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Topic: cycling the friendship highway
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Topic: cycling the friendship highway

Posted: 2005-03-03 13:28:53

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Author: PHILTHY

 My wife and I decided to cycle the friendship highway from Lhasa to Kathmandu. This was last year and oh boy we were unprepared! We had been traveling for a while and had decided to arrange this portion of our trip. We found a company in Nepal that would ship bikes from Kathmandu to Lhasa and would haul our backpacks for us.

We were not totally unprepared, I had been reading a book called "Tibet Overland" about doing this very trip. I even emailed the author to ask if we were completely nuts. Still, as we got closer to starting the cycling, my wife and I began to panic.

Our stress was a combination of "we-paid-alot-extra-to-do-this-damn-cycling-so-we-better-do-it" and "we've-told-other-people-we're-doing-this-damn-cycling-thing-so-we-better-not-look-like-losers" (otherwise known as pride).

Our stress did not get better after the first day of cycling because day 2 and a huge pass loomed ahead. It did not get better after day 2 because day 3 and another huge pass loomed ahead. Not to mention that we got passed on the day 2 pass by a cyclist with full paniers! Slowly, after a few painful days of biking, the stress of not finishing faded.

We had a Tibetan guide with the jeep that was carrying our bags. He was not a biking guide so he was not a reliable source of the difficulties of the ride, but he did have a lot of information about Tibetan Bhuddhism, the monastaries we saw, and the picturesque sights ahead.

When I think of our time in Tibet I think of the Tibetan faces we saw (usually with rosatia), the incredible panoramas, the smell of butter lamps in every monastary, and the dread of squirming into m biking shorts every morning...
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Author: RITA

2006-03-09 02:38:26

Sounds exciting!!
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