First time mountain biking and the bike is still alive!

After Bandipur I got stuck in Kathmandu, by my own choice. I went to Astrex for indoor climbing a few times, otherwise just hanged out in the town watching life go by. And it was also Nepalese new year in the weekend. Welcome 2070! Party, party. I went to Purple Haze with a few friends, some local bands were playing and we got quite wasted. But I did wake up in my own room and not in some random roof top. Well done Pia!

After that bash I took it easy for a few days and then went to Nagarkot (a new place!!!) with mountain bikes together with Chitra. My first time mountain biking! The start in Kathmandu was quite chaotic, that was really extreme sports. And the way to Bhaktapur is a highway, biking on that one is like a suicide. I don't really wanna do that again...

Look mom, white t-shirt & a helmet!!!

From Bhaktapur we took a small road towards Changu Narayan, and started going up up up. Up for hours. Really steep at some points. In Changu Narayan I did some shopping, as if my bag wasn’t heavy enough. But there’s always space for a huge mask…

Can I have the biggest one in the shop please?

Yes I can!

From Changu Narayan we took a small dirt road through a forest towards Nagarkot. And saw a snake crossing the street. Is that good luck or bad luck?

After the forest part it was time to go up again, the last 9 km to Nagarkot. After a few km it started to rain, one more kilometer and it turned to a thunderstorm and we had to make a break. Only a few minutes later huge hails were smashing down to the street and there was a accident just in front of us. 2 cars run into eatch others and a truck almost run down the hill.  Luckily we weren’t biking next to them…

Well sized hails.

Nagarkot is all about the view. But this time there wasn’t any, too foggy all the time. I still woke up at 6 am for the sunrise just in case the mountains would be visible but no luck L So back to bed for a few hours and then we started to bike uphill again. 4 really steep kilometers to a viewpoint before it was all downhill! The first time of my life…. A lot of fun, but also more work than I thought. It’s for sure not just sitting on the bike… 

Nagarkot in the morning. Imagine mountains to the background.

Beware of the forest! 

 

2 Babus.

It was great to be out of busy Kathmandu for a few days. And the ktm valley is just absolutely gorgeous.

After coming back to ktm I only had one full day left L I went to Kirtipur (another new place!!!), a small town near ktm with a friend and our faces ended up in a student film. They were filming how women are cooking typical Newari food and we had to eat & comment. I hate being in front of cameras but at least I got to try some food for free J 

Sunset from hotel roof top.

Yes yes very nice, is this a nepalese pizza?

What do you mean my room a mess?

Then it was flight time again, now to Istanbul for a long weekend with Tanja!!! Canim Cigerim, here we come! J

It’s all about climbing. Good to be back in Nepal.

This is my 4^th time in this amazing country. I don’t really know why but the place, people and of course climbing just make me to come back here twice a year. This time I only have 2 weeks. Better than nothing.

My plan as always is to see at least one new place while I’m here. Well, not happened yet and I’ve been here now already for a week. So that’s the plan for the upcoming week, though I’m not too sure it’ll happen even then. Or maybe I just go to a new bar, that counts too!

The first week was all about climbing and meeting friends. I arrived here from Sumatra with sleepy eyes and got my old room back at Sweet Dreams. Feels like coming home J The next day I forced Babu to go “indoor” (indoor style walls but it’s outdoors) climbing with me at Astrex. Funny how fast you start to suck at climbing, a break of 6 weeks made me struggle badly at 6b routes on top rope. Shame on me. But that was just warm up. The next day I jumped to a minibus and went to Bimal Nagar with Dhurba.

I just love that place. Amazing wall next to a river, great multi-pitches for a shitty climber like me and if you’re lucky and the day is clear, at the top you’ll get rewarded by a breath taking view of the Himalayan range.

Climbing with Dhurba is fantastic, he wakes up early, is fast & reliable and there’s good laughs. We climbed 2,5 days in the Bimal Nagar main wall, did 4 multi-pitches and loads of short routes. We tried to finish one multi-pitch in one hour, including coming down. We made it up in one hour but the only option to fit coming down to the hour would have been jumping. Pfff... Next time...

Dhurba trying out a new route, 7a+ 

On the 3^rd day we moved on to a new route near the Siddha Cave in the hills between Bimal Nagar and Bandipur. That was my 4^th day of climbing and I really started to feel it everywhere. Especially as I haven’t done any kind of sporty activities in the last month. Diving & beer drinking don’t really keep u fit… Anyways, the new route was quite demanding and to be honest I was quite happy it was only 2 pitches.

Afterwards we hiked up to Bandipur with all the equipment. That was a long & steep 1,5 h trek with the heavy bags. I stayed there 2 nights just relaxing and enjoying the silence. And silence it for sure was, as electricity was off every evening, I finished my book in a day and the laptop broke so I couldn’t even watch a movie. So after 2 nights I jumped to bus again and came back to KTM to find a macbook doctor and yes, I found a good one! Baby works again J

Bandipur

Next weekend is Nepalese new year so that’ll be a bash I hope. Other plan is to see a the new place, hopefully go to Nagarkot or Hattiban for some more climbing and otherwise just hang in Kathmandu. 

Sumatra, Sumatra... Welcome to the jungle.

Big plans & executed only a few of them. As usually I got a bit stuck in one place for much longer than originally planned. Okay, I had only hardly 3 weeks time totally but back in the old days I would have hurried through the whole island staying max 2 nights in one place. Luckily I'm not that person anymore.

Due some (not to be explained here) reasons my plan to go to Ketambe got changed and I ended up in Bukit Lawang instead. Had a lovely ride in a night bus sitting next to the smokers chamber and having people staring at me most of the journey. Luckily I had my sleeping inlet with me so I managed to hide for a few hours snooze during the night. The driver threw me out just a bit before Medan where I should change to a minibus towards the jungle. And as I'm cheap, I didnt wanna pay a rickshaw but were standing in the crossing looking puzzled and asking all the minibusses driving by if they might be heading to my direction. One driver could explain that the ones to Bukit Lawang actually don't pass that crossing and he took me to the right place for 20 cents. I like these prices! I was the last one in the minibus meaning I got the best seat in the car: in the back together with 3 men who were already nicely sweaty. Excatly what I needed while I was enjoying the fantastic view of palm oil plantations and factories. I could have cried. So yea, it was a long journey from Banda Aceh to Bukit Lawang but for sure worth it. 

The future of Sumatra?

I booked myself accidentally to the party lodge of the place and that's what I ended up doing most of the time. There were some fantastic characters staying in the same place so I always had company for what ever I wanted to do: trek in the jungle, get wasted by local tuak, go tubing down the river or play rummykub. I'm now officially addicted to that game. After 2 days practising I also finally started to beat the locals.

But I did a bit more than just partyparty, I went for a 2-day-one-night trekking tour in the Gunung Leuser National Park. We found 5-6 semi-wild Orang-Utans and lots of Thomas Leaf Monkeys. The trek was hot, moist & semi-tough 6 hours journey via small paths in the rainforest. Up, down, up, down etc.

I loved the campsite, just next to the river, very simple and also not too many people stayed there. The next day we hanged out by a water fall and finally came down the river in tubes back to the village. I kind of got into this tubing thing and went tubing 3 hours down the river again the following day with the guide I had in the jungle and 2 other friends. A good mix of people: a finn, a columbian, a canadian and a indonesian. Good laughs, great day! Followed by similar ones: hang out in the jungle by the river, read a book, play rummy, have a beer or two or three...

Beer o'clock?

FOOOOOOD!!!!

Once more I managed to leave the village for one night and went to Tangkahan for some quiet time. That's a sleepy relaxing place around 2 hours drive away from Bukit Lawang. In a really bad dirt road and you need a motorbike for the trip. I went there with the same jungle dude again and we did absolutely nothing. Just had a quiet day: jumping to the river, relaxing in a natural hot spring & sleeping in a hammock. A good one. 

Really, what do you actually need more than an amazingly beautiful rainforest with orang-utans, gibbons, tigers, rhinos & elephants (sure, you can't find the last 3 species), a clear river, cool people to hang out with, both local and other bules & great food. I do agree with the prices too: nasi goreng around 1 euro, room with bath 4 euro, big beer 2 euro, around 8 liter of tuak 4 euro, tube 70 cents. And I got free rides from the dudes of the guesthouse to many places. No wonder I got stuck. I really, REALLY liked it there.

But yes, time to move on again. Now I'm stuck in Medan for the last evening and tomorrow I'm flying  to Nepal via KL. Once again :) yayyyyy!!!!

And: Sumatra, I'll be back!