Week 56: To Waling: South along the beautiful Siddhartha Highway

April 21, 2016

"My friend runs Venus hotel, he'll give you best price" Krishna says and he's on the phone calling his friend. We've stopped for a break at The Roadside Cafe located 18 kms from Waling. We have a great cup of organic coffee with the piece of apple pie we brought from Pokhara.

The day started early and we easily connect to Siddhartha Highway and begin our first climb of the day. Traffic is light, the air hazy so again no view of the mountains as we leave town still the scenery today is enjoyable. Forests, steep hillsides with terraces of corn, deep valleys, small settlements and villages, and friendly people. We stop for a break at a truck stop on a hairpin curve and eat laughing cow cheese on brown bread.

We are expecting to meet another cyclist about midway today. Craig is the brother of the Ross Hopkins. In an earlier post, we'd added a link to the Hopkins family CGOAB journal on Nepal. And sure enough the village halfway between Pokhara and Waling, just as the road was torn up and one lane, we spot each other, stop and chat for awhile, looking at the map and exchanging information about the roads ahead. Craig is doing much of the same loop as his brother, and planning to run the Annapurna Circuit before completing the biking loop to Kathmandu. We give him Nirwan's connection and later we hear from Craig that he will be leaving his gear and bike with him.

Early afternoon, we reach Waling and the Hotel Venus, where the Hopkins stayed. The room price is 1200 rupees (12USD) but don't know for sure if this is the "best price". We are leary about eating in the Hotel Restaurant as the Hopkins didn't recommend it. Other people have been eating in the restaurant so we give it a go and order egg chow mein. Time will tell if this was a good decision.

Tomorrow Tansen.

Nepal has a surprising amount of public toilets along the major roads. We're afraid to check-out the inside, but it surely is better than the road-side pooing we saw in India.

Boy dressed-up for school. His english is very good.

We meet up with Craig, bother of Ross Hopkins who's family did a nice blog about their Nepal "vacation" on CGOAB. Craig is headed to Pokhara to run the Annapurna Circuit....... Through modern communication we had been in touch with both Ross and Craig and knew to expect him today.

We meet a group of Frenchmen riding vintage Enfield motorcycles around Nepal.

With Krishna Jung, the owner of the "Roadside Cafe". He grows and roasts his own organic coffee beans and brews a nice cup of coffee. He also runs a paragliding company.

The "Roadside Cafe" about 18 km before Walling, 40 km from Pokhara serves excellent organic coffee. The owner is very friendly and calls ahead to our hotel to get us a "best price".

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 15,969 km (9,917 miles)

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