Derek Jennings
Mission Impossible 2

Experience an account of the attempt to conquer the Himalayas while riding a bicycle from Nepal to Tibet and China

Friday 6th April
DUHLIKHEL

Had no trouble rising as all the others in the dormitory (3) were like me, going to see the EVEREST sunrise. I got there by bike at 5.30am, nobody else appeared so I was alone. The sunrise was bitterly disappointing, it was very misty and as the sun rose higher it got worse. I got glimpses of orange tinged snowy peaks but very indistinct, coupled with misty valleys it was a beautiful peaceful view. Called on Pradeep who insisted I had lunch with him. All the time I was there he attempted to persuade me to part with souvenirs and I had already given him the watch! He asked about other countries currency, and I parted with 5 rupees to help with postage for his painting competition entry, and his parting shot was would I send him the 1990 Guinness Book of Records! I managed to disuade him from giving me Dal Bhat for lunch and suggested egg, which came with bread and was fried. That was OK and washed down with milk and tea I was ready for the road. One last look at the viewpoint to see if I could get a better photo, but no! it was worse! so I was off!

Looked in at BHAKTAPUR and took a few photos before doing the last 15km to Kathmandu. The ride had been pleasant enough and it was now obvious that the strike I’d been warned about was total, not a shop was open and all transport was at a standstill so I was the only one on the road, apart from the endless streams of people walking in each direction between villages to political meetings and demonstrations. Children were a nuisance again, one young lad ran with me for 4-5 minutes asking for one rupee! he tired eventually and I escaped. Deciding that it was time I shed some clothes I stopped and stripped off where it was quiet! But blimey! I’d just got my trousers down and the little sod! came pattering up behind me again. Set off once more with him in tow, and after a while he dropped back and shouted after me. When I looked back there were my overtrousers laying in the road!

He’d watched where I’d put them and then as he ran beside me he’d unzipped the pannier and pulled them out! He ran up and gave them back to me and had the cheek to ask for one rupee for the service! He soon gave up when I accused him that it was he who had caused the incident! On arrival on the ring road around Kathmandu I took the main road into the city and found to my horror that I was riding into crowds of oncoming strike demonstrators, unaggressive but spread right across the street and chanting NE-PAL, NE-PAL, DEMOCRATIC, DEMO-CRATIC and waving banners and flags! Unsure if other routes would be safer I kept going. The military had set up road blocks at various places and there was one within 100 yards of the White Lotus Guest House. I managed to arrive in one piece and tried settling in. Got a room on the 2nd floor for 60 rupees, and can bring the bike inside at night! My room overlooks the street and I was soon to find that the demonstration was escalating. I took pictures and made tape recordings but was amazed to find there were tourists on the streets filming the whole affair with video and still cameras. In a couple of hours things quietened down and I set out to find Durbar Square as Doug and I failed to find it last time! There is still some activity on the streets, so took photos of small groups standing about talking and people at windows and other vantage points, watching for action!

Back in the White Lotus there’s talk of revolutionaries being injured and killed although figures are unknown and the chances of it being back to normal tomorrow are remote. Could do with something to eat but all the restaurants are closed, got noodle soup and a pot of tea in the guest house and made it do!

Saturday 7th April
KATHMANDU

Woke early, after another fitful night, my mind cannot rest and even now as I write, my thoughts wander to other things. Starting the day I can see military movement on the street and the strike has developed into a revolution already, so I don’t know what I can do? After breakfast I’ll speak to Lisa, Utara, and Tibet Travel if they’re open. They might suggest a way of getting myself and the bike to Tibet and Lhasa. I’ll also phone Helen at the Telegraph office. Can pick up stamps there and mail a few cards. Out on the street at 8am it was a different matter, only tourists walking around, everything still closed, with some areas sealed off with road blocks and manned by the army armed with machine guns and looking and acting more aggressive. There is now an all day curfew that will be lifted from 4- 6pm. Walked to Le Bistro to find breakfast and sought information about the political situation as I went. Found one eating place open on the way (Kingsland) and got Muesli and settled for that! Met the American planning a Tibet trip that I’d seen at the border, (he’s now on a mountain bike!). He seemed to be a little more uncertain of himself now, and was making for Bhutan.

With my bike I went out to check on the situation in the streets, but it was impossible to move far in any direction, so had to give it up! in the end. I got a bit concerned because I was now in deserted back streets, with no sign of tourists and unable to find my way back. With several twists and turns and two more confrontations with armed road blocks. I was relieved when I got back to familiar territory. I had been scared of what would happen, things could break out quickly apparently and I would have no chance! Stories are going around about yesterdays casualties, they say 4 tourists were killed! Today the ring road is sealed off so moving out of Kathmandu is impossible until the curfew is lifted. Even getting a message home is proving to be difficult. I’m in the Lotus G H now writing this diary and I am told I can make a telephone call from the Imperial guest house across the road, so maybe I’ll try that later! A short stroll led me to the Kathmandu Guest House where I found plenty of tourists, all immobile, and seemed to be mainly Yanks. Nearby was an agency called Himalayan Mountain bikes, sponsored would you believe! by Marco Polo travel! the very travel company that had let me down badly in 1987. When the agency office is open, I’ll talk to them.

Tried to make a phone call home at 1pm, but to no avail, several people are trying to reach Denmark and Israel, and I to London but nobody has connected yet, I think the problem is the area code! I tried all permutations but nothing worked, I shall try later. Meanwhile I shall go away and quietly think of other ways. It’s Noodle soup for lunch and then I tried another call home and was unsuccessful. I hear the news of the Revolution has not reached other countries yet, could that apply in Britain I wonder? Come 4 o’clock and the curfew was not lifted, many tourists were wandering the streets searching for meals and were mostly unsuccessful. I was thankful my guest house were providing something they called a meal!

The rest of the day passed with more attempts made to phone home, and finally a search for food then, bed! A totally frustrating day, but I’m not alone, everyone is talking to each other about the situation and hoping and waiting for it to improve, when that will be nobody knows? I know that my first task as well as calling home is to talk to Royal Nepal Airlines and arrange a date to fly home on my open ended ticket. I cannot decide on anything else until that is done!

Sunday 18th April
KATHMANDU

Another day dawns! which for me wasn’t until 8 o’clock. The curfew had been lifted at 7 for an hour and was now back on again. Out on the streets tourists were searching for shops that might be selling food such as biscuits, bread, and jam, and the lucky ones could be seen scurrying around clutching transparent plastic carry bags containing their prize! I found the “East-West” restaurant open and shared a table with a German guy. Outside there was more movement in the streets so I biked to R.N. Airlines office and found them open! I was told there were no seats available on the once weekly Thursday flight until 26th April (2 weeks time!) Even then it would only be a standby and I must wait until then to find out what’s available. Rode back to the Post Office to try and call home but, no luck! it was shut. Nearby the Telegraph office was open, and success! I was connected, it must have been 6.15am over there, not the best time to find Helen overjoyed! but I was glad to have got a word to her about the situation.

Now I’m trapped here for at least 2 weeks and have the option to use that period to set off on a trip to Pokara in the foothills of Annapurna. I later heard of two people who set out in that direction but were turned back, so! who knows, is it wise I wonder? Over lunch in Kingsland (veg lasagne) with an Aussie from Brisbane, (my age) we talked about the current situation and changes in Asian travel over the past 15 years. Seems that Tibet is not the only border that proves difficult for independent travellers, Afghanistan, Iran and others were mentioned. Perhaps what Himalayan mountain bikes had been telling me meant I should abandon the idea to bike through Tibet! I fell for a street money changing con trick today and was fleeced for 20 dollars Ah! well! that’s one of life’s rich experiences. One way or another money seems to be playing a major part on this trip!

Monday 9th April
KATHMANDU

Rose just after 7 and in the street things were bustling. Shops were open, first time for three days. Over at Didico’s for a muesli and yogurt breakfast I set myself up for the day! enabling me to prepare for my trip to Pokara. In the city the revolutionaries were celebrating victory and freedom (King Behendra had agreed to concessions). I just couldn’t help getting involved! Street motorcades were everywhere, honking their horns, while thousands of onlookers waved flags, chanted and applauded. Dust was everywhere, the atmosphere was electric! Occassionally showers of water would come from the side of the streets over the parades I was pleased to call Helen again, although the scene in the Telegraph office was complete pandemonium! and they took an hour to connect me.

Pedalled out to check the road to Pokara for the morning and then rushed back to the guest house to pick up the camera, I might get a few shots of the victory celebrations! Mingled on foot with the revellers and was doused with a powdered red dye that they were scattering over selected participants! I got back to the guest house by 5pm whacked out! but what a day! Wouldn’t have missed it for the world! I almost forgot all the frustrations and worries of the past week. The morning had also consisted of talking to Utara, Lisa, Francis, and Tibet travel all of them confirmed how difficult and impossible it is to bicycle into Tibet and even if a small group is arranged the cost of a guide, food, and lodging along the route would be prohibitive. Francis Higgins’s comment was that the Chinese would “screw you up” so much that she wouldn’t even consider it! It is unbelievable how many mountain bike trip agencies there are in Kathmandu, at least 4 to my knowledge, but they confine themselves to Nepal or Pakistan. Got to look at Thanka’s and Mandalas and found out about the art, this must be what Helen would like! I’ll pick one up eventually. Bought a map of Nepal so I can find my way to Pokara tomorrow and a meal at Le Bistro for old times sake, then finished off at a top garden restaurant Le Yeux.

When I got back, checking a few things for tomorrow I found my fuel container missing. It must have been lifted by some light fingered Nepali running alongside me. Very peaceful here tonight, people burning rows of candles on their balcony walls and there was even 1⁄2 dozen on the floor at the entrance way to the Lotus G H.

Tuesday 10th April
KATHMANDU

Up at 6.20 to pack, then popped over to Thamel district to find a fuel container, I was too early! “try again later.” Checked out of White Lotus, 4 nights and 4 small meals cost 285 rupees, then it was over to Didico’s for breakfast by 8, then chasing about getting a bottle and fuel afterwards It took an hour and I finally got under way!

A hilly ride out of the valley and then a long downhill which I could see winding and stretching away into a distant valley. To my dismay, at Naubise the road became rock and gravel and was quite bad. I did not reckon on this! my recollection of 1987 was that the road was paved. I’ve now found riding on the sandy footpath at the side is better. At villages along the way Dal Bhat was the only food to be found and at other places I could make “double Coke” stops sometimes! Very warm now and the trucks creating swirling choking dust were making things worse!

I followed the river all day so the climbing was not too long or high With a bit of luck I could reach Mugling Bazaar today. Fortunately the road was paved, (well – more or less!) The mountains surrounding me are quite spectacular, not snow-capped but lofty and towering above the road, which was a twisting ribbon at their base and edged with cultivated fields, rice paddies and banana trees, if it wasn’t for this choking dust it would be quite pleasant. Made Mugling by 6 and checked out the “Motel du Mugling” an up market overnight charging 30 dollars a night. “not for me!” My choice is a place for 35 rupees, ‘Lumbine Lodge’, not before getting turned away from 2 others. Had to wait while they cleaned the room so I sat outside in the street at a next door Bhati and downed three glasses of tea. You have never tasted anything more reviving after 110 dusty kilometres than tea ready milked and sugared poured out of a sooty aluminium kettle kept hot over a wood fire beside a clay oven.

My room is reached up steep wooden stairs and the floor is bumpy red clay and everything I touch is dusty! On the walls hang rush mats, to cover who knows what? There is electric but we’ve had two power cuts already! I washed under a stand pipe outside in the street. After waiting 1⁄2 hour while the staff collected water and washed rice under the same pipe, for the evening meal preparation. This place is also a restaurant, in fact the whole of Mugling seems to comprise of a street of hotels with restaurants of various kinds, some inside, some out on the street, but all cooking in clay ovens. This is a strange place, it seems to come alive! after dark. The noise and commotion is deafening. Food starts to be prepared, extra shops open up, and all the time there’s the comings and goings of the trucks and buses. I think this must be the rest stop town for night travellers! Not going to get much kip tonight! Made myself understood enough to get an omelette, tea and a couple of cakes for supper and so to bed! Road works along the way today involved British contractors names, Scott Kirkpatrick in one place and Kier in another

Wednesday 11th April
MUGLING

The town did eventually quieten down, about 1am I think? but the old man next door was bronchial and his coughing and groaning meant I didn’t sleep (the walls are a bit thin!) Up at 6am I packed and checked out, no chance of breakfast, so I grabbed a couple of glasses of tea at the other end of town at Pokara road junction. Now I’ve actually seen it made! boiling goats milk poured slowly into a tea strainer containing the powdered tea and then sugar added.

The morning ride was on a good road along a lush river valley, lovely flowering trees, banana trees, and productive farmed terraces. Grain spread and threshed on the road and plenty of small settlements, and the odd villages. On one, long, hard, hot, climb I met and spoke to a French mountain biker who’d been biking the Annapurna trekking circuit! A long fast descent ended a really pleasant morning when I grabbed some bananas and oranges and two teas in one place and Dal Bhat and two Cokes in another.

Now for a hot afternoon slog! I’ve got an idea there’s climbs ahead! I was called upon to do my Florence Nightingale act this morning! when I stopped to take photos of a farmhouse and a banana tree and was joined by the farmer and his family asking if I had a first aid kit. They showed me a festered sore on the farmers leg, it must have been 1 1⁄2\” long and 1⁄2\” deep full of puss and raw flesh. I got his lady to clean it with an antiseptic wipe I gave her and watched as she cleaned the wound, then clean the wipe on the grass, and go back cleaning the wound with the same wipe! she did get it looking much better, but there was still muck deep down, I couldn’t bear to look any more, so I stuck a dressing on it and hoped he’d get more help somehow! I took a photo of the whole operation and gratitude showed in his smile and the way he stood to attention! My mind went back to 1987! Leg problems here are frightening, no chance of this guy flying back to London for treatment! as I’d had to!

Thankfully the climbing didn’t materialise, in fact it was surprisingly flat, no river to speak of, but paddie fields producing a variety of veg and rice. The mountains in the distance did not have to be climbed, although it was very warm, and quite cloudy and hazy. Made several Coke stops, that makes 6 bottles today (a record so far!) The kilometres were slow in passing and all the time as I climb around the foothills I expect to burst out into another valley with the Annapurna range spread before me! Little did I know that it was there all the time but obscured by haze and cloud, I was met by hotel touts 20km before Pokara they were everywhere! and I settled for “Mount View” 40 rupees, and a welcome shower, supper, and bed! during which there was a two hour power failure.

Thusday 12th April
POKARA

Slept soundly until 5.30 and at 7, was out for breakfast beside Phewa lake in a garden restaurant, bright sunshine, warm, and a beautiful setting, but where oh! where are those mountains? I’ve a feeling it’s a tourist brochure ploy and the breathtaking scene of the whole Annapurna range in the morning hardly ever happens! So I’m here now and encouraged by the Frenchman yesterday telling me about riding the Annapurna trekking circuit I will in the next fortnight take a Ride/Trek into the mountains at high altitude. I’ll make a decision later after doing some research about the route and the advisability of doing it alone? It’s now 8 o’clock in the evening and I feel pretty pleased with todays progress, bought a trekkers guide book and map for 140 rupees, and by the end of the morning over two milk teas and a toasted cinnamon roll had worked out that the Frenchman had ridden to 5,400 metres over the Thorung La pass. So I’ve decided to give it a shot!

The afternoon was spent arranging a trekking permit (90 rupees per week) plus 200 rupees to enter the area. Foreign exchange certificates for 10 dollars per day are also required like they are for Tibet! They’ve even got Annapurna sewn up too! Spent a while by the lakeside over apple pie and more milk tea, writing home. A slight shower rolled around the hills as darkness fell and with it came the power cuts just as I was sorting out the gear to take with me tomorrow, and what to leave behind. All day I’ve been having colly wobbles! mixed with feelings of confidence, I’ll be better I expect when I’m under way! Pokara has so much to offer, the lakeside district is a budget travellers paradise, even if you don’t trek. The boating on the serene Phewa Lake, the stalls and shacks selling trinkets and souvenirs and a wide variety of food to be had at hundreds of places, outside or in. Touting goes on and everywhere they want to ride the bike “or buy” it! At K C restaurant tonight I ate the salad, I hope I don’t suffer. Whilst packing tonight I discovered that a digital watch was missing so that’s mysteriously gone! although I came across the empty case.

Friday 13th April
POKARA

Didn’t sleep too well, worried and not sure whether I’m doing the right thing? Delayed my departure making last minute baggage checks, and having a cheap breakfast at Lakeside for 17 rupees, Muesli fruit and curd, 2 egg omelette, 2 honey toast and a small pot of milk tea!! Checked out of hotel, leaving half my bags in store, and called at Pokara Post Office to frank the stamps on 5 cards and a letter to Helen. Left at 10.30 on what I believed to be a 15km ride to the junction of a trekking route at Karputar. I missed the junction and decided to go on to Dumre where my guide book suggests I start (see! still not too sure of my ability to route find properly). It was 60km on what I thought was going to be a flat road. Only the first 25km was flat then it got hilly with one or two long, hot, climbs needing several rest stops and Cokes! I was a bit “knackered” when I got to Dumre, it didn’t do my confidence a lot of good, especially as I was travelling light, and the hard bits haven’t even started yet!

Got two glasses of milky tea in a dusty market main street amongst gawping, snotty nosed kids, and older kids asking for a ride, a pen, or one rupee! Honking truck horns and the chaos and smells of a busy main street didn’t help. Spoke to an Aussie who was staying here with a Swiss girl and getting a Jeep to Annapurna in the morning. Mid afternoon I headed up the so-called jeepable road, on the Annapurna circuit proper! Most of the road was rideable but a bit muddy, several small streams to be forded on the 12km to Tuture which was covered in 11 hours. Not sure whether I was in the right place? I rode on, although I had expected to find a Lodge and rest there. It was 3km further on I realised I’d passed Tuture! Who knows how far to the next place? It was 5 or 6km to Baishjangar a two hotel town! I had a hard job making myself understood about what I wanted. Got a room in the Hotel Kalika which was undergoing modernisation and I slept amongst rebuilding rubble! Got milky tea and Dal Bhat for supper and hung about outside on the porch in the evening writing this diary. Poor oil lamp lighting made it difficult to do anything else, no sign of other trekkers, so it’s off to bed!