Ka Pai Kiwis

A rest day today. That’s all. Nah just kidding.  It rained most of the night and it has continued today, not heavy but just enough to need a brolly.  The low cloud and mist have also obscured the wonderful mountain vistas this place is renowned for.  A few housekeeping chores this morning, with my 3rd haircut of the trip first up, this turned into a full head, neck and back massage, Robyn saw the guy knew what was doing so she had a massage also. We do both feel better for it.  We sent our laundry out including our bike gear, the last few nights our less than salubrious lodgings have included various unsavoury aromas, but this hotel is pristine so the unsavoury aroma can only mean one thing!  Bike gear needed to be washed!! Its no wonder, we have been dripping wet with sweat and covered in black diesel fumes for weeks.  A wander around the town and the lake front with real coffee and a sweet treat, we spoiled ourselves.  It is early season here but the...

We got up early and packed  the bike , we had organised breakfast for 7 so we were on the road by about 7:20.  Similar to yesterday but the road got rougher and rougher.  Many many bicycles on the road, people going to work and to school.  One thing about Nepal, there are very few cars, people here cannot afford them. We have seen far more tractors than cars. Of course there are many buses and tuktuks.  The trucks are mainly local tip trucks but there are a few goods lorries and these will increase the further east we travel.  After about 150km we came to the large town of Butwal, we stopped here for gas and a drink.  Here we left the main road and headed into the hills for Pokhara, at first I thought Maps.me was having a laugh and directing me into the local motocross course, wow the road was not even potholed, it was like wave after wave of undulating craters, muddy and uneven. The “road” was basically formed by laying down river rocks and letting th...

A travel day today as we make our way to the tourist hotspot of Pokhara. The roads are generally good and light of traffic. We have covered 330km today so we rate our chances of getting to Pokhara tomorrow although the road looks pretty windy.  Todays journey was delightful as we passed through wildlife reserves and national parks. In places it reminded me a little of some of the roads on the West Coast albeit a little warmer.  These women carry such heavy loads on their heads.  Also we passed through many little towns which although not much to look at were bustling little places.  At one little place a Tiger almost ran over a dog, luckily it was equipped with ABS brakes.  Goats on top of the bus, the young man climbed out and up to check them whilst the bus was moving along.  There seems to be a large number of schools and heaps of children going.  There were several army and police checkpoints but they didn’t bother us other than to ask the bike num...

We only have about 95km to go today but with the roads and a border crossing anything could happen. We set off into the usual traffic and incredibly bad roads but then we saw a sign that said “ toll booth ahead”. We’ve been caught like this before, it doesn’t necessarily mean better roads but much to our astonishment it turned out to be a beautiful dual carriageway which apart from one unsceduled Tomtom detour took us almost to the border. Yippee.  A few sights from the unscheduled detour. Really nice countryside. A few kms before the border we stopped in a town for snack and a drink,  there was an electrical shop next door, the GPS tracker needed new batteries so I asked if they had any AAA batteries, we were invited to take a seat the man opened the device and sent one of his boys away, while we waited we were offered a glass of ice cold water which always makes us nervous but it looked fine. The lad arrived with batteries, the boss fitted them and we were on our way NZD 0.7...

Today was a travel day as we make our way towards the Nepal border.  We said goodbye to the lovely hotel The Narayana Palace and the super helpful and friendly staff.  Naveen works in the restaurant and made sure we were well looked after.  We set off quite late with no real destination in mind, our journey took us past an amazing gathering of people further down the Ganges river, clearly it was very popular but judging by the unoccupied steps to the river slightly further downstream it gets a whole lot busier.  The people were gathering to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges.  We then meandered through rural India, very small villages and TomTom played his part by taking us on the “shortest” route which meant narrow lanes and small villages.  Clearly many people in these areas are living at subsistence level, sobering really.  TomTom then excelled itself on two occasions, we approached larger towns and TomTom decided we should ride through very n...

It persisted down most of the night but thankfully it hasn’t rained today although it has threatened to. First order of the day was an Indian breakfast, porridge, curd, fruit, roti and dahl, a very good start to the day. Robyn decided it would be a good idea to wash out our riding gear, once again the water was as black as coal, but job done, we will look smart again in the morning.  A street art scene.  We then set off for a bit of an explore, crossing a swing bridge to visit a very large multi-storey temple and stroll  by the Ganges taking in the sights, sounds and smells.  The locals having a catch up.  We walked maybe 8 or 9 km for the day and we were soaking wet with sweat for most of it, the humidity is very high. Lots of temples and yoga retreats.   We walked to what is known as the Beatles Ashram which is where they along with others spent time under the guidance of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Those of you old enough may remember this was headli...