Back on the road

Tomorrow I plan to set off on my epic journey. I managed to get 12 litres of black market petrol and think this will be enough to get me at least 400km. I will head to the hill station of Tanzen only about 80KM away but through long winding mountain roads, so should take about 3hrs. Then in about a week cross into India at the north west corner of Nepal and head straight across to the only boarder crossing with Pakistan.
I took my bike for a 5 days ride across the country to Kathmandu stopping at a few places of interest and natural beauty. Back in Kathmandu I went back to the Nirvana Peace Home and found that Kristal, Cloe, Louise, Dev and Anna where all still there from my last visit. Was good to see my old friends and catchup, though this time I managed to stay away from the crazy bars and just chill on the hotel lounge and rooftop. There was a little bit of excitement on the last day. Anna has made a date "modification" to her Nepali VISA and during her renewal it was spotted. Ohhh dear, she was locked up and her passport taken away. She was let out a few hrs later and told she had to leave the country immediately, she was very lucky indeed. I gave her a lift back from the hotel to the immigration office on firestarter, but since today was the big rally/demonstration by the Maoists it was tricky to get across town, but we did. On the final few streets to the immigration office we came across the main demonstration, 1000s of people in red waving flags and police road blocks. What do you? We needed to get through. So I nipped back around the other side of the police and we headed slowly on firestarter into the crowd. We did not get far before being stopped. We pleaded, telling them the nasty government was going to lock up poor Anna and she would never get home to France. It must have helped that firestarter is commie red for we were allowed through....success.

I also got a dose of the dreaded "red-eye" while in Kathmandu and riding back through the Himalayas for 5.5hrs with conjunctivitis was less than pleasant. This would be a test for my skills in homeopathy. I had got a full kit of 88 remedies while in Kathmandu (for less than a tenner) and the next day my red-eye was gone 80% and after 4 days gone completely. The other cases I had seen (it's all over Nepal) takes 5 days of deep red and 2-3 weeks to go completely, so I was pleased. Aconite did not work, neither did Belladonna, but on the 5th hr I took Apis 1M and my eyes started to leak sticky white glue. Then bingo.....gone. Nice.
I am afraid that today there are no photos to show you. Not that I did not take them, it's more that my phone camera is buggered. My dear friend John from Halifax who shall remain nameless thought it would be fun to wrestle me to the floor at the monsoon flooded dance floor at the Gurkha party and since then my phone has been on the blink. I hope Verity will send me my new one to Lahore in a weeks time via courier. What to do? Go to Kathmandu? (sorry people say that around these parts).
Another famous Nepali saying is that "a man and a woman are 2 wheels of a cart". I always thought carts had 4 wheels?

I am still waiting (6weeks) for my Iranian VISA but hopefully it will arrive in Lahore by the time I get there. Iran is the country I am looking forward to visiting the most, everyone who has come over land that I meet says it's the most friendly and hospitable place they have visited. Funny how our media tells us a different story.
The only complaint I hear about Iran is that there are only so many times you can stop in a day for free food and cups of tea.
Anyway it's time to head off, I have lost of people to say goodbye too and dinner at Dons tonight with a few other people. It might be time to leave too because the Maoists resigned from the government 3 days ago and they started to close some of the boarders. I think there might be a little unrest around the corner.