“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

Happy Birthday Zeenie from Chitwan, Nepal!

The 5am cacophony from my room includes a thousand birds chirping, a cow mooing, a rooster crowing, a goat bleating, a group of barking dogs (Nepalese Travel Bureau subcontractors, no doubt) seemingly patrolling the street, barking incessantly up and down the length of the street, trucks and motorbikes with no mufflers going by, the morning buses heading over some mountain honking for passengers, men and women enthusiastically hacking up their overnight respiratory burden, and the conversations of Nepalese men awake in the morning sipping their tea and talking emphatically to each other. Aaaaah yes, I must be somewhere in Asia! Have i mentioned sleep has been very elusive on this trip?

So we started out in the morning, with a reasonable 55 km today, which doesn’t necessarily sound like much. But, it was actually a wonderful and spectacular day! 13 K uphill through pine forests and winding paved switchbacks, and then a massive 32K downhill on the other side of the mountains with spectacular views as far as the eye could see through the haze. Truly, a very nice day of biking, the kind of day that you ride downhill for so long that your arms and wrists get so tired because you had to be on the brakes so much because it’s really a continuously steep and very curvy downhill.

Where we stopped for lunch, a small hut new the 7000 foot level, we had what I considered to be a wonderful Nepali lunch. Lentil soup, pickled potatoes, potato pancake thingy, another cabbage thing. Usually on these trips, I’m going to eat just about anything people put in front of me, well except anything fermented food; I’ve learned my lesson on that one. Eating local food is perhaps the best part of the adventure! But I must say I am certainly the most adventurous of this group in that area, the two Brits are kinda germophobes and rarely will eat anything prepared in a typical Nepali kitchen, they will only eat foods that appear to be prepared in a “proper” kitchen. The reality is in a place like this, well, the proper kitchen is the one that’s out in the middle of nowhere and some woman is chopping stuff up and mixing it altogether. Oh well, I’m enjoying the local offerings; I especially love anything that has lentils and really spicy ground fresh peppers and curry added.

Back to the ride; it was our first clue as we came down the other side of exactly how hot the weather is going to be for much of the rest of the trip unless it changes somehow, which is unlikely. As we descended from 7000 feet, that heat became incredible and blistering, even as we’re riding down hill, the hot air in my face still was intense, and by the time we got all the way down to Hetuada, holy crap it was hot, somewhere in the mid- 90s.

Then, checking into this hotel, we were faced again with no power, thus no fan. Aircon not installed. Damn that room was hot!!! I wandered around on my own a bit; had a couple conversations; met a guy who is a teacher for an international school of some sort. We talked for probably 30 minutes; he gave me his number in Kathmandu and on our return there, I may call him for coffee if we have time at the end.

Side note, below you’ll see a picture of a leopard dog or something that looked like that. When I first saw it, I thought what the hell kind of dog is that? I was so surprised! But what it turns out is that is how dogs are commonly marked with black paint if they have a lice infestation so that people know to stay away from them. How interesting is that?

Now back to my “infestation” of barking dogs wherever I try to sleep! As you know, I’ve had a fascination with understanding the Nepalese travel bureaus scheduling for their dogs. Sometimes it seems like they work in groups, sometimes a single emphatic incessant barker, a now another configuration seems to be that they work in pairs. Now I suspect this is because some of the shifts are very long, again probably a seniority-based system for the more cushy tourist annoyance program assignments. Last night, there were two dogs barking, but only briefly would ever bark at the same time. So as I’m laying in bed yet again somewhere between midnight and 4 AM listening to the barking, I’m trying to figure out the arrangement. My suspicion in this case was that they were tag teaming; so that if one was starting to fall asleep, the first one would bark periodocally to check if the other was still awake. Then they would bark together for just a minute or two, and then it would be silent for maybe five minutes again. So originally I was thinking tag team, but perhaps now maybe more likely is that one is the new energetic barker, and the other is essentially retired on the job and only barks when he is really forced to. So that’s why they assigned a junior member to the older guy to keep them awake. Sort of like a reverse mentor program. Who knows, I may have it all wrong…

Near the time we were leaving the hotel to go grab dinner, two buses pull up and about 30 of high school type age kids promptly moved into our hotel. OMG I thought, this can’t be good for sleeping either! As it turns out, those 30 or so kids seem to have an all night party, you could hear the yelling, singing, and stomping all night long!

I think this was officially my worst night sleeping ever! And knowing that we had to get up at about 5:30 AM, and then ride 72K makes it all the more memorable.

Almost forgot to mention we saw the Himalayas barely through the haze for the first time!

Here’s the official itinerary for this day:

Wed 10 th April: Palung – Hetauda

After breakfast, we cycle to Daman. At (2,400 metres) it is reputed to have the most spectacular outlook on the Himalaya – an incredible 400km panorama which extends from Annapurna to Everest. There are also great views over the Terai to India. There is a short 5 km ascent to the pass above Daman at 2,500 metres. From the summit we will look down over the plunging slopes of the Mahabharat Lekh which leads to the Terai, the low plains of Nepal. For the rest of the day we enjoy the ultimate downhill ride through pine and rhododendron forests which eventually give way to semi-tropical vegetation as the air becomes more humid. Initially small clusters of houses cling to lonely hill tops but as we approach the Terai we start to pass through more and more villages. Watch out for stray animals and children as you ride through! All the while the road winds like a big crawling snake, down to the ground, nearly 2,000 metres below. The town of Hetauda (455 metres) lies at the bottom of the downhill and you are bound to dismount on an unforgettable high.