There are not many special things in Kargil, if one discounts the people and their tasty roadside kebabs of course, but it does boast a Silk Road Museum. I was told of its existence by a friend whom I first met in Leh in the summer of 2004.

Roman* told me only, that I had to cross the Saru river and turn right, somewhere at the top of town you'll find a 'silk road museum'.

On trips to his mother's home as a boy, Sherap would travel by bus with his family from Kathmandu to a small village at the end of the road on the way to the Helambu Region, to the NE of the Kathmandu Valley.

6 hours on the bus, stop for a quick snack and then another 6 or 7 hours walk to his mother's village, at over 3,000m it's a climb of about 2,000m above the road.

Election Update! Cited as a huge success despite violence, murder and disruption in 33 polling centres, the remainder of the 20,889 polling stations reported good turnouts.

The Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokhrel said that these numbers were far below what we had expected.

"Most of the results" he went on to say, "would be out within 10 days."

There’s talk of ride this week amongst friends - a few days on the road, escape from Kathmandu. And we all have full tanks!

A couple of days in Pokhara - it’s a day’s ride from Kathmandu if you go steadily. We stop at a bend on the Prithivi Highway near a place called Malekhu for snacks of fried fish and later half-way, at Mugling, for dal bhaat - Nepal's staple meal.

Pokhara is the antithesis of Kathmandu, quiet, calm, clean and so close to the mountains. Pokahara’ Lakeside is back bone of the tourist hub in the western development region of Nepal.