Survival is a wonderful thing. We left Pokhara in a timely manner after yet another feast of breakfast and coffee. Packing 14 people’s bikes and gear into a truck and 2 vans is never a fast process but the guys here do it well. Our destination is back to Kathmandu wit a stop at Manakamana for a shuttle ride. Total distance of about 90 miles. Expected drive time…six hours more or less. Probably more as we will likely encounter rush hour.
The first half of the drive was a mix of bumpy road and open road and town driving. Relatively light traffic and clear skis and wonderful scenery.
Manakamana is a gondola ride up 1000m vertical to a temple and essentially a city at the top. Kind of like Lake Placid on top of Whiteface. Before the gondola installation it was a 7 hour hike.
Once we got the bodies and bikes to the top we ventured through the town and through rows and rows of stall selling the exact same plastic crap. Most of it was red. All of it was junk. Our crew has stopped at more than one place to help support the economy, but not here unfortunately.
We checked out the temple at the top and then began the descent. There were 2 paths to choose from. One was the flowing switchback jeep road. The other was super steep switchbacky single track with lots of down hill exposure (aka huge drop offs). Total of 150 switchbacks, all tight, steep and loose.
The jeep track was fun and fast. At the bottom was a long suspended bridge. They are a bit more comfortable for me now but not fun yet. It feels good to get across them though.
While waiting for the rest of the group, we found a stall with the best fritter like things (wonder what those were?) fried before your eyes and served with an awesome chile sauce. We had a few of those. The only bummer is that we were in the only place in Nepal that does not serve beer.
Once the group got down we headed down the road a bit to cross yet another bridge that was longer, and the other side was quite a bit higher. The bridges get pretty steep as you get to the opposite side and this one was really steep. Steep enough that traction became a bit of an issue for some of us.
Once across, we rode another mile to an amazing little place called the Summit River Lodge for an amazing chowmein. Chowmein here is not like what we get in the states. It is pretty darn good here. More like lowmein.
Once fed and rehydrated, we repacked the vans and continued on the second half of the road trip.
Driving and riding are not for the feint of heart. The roads are truly terrifying. It is only a miracle that we only saw 3 recent accident sites. Unfortunately 5 tourists from Korea lost their lives in one of the accidents. The road is a super twisty mountain road and passing is allowable anywhere. And they do pass everywhere.
As we got closer to Kathmandu, the air quality diminished and the smog got thicker. It is a large city and it is still customary to burn trash. Most vehicles pump out black smoke with each press of the gas.
Dinner at the Sun Cafe was fantastic with plate after plate arriving at regular intervals. We stumbled out of there way too full and retraced our tracks back to the Hotel Himalaya. Our refuge for the remainder of our stay.
Wednesday brings a casual start to the day and will consist of a few shuttle rides and then a city night ride.
Should be good!
