Lockdown in Kathmandu

The Lockdown in Nepal with its flight ban is a part of this trip. It’s not catastrophic but a new mental challange if you don’t know when you eventually reach home.

International flights had been suspended first until 14th of May. So with my flight on 15th of May I was in confident to return. They prolonged the verdict just three days before it was running out to the 31st of May and my airline canceled the flight soon after. It’s now rescheduled for 3rd of June and I am anxiously waiting if this works out.

With a bit of a smile on the face this reminds me on Thomas Mann’s novel The magic mountain. People arrive at the sanatory with the intention of staying two weeks end end up in the place for years. Here is also some basic luxory, you see mountains in the back and a desease is defining the length of the stay. 

The solidarity in the country is high. You see restaurants preparing food “to go” for free for the ones in need and even I got once such a packet without even asking for it. Many people which have no income get supported by their huge family clans as I heard on many occasion. 

Talking about casts this is likely the least understandable part in Nepal. The family name of a Nepali is the name of its cast and indeed this defines options and possibilities even though it’s banned by Nepal constitution. Tourists are somehow out of this system and find themselves between the first and the next lower cast. I am far away to judge this system as strange it may appear in our eyes. It has grown over centuries and seems like a hidden cement for the society. 

Mustang Valley and way to Pokhara

From Muktinath we freewheeled down to Kagbeni on likely the finest termac road in Nepal. It’s was only 12km though. From  there we went up the Mustang Valley on very rough gravel road to Chhusang. From here we could not go further without permit. Chhusang is a small village with an impressive fortress. I strongly hope that it works eventually to explore this remote place any further. 

It’s a very dry and windy area and it blows allways in northern direction. We really struggled on the way back south with the combination of heavy gravel road and the strong headwind. The road down south seems to be Nepals largest building site and we manouvered often between heavy construction machines and over temporary roads. The valley likely will look different once this road is completed. 

Another highlight of this section, the hot pools in Tatopani unfortunately had been closed because of Covid sanction. 

In the evening we arrived in Pokhara via the hills of Sarangkot overlooking lake Pokhara. It was nearly dark but from there the view on Daulagiri, Fishtail Mountain and Annapurna was the most memorable of the whole trip. We went up there again the next day but the mountaineous theater was unfortunately all in clouds. 

The 2nd wave meanwhile rolled full spead over Nepal. More than half of the districts are already in Lockdown. Also domestic and international flights are suspended on very short notice. 

Crossing the districts is forbidden but once again the embassy was helpful in saying that a flight ticket works to pass the checkpoints. As we did not want to risk any stopping on the way we decided to take a cap back to Kathmandu instead of pedaling which worked fine. 

My flight has disappeared from the airlines app and I will have to call them to see if they have a plan for my return. It’s obviously a deja vue from last year but this time I am far more relaxed that the situation will work out some way or the other. 

Thorong La

“Thorong” means high and “La” means pass in Nepali language. Several Nepali simply talk about ‘high pass” when we talk in English. The last station before the pass is the High Camp on 4800m. So we checked in there to reduce the height difference to a minimum.

At 4:30 am we started to walk up. It was about 30cm of snow from a week ago on the trail so even pushing the bike was extremely exhausting. The air is so thin now that even without snow it is nearly impossible to ride up.

Round 9am we reached the pass together with two porters carrying the luggage of hikers over the pass. The view from the pass to Daulagiri was worth all the calories we spent to come up here. On this day it had been about 10 hikers to go over where in normal times hundreds of people make their way into the Mustang valley.

The landscape on the way down was fairly different to the way up. The southern Himalaya shields the northern region from rainfall so the ground is very dry with only few vegetation and much less snow on the peaks above. 

The map showed something like a road down to Muktinath. Again all hopes of some riding down was destroyed as it was a very stony trail which might be OK for downhill fanatics but not for me on a trecking bike. 

So after another 3h of pushing the bike down we came into Muktinath. The village is famous for Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims with its Vishnu temple.

We want to see now how far we can cycle up the Mustang Valley before a new permit for the upper Mustang region might be needed. Though I would like to see the area the cost of 500 USD for the permit seems to me a bit of an overshoot on tourists budget. 

Tilicho Lake

The weather cleared again and in bright sunshine we left Manang not having skipped the fine chocolate croissants they had in the teahouse we stayed for the night.

First station towards Tilicho Basecamp was Khangsar. We asked if the trail was fine to ride on bicycle and people said it can be done on motorbikes. Not sure where this statement came from but we pushed the bikes on most of the way and I can not figure out how it ever can be done with a motorbike. 

Tilicho Basecamp is at 4150m and we reached there in the afternoon. We had early dinner to get enough sleep for an early rise. It’s recommended to go early up there as the wind picks up quite heavily in the late morning. With all the cloth I went in my light sleeping bag and having blankets on top it was just cosy enough for a well needed sleep.

At 5am we left basecamp with headtorches. It was hard walking up to the 4920m high lake which we reached by 10am but the lookout on this high valley with the lake in the middle was well worth the effort.

The snow started melting when walking down which did not really help on the decent. It is only around 700m up and down but I felt really smashed when we came back to basecamp. It really is different to hike in the Himalayas compared to the Alps. 

From basecamp we went down for around 2h until we reached a junction that would bring us a station further up the road to Thorong La. This was again 3h of mainly pushing the bike up and holding it when walking down with only few section where you could freewheel. At five in the afternoon we finally reached a tea house in Yak Kharka at 4018m. It was by far the hardest day of this trip but I enjoyed every moment. 

Manang – getting into winter

We reached Manang today on 3500m height.  The landscape we passed changed massively from tropical vegetation to mainly timber forest. Also temperature dropped from nearly 30 deg C to now below the freezing point. It’s just one day ago when we soaked in one of the hot pools after sweating in heat compared to today when we pedaled in town with gloves and thick buffs below the helmet.

The typically family run hostels on the Annapurna circuit are called teahouses. They offer simple accommodation and basic food. Strangely enough they all have same menue and prices which seem meticulously regulated by a superior organisation. A killing system for any competition on best cooking between the houses. The standard dish and because of the few tourists often the only option is Dal Bhat. This is rice with lentil soup and spicy vegetables where you allways get more even if you have not specifically asked for it. They make it always fresh and each chef has its own way of making it unique. I have no problem to have Dal Bhat each day

On a bicycle I never have been up that height as the highest termac passes in the Alps barely touch the 3000m. Looking up the snow capped mountains gives me a scary feeling of what’s waiting for. I am very happy that my cycling mate has a trekking guide license which should avoid alpine mistakes.

Our climb rate will from now on decrease to make sure we acclimatize adequately. So far I do not feel any of the various symptoms of altitude sickness. To keep save we plan for tomorrow a detour by hiking up to famous Tilicho lake and come down again to sleep lower which is good practice for acclimatization. 

Annapurna Circuit Trek

We left Kathmandu very early in the morning to go around 140km to the west  to reach the Marsyangdi River streaming out from the Himalayas. Through rather tropical landscape we follow this river up north to reach the city of Besisahar what they also call the gateway to Himalaya. 

Plan is to cycle the Annapurna circuit Trek from here with the aim of a full 380km circumference of the around 100km long Annapurna mountain ridge. On its northern end there is the 5416m high Thorang La pass leading into Kali Gangati Valley wich will bring us south again to our starting point. Thorang La is the highest pass in the world you can do on a bicycle so this explains why we are so eager to reach it. 

When we follow the Marsyangdi River the jeep road goes up and down which explains how we will sum up 10.000 height meters on the trek. We still can cycle most of the road though it has short sections of up to 20% inclination. 

Some early monsoon rain has already started which turns the stoney gravel road partly in mud. It’s just a small relief to know that above 4000m height there will be no rain when we work through the soaking road. 

First stop on the way is the village of Jagat where we stranded on our last year’s attempt to cycle the Annapurna. The guest house is run by a lovely family and we reached there only well after sunset. Sadly I was told by the owners that we had been their last guest when we left in April 2020 and we are now their first guests in April 2021. I just wish them that the autumn season will bring them tourists again. 

One of my main motivation to reach out to this place was the natural hot pools you can find in Jagat. There will be others on the circuit but this one is the first en route to provide us with some spa sensation before getting back on the bikes. 

Reprise of Kathmandu – Nepal

Traveling has become more cumbersome nowadays similar after the increase of security measures followed by the 9/11 attacks nearly 20 years ago. Visa on arrival in Nepal is suspended so you need to apply for visa already in your home country. Tourists need to register online prior to arrival for corona infection tracking. Also PCR test before and also after arrival is mandatory as it’s written. Not required but good praxis is to register in the crisis intervention list of the national ministry of foreign affairs which had been so helpful on last years repatriation.

On quarantine regulations for Nepal there are different versions available. German embassy still reports a 10 days minimum quarantine whereas other websites say quarantine is not necessary with the double PCR test. There is no other way than to find out! 

Well equipped with screenshots of the various registrations and some spares for my loyal cargo bike I set off from a relatively deserted Munich Airport. 
Already at changeover in Istanbul the situation was different. The airport was full of passengers though most of them not of European residency. Shops and restaurants in the halls where all open so it gives a glimpse of traveling before the pandemia. The flight to Kathmandu was well booked and they seemed to have used every available space in that airplane for cargo. I was stunned what fits into an airplane when they cleared the stuff upon arrival. 

Immigration was quick and easy. Just showed the PCR test sheet along with the immigration registry followed by passport and visa check. No single word on potential quarantine. 

I can only rely on what people say and what I read. Nepal never was hit by a 2nd wave and incidence is a fraction of what it is in Europe. They have normal live with everything open and kids going to school. To a very surprise the hotel staff confirmed they are all vaccinated already with Chinese support. 

My hotel is well booked with Indian workers on quarantine to fly out for work in the gulf states as they are banned from flying directly. 

And last but not least my bicycle is also on the place I parked it last year. It’s a pure pleasure job to get it cleaned from dust and make it ready to work with some well needed spareparts I brought with me.

Happyly I set off from Kathmandu in direction to the Annapurna circuit with a well trained Nepali guy who is as eager to learn what it is about to cycle up to 5000m. He might be not as fit in terms of pure cycling but I am afraid he might leave me well behind when we go higher.