From Pokhara to London

  Mmmmm what do I put down for this couple of months of being slack, very sorry every one I have lots of excuses and not much else hehe. Well I will give the main excuse, I woke one morning to find the top of my desk wet with my laptop sitting there going but also a bit wet. After a short time keys stopped working properly. See it is a good ish reason for not posting. And yes unsurprisingly alcohol was involved.

2/4/12 to 2/5/12

   Ok in the month sitting in Pokhara trying to sell my bike I did meet a lot of people I had run into in India. Let me see, there was the girl from Denmark who I had meet in Varanassi, Mark an English guy who I thought was Australian because he was travelling with one and had lived there for years, who I meet in Pushkar. Belinda the South African I meet in Diu also arrived, and a friend of Marks who I had meet in Goa. Plus the couple who lived next door to me in Goa for a month got in touch and arrived after a while as well. This made for a very nice break catching up with some wonderful people, all of whom I hope to see again somewhere in the world.

cover the bike in a tea cosy, hehe well that's what it looks like to me.

Pokhara from the Peace pogoda

   I did leave Pokhara for a short while to go to Chitwan National park, where I went for a Elephant ride and saw the one horned Rhino. Also got to ride most of the last road I was interested in riding in Nepal as a day trip from Chitwan toward Kathmandu on the new ish road, it was a good ride but not as good as the one with the laughing video.

The elephant I wrode on and the rhinos having a cool time of it, it was getting hot by the time I got down here.

Sunset at Chitwan


  Once back in Pokhara I still struggled to sell the bike and was lucky enough to have meet a couple who are friends with Mark so ended up giving the bike to Barry and he will take it back to India to sell, or keep for himself, and pay me when he has some money. I'm happy enough with this deal as it gives me an excuse to head back to Goa lol. Of course as expected I got 2 phone calls about the bike after I left, one well on the bus to Kathmandu and one well in Kathmandu, too late never mind. Bye bye Nepal see you next time.

This is the last photo i took of Mule, on the way back from Chitwan

Amsterdam

3/5/12 to 10/5/12

   Turns out I was a day earlier than Mum and Dad but that is all good. It is a big shock coming back to the west, wow expensive, people are more frightened of each other (there are large bike locks on even the crappiest bikes here). It will take a while to get use to.

one of the many bridges opening for a barge, well on a river cruise

A wonderful device for those that feel guilty about drinking and not exercising, called a beer bike.

   Meet up with the parents soon after they arrived which was great, had a couple of beers and a chat. Went on a Boat cruise one day, the flower market

Masses of trolleys, masses of flowers, and lots of battry powered carts, all go go go.




 Kurkienoff (a beautiful park) and Hortus Bulborium(a seed bank for bulbs, which is very impressive when you find out that to keep a bulb alive you must plant it every year, and they have one from 1598 and a few from the 1700's. That means the flower/gene is older than New Zealand and Australia's western colonisation combined....shit it's up there with the USA's western age). If you are ever here at the right time of year (i.e now) then go and see all 3 of these, they are amazing. I can see why mum wanted to come for her 70^th birthday instead of a party at home.
   Also went to Floriade, which is a once every 10 year flower show they have in Netherlands. This all meant I had a wonderful time with mum and dad, and the rest of the group, and the great guide for there tour there. Also a big thank you to everyone for letting me tag along.

Good enough for Taihapei, these at the entrance to Floriade

Happy wooden faces, i like them lol.

Mum took a lot of photos.

England

10/5/12 to 24/5/12

   Well I had a fun arrival, got held by immigration because some guy thought I had no money, this took about 6hrs as there was a strike on at the time and a lack of staff. Also found out that Mum was right and I have to go to my place of residence to apply. Mmm but this would be my place of residence if I could apply, the trouble with not having a home is everyone thinks you should have one.

   Once in London there was the inevitable drinks with Murray, and obviously bought a new laptop that has keys that work, nice. Michael has managed to sort out the bike for me, a Fazer FZS600 for £800, so I took it for a test ride out to Clacton on Sea to see Caroline which was also a bit of a drinkies and even a great chat with Sandy and Justo on Skype. God it is good to be back with people who I have know for years. I road back to London via Cambridge to catch up with Elizabeth, doing a bit over 220miles for £24 petrol, ouch this is going to hurt, but as I told Mike I have no choice, if I want to ride the world I have to buy the fuel to do it, even if it is bloody expensive.

The third bike, 79,500miles on the cloak, no name yet..... 


  I gave up saying what I’m doing back in Vietnam when I realised it was usually wrong but I’ll give a basic run down on what this leg involves. I will stay in London for the Queens diamond Jubilee, then ride up through Wales and Scotland to catch up with friends from Goa in Manchester and Elle and kids in Newcastle then some how head over to Europe and do Sweden, Norway, Finland and ….. some other countries, lol I’ll get a better idea of the other countries when I get to them, but northern Europe over summer.

Well I have to apologise to uncle peter and everyone else who has been waiting for this post, I will try to get back to posting once a week when I get back on the road.


 Enjoy your life