If you read the itinerary below, it says it was a tough but rewarding day. That’s very very true! Finally leaving Kathmandu region, in the mountains all day, it seemed like, and I’m not really kidding at all, that we were climbing about 75% of the misleading 55k today. On rocky road almost the entire day, and as I’ve probably mentioned before, without a full suspension bike I am not at all fan of rocky steep roads. (Whining yes, but it is my blog!😜) Oh well, I guess I should’ve done better research or should’ve known that Nepal was going to be full of hilly rocky unpaved roads!

Early in the day, we stopped at a huge relatively new monastery housing 350 monks. Of all ages, they teach most of their studies; science, math in English language. We were able to get a tour on request of the place, and it was really pretty interesting to see that kind of lifestyle. I’ve seen many monasteries before on my travels, but this was certainly one of the nicest I’ve ever seen! As we were touring inside, there were about 100 monks in one room in morning prayers chanting. I got a recording of them that was really mesmerizing and fantastic to hear. The whole story about who gets to be a monk and how long they get to be a monk is pretty interesting but that’s for another time.

As we continued climbing throughout the day, we eventually made it to our highest elevation of the day which was 6500 feet. For a time, we were riding through a pine forest. There’s something special and peaceful about riding through the pines, the scent of the needles, and the sound of the wind through the pines…despite the hills!

But as I’ve learned in Nepal, that doesn’t mean that once you’re at the top, that the rest of your time will be going downhill because that certainly was not the case whatsoever! There were so many ups and downs today, and then at one point when we were towards the end of the day, the assistant guide pointed us in the wrong direction and we ended up doing an additional 4 km up a f’n big hill that we didn’t need to do. Needless to say, he’s buying us a round the beers tonight.

For the lunch stop, we were at a very small food place overlooking the Kulekhani Reservoir which is a very large lake damn that fills up during monsoon season, and drains out much of the rest of the season and is the primary fresh water source for Kathmandu. There are also some extensive fish farms in there.

It was interesting at the lunch because the only thing they serve there was the kind of stuff sitting around in plates that most Westerners would look at and say “umm I don’t think I want any of that.” And that’s exactly what we were served, on a large round metal plate that I’ve seen in India as well, we were served very small amounts of about six different things. It was a curry type watery soup that was a fantastic flavor, rice, a pickled vegetable, pickle potatoes, boil potatoes, and all vegetarian items of course. Then there was a green paste sauce kind of thing that I tasted that was absolutely spicy wonderful deep green curry flavor that I put in the soup so then I dipped everything in the soup. Personally, I thought this was the best and most authentic meal on the trip so far! What was funny to watch though, is the UK folks and even the Swiss woman really hardly ate any of it, I think they were turned off by the manner in which all of the food seemed to be just sort of sitting out and nothing was refrigerated. But I think that’s part of the whole reason why people put curry on stuff is because it is a spice that reduces decay perhaps. Anyway, I may pay for it later and regret eating the mail, but I sure enjoyed it while I was eating it! There’s a photo below.

We finally made it to the hotel, and let me tell you that of all the hotels that I’ve ever stayed on any these trips, this has got to be down there near the bottom with the least clean; and no electricity. A classic Nepali hotel very much off the beaten path!

So everything on my body pretty much is sore now, after all the miles and miles of bumpy roads, and a really tough steep long day. So, I think I’m going to let my comments end here and just post up some pictures below the itinerary.

Tue 9 th April: Dakshinkali – Palung

This is a tough but rewarding day, we cylce along dramatic trails passing through pine forest and villages on our way to Markhu, where we stop for lunch beside a beautiful lake. This afternoon we ride the 14km stretch of the Tribhuvan Highway between Nauboise and Daman. This has been described as the most spectacular bike ride in Nepal, if not the world. Until the bypass through Mugling opened about two decades ago this was the only road to India. Today there is little traffic along a reasonable quality tarmac road which spirals up and down endless hills and passes through broad valleys and small villages. We climb in two stages towards Daman. First cycling to a pass at 2,000 metres. We then descend a few hundred metres before embarking on a final climb of 500 – 600 metres. Our accommodation is in Palung located 8 km before Daman