Nepal By Bike

We had done our time of chillin, eating, shopping and visiting some temples. It was time to venture out of the city and into the hills and remind the body of what I came here to do. Bike.
We were planning on joining the group for an organized acclimatization trip but after a bit of confusion on my part we figured we'd just head out on our own earlier. $12/day we found a hard tail, V brake, Trek bike for Jeremy and we bought a map of the Kathmandu valley. By the looks of the map this place was made for exploration by bike. With the many jeep, hiking trails and accommodation along the way we ventured out with a small pack with hopes to make it to the village of Nagakot. First though I had to face my fears of jumping on the bike amongst the chaoticness of Kathmandu streets and navigate out of this city maze.
After my initial nerves had passed I realized this was better then trying to walk about the streets and it proved to be kind of thrilling. Like a video game we weaved around cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, people, cows and peddle bikes with huge loads of " you name it" stacked meters high. Making sense of our map in the city didn't do much for us so as long as we tried to aim in the right direction I figured we'd eventually get out of this city. I felt like I was back in an adventure race but this time I got to be the lead navigator. My stragity was, when in doubt ask, then ask again with someone else. I think I enjoyed having an excuse to charm the Nepali men with asking for directions. ( I think they liked it too :) We wished for a " Go Pro" to capture what I'm finding it hard to put into words to describe. At one point I laughed to myself as Jeremy was out front and five other Nepali men on old rickety bikes were in somewhat of a line behind him. I was picking up the rear in what I thought to be the most culturally, exotic " draft" line ever. We eventually made it through and out of the city but missed a turn to get on a secondary road and found ourselves on a major highway. Black exhaust filled our faces so we took it easy on the hills to avoid exposing our lungs to anymore of this pollution. We eventually pulled over and found some cloth masks. Nothing much but at least it was something. We made it to the other road then onto some jeep tracks which climbed us through various rule settlements, farmland and plenty of smoke stacks in which bricks were being made. My hopes of getting out of the smog wasn't happening. We made it up to the village of Nagakot which is a tourist village where people go for a night to watch the sun rise over a picturesque view of the Himalayas. We arrived to a very hazy view and unfortunately awoke to the same haze.
The next day we set out again with plans to bike to another village Chisopani and spend the night. We descended down bumpy jeep tracks, passing terraced cut farm land and little villages. We reached an elevation of 2000m. Between that and the smoky air I wasn't feeling as fit as I thought I was. I'm trying not to think what 5400m is going to feel like. We got to our destination way sooner then we thought so we figured we'd continue on and head back to Kathmandu.
Race registration is tomorrow and then we head out from Kathmandu the next day. I've met a few of the competitors today and it got me all excited. It's happening! I think this unique race attracts some real fun, adventurous, open minded people who I look forward to meeting and sharing some good stories and laughs with.