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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Still Alive...

He Said:
For those who have been worrying about us, yes we are still in one piece, but barely.

Stupid is as Stupid does. Please learn from our mistakes: when you and the boys decide to go for a 1.5 hour ride at 2 pm in the afternoon with 6 pm sunset that no one has ever been on through the Himalayas in January it is a good idea to be prepared. Unlike us. I wore jeans and took off the paniers with our extra stuff, Clara (despite me always telling her not to) decided not to wear a helmet. You know about our lack of horn. Still, it was a beautiful ride out to our destination (with only a few drops of rain from the threatening clouds) to look for hotels. We are thinking of starting a motorcycle adventure tour company with our local friend Rupendra and we want to visit and map out everywhere we will bring people. At 4 pm (halfway) Clara said we should turn back, but we were caught in the Newar Hospitality trap in the mountain village where our friend Robin had an "auntie". Everything ground to a halt while we chatted and were served tea and took pictures.

So, just to be clear: we are about to ride home in the dark on steep mountain roads with many washouts and landslides which is against our rules. We don't have the proper clothing, and I have no horn which is the only way to pass the trucks which hang out in the middle of the road.

This is where my BMW decided to weigh in and teach me a lesson for being so negative about it, and for yelling (under my breath and in my helmet) at all the people whom we pass who tell me that my headlight is on. "Yes I know my headlight is on!! It is a safety feature, the fact that you can see me tells me that it is working!"

As soon as I switched the bike on to return home the headlight was blown. To those loyal readers, you will know that this headlight is only about 10,000 miles old after the previous entire headlight assembly was replaced. Woo Hoo!!!! Nothing like driving home in the dark.

Then the Gods stepped in and it started raining and hailing (we have had hail in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Turkey, and Nepal). I'm not sure we picked the right seasons to travel. The boys left me behind on their manly 135 cc's with working horns and headlights. We got back to Pokhura about 7:30, frozen solid. I had a fever which I still have and Clara has had her first stomach problems on the whole trip.

Still, these are all our fault, the Nepali people are wonderful, the scenery is incredible, Blackberry's don't work here, power is out 6 hours a day (maybe moving to 11!), and we only have dial up service. Don't expect too many updates.

By the way, you know a mountain is BIG when you can see it from 180 miles away. The Himalayas are spectacular.

She Said:
...In fact, the Himalayas are so spectacular that they inspired me (Clara) to go Paragliding to get a closer look! The morning of our fateful ride, I got up bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed as I had decided that this would be the perfect place for me to try somtheing I have been wanting to do throughout the whole trip: run off a mountain and fly off into the sky strapped on to another guy. So I did. The day was perfect (in the beginning, you know how it turned out though!) Blue skies and big white mountains beckoned and I answered their call. I absolutelty LOVED the whole experience and I highly recommend it to everyone. The wind whooshing past me, birds flying by, gorgeous scenery all around and the most peaceful and free feeling I have ever felt (even more than when on the bike on a perfect road). I took some video of the peaceful views and of the "death spiral" we did as we approached the landing spot. By the way, it was a perfect landing, right inside the red circle in the rice field. I can't wait to do it again....and again!!!!