The Tibet Border

After our week in Kathmandu we took a trip up towards the Nepal-Tibet border. We stayed at a place called The Last Resort (which you can look up on Google Earth if you want to see where it is). It was 97 km from Nepal...so a 6 hour bus ride! It was festival time in Nepal so there were heaps of buses crowded with people in and on them going back to their villages for the holiday:

We got to The Last Resort which is the other side of the river over a suspension bridge. The main attraction of the Last Resort (for other people, not us) is bungy jumping off this bridge:

We went up for some walking and mt biking. We walked up both sides of the gorge through little villages. There were lots of kids who loved to say 'hello, hello' to us. They got excited when we said hello back and kept on calling out hello as we went past. We said 'namaste' to everyone we passed and the old people in the village grinned at us lots. Then we 'namasted' our way back down through the rice terraces again.

Our mt bike ride was quite exciting. We were ready to go at 8 am but were told that the bikes and guide would arrive at 10:30 on the next bus from Kathmandu. So we went for a walk straight up the side of the gorge for an hour in the hot sun. We were told the mt bike on the road to the Tibet border was easy so we thought a walk before would be fine as well...

At 11:30 we started the ride. It was hot. After a nice down hill the road started to climb. It wasn't that steep but it was continually up, and it was about 30 degrees and we are unfit from being in Dhaka. We were suffering. I had heard it was 6 km to the border, and as it was 'easy' we didn't take food. We had 3 litres of water but were drinking it pretty quickly. Luckily for us, our guide got some punctures on the way so we were able to rest a bit! We hadn't brought our iodine for the water (from now on we'll carry them everywhere!) so couldn't drink the water in the villages. Our guide was having an easy time while we slogged up this hill. I've just measured it on Google earth and it was about 15 km to the border - 12 of which were up! It was debateable whether we would make it. The guide kept saying it wasn't much further, and I finally managed to pin him down that this meant another 4 km. Four km has never sounded so far! Luckily for us we passed a little shop and bought some crisps and more water. We didn't really want to be buying more bottled water as there are too many disposable bottles, but it was necessary this time. We also had some rehydration salts in the first aid kit so were able to carry on to the border. China has shut the Tibet to foreigners this week so we could only look from a distance. Then it was down hill nearly all the way back! Hooray! We were so tired. I felt the same as after running a half marathon and we didn't break any records with 30 km in 4 hours! But we made it, we were alive and we now know what Nepalese 'easy' means!

It was a really interesting ride though. Lots of kids yelling hello again, women doing their washing on the side of the road. Lots of trucks coming from China, a HUGE praying mantis that landed on my shoulder! Also beautiful views and these men roasting a cow on the side of the road (maybe we should have got them for our wedding?):