Chitwan & the end of our time in Nepal. 7th - 19th July
The view from their garden was breath-taking as it overlooked a large river running right through the Chitwan National park. We sat down, ordered some cold beers and dinner and watched the sunset. And heard rumours about a Crocodile that was nestling in the river bank about 200m from our hotel. At that moment it really didn’t feel it could get any better …………or worse, that was until we got some Mo-mo’s we ordered as a starter some 80-90 mins later ! I was furious and the manager understood that this sort of delay was unacceptable.(Normally mo-mo’s are served within 15 mins at the longest.) He offered us a free coffee each for the inconvenience……just as we were going to bed !! So far, 10/10 for the view, 4/10 for the food/service(the food was good but very late.) We’d booked an elephant ride for 6:00am the following morning and so retired.
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Our first sunset at Chitwan.....the beer was good too !!
At about 5:15 we got our first alarm call from one of the Hotel workers-we hadn’t asked for it. Our usual alarm at 05:30 approach and hurry-cum-being- a-few-minutes-late seemed satisfactory to us. We got the next one at about 5:25 & then again at 5:35. When I got up to have a chat with our ‘Alarm’ he mentioned that as the rain was very hard(and it was) there might not be any point in going out….hmm, thanks. Glad for all the alarm calls. Sylvia & I had a chat and decided to go on the later trip at 08:00. At 07:15 the alarm calls started again-we were still awake anyway and so just got up. It had almost stopped raining and so we were hopeful of a good ride.
The rain almost stopped long enough for us to start walking to our vehicle. By the time we were on the road/track., the rain was hammering down so hard that our driver could hardly see through the screen with wiper blades looking like they’d been borrowed off Postman Pat’s van in the 1970’s !!
We got to someones house/shack and were offered the opportunity to buy some bananas to feed the Elephant when we returned. (But we’d forgotten to bring any money with us !!) We then waited for about an hour before the Mahoots turned up with our Elephants. When they did I almost walked away as one of the Mahoots was unnecessarily brutal in his disciplining of one of the younger elephants and I wanted no part in this. Fortunately our Mahoot looked a lot kinder and I was ‘persuaded’ that they weren’t all the same.
The ride was still in the rain and I got the opportunity to test my new North Face ‘water-proof’ jacket. All I can say is that unless my body specifically and only sweats around the ‘North Face’ Logo, it leaked !!…what a waste of time and money. North Face !! I mean, what does their equipent stand for ??? The North Face of a protected shopping Mall ?. I just couldn’t believe it and was angry and frustrated at the same time. (see Return to Kathmandu entry for further details.)
The ride however was not upset by the rain and we got our first opportunity to see a White Rhino and so got my camera out and started clicking away. Sylvia was very excited as she’d waited a time to see this member of the Rhino family. The rest of the trip was largely uneventful but we enjoyed the whole experience just the same.
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Our first opportunity to see the rare white rhino....
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....from the safety of our elephant.
We had some breakfast which was only just edible, a sort of, ’would you like some eggs & toast with your grease sir ?’, and decided to take a guided tour by foot through the park in the afternoon.
The guided tour started with a dug-out canoe ride in Crocodile invested waters. If this sounds a romantic or a nice adventure, it wasn’t in practice as it just wasn’t stable and Sylvia & I spent most of the ride sitting their very anxious trying to keep the balance right. We did see the later part of an Elephant bath and finally(and thankfully) our ride came to an end.
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Our dug out canoe...with a very flat and unstable bottom....
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...complete with local passenger.
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'Our' local croc' !
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Unfortunately we'd just missed bath-time...
The walk, that I’d privately wondered of its merits, turned out to be very good. We saw a second White Rhino, got to take a good walk through some outback(where Tigers also roam-I prefer the thought of the instant Tiger-death as opposed to the Croc-role).
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The local flora.
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our second white Rhino sighting.
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It was topped off by a visit to an Elephant sanctuary where they are also trained. Although it was nice to see some of the baby elephants, neither Sylvia or I were impressed by their handling. Many of them had their front feet tied together and all barring a few young were on short chains. We also visited the Elephant display they had where you were able to see the tools they use in training them. The tools were plentiful and looked more like torture devices to me and I was left wondering if we were ever meant to train them at all. I left feeling sad that such a beautiful animal was treated in such a way.
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The Elephant 'Sanctuary'.
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An Elephant dusting itself down...notice the feet tied together.
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It was very hot and very humid.....which made it hard work !!
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Some passing Buffalo who were very well controlled by their owner. Made for a very funny spectacle as they lazily wanted to get out of the water but the owner was not so patient and they obviously knew him and rushed up the bank obediently.
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Some passing bikers in good spirits !
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There were quite a few rice fields in the region...looked as I'd expected Vietnam to look.
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Whilst at Chitwan we’d managed to find an Internet café and check out Tom’s information on the Iranian Visa. He was indeed correct and we rejoiced at the prospect of not having to visit New Dehli again, and the additional time it would give us. Almost straight away we decided to spend a further night at the Park and just take an easy day relaxing. We also started to consider visiting the Cashmere region where some of the highest roads in the World are, and Amrister, where Sylvia wanted to see the Golden temple.
We did indeed have an easy day and enjoyed watching the sun go down with a cold beer. Dinner only came marginly quicker than the previous evening and they completely messed up Sylvias order !!! I can’t find any more words to describe our feelings.
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The sunset.
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The following morning we set off again with the desire to ride the entire length of Nepal to avoid driving in India. Our main concern though was access to more petrol. En-route and almost by accident we found a small shop who had a drum out the front. I asked for 10 litres and they smiled filling my tank for me. What I hadn’t banked on was the greed behind the smile. At the end they asked for 1000 Rupies, about double normal. I protested but I could see the ‘you should have asked before you took it’ line & smile coming straight after. I paid and consoled myself with petrol prices back home, how poor the Nepalise are generally and the ability to stay in Nepal.
We finally got to our destination for the night and felt sure that we would find petrol for the following day. We were sent from petrol station to petrol station where they all allegedly had none BUT we waited at one where a local motorcyclist came in at the same time as us and we waited to see if they gave him petrol. They saw us and played a waiting game, smiling. Albeit that they probably were going to serve him, I wasn’t in the mood to take the pettiness of this any further.
We finally got to one station where Sylvia gave them a hard time about Nepalise hospitality, a bit harsh for me as generally they’d been very helpful, but we were becoming a bit desperate and it resulted in 2 or 3 litres. We then went looking for a hotel and I spotted a Petrol garage selling petrol to all. I expected to be turned away or limited or ripped off. Wrong on all three accounts, we were served all we wanted and charged the normal rate. We just didn’t understand the mentality of how one would have little whilst another was working as if there was no shortage. Whatever, we were delighted to fill up with enough petrol to get us to the India, via the preferred border crossing, where petrol was plentiful.
We then set about finding a Hotel, and were led to one of the outskirts of town. Sylvia went in and they gave her a very high price, she managed to negotiate it down a bit but when she pressed harder, the counter man rang the manager who didn’t agree with any discount. It was a take it or leave it situation, we left it, and were kindly guided by the counter assistant to a cheaper Hotel which was actually better. Large room, en-suite bathroom, cable TV and quiet AC. We had a decent meal there and a few beers, followed by a reasonable nights sleep, the sleep being interrupted by a generator switching in and out as the grid-power failed and became available again. The generator was diesel and sounded as if the manufacturer had taken the engine noise level of an old London Taxi as a too quiet bench-mark.
None-the-less our rest was ok and half the price of the other Hotel. We had breakfast, loaded up the bikes, gave a few tips to some very grateful porters/waiters and set off again.
As we rode further West the temperature and humidity rose and the English-speaking ability of the general Nepalise person significantly decreased. We stopped for Chai(Indian/Nepalise tea) and tried some local fried delicacies. Initially we were helped by an Indian on holiday with the language difficulties and struggled with additional Chai’s after he left. None-the-less, it was a very authentic Nepalise stop point and we enjoyed seeing a non-touristy Nepal.
Finally we got to the border-town we’d aimed for, Manchurjklshsjdasgh, and actually found ourselves at the border before we realised that we’d missed the town.
After riding around and seeing a few rooms we settled for xxxxxx, just on the outskirts of town. Sylvia wasn’t that keen on the place but the room was large, the AC worked(when there was power!), and the staff friendly. They were also happy for me to perform a service on the Dakar. We also had a TV BUT with no English speaking channels.
As part of my commitment to using the Ipod I connected it to the TV and found about 6 Mr Bean episodes had been downloaded accidently by the Apple store in Kathmandu so we watched a few and had a good laugh. Not always my cup of tea but the first was very funny.
I also discovered that we could hire a DVD player for about 2 pounds per night. As we had bought 2 films in Kathmandu we decided to hire one. We watched Blood Diamond & The Fastest Indian, both excellent films.
We spent a day or two working on getting our Visa applications for Iran started and obtaining various service items for the Dakar. The later proved to be unnecessarily hard as the local Yahama dealer swore black & blue that 20W50 could not be bought in xxxxxx so I took the 20W40 he had in stock. On the way back to our hotel I popped into a Motor-factors type store for a spark plug, where I saw a 5l container of Duckhams 20W50 !!! After a short discussion I was offered 3 x 20W50 oils, including Castrol GTX, my preferred oil. I took the GTX and returned other oil back to Yamaha dealer and showed him the Castrol. He was surprised….I think, well at least he looked surprised anyway. I asked for a refund which was duly given.
Finally I had enough bits & pieces to start the service. Sylvia was to take on the task of washing all our clothes and bike gear. (The bike gear looked fantastic after….the clothes were good too ! >8;O) )
We’d been working on the Internet application of our Iranian Visa and discovered that the original promise of a ‘same day’ receipt of the Visa in the desired embassy, once agreed in principal by the Agency, had now become 1-3 days, and this made crossing Pakistan for what would be the remaining days impossible. This meant a complete change of mind and left us with the only vaguely safe option of nominating New Dehli as the desired Embassy. This way we could use the whole 7 days to cross Pakistan. This also meant the kiss of death to any other adventures in India-At best we would have an evening in Amrista. However, as we were in the final stage of applying for the Visa, literally at the point where we were about to enter the transfer of money details, Sylvia mentioned that she wondered if we were doing the right thing in going home. Privately I hadn’t been at peace with our decision but hadn’t found a way to voice it. That was it !! The application process was halted and I was off building spread-sheets to cost out what became our two main alternative options.
These were shipping the bike to Bangkok and touring the rest of Asia or shipping the bike to Australia and touring Australia & New Zealand. We couldn’t decide then but finally decided that we’d definitely go to one of them as opposed to going home.
Meanwhile, wherever we were to be going, the Dakar service need to be done. The temperature was around the high 30’s/low 40’s and the humidity was very high too. I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of servicing the Dakar in these conditions but I did want to service the bike in Nepal, and this was my last chance. To add to the servicing delights the bike had acquired a really nasty mis-fire in the past few days which sometimes was so bad the bike would cut out and sometimes not re-start to the amusement of the locals. Initially I thought that there had been some rubbish in the fuel as I’d added the spare I’d been carrying since Pokara and that had some nasty looking residue in the bottom of the container.
First things first, and that was to try and discover the reason for the mis-fire. It wasn’t long before I found the water in the plug cap from the wash we’d given the bike a few nights previous. Once I’d squirted some faithful WD40 in there the bike started and ran straight away. The second delight was to try and re-connect a cable to the air-flow sensor positioned in the air intake which had been chewed through by the rats in Mumbai. They had chosen to knaw as close to the connecting plug as possible, making it almost impossible for me to get enough wire exposed to make a connection. Almost impossible as I just had enough, well that was until I over stressed the wiring insulation as I tried to bare some wire and pulled it all off !!! Arrrghhh, I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been to be this impatient with such a fragile connection in such a BMW unfriendly/no dealer country. I particularly wanted to re-connect this sensor as the bike had struggled with the hills on the outskirts of Kathmandu, something it had never had problems with before and I attributed the most likely cause to be this sensor. After a few minutes studying the plug it looked as though I could cut half the moulding off its back to give enough access for a decent connection. After a bit of careful cutting with my Leatherman knife I had the desired result which brought me some considerable satisfaction. I connected up the new wires I’d bought and re-connected the sensor to the BMW system.
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The Dakar prior to washing and its service outside our Hotel next to the Indian border.
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Something probably not seen on many Dakars and a record to-date.
After this a standard service ensued which covers all the points BMW recommend but the dealers normally only do half of. The net result being a very nicely running Dakar which I looked forward to putting up a few hills in order to test the sensor re-connection. Whilst I was doing the service, the sweat poured off me-into my eyes, down my nose and onto my glasses-my t-shirt was dripping and I managed to drink 2l very quickly indeed. It was Hot !!!! As I was out clearing a few bits up at the end, I heard the familiar sound of a 1200 GS Adventure rolling up !…..yes, you’ve guessed it-Tom from Switzerland. We spent the evening with him and learnt that he planned to cross into India the following day, ride into the mountains I desired and cross back into Pakistan/Iran/Turkey. Hmmmmmm.
The following morning he wanted to use the Internet before leaving and so we took him to the most reliable access in town-not great but the owners knew their stuff and gave a professionalish enough service.
After Internet came lunch and we took Tom to a Café where they served reasonable egg noodles. Whilst chatting Tom mentioned that his Carnet period for Nepal had been 180 days-I said that it was unusual for the entry on a Carnet to be limited whereby he took his out to show me. I duly checked mine and saw that temporary import had been granted until 9th July, today was the 19th !!! After some hasty thinking and realising that the smudge on my carnet before the 9 could be confused for a ‘1’ we were back in the Hotel hastily packing everything we’d hoped to have had a whole day for. Today the 1 & 9 might be confused for the 19th, tomorrow the smudged 1 and 9 weren’t likely to be confused with the 20th !!
Tom had already kindly offered to wait and pass through customs together with the vague hope they’d check his documents first and assume we were travelling together and hence would have had the same period granted. Fortunately, when we arrived at customs the guy there knew what he was supposed to but somehow got confused as to what is required for import and export and as a result got our Carnet’s stamped out and we headed for the Indian border, relieved to have not been caught in some beauracratic ‘trap’.
Not the way we’d hoped to leave a country we’d loved so much but we were out of a potentially painful and expensive situation.
Mike.
The view from their garden was breath-taking as it overlooked a large river running right through the Chitwan National park. We sat down, ordered some cold beers and dinner and watched the sunset. And heard rumours about a Crocodile that was nestling in the river bank about 200m from our hotel. At that moment it really didn’t feel it could get any better …………or worse, that was until we got some Mo-mo’s we ordered as a starter some 80-90 mins later ! I was furious and the manager understood that this sort of delay was unacceptable.(Normally mo-mo’s are served within 15 mins at the longest.) He offered us a free coffee each for the inconvenience……just as we were going to bed !! So far, 10/10 for the view, 4/10 for the food/service(the food was good but very late.) We’d booked an elephant ride for 6:00am the following morning and so retired.
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Our first sunset at Chitwan.....the beer was good too !!
At about 5:15 we got our first alarm call from one of the Hotel workers-we hadn’t asked for it. Our usual alarm at 05:30 approach and hurry-cum-being- a-few-minutes-late seemed satisfactory to us. We got the next one at about 5:25 & then again at 5:35. When I got up to have a chat with our ‘Alarm’ he mentioned that as the rain was very hard(and it was) there might not be any point in going out….hmm, thanks. Glad for all the alarm calls. Sylvia & I had a chat and decided to go on the later trip at 08:00. At 07:15 the alarm calls started again-we were still awake anyway and so just got up. It had almost stopped raining and so we were hopeful of a good ride.
The rain almost stopped long enough for us to start walking to our vehicle. By the time we were on the road/track., the rain was hammering down so hard that our driver could hardly see through the screen with wiper blades looking like they’d been borrowed off Postman Pat’s van in the 1970’s !!
We got to someones house/shack and were offered the opportunity to buy some bananas to feed the Elephant when we returned. (But we’d forgotten to bring any money with us !!) We then waited for about an hour before the Mahoots turned up with our Elephants. When they did I almost walked away as one of the Mahoots was unnecessarily brutal in his disciplining of one of the younger elephants and I wanted no part in this. Fortunately our Mahoot looked a lot kinder and I was ‘persuaded’ that they weren’t all the same.
The ride was still in the rain and I got the opportunity to test my new North Face ‘water-proof’ jacket. All I can say is that unless my body specifically and only sweats around the ‘North Face’ Logo, it leaked !!…what a waste of time and money. North Face !! I mean, what does their equipent stand for ??? The North Face of a protected shopping Mall ?. I just couldn’t believe it and was angry and frustrated at the same time. (see Return to Kathmandu entry for further details.)
The ride however was not upset by the rain and we got our first opportunity to see a White Rhino and so got my camera out and started clicking away. Sylvia was very excited as she’d waited a time to see this member of the Rhino family. The rest of the trip was largely uneventful but we enjoyed the whole experience just the same.
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Our first opportunity to see the rare white rhino....
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....from the safety of our elephant.
We had some breakfast which was only just edible, a sort of, ’would you like some eggs & toast with your grease sir ?’, and decided to take a guided tour by foot through the park in the afternoon.
The guided tour started with a dug-out canoe ride in Crocodile invested waters. If this sounds a romantic or a nice adventure, it wasn’t in practice as it just wasn’t stable and Sylvia & I spent most of the ride sitting their very anxious trying to keep the balance right. We did see the later part of an Elephant bath and finally(and thankfully) our ride came to an end.
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Our dug out canoe...with a very flat and unstable bottom....
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...complete with local passenger.
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'Our' local croc' !
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Unfortunately we'd just missed bath-time...
The walk, that I’d privately wondered of its merits, turned out to be very good. We saw a second White Rhino, got to take a good walk through some outback(where Tigers also roam-I prefer the thought of the instant Tiger-death as opposed to the Croc-role).
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The local flora.
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our second white Rhino sighting.
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It was topped off by a visit to an Elephant sanctuary where they are also trained. Although it was nice to see some of the baby elephants, neither Sylvia or I were impressed by their handling. Many of them had their front feet tied together and all barring a few young were on short chains. We also visited the Elephant display they had where you were able to see the tools they use in training them. The tools were plentiful and looked more like torture devices to me and I was left wondering if we were ever meant to train them at all. I left feeling sad that such a beautiful animal was treated in such a way.
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The Elephant 'Sanctuary'.
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An Elephant dusting itself down...notice the feet tied together.
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It was very hot and very humid.....which made it hard work !!
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Some passing Buffalo who were very well controlled by their owner. Made for a very funny spectacle as they lazily wanted to get out of the water but the owner was not so patient and they obviously knew him and rushed up the bank obediently.
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Some passing bikers in good spirits !
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There were quite a few rice fields in the region...looked as I'd expected Vietnam to look.
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Whilst at Chitwan we’d managed to find an Internet café and check out Tom’s information on the Iranian Visa. He was indeed correct and we rejoiced at the prospect of not having to visit New Dehli again, and the additional time it would give us. Almost straight away we decided to spend a further night at the Park and just take an easy day relaxing. We also started to consider visiting the Cashmere region where some of the highest roads in the World are, and Amrister, where Sylvia wanted to see the Golden temple.
We did indeed have an easy day and enjoyed watching the sun go down with a cold beer. Dinner only came marginly quicker than the previous evening and they completely messed up Sylvias order !!! I can’t find any more words to describe our feelings.
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The sunset.
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The following morning we set off again with the desire to ride the entire length of Nepal to avoid driving in India. Our main concern though was access to more petrol. En-route and almost by accident we found a small shop who had a drum out the front. I asked for 10 litres and they smiled filling my tank for me. What I hadn’t banked on was the greed behind the smile. At the end they asked for 1000 Rupies, about double normal. I protested but I could see the ‘you should have asked before you took it’ line & smile coming straight after. I paid and consoled myself with petrol prices back home, how poor the Nepalise are generally and the ability to stay in Nepal.
We finally got to our destination for the night and felt sure that we would find petrol for the following day. We were sent from petrol station to petrol station where they all allegedly had none BUT we waited at one where a local motorcyclist came in at the same time as us and we waited to see if they gave him petrol. They saw us and played a waiting game, smiling. Albeit that they probably were going to serve him, I wasn’t in the mood to take the pettiness of this any further.
We finally got to one station where Sylvia gave them a hard time about Nepalise hospitality, a bit harsh for me as generally they’d been very helpful, but we were becoming a bit desperate and it resulted in 2 or 3 litres. We then went looking for a hotel and I spotted a Petrol garage selling petrol to all. I expected to be turned away or limited or ripped off. Wrong on all three accounts, we were served all we wanted and charged the normal rate. We just didn’t understand the mentality of how one would have little whilst another was working as if there was no shortage. Whatever, we were delighted to fill up with enough petrol to get us to the India, via the preferred border crossing, where petrol was plentiful.
We then set about finding a Hotel, and were led to one of the outskirts of town. Sylvia went in and they gave her a very high price, she managed to negotiate it down a bit but when she pressed harder, the counter man rang the manager who didn’t agree with any discount. It was a take it or leave it situation, we left it, and were kindly guided by the counter assistant to a cheaper Hotel which was actually better. Large room, en-suite bathroom, cable TV and quiet AC. We had a decent meal there and a few beers, followed by a reasonable nights sleep, the sleep being interrupted by a generator switching in and out as the grid-power failed and became available again. The generator was diesel and sounded as if the manufacturer had taken the engine noise level of an old London Taxi as a too quiet bench-mark.
None-the-less our rest was ok and half the price of the other Hotel. We had breakfast, loaded up the bikes, gave a few tips to some very grateful porters/waiters and set off again.
As we rode further West the temperature and humidity rose and the English-speaking ability of the general Nepalise person significantly decreased. We stopped for Chai(Indian/Nepalise tea) and tried some local fried delicacies. Initially we were helped by an Indian on holiday with the language difficulties and struggled with additional Chai’s after he left. None-the-less, it was a very authentic Nepalise stop point and we enjoyed seeing a non-touristy Nepal.
Finally we got to the border-town we’d aimed for, Manchurjklshsjdasgh, and actually found ourselves at the border before we realised that we’d missed the town.
After riding around and seeing a few rooms we settled for xxxxxx, just on the outskirts of town. Sylvia wasn’t that keen on the place but the room was large, the AC worked(when there was power!), and the staff friendly. They were also happy for me to perform a service on the Dakar. We also had a TV BUT with no English speaking channels.
As part of my commitment to using the Ipod I connected it to the TV and found about 6 Mr Bean episodes had been downloaded accidently by the Apple store in Kathmandu so we watched a few and had a good laugh. Not always my cup of tea but the first was very funny.
I also discovered that we could hire a DVD player for about 2 pounds per night. As we had bought 2 films in Kathmandu we decided to hire one. We watched Blood Diamond & The Fastest Indian, both excellent films.
We spent a day or two working on getting our Visa applications for Iran started and obtaining various service items for the Dakar. The later proved to be unnecessarily hard as the local Yahama dealer swore black & blue that 20W50 could not be bought in xxxxxx so I took the 20W40 he had in stock. On the way back to our hotel I popped into a Motor-factors type store for a spark plug, where I saw a 5l container of Duckhams 20W50 !!! After a short discussion I was offered 3 x 20W50 oils, including Castrol GTX, my preferred oil. I took the GTX and returned other oil back to Yamaha dealer and showed him the Castrol. He was surprised….I think, well at least he looked surprised anyway. I asked for a refund which was duly given.
Finally I had enough bits & pieces to start the service. Sylvia was to take on the task of washing all our clothes and bike gear. (The bike gear looked fantastic after….the clothes were good too ! >8;O) )
We’d been working on the Internet application of our Iranian Visa and discovered that the original promise of a ‘same day’ receipt of the Visa in the desired embassy, once agreed in principal by the Agency, had now become 1-3 days, and this made crossing Pakistan for what would be the remaining days impossible. This meant a complete change of mind and left us with the only vaguely safe option of nominating New Dehli as the desired Embassy. This way we could use the whole 7 days to cross Pakistan. This also meant the kiss of death to any other adventures in India-At best we would have an evening in Amrista. However, as we were in the final stage of applying for the Visa, literally at the point where we were about to enter the transfer of money details, Sylvia mentioned that she wondered if we were doing the right thing in going home. Privately I hadn’t been at peace with our decision but hadn’t found a way to voice it. That was it !! The application process was halted and I was off building spread-sheets to cost out what became our two main alternative options.
These were shipping the bike to Bangkok and touring the rest of Asia or shipping the bike to Australia and touring Australia & New Zealand. We couldn’t decide then but finally decided that we’d definitely go to one of them as opposed to going home.
Meanwhile, wherever we were to be going, the Dakar service need to be done. The temperature was around the high 30’s/low 40’s and the humidity was very high too. I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of servicing the Dakar in these conditions but I did want to service the bike in Nepal, and this was my last chance. To add to the servicing delights the bike had acquired a really nasty mis-fire in the past few days which sometimes was so bad the bike would cut out and sometimes not re-start to the amusement of the locals. Initially I thought that there had been some rubbish in the fuel as I’d added the spare I’d been carrying since Pokara and that had some nasty looking residue in the bottom of the container.
First things first, and that was to try and discover the reason for the mis-fire. It wasn’t long before I found the water in the plug cap from the wash we’d given the bike a few nights previous. Once I’d squirted some faithful WD40 in there the bike started and ran straight away. The second delight was to try and re-connect a cable to the air-flow sensor positioned in the air intake which had been chewed through by the rats in Mumbai. They had chosen to knaw as close to the connecting plug as possible, making it almost impossible for me to get enough wire exposed to make a connection. Almost impossible as I just had enough, well that was until I over stressed the wiring insulation as I tried to bare some wire and pulled it all off !!! Arrrghhh, I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been to be this impatient with such a fragile connection in such a BMW unfriendly/no dealer country. I particularly wanted to re-connect this sensor as the bike had struggled with the hills on the outskirts of Kathmandu, something it had never had problems with before and I attributed the most likely cause to be this sensor. After a few minutes studying the plug it looked as though I could cut half the moulding off its back to give enough access for a decent connection. After a bit of careful cutting with my Leatherman knife I had the desired result which brought me some considerable satisfaction. I connected up the new wires I’d bought and re-connected the sensor to the BMW system.
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The Dakar prior to washing and its service outside our Hotel next to the Indian border.
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Something probably not seen on many Dakars and a record to-date.
After this a standard service ensued which covers all the points BMW recommend but the dealers normally only do half of. The net result being a very nicely running Dakar which I looked forward to putting up a few hills in order to test the sensor re-connection. Whilst I was doing the service, the sweat poured off me-into my eyes, down my nose and onto my glasses-my t-shirt was dripping and I managed to drink 2l very quickly indeed. It was Hot !!!! As I was out clearing a few bits up at the end, I heard the familiar sound of a 1200 GS Adventure rolling up !…..yes, you’ve guessed it-Tom from Switzerland. We spent the evening with him and learnt that he planned to cross into India the following day, ride into the mountains I desired and cross back into Pakistan/Iran/Turkey. Hmmmmmm.
The following morning he wanted to use the Internet before leaving and so we took him to the most reliable access in town-not great but the owners knew their stuff and gave a professionalish enough service.
After Internet came lunch and we took Tom to a Café where they served reasonable egg noodles. Whilst chatting Tom mentioned that his Carnet period for Nepal had been 180 days-I said that it was unusual for the entry on a Carnet to be limited whereby he took his out to show me. I duly checked mine and saw that temporary import had been granted until 9th July, today was the 19th !!! After some hasty thinking and realising that the smudge on my carnet before the 9 could be confused for a ‘1’ we were back in the Hotel hastily packing everything we’d hoped to have had a whole day for. Today the 1 & 9 might be confused for the 19th, tomorrow the smudged 1 and 9 weren’t likely to be confused with the 20th !!
Tom had already kindly offered to wait and pass through customs together with the vague hope they’d check his documents first and assume we were travelling together and hence would have had the same period granted. Fortunately, when we arrived at customs the guy there knew what he was supposed to but somehow got confused as to what is required for import and export and as a result got our Carnet’s stamped out and we headed for the Indian border, relieved to have not been caught in some beauracratic ‘trap’.
Not the way we’d hoped to leave a country we’d loved so much but we were out of a potentially painful and expensive situation.
Mike.
