week 14 logs

hardcore maoist territory - gorkha

gorkha ke log welcomes us

festival dance at bandipur

hen sitting on not 2 but 12 chickens!

most hardcore position seen among all kajuraho type temples so far

pasu and panchi pati

gameplay in fort wall at gorkha darbar


where eagles dare at manokamna

meanders throughout nepal and how

the one rupee coin is mine - yaay - at devi's/davis/devil's falls wishing spot

when the fog steps to block views, u take photos of yourself

lovism or premvad - these images all over nepal

trek break view

famous golghars at rampur near bandipur

nepali army guys doing morning drills at nagarkot viewing point.

week 14 photos collection on flickr

Day 92 jul 24 fri
Nagarkot – Sankhu - Katmandu
dirt roads, pitch road
32km –9684 kms
I ended up staying up the entire night watching films. Around 5, its dawn and look out of the window to see low clouds ☹ - no Himalayas. Watch it get brighter, then head up to the terrace to see the sun to our right. Saurabh is up taking photos. We decide to head to the view tower to get 360 degree view. Takes us a while to find out where it is. It’s marked in the map, but I didn’t spot it; Saurabh eventually does and we head there. The sun is up but hidden behind clouds. We cross an army camp with armymen jogging up the hill and doing push ups over the stormdrains. Reach to top just at the time the sun peaks out. The top is full of army men in groups, who leave in a while. Take photos of whatever we can, but the sun disappears soon. Well if you want to see the Himalayas, don’t come during the monsoon.

Head back, pack and leave. Despite yesterday’s events, decide to take a dirt road via Sankhu (which locals say will become pitch (local for tar road) and not the pitch ‘to Bhaktapur’ road. Its always been a ‘policy’ not to return by the same road ever since I started roadtripping, so no rocky path is going to change it. Find a crack in the pannier – will fix it in Katmandu, hope it holds till then.

The dirt track is downhill so yay. It’s bad but not that bad. Pass by the Changu Narayan temple, but decide not to walk up. Enjoy the inner Nepal village scenes of farming etc. After 15 kms, pitch happens, and not a ‘tease road’. For the first time in 200 kms, I cross 60 kmph. Just as I’m about to enter a town, see a barricade manned by some youth with dandas who are turning away vehicles from the other side. Luckily there is a road to the left, which a local says to take. Take it and follow other vehicles taking that road and emerge back on the main road in the middle of town.

Enter Katmandu and enquire our way to Jochhne/Freak Street. At the exhibition ground road, see a man selling porn on the road, the cds clutched under his arm! As usual, the recommended place in LP is full, though sometimes its full coz we are Indians. Here too! Find place in a lodge just beside and settle down. Head out to call Ananya and then check mail.

Its strange and funny. So much has happened, but in the ‘outside’, it’s just been two days and its ‘the usual’. I wonder what life holds in store for me when mataozm ends. I don’t even know when it will end. If I just stopped working after the Bangalore-Mysore walk, how does this compare! Money keeps coming in somehow and the road doesn’t end. But logically I suppose it will end after I enter India. Whether I do the Himachal, Ladakh, JnK leg is unknown. After that its basically heading south without ‘sightseeing’. The east- northeast leg (which was actually the initial plan is still a mystery). With a 3 lac (now probably 5 lac with interest!) debt on my head, a job seems the sensible option (sensible :D), but then no east north east leg. I don’t see myself heading out on any more roadtrips after this. Chat with friends who are trying to get into some contest called the Great Indian roadtrip. Seems you have to drive around some route within a particular time and keep blogs or something. Why do you need a contest to do that! If you want to go, just go. Spend some money of your own! (and/or of some kind blessed friends :D). Just pray for them at all the religious places you end up visiting. Punya baato.

Find out that Ashu is in Katmandu. Ask friends who are online to put in some money in my phone. Pearl and Joy help out. Send Ashu sms and email. Go to Thamel to the palce where Ashu is staying. Guards says oh only foreigners are allowed to stay here, no Indians. I say hato and go to reception. Ashu has gone out, so leave him a message. Go to Last Resort office in Thamel to pick up my bungy DVD. Also buy other DVDs. Saurabh and I get separated somehow, and after searching for him and not finding him, I beat a quick retreat from Thamel and its DVD shops. Go back to hotel and after smelling hash smoke for a while, ask hotel boy to score for me. Thamel is like Calangute or Varkala, it sucks you in. Apparently the local dealer got arrested so nothing now, maybe later. I’m somewhat relieved. Though I don’t know why; I still have bhang from kajuraho in my bag, and I haven’t used it. Anyway settle down and watch films, resting my body and wrists.

Evening I want to eat something different, so we go to sandwich shop nearby and have well a sandwich. Walk to the durbar square and watch people. Come back to no electricity. So can’t check email as I had told Ashu. Unsure whether to go find him at night; he should be out someplace. Crash.




Day 93 jul 25 sat
Katmandu – Manakamna – Mugling – Abu Khairne – Gorkha
Mahendra highway
151km –9835 kms
Wake up and chill. Head out to find welder. Am too early at 9, shops or atleast workers open at 10! So ride around till I find an open workshop and get welding done. This time remove spark plug and the battery wires. Head back, do some Internet, and return to hotel.

Pack and leave. We decide to skip Patan (which is supposed to be best of the 3 cities), but maybe next time, and head towards Pokhara. Traffic on the way out. Eat lunch at a dhaba? The roads are good and winding along the base of hills. Ride along at 70-80. At Naubise, 4 other bikes join and we keep speeding along the road. Until at one stretch, one brakes for some reason, another bangs into the first, and goes down. I screech and end up bumping into the fallen bike, but still standing. Phew.

Reach Manokamna around 3. Take the cable car up to the temple. Our companion is a local Gorkha boy who gives us info about the place and even some towers! The cable car is Austrian made and a far cry from the jerky one at Rajgir. It rises from 300 m to 1300m over the river. A bit spectacular as it rises sharply, then coasts horizontally, and then rises again. The cable car also has a few to transport goats, which are then sacrificed at the temple. This happens everywhere in Nepal temples, especially at festival times, when 108+ goats and chicken etc are sacrificed.
Check out the temple, then darshan (only for hindus again). See the sub temple where and head back. Coming back is a wee bit freaky as we are right up looking down at everything, the mountains, the river, the fields and Saurabh’s jungle man. It seems looking down from heights is going to be normal in this trip ☺

Next stop we decide will be Gorkha. Though the road in the map is similar to hiking trail, we take it. It turns out to be pitch. See No Vote signs and paintings everywhere. This is inside Maoist territory. Slow down whenever I see a group of people. But nothing happens, except chicken who go psycho as I pass and one bangs into the bike. Feathers fly but the chicken moves on and so do we. At one point, there is a truck parked across the road, with people milling around it, and another small truck lying on the side of the road. Heart freeze, maoist roadblock? Creep along the truck and see that they are just trying to get the fallen truck out. I pass only when a man says to pass.

Reach Gorkha, and spend the entire sunset finding a valley view place. Even though its offseason, all the valley view places are full! Find a place, settle down, and eat dinner. Watch films and pass out. Shalaam Shab.

Day 94 jul 26 sun
Gorkha - Abu Khairene – Dumre - Bandipur
Mahendra highway
61km –9896 kms
Wake up with a chest cold and light fever. Update logs and eat late breakfast. Pack and head up the dirtroad to the darbar of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the founder of modern Nepal. Rains have destroyed the roads, and general self confidence is a bit low. Keep letting Saurabh off and taking the mulchy slippery and rocky curves alone. Its not that bad, but don’t want to take any chances. Finally at the top, park the bike. Have to climb another 1500 stairs. Man approaches asking if we want to be guided. Ok.

Takes us up and around. Small place but distinct from most we have seen so far. Even unseen so far sex positions on the ‘kamasutra’ temple. Peacocks on the walls. Meet indigenous violin? Player who plays and sings a song too. Kanchi re! Guide is a non stop talker, mostly related to his poverty. Meet another Bombay returned person. Human nature is the same everywhere – the moment you know you’ve been a place, you want to tell the other than you have been there too. Some people even ask if we know X person- X from a population of 18 million people! The odds and gods have been favorable so far and I don’t know any of them.

After the tour, guide asks if we want tea at his place. Of course. Go to his tiny huthouse and listen to more poverty and history. Also talk about government and Maoists. He’s congress man and anti Maoism (or atleast their kind of rule), while his wife is maoist. Offers ganja which I accept. Roll and smoke while the water boils. The rideas come rolling back. Been 3 months since I smoked. He gives us his address and after tea and chicken watching, we leave. An idea of spending more time in the hills is formed.

We maneuver our way down to Gorkha and then onwards to Bandipur. Cross Dumre and see this 45 degree dirt track going up, labeled bandipur trail. Wisely decide against taking it and go ahead looking for a road, and find one. Full pitch right up to Bandipur.

Find a place to stay – homestay @200. Woohoo. Nice room with mountain views, only it starts raining and no Himalaya views. Have kinda resigned myself that I wont see anymore. Only thing left is to stop ‘seeing’ the Himalayas and be the Himalayas. Ladakh calling? As we go to unload luggage, it starts pouring and doesn’t stop like the next morning. Park the bike at the parking outside the village. Bandipur is one of a kind village, preserved and non polluted.

Have a snack and then walk to Tundikhel to see the Marshyandi valley and the ahem Himalayas. A man approaches and says ganja. I say tomorrow maybe. He anyway pops in home and accompanies us to Tundikhel and points out places. He also shows a bunch of really old (1 yr) maal. I score nevertheless. Watch the spectacular valley, no Himalayas of course, but still. Return to the hotel and settle down in the room watching films. At dinner served by Nepali houselady who doesn’t know Hindi. So conversation is confusing and slow, but she is persistent and we manage a decent conversation. Both her and her English speaking son are always smiling. As we finish dinner, we hear kids howling and drums and cymbal sounds. We find out that today is Nagpanchami and some traditional dance happens in the main road between the temples. We go to see a small group of people walking playing 2 drums and 2 cymbals, led by a swaying man with a hood clutching a carrot and a radish. The main hero or villain is a man with long fake hair and a evil full face mask, whose main purpose seems to be to scare the radcarrot man. Often the main men disappear into one of the side houses to tank up.

We return, watch films and sleep. Still raining. Tomorrow Nepal’s largest cave, Siddha cave?

Day 95 jul 27 mon
Bandipur
0km –9896 kms
Wake up to see the rains haven’t stopped. Have a bunroti (bread) and jam breakfast. Decide to laze in bed today. Rest day so to speak. Spines and backs are a bit bruised. Spend the entire day in bed watching film and film, with the occasional look out of the window. Have a late late lunch and return to room. Eat dinner and watch films till we sleep. Have caught up with Startrek, Wolverine, Blindness, Hangover, IOUSA, Bruno etc.

Day 96 jul 28 tue
Bandipur - Ramkot
0km –9896 kms
Wake up again to see rain. We don’t move and spend time watching the window and films. No food, we don’t have enough to sustain meals. Eat a bag of pistachios we had.

Around 2, the rains subside and we get up to leave for Siddha cave. Meet a man outside who says its very slippery and leechy. Also as first timers, its better to go with guide for route and also see inside the cave, but no guide now. We think maybe tomorrow morning we go after breakfast. We wonder what to do now, and he suggests go see Ramkot. We start walking along the trail. On and on we trod along slippery mudsteps and stone steps for 2 and half hours. Finally we reach Ramkot, find the golghars, and meet some locals. It’s already 5 and we need to get back. So we start trudging along in the drizzle. Its almost dark by the time we reach Bandipur. With no food in us, its been a good walk.

After tea, we wait for dinner, which we then gobble up. Pass out soon. We leave tomorrow for Pokhara, where we hear its been raining and people are wading in water.

Day 97 jul 29 wed
Bandipur - Pokhara
76km –9972 kms
Wake up and watch the rain. It stops and we set out to see Teendam, a waterfall engineering to come out in 5 stone sculptures of crocs, each one for one god/dess; shiva, durga, saraswati, hanuman, and Buddha. Walk back to town and order breakfast, which takes ages to be prepared. Sit, bask in the little sun, and read newspaper. It’s a bit strange to read about India from a third party perspective.

Get back, pack, and leave. The sun is out, and there’s even heat! Ride along the highway, passing gorges, and rivers, and finally reach Pokhara. See mountains of clouds – no Annapurna, no Macchapure. Ride around the lakeside trying to find cheap acco. After 3 different agents, we find one, bargain massively, and settle in. After a break, head out to call ananya and mom, and Internet. Slow internet, and it starts raining outside. Walk back, meet Saga at a tea shop, have bun tea, and head back to the hotel, and lie on a soft bed and watch films. I have begun to abhor soft beds. Fuck my back up as this bed does too. Time to start suryanamaskars. Spend some time imagining how this place would look with mountains in the background.


Day 98 jul 30 thu
Pokhara – Sarangkot - Pokhara
41km –10013 kms
Wake up to see rain. Do photo sorting until its bright outside. Head out to Sarangkot to view tower. The whole ride was a bit funny, as we couldn’t even see Sarangkot in the fog and clouds. I keep getting the feeling, seeing the Himalayas is not meant to be, but to go and become the Himalayas is what needs to be done. Have to check rain scene in Himachal, Uttaranchal, or just make a dash for Ladakh.

Around noon, it clears up. We leave, have brunch by the lake, and ride along the lake to see how big it is. Submerged fishing nets, guest houses, and restaurants. Pokhara looks downright deserted right now. It starts drizzling and we head to Sarangkot. Almost miss the turnoff. Uphill dirt track but without luggage it seems so easy now! We ride around and then think we go beyond where we are supposed to, ask our way around and finally reach the top view point, which by now is almost invisible itself. Massive fog and drizzle rain. We stand on top looking at the fog. Wait for 30 mins to clear, in vain. To think there are 8 mountain tops behind the fog, from the 8100m annapurna to the 6900m Macchapuchare.
We walk back to the bike, and knock on door to ask for tea. The shop owners don’t come out until they hear the bike sound!- come to collect 10 rp parking. Have tea and head down in the rain. Halfway down visibility changes from 20 ft to well 2 km. Its pouring now, we skip the mountaineering museum plans and head back to the hotel.
Dry off and head to Internet place to upload last weeks photos. Spend 3 hrs doing just that. Chat with ananya. The Internet has become this limited use space now. Can’t think of any sites to visit. Just the ones related to ‘work’ now. Check out the lakestreet, pick up some dvds, meet saurabh on the way and have dinner at this bhojanalaya where owner kept talking about it being only real veg place around and definitely come for breakfast.

Come back and crash early. We leave Pokhara tomorrow morning by 8. Will return to Nepal during its summer. I think we have completed 10000 kms – need to cross check, but around that ☺