Varanasi

By Mark

After leaving Lumbini we headed south to cross the border into India with no problems except it being a time consuming task. Our first stop in India was Gorakhpur which was a shambolic city to say the least and we had stopped there purely to stay the night before moving onto Varanasi. Our first two days of riding in India was an eye opener and to think we were going to be here for a month was a scary thought. To put it simply we are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to who has more right on the road. Forget road rules as they do not apply here and when you come to the realisation that you are just another object for people to dodge, you somehow get on with the task at hand which is to keep yourself alive. Here you are simply invisible to any other person on the road which we soon learnt with many buses overtaking other vehicles coming straight for you at the worst time possible. After a good few crazy hours on the road we soon made our way into town and then the fun began again navigating our way through with little to no signage, but with help from a few locals we made our way to our hotel where for our first time on this trip paid more than we would ever pay for a room, but for us it was time to recharge our batteries and do it with a little luxury. Inside our little haven it was hard to imagine the going on outside our world of comfort. It didn't take long however for that bubble to burst the moment we stepped outside to the constant sound of horns and usual mayhem of Indian traffic. The main thing we wanted to check out here was of course the river Ganga and the numerous ghats that line the river of the city. This being THE holiest city in India brings a lot of people to its shores for a bath in its holy waters (even if I was a spiritual person you would never get me to step foot into that water!) and it was fascinating to see people go about their daily buisness on the river's edge from bathing, washing clothes, swimming and the most intriguing burning the dead. Many people are brought here or have come to stay here on their final days and after their death are cremated by the river. It is said that if you die here you get released from the endless cycle of being born and dying. Firstly the bodies are weighed as to know how much wood is needed to burn the entire body - apparently this is quite a science. From here one after another, people are carried by bamboo stretches wrapped in all sorts of different decorative dress and placed into the river. They are then put on top of their pile of timber before being covered with oil and butter then set a light. For an outsider I thought I would be shocked to see this but I was more intrigued then anything. It is so different to anything I have ever witnessed when it comes to a funeral but truly surprising to see how death is really so final. At these ceremonies women are not allowed and it was in a way hard to see that some bodies were just left in the sun with no family around them before being cremated. There are also many temples in the city but we just didn't have the energy to check them out. We have seen so many on the trip so far we thought that to miss a few would be ok.

The River Ganga, Varanasi

Locals come here for a bath in the holy waters

And to wash their clothes

After years of high water levels this place has started to subside under the softening land

A young local guy who just came out of the river
warned us of the local scams we should be wary of

He also told us about the local delicacy called paan,
a euphoria inducing formulation with adverse health effects

There are huge amounts of firewood here for the cremating of bodies by the river

These guys are everywhere through the city

This is one of the two 'Burning Ghats' in Varanasi

It is not just Indonesians that like to overload their boats

It's a dog eat dog world here in India - literally!

A typical chaotic day on the streets

The curiosity of the locals is astounding

Just chillin

This is our first bit of luxury on the trip, we even had a pool which was much needed in the heat here

Riding in Nepal

Lumbini

By Sanne

Our last stop in Nepal before crossing into India was Lumbini - the birthplace of Buddha. It is a World Heritage Site and attracts pilgrims from all over the world. The first thing we saw was a decorated elephant walking down the road with a man on top. We stopped to stare at them and they stopped to stare at us! As we pull up outside a guesthouse we see a bike parked outside and not just any bike - a DRZ400. Matt from England had ridden it all the way to here and is also going around the world. The next thing we spot is of course...Frank! The German rider that we have now run into about five times all over Asia. I'm sure we will keep running into each other all the way to Europe! So the four of us sat down over some beers and shared stories from the road. Matt had even been to Iraq where he had some interesting stories from. Maybe that's a country we should visit too? Apparently it's really easy to get in with a visa on arrival.
The next morning we went to explore Lumbini. Turns out there was a festival going on that day so it was full of pilgrims. It was a melting pot of people, animals, food and deafening music. We walked around the place and observed the many people who had come here to touch the exact spot Buddha was born and to take a wash in the holy pond. Many countries such as Thailand and Burma have monasteries there and there is also an international meditation centre although I doubt how much meditation they could have gotten done that day with all the noise. Apart from the religious places of interest there was also a fairground with rides that looked like they had been built out of some old garden tools and could fall apart at any time. This place seemed so different from the rest of Nepal and people living here looked decidedly more Indian, but then we were not far from the border. Turns out, as far as craziness and mayhem goes, we had seen nothing yet. Next stop India...

Mark, Frank and Matt

It looks like muddy water but is sugar cane juice

Mark with two monks from Burma who wanted a photo with him

A holy tree

Pilgrims getting a little bit of holiness from the sacred pond

Theme park galore!

All man-powered

Mark got pulled into the fun and games

He missed by the way

So did I with the balls

Pokhara and Sarangkot

By Sanne

Pokhara is the second big tourist town of Nepal after Kathmandu. One of the most popular treks, the Annapurna Circuit, sets out from here so there are lots of hikers around. The weather being so hazy we decided not to go hiking. Besides, we really enjoy just being on the bikes and explore a place on two wheels. We had heard about a so-called Overlander Campsite just outside Pokhara and as we hadn't used our tent since Indonesia it was about time it got aired out again. The campsite is dead cheap to camp at - under $1 per person and had the hottest shower and fastest wifi we have had in all of Nepal - all in a middle of a rice field! There were no other bikers there at the time but a couple of cars that had come overland from Europe.
We also rode up to Sarangkot, a small village at the top of the mountain overlooking Pokhara. We had been invited by Daniel, an American we met while trying to clear customs in Kathmandu. He is running a project up here trying to develop agriculture within the local community. He is originally a university lecturer but now he lives here. Really nice guy. He introduced us to an Italian/Spanish couple who stays in one of his farm houses here and we ended up spending the night there. Nico and Lakshmi have lived there for about a year and have renovated the house they live in and is cultivating the vegetable fields there. They were such good hosts to us, cooked us dinner and told us so much about Nepalese culture and customs, all very fascinating. We hope they make it to Australia one day, maybe on a motorcycle!

Good to know...?!

More cows...

Overlander Campsite

Baby Water Buffalo

Daniel playing the didgeridoo

The cosy little farmhouse we stayed in

Our lovely hosts Nico and Lakshmi

And not to forget their cute cat Maya (which means love in Nepalese)

Langtang National Park

By Mark

Before we headed off on our ride north from Kathmandu we were a little hesitant as what to expect. We had read that the 120km's takes about ten hours to traverse. What were we in for??? Well, luckily it didn't take us as long but still it took five and a half hours. The road started out small and windy and slowly we made our way higher and higher up the mountain through towns and small villages and the further we went the more the roads deteriorated. There are many landslides up here and they take the road with them each time making many sections of the road quite sketchy, it is already bad enough that the roads have no barriers and beyond them are drops hundreds of metres to the valley below. We arrived in Syrabesi without incident and found ourselves a little guesthouse with a very sweet man who ran it himself along with his shop and restaurant. Service was a little slow but so is the pace of life up here. Can't expect too when we payed just a little over $2 for our room.We decided we should go for a hike while up here since we finally got to see some peaks of the Himalayas so the following day we headed off. We soon realised how out of shape we have become huffing and puffing and sweating, then you see the local porters carrying all sorts of things up the mountain side to the small guesthouses and realise how hard they have it. Along the way I decided it would be funny to hide off the side of the track and give Sanne a nice little scare as she walked on by, only problem was I hid too well and never noticed her walk straight by! So a few minutes later I jump back onto the track, no Sanne. Hmmmm, so I start to walk on up the track but no Sanne, since I was a bit ahead of her before I decided to hide I thought she may have just stopped and had a break. So I turn around and start running in the other direction, after about ten minutes still no sign of her. Totally keeping my cool I turn and make my way back again in my original direction, I start running like mad through the forest screaming out her name scaring all the animals in sight and having the locals think that there really is a Yeti living up in the mountains, one sight of this bearded, dread locked sweating beast would have had them running a mile. Finally after about 30 minutes I see Sanne sitting on a rock waiting patiently. I have never given her such a big hug in my life and she just said I was stupid. Learnt a good lesson that day... After all this we turned around and headed back to our guesthouse for a much needed cold beer.

The sealed road only lasts so long, there are many landslides in this area

Quick check of the tyre pressures

  

Switchbacks anyone?

Our final destination, Syrabesi

Hello, what do we have here?

 Yes, this stuff grows like a weed here, literally!

 Sanne was loving it!

Unbelievable what these guys can carry.

Just a small glimpse of the Himalayas

A small village along the Langtang walking trail

These monkeys were very shy and hard to get a photo of

Ride to Tibet Border

By Sanne

Seemingly we are in Nepal at the wrong time of year to truly appreciate the beauty of the nature. As it is now the build up to the Monsoon there is a constant heat haze covering the mountains which is a little bit annoying but what can you do? We are still enjoying the roads here however bad they might be! We left Kathmandu to go to Nagarkot where apparently the views to the Himalayas is stunning but all we got was...haze. After a quiet night there we followed an incredibly steep, rocky and dusty road with many switchbacks down the mountains. What surprised us (but not in a good way) here was that almost everyone (especially kids) who we passed asked us for money or sweets. Adults too would sometimes hold out their hands and make a gesture as if to ask for money. Nepal is a very poor nation, 80% of the population lives on less than $2 per day. We joined the Arniko Highway that takes you all the way to the Tibetan border. Highway is highly overrated for this road! It is half tar-half dirt mainly because of numerous landslides as the road clings to the mountain side. It was an enjoyable ride though - where we stayed that night not so much! By the time we arrived at the Tibetan border, Mark was seriously craving a toilet! I was given the responsibility of finding a guesthouse pronto so dear Mark could relieve himself! I basically took the first guest house I walked into and it was really cheap at $3. So what do you get for $3? Turns out not much! Our room was what you would call a "box room" or cell perhaps is more fitting. Unfortunately for Mark it also had the smelliest toilet we've encountered on this trip so far! The smell of piss was so strong that it felt like it was penetrating through your pores! Nice.
We walked up to the border where a Friendship Bridge marks the border between Tibet and Nepal. I nicely asked the border guard if I was allowed to walk on to the bridge to take a photo but I was told that if I did that the Chinese would come and have a word with me, so I thought better not! Instead I sneakily took a photo of Mark with the Chinese government buildings in the background. As you can tell from the photo we were both a little nervous to end up in a Chinese prison!

Mark with two little ones

 

Lunch break by the river

Arniko Highway

Bungee jumping at The Last Resort

Paranoid much? Mark at the Chinese border

 

Riding in the Kathmandu Valley

Thanks to Frank for filming and sharing this video with us!