The Day Before - Day 4

 

Our ride group from Left to Right, Michael, Adrian, Peter, Zelda, Prabin (Tour Guide) and Ann.

Finally we all got to sit down and enjoy everyone's company after a massage to ease our tired muscles. We decided to have dinner at the hotel instead of going out. For a good two hours we reminisced about our experience in Kyrgyzstan and joked about. I don't know if Michael was prepared for this but he fits in well to the group. We even started talking about our next adventure and started throwing ideas around.

I named us all the A Team, primarily because we are all from countries starting with A. We have 2 Australians, 2 Americans and one African (South African to be exact), but also a part time Americian 😎. To mark the occasion we had some custom patches made by a local vendor. We had no special plans for today so we started off with a wander down the main street to the trekking office, planning to be there by 11.00AM. It was amazing to find out the price variations for the same item between vendors. A simple t-shirt started at 1000Npr, a few shops down it was  750Npr and then 600Npr. Needless to say we bought at the 600Npr shop and haggled down to 1100 for 2. That worked out to be $5 a t-shirt. We also arranged for him to make some custom bike patches for us @ 500Npr each and call back later to collect them. 

We then went to the trekking office where Zelda and Michael sorted out some details from their trek and talked with them about the other ventures they run. It was pretty interesting and we found out that they put 40% of profits back into the community. We purchased some lightweight backpacks made from recycled para-sail material, and the fold up into a small pack that you can fit in your pocket.  We started to make our way back, still with no clear plans,  so did some tourist shopping and ordered some patches for our bike jackets.


 After our shopping spree we decided to stop at the Open House Restaurant and Cafe.  It was close to lunch so we ordered a light meal to get us through the afternoons and sat down in an upstairs area to eat and drink. Before long a few drops of rain appeared on the ground and within 10 minutes it was developing into a full deluge with the occasional hail, thunder and lightning. We had finished our meals at that stage and just ordered our coffees, so we ended up moving into the restaurant area. The staff  were extremely helpful and accommodating. Eventually we decided to brave the elements (the rain had stopped at that stage) and head back to our rooms. Withing 5 minutes the rain started again so we just pushed on through. Ann and I came straight back to the hotel, whilst Peter, Zelda and Michael stopped off and did a bit more shopping. 

Finally back in the room and a hot shower was needed to warm up. Thankfully  the water was a lot hotter than this morning.

Around 5 PM we all made our way to the Hearts and Tears Office for a briefing, some pizza and a drink.We finally got to meet Matt  and our bikes and got a run down on what where how and why. This expedition is going to be a great ride for us all and something we never thought we would be doing after Covid stuffed things up. Bring on tomorrow


Matt and his Team with all of us

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