Daman – Kathmandu 8th June 2006

I woke this morning to the sound of the family dog barking it’s head off, this wouldn’t have been so bad if:
a) The dog hadn’t been lying two feet away from me
b) I’d have had more than four hours sleep
c) It wasn’t 05:00

I hadn’t had a bad nights sleep though, I listened to my ipod for an hour or so before nodding off around 01:00. It’s weird to sleep on a mattress on a table in a restaurant, but I’m glad I done it, after all part of this trip is to have new experiences.

I had a bit of a lie in though and didn’t get up until 05:30, as I heard everyone start to move about. This wasn’t difficult though as the pot washer guy was sleeping in a store room beside me and he made sure that I was awake by singing and throwing open the curtains. The weather looked nice though so I wanted to go and see if I could see the mountains, especially Mt. Everest, as the guidebooks say that Daman is the best place to get a panoramic view of the Himalayas. The shower was the village pump about fifty yards down the road, I had a quick look at it but didn’t want to join the queue of five people (men and women) waiting to use it – a shower would have to wait until Kathmandu. I went for a quick walk and was rewarded with a stunning view of clouds! There was a bit of blue sky breaking, but it looked like I wasn’t going to get to see Everest this trip. I walked back to the “hotel” and got talking to one of the kids from last night (he was out at 05:40 washing pots and pans in cold water) and I said to him; “no Everest today?” and pointed to the clouds, he said;” Everest not there, over here” and he took me twenty yards down the road and I could see some mountains between the houses and I excitedly said “Everest”, and he said “no, not Everest, Everest beside, but not see today”. Oh well, at least I’d seen a couple of snow covered mountains, and the little I saw was spectacular.

I went back and got a cup of chai from the “lady of the house”, I think that she must have got a bollocking from her husband last night as she was a bit quite and sheepish. It was too early to set off for Kathmandu (only two hours away), so I hung around and went for a walk around the village and whilst I was doing this the clouds started to burn off and I got some more tantalising glimpses of the mountain range. By the time I got on the road at 07:00 the clouds were starting to close back in and I didn’t get to see Mt. Everest, I was above the level of the clouds though so I had a clear view of the road, which certainly wasn’t the case yesterday. I noticed the rattle coming from my side boxes getting louder and I pulled over after about five kilometres and noticed that one of the two remaining supports (I lost the other one in the Jungle in Chitwan) had lost one of the two screws holding it in and the frame was now cracked in two places (did I mention before that it had one crack last week?) and there was only three screws holding the rack and two boxes together. I couldn’t empty the boxes as all I was carrying was my camera bag and my clothes etc. wouldn’t fit in there. I hand tightened the allen bolts (I don’t have an allen key as the rest of the bike is tightened by spanners) and checked them five more kilometres down the road. The last remaining two bolts had become loose again and the frame was rattling around dangerously, I hand tightened the bolts again but knew it wouldn’t be long before I would have to pull over and repeat the procedure.

In a way it was a bit of a blessing in disguise as I made sure I stopped at a scenic place (not difficult) and I was able to take some photos at the same time. When I left Daman the views were excellent, I could see right across valleys and caught glimpses of the mountains, but I was travelling downhill out of the mountains. I don’t know why but I prefer to ride up hill, I love the pull of the bike and knocking down the gears as I take yet another hairpin with the side of my shoes scraping the blacktop (that doesn’t happen in London). I was on the lookout for someone to repair the luggage rack, but I only passed medieval type villages and no doubt they’ve only learned that you can shoe a horse, and I was met with looks of puzzlement as I pointed to my rack and asked if they could “chuhh chuhh” it (I tried to sound like a welder and used some hand motions – it was clear that they never played Charades.

Rick and Mo are thinking of organising motorcycle trips on this road (they already do some for other parts of Nepal) and they would be the most amazing road trips that you could go on. I can only imagine how beautiful the road would be from Sept – Feb when the sky is blue and clear, today it was merely brilliant. I did have one “brown pants” moment when I was going into a right hand bend (not tight) and the front wheel lost grip and slipped, somehow the bike managed to right itself (after my right foot grounded and nearly snapped my ankle) and I pulled over to take in what had happened. I hadn’t been going fast, no more than 35 kilometres per hour and I hadn’t used my front brake, the road had looked fine as I entered the bend (no visible gravel, dirt or diesel) so I don’t know why I lost the front end which was a slight worry. I checked my tires and they were fine, no stones or nails in then and the pressure was good, so I have no idea why the bike lost it at that corner, I wouldn’t have minded if it happened at one of the bends that I had been ‘hammering’ around.

I got to Naubise, which is on a busy little junction with the Kathmandu / Pokhara road and as I went through the town I noticed several motorcycle mechanics, I pulled in at the second or third one. I asked the guy (in my best Pidgin English) if he could weld the broken supports and put a couple of bolts in the luggage rack, he couldn’t weld, but he managed to secure the rack with a couple of bolts, which should get me the twenty kilometres to Kathmandu. I decided to get a Chai as it was after 10:00 and I needed a bit of liquid refreshment so I went to a small café beside the workshop where I had a lovely Chai and some Dal Baht. As I was sitting there I seen the most amazing sight. A bus full of people rounded the bend and there was a brass band in full costume and hats sitting on the roof (it gets better). Not only were they sitting there, they were also playing as the bus weaved around the corner, I p1ssed myself laughing. I had to get a photograph of this – surely a competition winner! I wolfed the rest of the Dal Baht down and five minutes later I was on the bike chasing the bus down, it wouldn’t take me long as the roads were bendy and as far as I knew there were no other roads it could take until it got a bit nearer Kathmandu. I geared myself up for the chase and was thinking of my speech for accepting Photographer of the Year, when I rounded a bend and there was the band walking down the road, instruments at hand on their way to a wedding! Shot missed.

Just after I passed the checkpoint before Kathmandu the road got really bad, which only happened in the last week. It looked as though they were in the process of relaying the road although they had only got as far as putting loose gravel down in the lane that I was in. This made riding pretty hazardous, as it was dangerous to brake on this service. Oh, I forgot to mention, when I was taking photos in the mountains, my bike rolled off its centre stand and broke the left foot peg. Again. I’ve been riding for eighteen years (no sniggering at the back) and I’ve never lost a foot peg before and suddenly it’s two within the space of a week. I was better able to handle it this time though, especially as the roads were twisty and I kept my speed down. Just after the road in Kathmandu got bad, I spotted some guy welding, so I did a U-turn and motioned to him to have a look at my bike. I showed him my foot peg and broken rack and within twenty minutes he welded the bike up – not bad for £0.55 pence GBP! I managed to find the guesthouse easily enough, which surprised me, but Oliver gave me good directions when I met with him in Chitwan.

After checking in I took a walk around Thamel, which is the tourist / back packer area, and it’s only a ten minute walk from the hotel. I was heading for New Road as Dessie told me that there are numerous camera shops there and I need to get a lens for my new camera. Wow, it was like walking into paradise – there were camera shops everywhere and they were all selling the latest gear! I found one shop that can get me the lens that I want (3 day delivery time), although I think I’ve decided to buy two lens rather than the one and it’ll only cost me an extra two hundred quid more than the one lens would cost me back in England. I managed to walk away with out buying anything, as I wanted to check the Internet to see what people make of the lenses. I found an Internet shop and was delighted to hear that it was only 15 Nepali Rupees an hour as opposed to the 150 Rupees an hour they were charging in Chitwan, and the connection speed wasn’t too bad. I found very positive reviews of the lenses and managed to rattle off a few quick emails as I have a lot of catching up to do (apologies if I haven’t got back to anyone, give me a few more days….please).

I bought a cut-throat razor and shaving brush today as I’ve really enjoyed getting shaved by one. I decided to have a quick shave before I went out: big mistake. It’s not actually as easy as it looks, which is why I suppose we all use modern razors. It took me half a face to get the hang (sort of) of it, and the right hand side of my face looked as though I had survived (just about) a meeting with Freddie Kruger. The left hand side of my face was fine. When using a cut-throat you lather up and shave then repeat (just like having a two bladed Gillette) and I some how managed to cut my left ear and slice my left cheek on my second shave! Nothing that half an hour of pressing my face trying to get the blood to clot couldn’t fix though! Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow..

I went to Cheddup’s bar (Jazz Upstairs) to see if he was around, he told me that he might be there for the weekend when I saw him in Chitwan, but looks like he won’t be here until Saturday, Wolf and Raju left town yesterday. I had one beer there and something to eat and there was a power cut due to the monsoon rains, so I called it a night and discovered that my waterproof North Face jacket is not waterproof – not to monsoon rains anyway, no wonder most of the Nepalese walk around in the rain wearing T-shirts.