Unexpected, I spend almost three months in Nepal. During March, at Karkabitta border crossing between India and Nepal, the immigration officer asked me if one month visa will be surely enough for me. I answered that yes, I think I will stay only two to three weeks to cross the country with my cycle. He laughed and said, that sometimes people fall in love with Nepal and end up staying longer than planned. I was sure that, this time it's not the case with me, because last time I visited this country, I was not too impressed with it. Moreover, i was looking forward to get the new wheel and start cycling again. I should have listened the officer and applied three month visa straight away.
Because of the broken wheel episode, which I described in the last post, I stayed in Kathmandu for one week in the most friendly guesthouse called Tibet peace guest house. One of the biggest festival called Holi happened to be celebrated while I was in Kathmandu and this festival is one of a kind and everybody is involved with it. During one day, colors combined with water are thrown to each other's. People get decorated with beautiful color combinations and everybody is unique piece of art.
After Holi, I started to cycle towards Pokhara. I cycled partly the highway between these two cities and partly smaller roads through small villages. The highway is said to have heavy traffic, but I think in the end the amount of traffic is totally manageable. I have had roads with more cars and heavier traffic in India. Yet, when I was cycling back to Kathmandu and the asphalt was melted due to the heat and the uphill to Kathmandu was a lot slower to go up than down, I can understand why people complain about traffic. The condition of the road between Kathmandu and Pokhara is very good. The small village roads are sometimes better sometimes very bad. I also found it little bit difficult to know beforehand, when the road had a dead end and when there is long stretch of steps. This means I unloaded my bike several times to carry the panniers and bags up the stairs. I also learned to cycle over the hanging bridges!
On the way to Kathmandu, I met Uwe from Germany, who had cycled from Germany to Nepal and how lovely it was to share stories and hear about his journey. Unfortunately we were going to opposite directions, so the time spent together was way too short!
During my ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara the weather was not on its best. The clouds were hanging low, I knew the mountains were there, because the road was all the time going either up or down, but I could not see a thing. The smoke, pollution and heat made me to cough worse than ever before. While I was cycling to Pokhara, I was wondering what to do next. Whether to continue cycling or go for trekking to get rid of my horrible coughing and see the beautiful mountains. When I arrived to Pokhara covered with dust (even the guesthouse owner told me that I should take a shower), the decision to do long walk was easily made.
How to decide a trek in Nepal? For me was simple: I didn't want to cycle in the heat to find another starting place for a trek, so the trek should start near Pokhara and I wanted to make it easy. I wanted to know that I will meet other travelers in the evenings, to get connected ( by the that time I was longing for company). I wanted to have a holiday from unorganized adventure, which I was having everyday on my bicycle. Therefore, I chose Annapurna circuit and planned to walk it alone in two weeks.
Everybody becomes unique piece of art during Holi festival in kathmandu
My beautiful cycling outfit
Sometimes it seems that people outside of western world have and create more time to stop and enjoy the present view
Kathmandu
Crazy electricity lines in Kathmandu
Never too much food during cycling days
Dirty face from the road
Children are some of the best companion during my travel <3
The road from Kathmandu to Pokhara followed this river
Uwe, beautiful German cyclist
Strong Nepali women
Nepal has many holy trees, this gorgeous one was in between Kathmandu and Pokhara. I escaped the +40 heat under it and joint the nap with sadhu.
One of local bike shops 
During this moment the street was very quiet. Anything that moves forward is "allowed" to be on the streets. Still, somehow the traffic functions sometimes even better than in western world. The drivers seem to have never ending calm nerves, no one needs to be the very first and the horns are blown to let people know that "hello I am coming also" "is somebody around the corner". While cycling in India and Nepal, I learned that the length of horning also determines how fast I have to move to the side of the road. The passengers are crossing the streets when ever and where ever, still they will take care that they will not get under the car or my bicycle. Because there is absolutely everything on the traffic from holy cows to huge tracks, people know to give space for cyclist (even though sometimes I would have appreciated a bit more space than 20cm between me and a track).
Men and woman playing music for the longest festival in Kathmandu
Pokhara lake, some people do fishing on the lake, even though it's highly polluted
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