From the stifling heat of the low lying eastern border of Nepal to Kathmandu, the nations busy capital.
Not too much to report from Nepal so far.

A 6am start from Kakarbitta, the eastern border of Nepal, meant we didn't have to deal with the heat of the Terai (low lands) as we headed north into the middle hills before it really heated up. The quality of the road to Ilam was outstanding and a pleasure to ride. Torb couldn't believe just how different Nepal is from India, even though we were only 60km from the border.

The roads seemed less busy, the countryside less polluted and the atmosphere more relaxed...the latter is almost always true, not so sure about the first two though.

Ilam is a nice old town that is thriving on it's tea industry

Here I scored a game of cricket with the college boys. As last batter in I was all set up to bring the victory home with seven runs needed from the last over. As always my display was an embarrassment and my team lost :) But, Torb's embarassing episodes continue too...

From Ilam we headed to Phidim and on to Taplejung in the far northeast.. The road to Taplejung was the worst we had ridden to date and it took us 6 hours to cover the 90km of bone jarring dirt track. The bikes took a few heavy hits in the undercarriage as we came across large rocks while trying to keep enough speed to get up the hill without getting stuck in the slippery sand and loose gravel. Somewhere along the way I lost my side stand and the lid came off our bottle of oil, soaking the bike, my bag, my shorts and my shirt, creating a new slimy coating for the dust to stick to thickly.
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Taplejung is a pleasant town which wouldn't, I think, receive many visitors by road, though it does have an airport and is the starting off point for some remote treks into the Himalayas. The streets are narrow, some paved with cobblestone in the time of your great great grandmother's grandfather, and the old town carries similar vintage buildings with narrow verandahs and fine timberwork.
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There was a relaxed feel about the place and Orchard Guesthouse, at 600 Rupees ($9), provided a reasonable room with hot water “24 hours a day” according to the sign, but in reality only a few hours a day when the power shortage that cripples Nepal isn't causing havoc.

We dreaded returning by the same road but the theory that “since Nepal Lonely Planet shows an unsealed road from here to Kathmandu there's a chance that there may be an unsealed road from here to Kathmandu” didn't work for us we spent the next day retracing our steps until finally reaching the bitumen again at Phidim. We were exceedingly grateful to be on the smooth road again!

Turns out that LP Nepal have shown unsealed roads willy nilly where only walking tracks exist in reality. I wouldn't mind hearing the reasoning behind this...

Another night spent in Ilam with no power meant that I polished off my latest Wilbur Smith novel, The Burning Shore, by candle light and got a good nights sleep...except for those barking dogs. Grr!

From Ilam we considered putting in a huge day in order to get to Kathmandu, but the heat in the plains really got to me. The temperatures today were the hottest we have experienced the whole journey and for about 20km we road through bursting pockets of hot air that were completely stifling. This was the area where flooding had caused extensive damage in 2008 and I think I saw the meaning of the term “devastating flood” for the first time – the countryside turned to a wasteland.

Some people have rebuilt in straw huts, still in the way of the flood plains, but what else can they do? They have no other land to go to and no money to rebuild stronger...

Eventually we stopped for the night at a great hotel in a typical Terai town, Lahan. Having never done so I thought it would be nice to take the route into Kathmandu from the east via Dulikhel, so we turned off the main east-west highway, just west of Dhalkebar, and headed north into the middle hills once more.

Initially the road was outstanding but it very quickly turned to mess. Then, when all hope of a comfortable ride was lost, we were introduced to Japanese road construction and were instantly in love. For 20-30 km the road wound up over a mountain and then down the other side in this fashion

Unfortunately this was the end of the nice road and the next 60+ km were Taplejung-esque

BUT, this was one of the most beautiful stretches of countryside yet! At times I was sure I was in outback Australia, or Africa, with the dark red soil and the narrow gravel roads

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But then we would wind down beside the ice blue waters of a river surrounded by rice fields and know that we were still in Nepal.

And just as confirmation we'd pass something like this on the road. Well, we'd move aside so that something like this could pass us!
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Arriving in Kathmandu was peaceful as ever
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Torb stood out like a sore thumb
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A ride to Kodari, 120km north of Kathmandu, took us through villages nestled amongst jagged hills
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and brought us to the “Friendship bridge”, border of Nepal and Tibet/China.
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It became apparent that “Friendship” was on the Nepal side and “bridge” was on the China side as the Nepali border guards were happy for us to walk onto the bridge and enjoy but the Chinese stared cold faced and showed no sign of welcome. Cheers, I'll see you in Melbourne anyway.

Now here's something that I've been curious about: Why is that we see the chassis of a truck driving down the road occasionally? So the new owner can choose the design of the shell themselves?

I've been curled up in a ball in Kathmandu for a few days, stomach cramps, runny...stuff, etc :)
And I say: