Departing Jomsom on the bikes about 8am to Tatopani.

Very tough technical off road for nearly five hours over 35k with 75% downhill.

Seeing buses on this road, you realize it’s these kind of roads when you see the headline “Bus off cliff, 20 die” in the news.

At times riding on the side of the mountain over huge stones; would have been very damaging to fall off. Only one time did I nearly bonk on the rocks; and it woulda been really bad cuz my ‘nards were behind the seat at the moment of averted tragedy!

Arms and wrists taking a beating on this second day of rough boulder, rock, gravel mix roads.

Spectacular scenery though with many scenes identical to Alaska.

During lunch, the rain started. We were all a bit spent by then; Flavia crashed not hurt though; I got my second flat; finally reached the town of Tatopani and the funky little Old Kamala Inn and Restaurant. They have hot water so I’m happy after a wet muddy day’s end!

In arrival, we all went down to what is essentially a public bath; two large concrete pools fed by natural hot springs; situated between the road and the river. Fantastic!!! One pool is hot; the other very hot! Lots of Nepalese… Then raining cats and dogs all night!!!

Ox invited me out again for rum and dried yak; there were some other cycling guides that were on the same path as us now; two Nepali guys were escorting one Japanese man on the portion of the same route we were on so we were chatting with them for a while.

There were some other European tourists staying at the same place, and in the morning it was interesting to see their Sherpas load their huge heavy gear on their backs; using a rope attached to a piece of fabric that was placed around their forehead which was the method of holding the bags on the back. I caught a couple pictures of them below. Amazing!

In the morning, we started on the bikes again on a very rough muddy 24k after breakfast.

Finally the cycling is done! These trips seem so long at times, and then suddenly the cycling is over with! It’s amazing how quickly the time goes by. Into the van, the cycling sadly ends. Drive 2.5 hrs to Pokhara, shower in the same Hotel Bougenville. (Say au revoir to Flavia who stays in Pokhara for five days, then heads back to Jomsom and starts a 16 day Teahouse to Teahouse trekking in Upper Mustang along the Annapurna Circuit; part of the same one we already did to Mulkinath on bikes. A Sherpa will carry her larger bag. Fantastic!!)

We caught 30 minute flight on Yeti Airlines back to Kathmandu for our final hotel night. Just the Brits and I remain; along with the crew of three.

KTM is huge, about 1.5 million pop.

On arrival in Kathmandu, we transferred to a very nice hotel, certainly the nicest one we’ve had this entire trip, the Royal Penguin. After just an hour, at about 7 PM we we then headed out to a fancy restaurant for the official farewell dinner. The meal was many small courses of traditional Nepali food that was pretty tasty. During the meal, dancers and singers were performing traditional music and dance, and though it sounds cheesy it was actually pretty entertaining. And of course, as expected the rice wine alcohol flowed freely.

The evenings fun was just beginning though. After dinner, we went to another place that is hard to describe. Sort of a cross between musical performance, karaoke, and dance hall. Perhaps a dozen young men and women on the stage all with microphones in hand, along with several musicians on drums and an accordion-like instrument; singing traditional music back and forth to each other. The women would sing for a while, then the men would sing for a while. A bottle of whiskey. On the table, and that seemed be the drink of the night. Ox knew the emcee guy, and so there was a lot of Nepali language back-and-forth between them, and us foreigners were remarked about favorably. We were certainly the only westerners in this place, that’s for sure! On some invisible cue, many of the men in the audience would get up on the dance floor and dance in a sort of interesting style. No women were ever dancing at any point, just the men. Of course I got up there and resembled the dance style, and it was actually very very fun! Then everyone would sit down for a while, drink more alcohol, and then again in an invisible cue would occur, all men get up on the dance floor yet again! This seemed to go on for hours, or at least until the whiskey was gone.

Got back at the hotel at some point in the evening, immediately went right to sleep. Woke up knowing that I had had a good time in Nepal.

(pix posted separately)