For a Sunday ride on our Honda CB500X Dima proposed to travel by rural roads towards Khao Chamao area and see what happens.
Well that was quite interesting trip, finally we arrived to Chantaburi province, and passed by some lovely rubber tree plantations, pineapple farms, lake and small villages. Totally we ride for about 150 km and it took some 3 hours for one way. The way back we drive by highways 3 and 36 and it took some 1,5 hour to get back to Pattaya.
Nothing last forever, especially if it is moto gear that quite often in use. Dima’s moto jacket is 12 years old, and require some restoration project, even maybe retirement, but Dima likes it very much and not agree to have a new jacket. So, here we ago… Another testing of my household skills. Main zipper needed to be replaced, and the proper size of the zipper is 21 inch, and guess what, nowhere in Pattaya I can find 21 inches. Lots of 20 and 22 and up, if different colors and materials, but none of 21 inch… Well, let’s try to do something.
Need to cut just a bit and clip the endings of the zipper. Lucky I found some looks like clips in a store and ready to take my chances.
After some precise sewing and cutting job, here is some middle results:
That day we had to drive a final part of the off road to Beni, approximately 20 km. From Beni it is a “kind of normal road”, you can call it even a highway, all the way to Pokhara. A week ago, when we’ve driven up here, the road was very wet and muddy. But after a week of sunshine, the road became just rocks and dust. Dust that sink everywhere, under your cloth, under your skin. Can’t tell what is better, muddy road or dusty road, both seems to be not a great option, but still passable. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 14. Tatopani-Pokhara.
Today was a very long day, and the main task was to get as far as possible. The problem was the height that we climbed up, now we need to go down from 3800 m to 1200 m. There are two most difficult parts of the road: first is between Muktinath and Kagbeni and from Kalopani all the way down to Tatopani. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 13. Muktinath-Tatopani
Day X. Still not knowing where we will get today, we’ve started early in the morning to avoid the strong wind from Kali Gandaki river and pilgrim traffic.
Muktinath is an ancient temple which is sacred for both Hindu and Buddhists, located on the altitude od 3800 m above sea level and surrounded with gorgeous Annapurna range and Dhaulagiri. Muktinath bazar, or Old Ranipauwa, is also the first big settlement after Tholong La pass of popular Annapurna circuit trek. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 12. Kagbeni-Muktinath
It is only 30 km From Marpha to our final destination – Muktinath. But we’ve decided to split them in two days, hoping that it will be warmer in Muktinath the next day. So we’ve ridden to Kagbeni – a Tibetan village, the entrance to the Upper Mustang region. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 11. Marpha-Kagbeni
At night the rain was not that heavy as it was on the night before and again we truly hoped that road is passable. Checking weather forecasts was quite unpleasant activity, as they all showed snow and low temperature in Marpha, Jomsom and Muktinath, as low as +1C at the day time and -11C at night.
We’ve left Kalopani around 7:30 am and by 9 am we arrived to Marpha. The weather was sunny and quite warm, but strong cold wind made a cool afternoon. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 10. Kalopani-Marpha.
The morning sunshine gave us a hope for a good day, and as we planned before we went for a circuit trek through neighborhood villages. Even with sunshine the temperature was still quite cold and we started fully dressed, but had to take off all the warm cloth after the first accent as the air temperature started to get warmer as well. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 9. Side walks around Kalopani.
As our backs kept the memory of a super bumpy ride of the previous day, we truly hoped that the road will become better. It did for a bit, there were no rivers to cross that day, but still a lot of rocks and boulders. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 8. Tatopani to Kalopani
Fuck, fuck, fuck – this was the only thing that I recorded in my journal in the end of the day.
We’ve started driving early in the morning, still having concerns about the weather. It was cloudy and after 30 minutes driving towards Beni, on top of the ridge, strong wind with rain stoped us in a small local tea house for a while. Luckily it was the only rain that we got that day. After delicious masala tea we continued our ride. Continue reading Project 88. Motorbike trip in Nepal. Day 7. Pokhara – Beni – Tatopani
