Kathmandu 26th May 2006

I did nothing much for the last couple of days, woke early, read books, late brunch and a walk around town. I’d meet up with the bikers at Raju’s workshop at 18:00, have a couple of beers with them, go for something to eat and have a couple of games of pool to round the night off.

We met up this morning at 08:00 to ride to Kathmandu on our way to The Last Resort, which is an adventure sports resort about 5 / 10 km’s from the Tibetan border. Thirteen of us met up and between us we were on eleven bikes, most of which were either 350cc Enfield’s or 500cc Enfield’s, the other couple of bikes were off-roaders that some of the Nepali guys were riding. We also brought Raju along with us for the ride, between the rest of us we paid for his entrance fee and loss of earnings whilst his workshop is closed down – it cost us £7.50 GBP each, and it’s worth it for peace of mind when there are that many Enfield’s together!

We got on the road at 09:00, the Indian Sadu (Baba G) was late, but he’s got God on his side, so we’ll say nothing! It started off a really nice morning and I could actually see the mountains for a change (amazing and inspiring sight) and it was about forty minutes when we stopped for our first cup of chai. This was just before the road twisted up into the mountains and the stop gave us all something to look forward to. Wolf (German), Tony (New Zealand) and I went ahead of the others as we were on 500cc bikes and we really hammered the first mountain section. The two lads know the road to Kathmandu pretty well and I followed along behind them at 100kph and followed their ‘lines’, the roads were fairly clear, and apart from two bus drivers racing in front of us (interesting to watch from well behind) that leg passed by without incident.

We had arranged to meet at a restaurant and the three of us got there a good ten minutes before the main pack. Actually, not strictly true, because Tony decided to stop along the road to have a joint before his breakfast! When we all met up we were missing two bikes. Raju (the mechanic) and Baba (the Sadu) were nowhere to be seen, so we hung around for them, twenty minutes later they turn up. There had been a problem with Baba’s bike (the points) and Raju stopped to fix them. I went off with Monica (Dutch), Rick (English), Don (Australian), Dessie (English), Cheddup (Nepali), Oliver (Singapore) and two other Nepali guys, whose names I don’t yet know. I was at the back of the pack and as we rounded a corner I got there just in time to see Don take a heavy fall. I pulled up behind him along with the two Nepali guys and made sure he was all right. Turns out the road is full of diesel and Don hit a patch of it, which wasn’t hard to do and we later found out that a couple of others hit the patch but didn’t go down.

Don bought his 500cc Bullet new in Delhi a few months a go, and he damaged the headlight casing, the front mudguard, right foot peg and his pride took a battering. He was ok though, just pissed off with himself as he’d actually seen the spill and tried to ride through it. Maybe he shouldn’t have had that joint at 08:00 before he set off! We met up with the others about half an hour later at our next scheduled stop. The restaurant we stopped at is meant to do amazing fish (from local river), but I’d only had breakfast an hour before and wasn’t hungry. I was still getting used to all the stops that these guys make as all the half hours aren’t long in adding up. Des took off by himself and told us he’d meet us just outside Kathmandu at the checkpoint at the top of the mountain. The other guys and girls were busy eating their fish, I hung around for ten minutes and set off on my own after Dessie.

I got about five minutes down the road and the dark grey clouds that I’d been trying to outrun caught up with me. I rode through the rain for a couple of km’s, but the rain wasn’t easing off at all so I pulled over and put on a jacket, which was ok for another couple of km’s but I then pulled over under a tree and put the bike on it’s side stand. Next thing I know my bike is rolling forward down the hill, I made a grab for it, but it was too fast and heavy and it fell on it’s side. No worries just pick it up and wait for the rain to ease. At this stage some of the other bikes came past, I waved them on and went to get on my bike to follow them. It was at this point that I noticed that the left foot rest had completely snapped off, which meant that the ride suddenly got a lot more difficult especially with the amount of water laying on the road.

I was ok when I put my left leg on the passengers peg, but it kind of upset the balance and made braking with my left leg (rear brake – very important in the wet) difficult, and didn’t help with changing gears either. I got around a couple of bends and found the guys sheltering in a shack, well it looked like a shack, but I think it was some kind of road side “café”. We hung around there for about thirty minutes until the rain eased off and the sun came out, this gave the guys behind us a chance to catch up and the only one missing was Dessie who’d gone on ahead. We took it real easy on the greasy roads and were doing between 40 kph and 60 kph, I was at the rear for most of the next section as I need a lot more braking room and was happy for the others to clear a path through the small towns. Wolf wasn’t happy with his bike, it was making a ‘new’ noise from the rear wheel, and Raju had a look and found that the chain guard was rubbing against the chain – nothing to worry about for the moment.

We passed Tony on the road, actually I didn’t pass him, as I stopped to help get his bike off him as he was pinned to a roadside wall. He’d been taking it easy (so he says) and a bus came around the corner and knocked him into the wall. That’s his story anyway and not a lot of people believe it as he’s a bit of a loon on a bike, we reckon that he overshot the corner and hit the wall. But there wasn’t much damage to him or the bike, so we continued on or way. We got onto the ring road (think M25, then take away all traffic controls and add a traffic cop to direct all traffic) and Wolf’s bike started playing up again, so we all pulled over to see what was up. Wolf has just put a new petrol tank on his bike, it’s a nice big jobbie and he’s got some excellent murals painted on it. Wolf only got the tank back from the painted a couple of nights ago and the inside of the tank was a bit rusty after lying in a workshop for three months, so the inside of the tank must be treated to stop bits of rust and crud falling off and getting into the carburettor. The treated tank should be stood for three days before use, Wolf left it barely twenty-four hours, and the petrol filter was blocked. Raju spent a couple of minutes clearing it and we were off again winding our way through Kathmandu traffic.

We all got here safely in the end after a seven-hour journey (normal solo riding time = three hours!) and we spread ourselves over a couple of guesthouses. Cheddup owns a bar in Pakhora (The Blues Bar) and he also has one here in Kathmandu (Jazz Upstairs), so we’re all meeting up in a couple of hours to head there for the night. Lets just hope we can all make it up for 07:30 tomorrow! Raju has already taken the broken foot peg away to get welded, he’ll get it done tonight and put it on the bike first think in the morning. He even checked my oil. Top bloke!

It turns out that several of the group got stopped by Maoists who were demanding money, just as we entered Kathmandu. Dessie was the first to be stopped, he was asked for a 1000 Nepali Rupees (just over £7 GBP), he told them he didn’t have it. Then the guy tells him that “we have a problem”, Dessie told him that he hadn’t a problem. The Maoist guy then tells Dessie that he’s going to have to take his bike. Not a good thing to say to Dessie. Dessie then tells him that he’ll have a problem if he takes his bike, drops his bike into gear and then speeds off down the road (well, speeding for a Bullet!). Cheddup, Wolf and I were next through the road block, but for some reason we weren’t stopped. Would you mess with us???? ; o)

Don and a couple were next and they stopped for the guy. They get asked for money and refuse, so the Maoist guy tries to grab Dons front brake lever, so he won’t be able to get away like Dessie, but Don was too quick and they all rode off before the guy had a chance to stop them. I think he must of gave up after that as no one else I spoke to had got hassled.