After the trek we woke up bright and early, around 11 am. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast, looked across the street and noticed mountainbikes for rent. Having walked enough for the rest of our holiday we decided to hire a bike and cycle to the batcave. It is located a few kilometres  outside Pokhara. On our way there we realised that outside Pokhara means also above Pokhara. It was already midday, so we cycled very slowly uphill. The batcave is called so because of the tens of thousands of bats that live there. It has a large entrance and a very narrow exit. There is probably exactly one way how a human body can get through this exit and you need to plan several moves in advance otherwise you get stuck. Wearing flipflops didn’t make navigating the slippery cave easier either. Still it was fun even though there were ‘only’ a few hundred bats due to the hot weather. Outside again, the thunderclouds were gathering above the other side of the lake.We raced downhill passing cars left and right. Still we didn’t make it in time, in the last street thick raindrops were falling, penetrating cloths at impact. We returned the bikes and hurried to our regular seats at the veranda. Within minutes the rain turned into a mini-monsoon. The entire public life came to a standstill. The taxi drivers, which were always present in the street, had taken shelter into one car. When one of the hotel employees needed a taxi, the drivers just ignored him to prevent having to get out into the rain. A few hours later the rain slackened a bit and life resumed again. We left our spot as well to play a bit of pool and have our last evening at the lake. The next day we set of to Kathmandu. To break the long journey we spent a night in Bandipur a medieval village in the hills about halfway Kathmandu.

View on Bandipur

Once in Thamel we found the Van Wingerden family busy preparing for Janna’s 2nd birthday. The next morning the lady’s were going to have a party and the men set of for some serious mountain biking. The Kathmandu valley is surrounded by steep 2000m high hills. We left early to be at the top of one of those hills before it got too hot. Since there are no dedicated bicycle paths, let alone ATB trails we had to navigate the main roads. Cycling here is similar to dodging tourist in central Amsterdam, except that the pedestrians are reinforced by cars and buses. The average speed of 30kph is easily reached, so we were passing them left, right front and back.

Once we left the city the traffic decreased, so did the road quality, to the point that ‘off road’ was better than ‘on road’. After breakfast at the highest point we left the tarmac road for a steep rock and sand road. Going downhill is so much more fun than going uphill. Bouncing over rocks and sliding through gravel we raced down until Erni hit a big rock. He is the experienced mountain biker so he had made sure that we had the necessary equipment to fix tires. Still somehow he was the only one who got a flat tire (twice). This didn’t stop us from racing down again at the edge of control. After a while we reached a village and the road became less steep and properly paved. This meant that we had to look out for traffic as well as potholes. We raced a few motorbikes for a while, winning down hill, losing uphill again, until we reached the flat valley floor.

Erni fixing his tire.

We had planned our route in a way that we could stop at Boudha. This is the religious centre for Tibetans and other Buddhists in Nepal. Unfortunately for us the streets leading to the main complex are potholed, dusty and filled with traffic and fumes. It was already past noon and very hot. Totally dirty, with our lungs filled with dust we looked up Erni’s favourite rooftop restaurant and just enjoyed the view and quenched our thirst. The last bit home was another dodge the traffic ride. In general our bikes were quicker than all other other traffic. This made us wonder why there were so few. The government is subsidizing fuel, so it is cheap, but the government can’t afford it any more. This results in a fuel crises and huge queues for fuel stations (as in a few blocks of parked cars and bikes!). This combined with the fact that cars and motorbikes are expensive it would make sense to go by bike. But then again, this is our western efficiency minded logic talking. Tomorrow we begin our trip back home and leave the Nepali with the Nepali problems. *snif*

This is about a tenth of the entire queue.