Around The World On A Honda Transalp

This movie is a brief summary of our trip to Nepal.

More info on www.wijzijnweg.org

We arrive very late in Kathmandu and we don’t immediately find a place to sleep. Eventually we find something in the slums of Kathmandu. We browse in our travel apps and we leave the next morning to the tourist area, Thamel. We find a quiet, small hotel in the crowded city of Kathmandu. It’s quieter than anywhere else we have been in Nepal. In the morning there’s no honking, no barking dogs and no shouting...fantastic! The hotel has a beautiful garden which we share with four other cottages. The garden is also full of lights of which in the meantime we know the meaning.

Around noon we leave for the Friendship Bridge. The highway to Tibet was built in the 60’s by the Chinese to promote trade. The Highway has clearly missed his target. Seen by the state of the road there will never be a lot of trade here. Chinese merchandise is still being shipped to Kolkata and then transported to Nepal. This we already red, and now we understand why. Once again we enjoyed a very nice drive through the mountains with views over the Himalaya.

It's noon when we arrive in the village of Sauraha, located just outside Chitwan National Park. The entrance fee for this park is quite high, especially when you know you will also have to pay for a guide and transportation. This all happens in group, something which we are not very fond of. Instead, we plan a route following the edge of the park. Here we encounter already some wildlife: a crocodile on the other side of the river that was waiting for a prey, wild deers and wild boars at ten meters distance (a bit scary), a snake skin and a pair of otters.

We decide to follow a small road to Lumbini. The ride takes us through small, beautiful villages. Here we see the local life outside the mountain areas. The road is slow and therefore we arrive in Lumbini in the evening time. Here we encounter some Belgians who are interested in our story and we have a nice chat with them. Then we start looking for a hotel and get something to eat.

This is a summary of our trip through Nepal...

More info on www.wijzijnweg.org

"You come to Nepal for the mountains, but you come back to the people"
quoted from the Lonely Planet

Back in India, back in the dust, the honking and the bad roads…sigh.

A Monkey in a Tree on the Side of the Road

After Agra the roads seem to be much better, 2x2 lanes separated with a median. Around Jaipur, a major city, there is an expressway. Unfortunately, motorbikes are not allowed on it. Therefore we have to cross the busy city centre. Here, we have our first collision with another motorcycle. The driver had to swerve to avoid a car and thereby crashes into our pannier and falls over. On forums, we red it is better to drive off after an accident, as the tourist is always wrong and we can’t be insured.

After an early start in Udaipur, we have to drive until late after midnight to find a place to sleep. The search for a hotel is this time even more difficult than ever before. Not that we don’t see any hotel, but apparently a "hotel" in India is often a restaurant. It took a while but now we understand we have to look for a guesthouse or a lodge. Finally we find a nice hotel with rooms not to close to the highway. Therefore we can enjoy a good night sleep without constant honking on the background.

After a good hour driving we arrive in Arambol. Truly a beautiful beach, surrounded by palm trees and no garbage in sight! There was a cow, so we can’t forget we are still in India.

A Cow on the Beach? Only in India!

We have paid a deposit for our trip through Myanmar! So far, so good!

More info on www.wijzijnweg.org

After our first bungalow on the beach, we don't want to settle for less. We search on different beaches to find a seaside bungalow. Unfortunately, most of the beaches have seaside beach shags and the hotels are located behind them.
Eventually we ended up in Agonda. During our quest here we are approached by a Belgian man. Later, it turned out he (Lucas) and his wife (May) have driven around the world on their bicycle. This was a few years ago but today they are still avid travellers.

Along with Luke and Maria, we make a tour through the last part of Goa, towards Om Beach. The road is quiet and we are again treated with beautiful views.

Nice Views over the Arabic Sea

Arrived at Om Beach, we start looking for a hut on the beach. Again not to be found, but we find a bungalow a few steps away from the beach. Pure relaxing here again: swimming, hiking and lazing.

During our last day at Om Beach, we learn that the falls are generated by a large dam. At dry season there is not enough water to provide the falls. They only open the dam on Sunday, so local tourists can enjoy the waterfall on their day off. We have heard many good things about Hampi, a city 300km inland so decide to go here.
The road to Hampi goes very smoothly and offers some nice views.

After leaving Hampi, we slowly head back to the coast but there are still a few places that we want to see. The first place on our list is Mysore. The road to it is again a typical Indian road, full of holes. There is a long queue due to traffic works and there is also a lot of wind.

A Common Sight on Indian Roads

We don’t think too much of Ooty itself but it’s the road leading to it that makes visiting the area worthwhile. The terraced tea plantations are definitely worth to see.

Terraced Tea Plantations

In Ooty, which is a highly elevated town, we feel cold again after a long time of warm temperatures. We find a nice spot on the lake, an abandoned guesthouse with a garden, where we want to set up our tent.

We arrive at Sultan Bathery late in the evening but it’s really difficult to find a place to sleep here. Many times we hear that the hotel is full or we get a hotel which is way too overpriced. Finally we find a nice place to sleep and the owner explains us that he doesn’t have a permit to take in foreigners. That was the reason so many hotels were “full”, the hotels were only allowed to take in Indians and they couldn’t or didn’t want to explain this to us.

The highway is getting busier as we come closer to the coast. We are getting a bit fed up with all this traffic so we decide to follow the smaller roads on the way to Cherai Beach. This proves to be a good decision: the road is in a good condition and reasonably quiet so we can enjoy our trip. There’s a river crossing by ferry on our route which is fortunately a little better organized than in Nepal (see The Impossible Road).

The Ferry

After our attempts in Ooty and Cherai we decide to try again to camp somewhere. We continue to follow the beach road looking for a small beach where we can set up our tent. We try a dirt road and suddenly we are in the middle of a small fishermen’s village. The people come to greet us and a young man who speaks English shows us a place where we can put up our tent. It’s an ideal spot: shade from the trees, sea view, ten steps from the beach, a fresh water tap and a shop within walking distance. It seems like we have truly arrived in paradise!