8th May - To Pokhara - Major Bike Problem

I had put the alarm on for 5.30 to get going before the road got really busy but felt rubbish when I woke up (still have bad cold) so went back to sleep till 8ish. The lady that ran the guest house was cooking a fab smelling chicken dish as I was leaving and so I had some of that for breakfast and then got on the road.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and really hot. Very different from Kathmandu. The scenery is fantastic and the busy road did not bother me too much. This is the route that I did in a jeep on the way to Kathmandu a couple of weeks ago. I had seen a cyclist doing it on that day and wished that I was on my bike.... Oh well it turned out :-) I did not think then that I would be going to Pokhara rather than through Tibet.

The road is reasonably flat considering it is going through the foothills of the Himalayas. I felt very different today to yesterday. There was far less pollution on the road and it is difficult to be in a bad mood when it is sunny and the scenery is amazing. I am still fighting off this cold though and my legs are not feeling strong.




As I was cycling along I heard a snapping sound and my saddle felt all funny. I stopped to see what was wrong and found that one half of the metal supports which hold the saddle together has broken in two. Arrggg. Not the end of the world if the other one holds for a bit - but it does make a rather uncomfortable ride. I need to get a replacement asap. The problem is finding a comfortable women's specific saddle in Nepal. It might have to wait until Hong Kong now.




At about midday I met 2 German cyclists that are doing a loop back to Germany over the course of 1 year. I think they are about 6 months in to their trip. It turns out that they are planning the same route home that I am: China, Mongolia, on and off the Trans-Siberian railway through Russia and then home to Germany. They are also planning on getting to China through Tibet as I was planning on doing. It was interesting to chat with them. I had found out that it is almost impossible to get into China this way and even if it is possible, it is extremely expensive. They are planning on getting a bus tour from Kathmandu to Lhasa and then getting a Chinese Visa a the Tibet Chinese boarder. From asking around in Kathmandu I thought that this is not possible at the moment.

Apparently some friends of theirs did this 3 years ago and so maybe it is possible and I just asked the wrong people. I wish them the best of luck with their route. I hope they make it but as the same time if they do then I will be disappointed not to have done this myself. At least this way I get to meet up with Jacob in Hong Kong. There is not way that he would meet me anywhere else in China as he does not "do developing nations sweety".




I had lunch over looking the river and sat and read about Nepal and investigated the trek which I am planning on doing. I can spend hours looking at maps. The views really are fantastic along this road. I saw many people white water rafting. Apparently this is the place to do it and all of the groups from Kathmandu and Pokhara come here to this river. I found out that I could just turn up in the morning on the way back to Kathmandu and get on a raft. Awesome. I might do that....





The road got quieter the later it became and was almost dead once I had taken the turn off to Pokhara. This main highway across Nepal is very busy and quite unsafe through. I saw about 8 lorries or coaches abandoned on the side of the road after an accident. They do take a while to clear these off the road but it did not look like any of them had been there for more than a few days. There was a man on the top of this lorry asleep, waiting for help I guess.




I was just doing the last 10km push (after doing over 100km) to find a guest house when I turned a sharp corner to find that the tarmaced road disappeared and there was water covering the gravel road. I braked hard but hit the water at speed only to find a drop of about 1 foot and a lip on the other side. My bike banged into the ledge with one hell of a force and all of my panniers flew up into the air. I just about managed to control the bike and not come off as both of the wheels jammed. I jumped off the bike to run and pick up my bags on the road before the on coming traffic ran over them. Once I had everything out of the way of traffic I checked my bike to find that the back wheel was done for. There was a huge dent in the rim and the wheel could not turn through the brakes. The inner tube was budging out of the side of the wheel. There was no way that I could cycle it!

So unfortunate! After riding on horrendous unsealed roads in India I was not expecting this on a good quality highway in Nepal. I had just replaced the back wheel in Kathmandu and the bike was running better than it has done since I left the UK!

As the wheels would not even turn there was no way that I could cycle. Fortunately, in a very short amount of time a micro van bus heading for Pokhara came along and stopped to help. They spoke fantastic English and helped me put my bike on the roof of the van. I then traveled for 2.5 hours to Pokhara in the van. The journey was actually very pleasant even though I would have preferred to be biking it tomorrow morning instead. Most of the trip was in day light so I could take in the scenery and the other passengers were really friendly and spoke very good English. I might meet up with a Nepalese man that I chatted with when I return to Kathmandu. The ride cost £3.

I arrived in Pokhara town in the dark and got taxi with my bike to meet Miranda (a friend I met in India and one of the main reasons for me going to Pokhara). It was really lovely not to have to worry about where I was going and lovely not to be arriving in the dark on my own for once.

I had a good look at the town on the ride through to the tourist area (Lakeside). The town itself is like most other Nepalese towns but then there is major change as you get towards the lake. There are hundreds of restaurants, guest houses and trekking shops. It is a bit like Thamel but not as claustrophobic.

It was about 8.30 when I met with Miranda at her work and we then did the short journey to her guest house (Bishnu Lodge in North Lakeside) where I checked in to a room. We chatted for a while and I then headed for an early night as I was pretty tired by this point.