Sept 28, 2019, Bhalubang to Lumbini, 105km, 447M up, 312M end

A quite hard day, hot, humid and into fairly strong headwinds.

Our local support guy (Raywhat) tells us that Nepal is the spoilt child of two angry divorced parents (China and India).  Both China and India compete for influence, China building roads, India provides education etc.,  

The southern part of Nepal (the flat plains) are effectively India, very similar people, customs etc.,  The majority of Nepal (hills and mountains) is more Mongolian.  The south is Hindu, the north is Buddhist, but Hinduism and Buddhism are very similar and go hand in hand, many people are both.  Hindu has a caste system (still quite strongly in effect in the countryside), Buddhism does not have a caste system.

Speaking of Caste systems, I think I understand the “rules of the road” a bit better, it is essentially a caste system, cows are at the top, buses next, then transport trucks, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians.  Cyclist are below pedestrians. 

The Nepal calendar is the Lunar calendar and Saturday is the weekly holiday.

Sept 29, 2019, Rest Day Lumbini

Lumbini is the birth place of Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a.Buddha),  the actual birthplace (563 BC) is marked by the Maya Devi temple, named after Buddha’s mother.  Today the Maya Devi Temple is part of a huge complex (2km by 3km) of monastic Temples contributed by Buddhist communities around the world.  The area is known as the Lumbini Development Zone - a rather odd name considering the Buddhist philosophy.  As originally conceived Buddhism is not a religion but a psychological approach to liberating oneself from the suffering of the world.  There is no god in Buddhism and there is no indication that Buddha wished to be deified.  Somewhat inconsistent with the Lumbini Development Zone.

The Maya Devi temple itself is really a building that covers/protects what are remains going back 2200 years.

Something that is unfortunate is that although various countries funded the creation of the Temples, little money has been allocated for maintenance.  Too commonly I see this.

There is a serious effort for the Temple complex to be “green”, the only Tuktuk’s that are allowed are battery powered.

Tourists and pilgrims everywhere are all the same - selfie sticks were very common.  The only difference here is that all the women wear beautiful bright coloured sari’s.

Some pics of the Maya Devi:

The famous Bodhi (pipal) tree

OK, why the red and green (Port and Starboard) donation boxes?

Some pics of other temples and monasteries:   

This central canal is about 2km long, one can take a water taxi from one end to the other.

Yes, one removes shoes before entering anywhere

I love the root system on this tree - I gather fairly common in the tropics.

One ceiling shot

Note the eyes

Yes, those are two gardeners hand cutting the lawn.

Sept 26, Bhardia Wildlife Resort to Kohalpur:  73km, 108M up, 374M end. 

A flat fairly easy ride, some wind against, but quite hot and humid, with a very nice hotel at the end.

Sept 27, Lohalpur to Bhalubang:  143km, 878m up, 516M end.

A harder ride, fair bit of wind against.  Into a very modest hotel.  No hot water for a shower, but the cold wasn’t very cold.  But the beer was colder - excellent!

I don’t usually criticize the local drivers, they have their local rules that work for them, we shouldn’t bring our “rules” from home and expect them to apply here.  Most of the drivers are very good, yes, they hustle and yes they pass much closer than we are used to, but they are thoughtful and very good.  Most of the cars are good and the vast majority of heavy trucks are very considerate, almost always giving a honk and wave.  Most of the motorcycles either slow and talk to me (where you from, where you going), or at the least give a short honk and a big thumbs up and smile.

But the bus drivers are absolute idiots and I say that without reservation.  Three incidents today: the first was an accident where a bus hit a small truck (just around the corner in front of me) - the good news - no one was badly hurt, but the small truck was totalled.  The second incident happened right in front of me - a bus forced a motorcycle to hit (and kill) a dog, the motorcycle then ended up off the road down a bank and luckily into bushes.  The motorcycle driver was OK, not sure about his bike.  The third incident involved a bus forcing me fully off the road, not the first time.

A few pics from the last couple of days:

First reference to our destination, Kathmandu

Nice hotel tonight

My Tuktuk driver riding back from town

Sept 24, 2019, Bhimdatta to Bhardia Wildlife Resort:  154km, 841M up

It was a long (154km) but easy day, mostly flat.  I’ve noticed the weather systems here don’t give you much warning - one drop of rain, then a 2nd drop and immediately an absolute deluge!  I was absolutely soaked before I could even think about a rain jacket.  Not really a problem since it was very warm.  I would have preferred the rain to be a bit colder, I was still too hot.  The rain didn’t last long, but there seemed to be an inch of water on the road whilst it was raining.  It quickly stopped, and about a hour later when I had just started to dry out, it dumped again.

We are riding on the plains along the Himalayan hills.  There is no transition, the hills immediately end and there is flat plain.  Also note I didn’t say “Foothills”, there is nothing small about these hills.

One of the little delights today:  During the early part of the day there were school kids in uniform going everywhere, walking, on bicycles, on buses, piled in carts being towed by tractors, in small towns and villages, out in the middle of the country.  

At one point I was slowly catching up to a wagon being towed by a tractor with 15-20 kids in school uniforms.  We had great fun - they would cheer me on as I got closer to their wagon, then go quiet as I slipped back.  All sorts of cheering and yelling when I overtook.  Lot’s of “hello, hello”, “where are you from?”.  A little exchange, but very memorable.

We have just finished 7 days in a row and now have a rest day.  

Where we are is in the Bhardia Wildlife Reserve, the largest national park/reserve in Nepal.  Home to Bengal Tigers, Elephants and one horned Rhino’s.  Your chance of seeing a Tiger is extremely remote.  

Although we are in a “Resort”, it is rather modest, one towel per room, one lightbulb per room, I’ve slept on concrete that was softer than the bed, hot water for a shower comes in a bucket.  But, when I cycled in yesterday afternoon, there was a large cold beer waiting along with an excellent plate of french fries.  And as we have universally experienced, the Nepalese people are very polite, very warm and friendly.

We had a time zone change when moving from India to Nepal - 15 minutes.  I guess Nepal wants to ensure it is seen as a different country than India.

No pics today as I kept my phone out of the rain.

Sept 23, 2019, Naukuchiayata, India to Bhimdatta, Nepal:  134km, 259M up, end 259M

We descended from the Himalayan Hills onto the flat plain today, the transition from steep hill to flat was instantaneous - one minute I was at full speed down mountain curves, then instantly I was on flat straight road.  There has been no flat and straight since we arrived in India.  We are at less than 500M elevation so now very hot and humid. 

The big news for the day is that we crossed into Nepal, can’t really tell the difference from India, but a bit quieter and the people seem more easy going.  The border crossing was a very friendly affair, yes they had to do their official paperwork, but were very friendly about it, many pictures were taken with these cyclist tourists.  I also got a Nepal SIM card - took only 15 minutes with very happy, friendly people.

Some pics from the last few days:

The elevation profile in Meters from Rishikesh to Kathmandu

Another day, another 1,300M climb

Sept 19 - 22:  Various random notes:

The internet availability is getting rare and very rough, so I expect I’ll be posting less.  We cross into Nepal tomorrow, so not sure what that will bring.

Another problem:  the very nice resort we were in last night, did not have a very nice electrical system (something about phase balance problems) - end result was that the charger for my laptop was fried.  Not sure when I’ll be able to replace.  I can borrow a charge but only sometimes… 

As I mentioned, Rishikesh is a “pure” city, only vegetarian food, no beer or other booze.  I was reminded that if one wants to find something maybe illegal in a town/city, the answer is really simple - hop in a taxi (Tuktuk in our case) and simply say take me to where I can buy beer, wait for me and bring me back to my hotel.  It was about a 7 minute tuktuk ride.

In the countryside (and cities) all the women are beautifully dressed, even if they are working in the fields or carrying a bundle of sticks or hay on their heads.

The resort we are staying in tonight is high on a hill overlooking the surrounding countryside complete with very nice individual lodges and swimming pool.  But, we have noticed a pattern here, every day involves a huge climb to a very nice lodge on the top of a hill.  These climbs are usually in the 1,000-1,500M range (think 3 times the height of the Malahat).

The countryside around us has been high pine forest, everywhere it is hills, if anything more of the population lives on the top of these hills not in the valleys.

This has been a very hard ride, with many people either getting sick or having small injuries.  I have been really impressed with the Tda folks.  The overall organization of the event is really good, we’ve always had fantastic food, the logistics support during the days is first class and they are always really upbeat.  My best complements.

Unfortunately, I’ve now completed my experience in India, the local name is Dehli Belly, or in my case it was Rishikesh Belly.  I knew something was not right when I started riding yesterday morning, I got about 25km into the ride (about 15km up a 35km climb) when I knew I was in trouble.  Diarrhea and vomiting quickly followed (luckily not at the same time) and I was absolutely exhausted.  No way I was going to make the 1,350M of climbing for the day.  So, end of EFI, I was picked up by the sweep truck.  Since I was completely empty, effectively having tossed out all the food I had eaten over the last day and a half, I had absolutely no energy,  so I also decided to ride the truck the next day.  So, I rode in the truck one full day, then rode two half days and today (Sept 22) back to full days riding.

I’ve noticed that there is fibre optic cables being laid everywhere, to the smallest remote village, in the remotest valley (we saw cable being laid all the way up the Spiti Valley).  The project looks well on the way to completion.  I expect within a year, every household in India will be fibre connected.  This is a serious powerhouse in the making.

I’ve been told that not all of the rock splitting I referred to earlier, is simply to make smaller rocks, there are a lot of semi-precious stones embedded in the rocks.  So, when the boss is looking the focus is on simply splitting rocks, but when the boss is away the focus is on finding semi-precious stones.

Last night, we stayed in the famous luxury Corbett Canyon Resort, known for its Elephants and Tigers.  Seeing an Elephant is not too difficult, but seeing a Tiger is all but impossible.

Tonight is our last night in India, it has been an amazing time, the cycling has been fantastic, awful, incredibly hard, terrifyingly scary and everything in between.  The people, like every other country have been very warm and welcoming, many special memories.

I'm fighting with the WiFi, so sorry, no pics this post.  If I can get better access I'll post.

Riding day # 19, Sept 16, 2019, Musoorie to Rishikesh:  80km, 483M up, 939M end.

An easy mostly downhill ride, but very warm and very high humidity.  Four days in a row where I my shirt is absolutely soaked with sweat.

Yes, the shirt is soaked with sweat

Rishikesh is the largest Indian city we cycle in and out of.  I actually enjoy the chaos of cycling in the tight streets, heavy traffic - cars, trucks, buses, carts, millions of small motorcycles, tuktuk’s, cows, dogs, monkeys and people going every which way.  The chorus of horns can be really deafening and very annoying at times) all on narrow streets where the surface goes from perfectly smooth tarmac to ugly potholes in seconds.  One needs to be absolutely focused.

Rishikesh is “Mecca” for Yoga and meditation.  There are probably 1,000+ Ashrams (think a retreat for Yoga and Meditation).  But this comes with two bad things:  i) No beer to be found anywhere near Rishikesh and ii) only vegetarian food is available.  I guess I will have to purify my body and mind whether I want to or not.

The hotel provided an interesting character as a combination greeter/shaman/tour guide/huckster/entertainer.  He was very good.  He took us to the nightly Aarti on the banks of the Ganges in the middle of Old Town.  The Aarti is a river worship ceremony.  A combination of worship and celebration of Mother Ganga and Shiva

The Ganges is personified as the goddess Ganga.  Ganga’s mother is Mena and her father is Himavat, the personification of the Himalaya mountains.

Shiva is the Supreme Being, Lord of Divine Energy, Meditation, Arts, Yoga, Time, Dance and Supreme destroyer of Evil.

Our guide

The ceremony was right on the river, one removed shoes before you approached, and washed your hands.  People would set adrift small “boats” of flowers with a lit candle. Lot’s of music and singing, an impressive coordinated fire show with audience participation.  A quite magical event.

The photos don’t do it justice:

In Rishikesh we also did a final farewell to Mike Hennessey.  We held a small ceremony on the steps of the river below our hotel and poured his remaining ashes in the Ganges.  Again a very emotional event.  I truly miss Mike not being with us on this adventure.

A couple pics:  4063, 81, 89

Riding day #18, Sept 15, 2019, Purola to Musoorie:  102km, 1,670M up,2,428 M end

Musoorie is another “hill station”, i.e. town on the top of a hill, cooler and less humidity - but on the top of a hill.  Another day (3rd in a row) with serious climbing.  But it was cooler, lower humidity and it did have cold beer!

As I’ve mentioned, there seems to be a “workfare” program where people are hired to manually do road construction - rather than using heavy equipment as we are used to.  This work includes breaking rocks with a sledge hammer - i.e. turning big rocks into small rocks.  I passed several guys today sitting on the side of the road with a pile of big rocks on one side of him (in-basket) and a pile of small broken rocks (out-basket) on the other.  He spent his days pounding on rocks.   Wow, what a hard way to eek out a living.  But then I considered what he must be thinking looking at me slowly grinding up another 2,000M climb - “I just hammer on rocks all day - easy, that poor bastard has to cycle up these huge hills every day - pounding rocks is way easier!”.

pics from the day:

School uniforms

Cactus - high humidity, but little rain

Leaving town

Riding day #17, Sept 14, 2019, Rohru to Purola:  107km, 1,228M up, 1,830M end

We have now dropped out of the mountains into the foothills, hence getting very warm with high humidity.  Also doing serious climbing, I have never sweated like this before.  Probably drank at least 4 litres of fluids.

On the way into Shimla we had a section of wonderful downhill, actually most of it was wonderful - there was one large pothole that had my name on it.  The good news is that it didn't toss me off my bike - the bad news is the it damaged my rear wheel, both dents the rim and made out of round - the rear brakes were effectively impossible to use.  I did manage to flatten the brake surface so the brakes are good, but the wheel has a significant flat spot - thump, thump, thump.  Maybe when I get to Rishikesh we'll be able to find a new rim...

Lots of riders have had troubles, falls ( only minor bone cracks), several scrapes, a couple have succumbed to digestion problems, 3 had altitude problem and general exhaustion.

Again a hard day.  The continuous honking of horns was getting to me today, probably because I’m fairly exhausted.  I (think) I understand the honking conventions, but I found it annoyingly excessive today.  Also, there are tons of cows (and water buffalo, goats, etc.,) always on the road.  That means the road is commonly covered in dung, too much to avoid in many cases.  Cleaning cow dung off ones water bottles adds to the experience! 

There is no common garbage system, that means every little village has the garbage burning spot - the smell of burning plastic and burning everything else is annoying to say the least.

On a more positive note, was hearing Cuckoo birds today, been awhile since I previously heard. 

some pics from the day:

rush hour traffic

the water buffalo gathering spot

The top of hill greeter

Riding day #16, Sept 13, 2019 Shimla to Rohru:  109km, 1,778M up, 1,970M end

This area of India is the apple production centre, and this is harvest time, so an amazing number of big and small trucks carrying apples to market.  Occasionally one goes astray:

In Shimla, there is a two stage (about) 6 storey public elevator - takes one from the mid level of the town towards the top, it costs 20 rupees to ride (about $0.40) - but they gave me the seniors rate (14 rupees) without my even asking - not sure if I should be insulted or complimented?

A minor development later in the day:  turns out the hotel we were supposed to be staying in doesn’t exist, not sure if this was a simple mistake or a scam.  In any case the TDA guys quickly sorted it out, found a new hotel (quite reasonable) and got directions to everyone to the new hotel.  Considering the chaos of this (by India standards) small town, I’m impressed with TDA.

Dunnery at his end of day best

I’ve noticed this a couple of times (e.g. now at the hotel):  the chorus of crickets in the trees is really loud, reaches a high pitch dies off then a loud chorus again.  At least I think they are crickets.

Interesting scam we discovered at Shimla:  A monkey swipes sunglasses off the head of a tourist, a local lures the monkey with some food and gets the sunglasses - the happy tourist gives 200 rupees to the local.  Yes, the local and the monkey are working as a pair.