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. 

Hoteliers and shop keepers continue to be harassed by maoist trade unions, squeezing businesses for 'donations' and unreasonable worker rights.

Then we’ll south to Chitwan via Tansen and left at the east-west highway on to Sauraha village in Chitwan District. It’ll be hill roads, narrow gorges and high mountains until Tansen, then it levels out down towards Butwal. It’s a Chinese built road and as such tends to cut inside corners with bridges. Not quite like Indian roads, they go right into the corners.

If the highway is clear – no bandas or demonstrations, no accidents or high-jackings, we'll be sitting on the beach of the Rapti River enjoying a couple of ‘sundowners’. Breakfast there is fun too, the elephants come and bathe after their morning stroll through the jungle carrying tourists. After Chitwan we could ride east and return to the Valley on an old Rana regime road.

It starts in Pharping in the SW of the Kathmandu Valley, then SW for an hour or so to Kulekhani dam. The hydro project has created a really beautiful lake. The road comes out to the SW at a place called Bhimphedi. You can see the old army barracks as you climb out of Bhimphedi. The road was built as a supply route for the Rana’s victorian era army.

There are still the remains too of a cable-way for transporting goods to the Valley, from Hetauda on the east-west highway, to somewhere near Pharping. It’s an interesting road. You can see glimpses of the road if you look at the header pic on the Nepal Road Tours pages.