Riding bikes and seeing sights in the Kathmandu valley

Oct 6th, 2011

After a few days deep in hectic environment that is Kathmandu, Kiersten and I really had to get out of the city and see a bit of the countryside sooo.... we decided to see what mountain biking in Nepal was all about. We ended up finding a company in Thamel called "Himalayan Single Track" and randomly decided to go riding for a day with them. Our guide Aemon (sorry buddy if I spelt it wrong) turned out to be the Nepal XC mountain bike champion who kills it on a regular basis in races such as "Yak Attack" which is basically the Annapurna circuit on a mountain bike. He took us way out passed Kathmandu via the "scar road" up to a tiny village called Kakani. On the way we stopped for a bit of tea (see the pic below)

Aemon and Kiersten posing after our tea stop

 After tea we continued to climb and climb and climb while we passed uncountable rice fields and "chicken houses" which Aemon loved to point out. They ranged from small shacks with maybe a hundred a chickens to dubious looking five story buildings with thousands.

Munching m`s on our way to Kakani

 After about three hours of riding and about 1000m of elevation gain we finally made it to the tiny village of Kakani were we had lunch. It was our first traditional dal bhat meal of the trip, made fresh for us upon arrival. I've heard a lot of people talking shit about dal bhat but this was one of our best meals yet since arriving in Nepal. It was mad fresh and the spices blew my mind.

Delicious dal bhat

Kakani local who was very interested in us

From Kakani we entered the jungle of Shivapuri Nagarjun national park. This is were the single track began. Aemon asked us if we had a problem with leechs prior to entering because we were pretty much guarenteed to get some. Uhhh I guess not. To prepare we basically wasted a bottle of deet on our legs and feet because we heard that helped ward the little bastards off. Turns out it does because we didn`t get any. The jungle was pretty sweet. We road what's called the "Sky Route" which tops out at 2400m (Kathamandu is about 1300). It wove through the dense jungle forest through very overgrown single track and out into small clearings where you could look down into the valley and really get a feel for how high up you were. If it had been a clearer day we would have had some pretty wicked Himalayan views, but unfortunately the clouds covered them up.

Aemon in the jungle

 When we first entered the jungle, a stray hill dog started following us. He was probably the best dog I have ever had the pleasure of riding with (no offence to Bran and Cayoosh). I literally wanted to take him home with me. He would stop when we stopped and then follow when the last rider left. Aemon told us that he was seeing us safetly through the jungle and that as long as he was there we were safe. He followed us all the way through until we got out of the jungle single track into the next little village. I am going to miss that little guy.

Our good friend who saw us safetly through the jungle

 After the jungle we had a wicked decent through tiny villages all the way back to Kathmandu. Because of the Dashain festival lots of the villagers were making there way up trail back to their villages from the festivites in Kathmandu as we were riding down. The little kids would practice their english by yelling "Hello!" "hi!" "bye bye" as we passed. It was pretty entertaining. Kiersten had a decent little crash on the way down but Aemon took care of her.

Smash bang boom

Oct 7th, 2011

After a day of wicked riding we decided that we would take it a bit easy and see some more of the sights around the city. Instead of taking a cab we decided to rent cheap bikes and ride around to some the places we hadn't checked out yet.

Posing by a small stupa on our way to Bodhanth

 Our first stop was a place called Bodhanth which is basically one of the worlds largest Stupas. Getting there on bikes was pretty entertaining because none of the roads have street signs and Kathmandu is basically one giant maze. That being said with the help of a little map we managed to get there without much incident. Much like everywhere else in the world getting places by bike is really the only way to go (dont mean to preach or anything). Not only did we get to see so much more than we would have in a cab, it turned the whole day into more of an adventure by having to navigate through the busy streets of Kathmandu.

Cooling off the dome in Bodhanth

Bodhnath!

From  Bodhnath it was a short 1.5 km through small villages and farmland to Pashupatinath, Nepal's most important Hindu temple. Pashupatnath lies on the banks of the sacred Basmati river and is basically Nepals equivalent to Varanasi with cremation ghats lining the river. The whole place is also completely infested with monkeys which entertained me to no end. As we arrived a family was preparing one of their relatives for cremation along the river. The temple and the surrounding area was the most interesting and beautiful place that I have seen so far in Kathmandu. You really just have to see it to understand.

Preparing for cremation on the banks of the Basmati

Pashupatinath in all its glory

2 of the 800 billion monkeys in the area

This little fella was chilling all alone in a little temple

Deer in a fenced in park near the temple

Riding the streets of Kathmandu in the relative calm of Dashain

Oct 8th, 2011

I didn`t mention it above, but on the 7th when we returned our bikes to ``Himalayan Single Track`` the Australian owner Jenny invited Kiersten and I to come riding with her and bunch of friends (including Aemon who is the shit) on Saturday (today). We definitely didn`t pass up that opportunity. We ended up riding with a large crew made up of Nepalis, Norwegians, and Swedes, in the hills South west of Kathmandu. It was definitely one of the most memorable rides I have ever been on (if not the most). We rode out of Kathmandu towards Bhaktapur before turing up a steep double track road to ride up what is basically the equivalent of two Mt. Prevost`s. Near the top we got our first Himalayan views of the trip. Those mountains are so high they don`t make sense...

First views of the Himalaya

The crew minus Aemon who was taking the picture

Yep, thats where we were riding

Our ride stated at 6am and by 9am we had made it to a tiny picturesque Nepali village where we stopped for breakfast. The village played host to a small Hindu temple and was surrounded by giant ganja plants. It litterally blew my mind. Jenny had called up in advance to so breakfast was ready when we got there. We broke our fast on a meal of spiced potatoes, black chick peas, hard boiled eggs, and Nepali tea with unpasturized milk. By then I was pretty beat but little did I know that was just the begining of our ride.

Lunch spot, see if you can identify that bush

From the village we cruised through jungles, rice fields, small villages, to the worlds largest statue of Shiva. 

Shiva

After that we crusied through tiny rice fields on tiny single track trails that had two foot drops on either side all the way to Bhaktapur (I fell into the rice paddies pretty hard at one point). 

Getting lost among the rice

 We stopped in Bhaktapur for a snack and at some sort random yogurt like dish which is apparently a specialty in Bhaktapur. I can`t remember what it is called by I am definitly eating more.

yummmm

 By the time we got back to Kathmandu we had ridden a stiff 62km and gained far more than 1000m in elevation. Riding in nepal is hard but amazing. I can`t articulate the experience that we had. My words just can`t do it justice. We will definitly ride more before we leave.

Beer tasted very good at this point

Anyways, Im glad I managed to post all this up. Ive had a couple to drink tonight. Peace out friends!