The Flat Side of Nepal

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So we promised ourselves we would update this blog more often and look what happens. We left you as we entered Nepal some months ago, we are right now back in Northern Pakistan, so we have some ground to cover to bring things up to date, something we have been putting off for ages. Our excuses are many and varied, some good, some not so, but I’ll leave all that for now. We have seen and done some amazing things in the last 4 months, but much of it is no longer so fresh in our minds so and I fear if we tried to write our usual long-winded descriptions of the scenery and people we met we would probably go crazy and that would be the end of this blog. So for those still wondering what we’ve been doing, you can relax - less words, more pictures and maybe we’ll find some balance again. So, back to Nepal:


Entering Nepal was farcical, for starters we cycle straight past the Indian exit post without even noticing it and had to get turned back by all the locals - who cross without needing any paperwork so it seems. Getting our Indian exit stamp was easy but took a while as the official doing it decided to throw a wobbly, started chucking things at his colleague and then trying to get him out the back to fight him. Still we got our stamp and then cycled across the bridge with hundreds of locals to Nepal, and after 5 minutes of asking finally found the immigration office. Not sure why we really bothered stopping to buy our $30 visa.

We wanted to cycle to Kathmandu, even though this would mean at least 4 days hard ride on the increasingly hot and humid plains. The Terai of Nepal is not a place that many travellers linger but we really enjoyed it, despite the heat. Waking at 4am to ride as early as possible, aiming to reach our destination for the day by early afternoon. But even this way the temperatures were soaring into the 40’s and even though the landscape was relentlessly flat but the novelty of Nepal soon made it really enjoyable. For a start cycles were everywhere, there were hardly any private vehicles on the roads and we were often in the midst of crowds of locals cycling merrily along. The locals very cleverly have mastered the art of cycling whilst holding an umbrella to shade them from the intense sun. The road was in good condition and we were so happy to be in the less populated and much more forested part of the Ganges plains than over the border in the crazy throng of UP or Bihar in India.

Little villages made of straw huts broke up the landscape of fields and rice paddies, and large areas were covered in tall Sal forest. Huge riverbeds, almost completely dry, waited for the rains to bring the rivers back down from the Himalayas. All of the north Indian plains must have once looked like this. The people were friendly and there was a real mix of small Indian featured Biharis and larger Gourka and Sherpa people. We learnt that Nepal has many different languages and groups of people. Boys played in water filled ditches, diving off the backs of their buffaloes as we cruise past.

The lengthy civil war between Maoist and government had put off a lot of visitors to Nepal and the many strikes (bandahs) which are a regular feature of the Terai only serve to dissuade a lot of travellers. We did see evidence of a the previous week’s bandah (which had stopped all buses along the Mahendra highway for 8 days), as shells of burnt out buses lay at the road side and the tarmac was occasionally potted from the fires that are customarily lit to prevent vehicle movement during the strikes. Bus burning seems a popular hobby in on the Terai. The Maoists are now part of the government after a big ceasefire thing but in reality so many splinter groups or “Maoist” factions still seem to be out of control in places. This latest bandah had been called by the “Madhesi Tigers” but nobody seemed to certain who they were or what their actual cause was.

A rest day in Hetauda was sorely needed as the previous day I had a funny turn. We had done 100 km before lunch, but it was seriously hot and I had fallen behind Robin because of a puncture and pump failure. I had become seriously overexcited trying to catch him up and tensed up my shoulders without realising it, whilst pedalling furiously in the heat. After lunch we only had 30km to do but this included a small hill range. The road was the worst kind; it looked flat but was deceptively uphill. We struggled onwards only knowing that it was up because infuriatingly no matter how hard we pedalled we never seemed to gain any speed. It was ridiculously hot and the sweat was pouring off us, my hands started to tingle. Soon my whole arms shoulders and face had gone completely numb with pins and needles and Robin said I looked like I had had a stroke, since my face was not moving properly. We had many rests and guzzled rehydration salts. I knew the reason my face was numb was because of emotional tension in my shoulders and I reasoned with myself that I had cycled hotter and harder before, but it was no help. I had to stop and push up the last 2 km over the hills. We were passed by tiny old ladies carrying huge bundles of firewood, it put us to shame; we were struggling but really this was all for our own amusement, whereas these women had to carry the huge loads for their very survival. Who were we to moan, even if my face had gone very wrong?

The extreme heat cycling and face tingling reminded me again of the main lesson that cycling has taught me; that emotions and state of mind are the most powerful factors in our lives. Any task is massively harder if you think of it as hard and when it comes to cycle touring it is so important to be having a good time otherwise the roads and hills will become almost impossible.

After the Hetauda rest we were ready to tackle the Himalayan foothills, we were cycling up to Daman, a climb of 2300m. This would be our biggest single climb and we were really ready. We set off early and at every hairpin bend I kept reminding myself that we were climbing away from the horrible heat that had smothered us for days. The road was amazing we looked up and up and could not begin to imagine where the builders had found to place the route, it all looked so vertical and jungle clad. Our road wiggled and wound its way up and up passing lush bird filled jungle trees where occasional houses clung to the slopes having cut out for themselves small terraces for cultivation. We loved this ride our emotions were in the right place and every ridiculously steep turn lead us to rejoice at how wonderful mountains are and how lucky we are at having the determination and physical abilities to appreciate this landscape. Eventually we arrived at the top, I had been convinced that we still had 20km to go so it was a good surprise and I think this had helped me a lot to keep motivated on this really long climb.

Daman is supposed to have one of the widest views available of the complete Himalayan range including view of Everest. We couldn’t see a single mountain, clouds covered the lot. There had also been no inkling of the giant mountains just to our north through the moisture laden air from the Terai. But soon we’d be up close.

The ride down into the Kathmandu Valley was a stark contrast to the jungle covered slopes on the south of this hill range. The land was now populated the forest had long been cleared and people had cut masses of terraces into the slopes for agriculture. We arrived very tired after a quite large and unexpected pass to get into the city. I followed Robin’s amazing navigational lead and suddenly we had cycled into the middle of a world heritage site; Kathmandu’s Durbar square. Terraced pagodas lined the court yard and people were socialising and sitting on all the steps of these temples. Young people strutted their stuff around the town and heavy metal and long hair seemed to be the fashion preferred by quite a lot of the young guys. What a difference to India where long hair is hardly ever seen of guys. We definitely felt we were in a different city which had a buzz about it.

Kathmandu is a cool place; there is so much choice around. It has been the end of the hippy trail for 4 decades and caters to every tourist wish. There is a huge variety of world food available and loads and loads of cheap/fake mountaineering equipment and other shopping to fill your time here. Then there are cool old temples and stupas hidden in almost every corner. However we just wanted to sort some things out in the city and then getup into the mountains.

We set out trying to find the good bikes shops to give our bikes a much needed overhaul. Unfortunately we did not find Sonam at Dawn till Dusk until we had been there nearly a week and Robin had already pulled apart our hubs and spread bits of bike all round our hotel room. Days spent parts shopping turned into days on the internet trying to buy bike parts in Europe and have a friend of a friend bring them out to us. Though in the end our bikes were as good as new.

In the process we had discovered that it really was going to be impossible to get a visa from China that allowed us to cycle from Nepal into Tibet, so we applied for and got our Indian and Pakistan visas, planning to return to Pakistan by traveling west along the Himalaya and over them to Ladakh and Kashmir.

Robin was now one tooth lighter, having had his wisdom tooth removed by some very beautiful Nepali female dentists. We also got our tent and bags fixed, replaced other gear and bought new stuff including some new down sleeping bags that we had made for us and which must be the largest and heaviest sleeping bags I’ve ever seen. However if we can make it into China from Pakistan and then into Tibet we will need them - by the time we do all that it will be nearly winter there.

Before we had realised it we had been in Kathmandu for 3 weeks. We wondered where the time had gone to. We had fallen foul of the sub-continents ways of everything taking an age longer than you think it should and we hadn’t even got out and about into the Kathmandu valley to see some of the cool Shiva and Buddhist temples around. However we did enjoy Swayambunath and we set off frustrated at our time in the city but vowing to return one day in the future hopefully when there would actually be views of the mountains which were all the time clothed in clouds. Given that we had stayed far too long we also had another tough decision to make - no time to do any trekking any Nepal. In my imagination of Nepal there was only the Himalayas, nothing else. After a month in the country we still hadn’t seen them, and now we were going to have to leave without seeing them. But we had seen a whole other side to Nepal: the foothills, the amazing mix of Buddhist and Hindu culture and mostly just the more relaxed and easy-going nature of the people. After 3 weeks in Kathmandu it was starting to feel like India again, and with the monsoon rains getting closer by the day, it was time to move west quickly.

PS - sorry no pictures from the Terai as we messed up and threw the wrong CD away in a load-shedding exercise halway up ther Himalaya's.

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Photos

The Maos!
Nepal is a country with many problems, and mostly they are blamed on "the Mouse". At least thats what it sounds like - Nepali's seem to be unable to pronounce the word "Maoist", " without it sounding like "mouse". For some time I was under the illusion that there actually was some kind of giant mouse stalking the land bringing terror, destruction and famine.

The Mouse!
The ugly face of the left.

The secret of beauty is...
She never did tell us though!

Something to shout about
Another Day, Another Demo, and possibly a traffic bandah too. Makes for nice cycling though....

Korilla!
Looks ugly, tastes ugly!

Pretty Perch
Detail from the Kumari Temple, Durbar Square Kathmandu

Comments

[anonymous]

That vegetable is "bitter gourd." Children hate it, but it is one of the best vegetables around. As the name says, it is bitter, add some tomato and tamarind while cooking it, you will never call it ugly again.

[anonymous]

Yeah! or fry them with potatoes and a wee bit of curcuma and chilli powder...bengali style.