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Spicy omelettes and a broken rear deraillieur
Everybody I told that I had cycled in Nepal thought that I needed an oxygen mask to do this, but that was never the case!
From India, I crossed the
westernmost border of Nepal and arrived in a small town named Mahendranagar. The border was packed with people and very busy. The weather was pretty sunny and pleasant for December. The formalities for the border
crossing happened very quickly, because I had already a visa, which I got in the Nepalese embassy in Islamabad\Pakistan.
After I got the stamp in my passport, I cycled the first kilometres into the kingdom of
Nepal. The road was in a good condition and  good to cycle on. The expected nasty
gradients were missing. The reason for it were the four different geographical zones of Nepal: In the north, the Himalayian range, which rises up to the highest mountains in the world, in the south
follows the lower Himalayian range, with the Mahabharat mountains. Theses natural areas follows to the south the Siwali mountain range and the alluvial soil flat, called Terai.
The landscape of the Terai was beautiful: beside the road were lush green forest, in which I camped often and from numerous rivers I crossed, I filtered water to fill up my water bottles. Here and
there I stopped in small restaurants which were located beside the road. The meals in the small restaurants were reasonable cheap and jummy. Most of the
time, I chose omelette with rice and for drinking I ordered Pepsi or Coke depended on the range of drinks. The omelettes were sometimes stinking hot, because the shop
owner cut fresh green chillies in it. I noticed the chillies most of the time, too late, when I began to sweat uncontrollably and my tongue become numb. These omelettes from hell always burned twice!
The cycling in the Terai was very pleasant and relaxing, totally different from cycling in India, where the car drivers aim for you. Also the people were not that stressful and didn’t surround me all the time.
After 5 days I arrived in Butwal and from there it went all the way uphill, towards Pok hara. The road became narrower and wound itself up into the mountains
. The views were incredible: I was above lush green rice paddies and in the far background I could see high rising mountains, sometimes topped with snow.
About 50 kilometres in front of Pokhara, my rear derailleur got caught into my rear wheel and broke. A closer inspection made it clear: the cage of the derailleur was completely bent and the other
side was broken. Fortunately there were many busses on the road so I didn’t have to wait long to get a lift. After I put my bike on the roof on the bus, I climbed on top of it as well and enjoyed the view.
Pokhara is, after Kathmandu, the second most visited town in Nepal. The city is located 200km west of Kathmandu, and with 800 mtrs. above sea level much more lower than the capital city.
Pokhara is shaped by the second largest lake of Nepal, the Phewa Lake and the massive Annapurna Himalayian Range which extends north of the lake.
Most of the tourists visit Pokhara because of its wide range of outdoor activities: from rafting, trekking or mountain biking, everything is offered in numerous travel agencies.
In Pokhara I spent New Years Eve 2000. The place was gorgeous and the reflection of the 7000 meter high Annapurna Range in the Phewa Lake still makes me goose bumps.
Nevertheless, my rear derailleur was still broken and had to be fixed and if I could fix it or not, you can read in my next story.
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