Thus far our days look like this: Get up at 7am, play with kids/help cook/help with homework until 930am. Walk kids to school for 10, then entertain yourself from 10-4. So far we've visited Temples, a conserved garden, the Palace Museum, Thamel (the toursit cetntre), and even done laundry. However, both of us were sort of itching to do something active. There are lots of places to rent bikes in Thamel, but if you've been to Nepal (or India...or seen Slumdog Millionaire for that matter) you will know that navigating these streets is impossible and dangerous. We decided the best way to do it would be to go through a company that provided a guide. We'd had our eye on visiting Nagarjun Reserved Forest, but had heard from some that it wasn't the safest place for 2 females to go alone. The bike company we went through had a ride through this forest and since we were with a guide we thought we'd better jump on the chance to visit the forest.
We went to pay our deposit and get fitted to bikes (which were VERY intesne). The guys there all seemed very pro and could speak very good English, so we were confident the place was legit.
"You can ride a bike?" - the guy asked us. We both said duuhhhhh yes we can ride a bike. I attempted to explain that I was big into road biking but I don't think he got it.
"Have you mountain biked before?" - To this, Charlotte answered more confidently than I, but we both said Yes, a little. That was ALL he asked us. We asked about the level of difficulty of the forest ride and he said "so so" or "not that hard".
Charlotte and I went home all excited to g biking the next day. We packed water, a bag of almonds, and one granola bar to split (they provided lunch). We got up the next morning, fueled ourselves with rice (what every good cyclist eats before a big ride....not) and set off.
We had to ride through the busy streets for 5-10 minutes to get to the forest and it was one of the scariest experiences. Thank GOODNESS we know how to handle and balance on a bike thats all I can say.
I'm not going to describe in detail about the ascent because I've chosen to block it from my mind. Keep in mind that I am by NO means a mountain biker. I like my roads smooth and hilly, where I can go fast. Charlotte had a little more experience, but I'm sure she shared a lot of my thoughts as we rode up. The top of the forest was 2000m high, and the 30km loose rock, constant incline ascent took us a gruelling 3.5h. Charlotte was able to stick to the guide. Me...not so much. With about 4km of vertical to go, my tank of rice was emptied and I had next to nothing left. I could feel lactic acid starting to build up in my legs...even though I'd been riding for 3 hours. The last 2km was rocky and steep...so I had to push my bike up to the top where my sugar was waiting for me haha. I met C at the top and she was like...omg, i died, i didn't think I was going to make it. For anyone who knows Charlotte even slighty, for her to admit this, or think she wasn't physically able to do something...it must have been effing hard.
We drank our mango juice which more more like mango syrup and had two bites of our sandwhich. I filledup on juice and cookies and then we decided to head back down.
The decent took us 50 minutes. Less than a third of what it took for us to get up! It was steep at parts coming down but it was tonnnnsss of fun.
Today we are doing fine, minus our bruised asses and hooha's.
So kids, never leave home without the bike shorts.
Missing my road bike,
J (& C)
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