then do a day ride to Jiri and back the next day, and the day after back to Kathmandu and through the new road from Dakshinkall to Hetauda, heehee hope it is good.
25/3/12
Rode out a bit late as I only intended on going to Dhulikhel, but when I got there I decided the hotels where to expensive and headed on to Dolaghat where I found a place for NRP200 but it is a bit of a dive.
Once I had taken the bags off the bike I decided to head for the Tibet border and back as I still had some time. Not a bad road and even meet an Aussie couple who are traveling from Perth to somewhere, www.handfulofthrottle.blogspot.com, 2 people 2 bikes 1 world. This is the first time I've meet people on the road for a long time, so cards had to be exchanged lol.
Couple of nicely loaded DR's
Waterfall up near the border.
That is Tibet in the distance
26/3/12
I decided to take everything with me and find another Hotel somewhere where I could get phone reception, this turned out to be bloody lucky. The ride to Jiri was nice road wise but of course there is no real view because of the haze, bit ruff in some places but because it is a dead end not too much traffic. I got to Jiri at about 14:30 so decided to stay, lucky I didn't try this ride as a day trip like planned. Why do I bother planning any of these rides in my head? Unfortunately this is going to make for a long day tomorrow going back to Kathmandu to head round and out east.
Oops someone didn't turn around well
Haze not too bad here
27/3/12
The man at the hotel said there is a road from Manthali to Janakpur but it involves a suspicion bridge, meaning less traffic as only motorbike/pushbike/pedestrians can go over it. This means a 160km trip about 6-7 hours instead of a 583km at least 2 day trip, sounds good to me.
In the triangle of power lines is Everest, can you see it, i cannot....
It was a nice ride to the suspension bridge although I had trouble getting directions in Manathali, one guy seemed to be suggesting that the Kathmandu way was better. When I got to the bridge there was a truck being loaded on the north side, seemed to be by most of the village all getting some Rupee for every bag they carried over. It was a dirt walking track up over a ridge and down to the bridge which had ques of people heading in each direction. This meant a bit of a squeeze getting through at some points and the bridge got a good swing going by the middle, the policeman who was controlling the numbers on the bridge was a bit shocked to see me but that is normal.
I always thought they did these stacks to stop their animals eating them, but maybe not.
Once I got to the road I found the truck that was being unloaded with ques pushing to get loaded.
So I rode past and up to a bridge to no where, umm and from no where, new built with no entry or exit just 2-3 stories high spanning 50m maybe. I had been told there was a new road on the south side so headed off down the piece that was still being constructed, this lead to a detour which was shit. It has dust like what the Aussies call bull dust which covers all the holes and rocks and makes it look nice and smooth. After about 20min of this I had my first true drop of the bike, after 1.25 ish years of travel. Don't stress mum it was climbing a hill covered in this dust, which concealed a rock, and I lost the front end falling down onto a bank on my left trapping my foot under the bike. Lucky it is so light it was easy enough to pick up, then rode to the top of the hill and decided to have a break.
they are building a proper bridge but it should be a while, that is the track you have to ride down over there.
So how do i get on it/off it lol.
Suspension bridges every where, i road over one further south then 2 over the same rivers here, about 5min ride toward Kathmandu.
Where i crashed and after I crashed.
Finally a bike come along so I stopped him to check if I was going the right way, I had been told it was a new road, and found out I was heading to Kathmandu not Janakpur, BUGGER. Once back at the village I found the right road, ie the one I hadn't been down yet lol, and after a very short distance it become the most beautiful new road I have ever seen. Oohh man it is amazing, like in the movies when you see the roads it Italy, can not wait for them, lots of twisty bits getting higher and higher then a 180 and continue to climb. When I got to the top I saw a awesome sight of even more brilliant road going down the other side hehehheee. If any bikers read this, this road is between Manthali and Sindhulimadh, not marked on my map or any I have seen.
Oh dear what a sight, have you even seen anything so beautiful...especially knowing it is all new tar... hahahaaaaaahahaaaaa
Soon after Sindhulimadh the road turned to shit, in fact for a few kilometers there is no road you are forced into the river bed to ride down. They are widening a section and none of it is that hard a ride just ruff.
I got to the turn off to Janakpur at about 15:00 so decided to get further along the main road unfortunately not finding a hotel till 19:00.
28/3/12
Rode out early as my room had no fan and lots of Mossies. I stopped in Itahari for breakfast and to find out if there is a road from Basantapur to Taplejung, which apparently there is. I have started not trusting my map as it does not have anywhere near the number of roads that there actually is. Although his quoted time of 4 hrs was obviously bullshit so was unsure. I did get a taxi driver saying there was a road through so went for it.
Nice piece of road most of the way, good tarmac and lots of twisties with lovely haze views lol, I don't care about the view any more this is all about the ride. I got to Terhathum about 14:00 and found out that the road is not to Taplejung but to Phidim and it will take about 7 hours of very ruff road to get through, sounds like the sort of road the Aussies I meet the other day would love, well bike wise. So decided to spend the night and head out early in the morning.
A bow to shoot condoms at blokes... well i guess it's hitting it's target audience
Basantapur near the bar where a Muslim man told me off in Nepalese for drinking. I found this strange as it's a small village with at least nine places selling alcohol. I guess he just wanted to have a go at a foreigner.
29/3/12
Rode down to Terhathum for breakfast and got a couple of extra waters and some food in case I have any problems. The road started out as dirt and ok, after about one hour I got to a Y in the road so had a break until a 4x4 came along so I could ask which one went to Phidim, this asking for Phidim became a every person thing about three hours later.
up or straight? Straight it was.
Probably half an hour later I got to a village which also had a Y just before it. Seeing a group walking down one, I went and asked them which way to Phidim, basically because there is almost no English speakers here asking means saying Phidim and pointing. They directed me the way I was heading so carried on. This may, I'll never know as I will not go back and try the other way, have been where I got bum directions. Anyway the road kept getting worse and worse and there where lots of Y's and Pointing saying Phidim, Phidim, Phidim, often to blank looks lol, but I carried on.
Fortunately at about 12:00 I came across a supervisor for the road building crew and he spoke some English, this happened when I was starting to think I should head back. He told me I had about five hours left to get to Phidim and showed me where the road I should be on was on the other side of the valley. Unfortunately there was no road down and back up it just followed the hill along for ages before the two ridges joined and then back along the other ridge.
Coming from, going to.
At times the road was less than a track and I did not see a anything with a motor for three hours. This was really a bit stressful, I was constantly worried about flat tyres as a lot of areas were reinforced with rocks shoved into the ground so that the sharp edge was sticking up. I'm guessing from the effects on the ones that tractors have driven over that they round off a bit when driven over by bigger traffic, of course a lot had never had any traffic over them as they where being laid when I was riding over them.
About 20 minutes before I got to a village which had three motorbikes, ie almost there and less worried now, I meet an old man who didn't speak any English. This was a very embarrassing, humbling, honored, wonderful, strange, and lots more emotions, meeting. At one point he was crying and constantly shaking my hand or clasping his hands as if to pray, or bowing his head to my hands. Very hard to express this meeting in word. It is something I will always remember and made the other stresses and difficulties of the day all well worth it.
When in the village I got a cup of Chai given to me, I think so I would hang around and talk/be looked at. Was very happy to hear that it was about two and a half hour from there to Phidim. The rest of the ride got easier for a while then had a big down hill all covered in Bull dust, which was harder again. At the bottom was a river with a water crossing but the current was very strong so I chose the easier option of going over the suspension bridge. After that was still dirt till the last 5km, but far better surface as it was almost ready to be sealed.
I was soooo releived to see major road construction, almost there.
This looked a bit to dangerous.
This way looked safer.
100Km in 10hrs lol.
Man, that was a hard one to write, hope it isn't to confusing. It was a very special day even though I would not recommend the ride to anyone, it was very difficult emotionally, physically, and mentally. Hehee I look forward to the next one like it.
30/3/12
I started seeing a lot of Bikes with these red flags on riding through town so decided to head south instead of to Taplejung. I don't like the idea of being around some country political protest, but then I don't actually know what it was about.
The road south is great and it was nice to be back on Tar, and the flat was also enjoyable when I got down to it too lol. I made it to Lahan after dark and checked into a hotel from hell. Tried to rip me on the price and the priests who where chanting/playing out a loud speaker happened to go all night not just a couple of hours that I expected. And they turned out to be sitting in the unfinished area upstairs from my room. Was really pissed when I found out that there was a proper hotel about 1 km further.
31/3/12
Headed out early hoping to make it to Pokhara, was an easy enough ride with bugger all traffic till 09:00 ish which was lovely. Should have got up an hour early but I reset the alarm when I realised it was going to be a hard nights sleep. Lovely sweepers from Hatuada along the top side of Chitawan.
Definitely nice to be back in Pokhara
1/4/12
Will probably hang her for a week is and put up adds for the bike, and do my blog lol.
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