Bike ride to Sarangkot, Pokhara - attempt
This morning (Wednesday, 15 November) I decided that for my last day in Pokhara I would rent a bike and ride up to Sarangkot, the small mountain next to the lake where all the paragliders take off from. From the top of Sarangkot you are supposed to have fantastic views of the Annapurna range and of Pokhara and Phewa Tal (Tal = lake). So after breakfast I searched around for a place to rent a bike from, which there are surprisingly few of. It was Rs 50 (~$.65) to rent the bike for the day. My guide book said most places charge Rs 100 for the day so I was a little skeptical. But I gave it a quick test ride and it seemed fine for what I was paying. So off I went.
It was okay going on flat ground (actually it wasn't; it was really hard work even on flat ground because it was a piece of shit bike and the brakes rubbed against the rims creating extra resistance and the geometry was just too small for me) but once I turned off onto the road to Sarangkot, which followed steeply up a riidge, it became impossible to ride the bike. The gears just wouldn't go low enough and with the extra resistance from the brakes and remarkably heavy weight of the bike (not to mention the geometry kept me from climbing any where close to efficiently) it just wasn't happening. So I resorted to pushing the bike up the hill. I thought that at the very least I would be able to cruise down the steep, twisty road. So that was my motivation.
After pushing that piece-of-shit-bike 3 or 4 kilometers up the steep hill and realizing that I still had another 3 km or so to go to the top, I decided it was really a stupid thing to be doing - pushing a bike up a road. So I stopped for snack, called it my personal summit for the day, and let the anticipation of the downhill ride build. It was down hill all the way back to Lakeside, the tourist district.
Off I went down the hill on the piece-of-shit-bike and to my huge disappointment I discovered that the brakes, although adequate on flat ground, weren't strong enough to keep me from accelerating down hill. My hands cramped intensely as I tried to squeeze hard enough to slow my acceleration. It was no use and I had no tools for any adjustments. I had to use my feet to stop and quite annoyed, I walked the bike back down the steep, twisting hill riding about half the time on the not so steep sections. What a huge disappointment.
It seems like every time I rent a bike some place I am disappointed with the bike. Bummer. Guess you get what you pay for though. It would have been a really fun descent on a proper bike and the views were awesome.
So I have the rest of the day to kill here in Pokhara and then tomorrow (Thursday, 16 November) morning I catch the tourist bus for the 7-hour (and Rs 300, ~$4) ride to Kathmandu.
Yesterday (Tuesday, 14 November) afternoon I randomly bumped into a couple of friends - Annick and Julianna - here in Pokhara that I had met in Tibet and then hung out with a bit in Kathmandu. They were on the Annapurna Circuit trek at the same time as me and we discovered that they were always just one day ahead of me. I kept expecting to see them on the trail and never did and then forgot they would be in Pokhara until I saw them yesterday. So we went out for drinks and dinner last night and had a good time catching up. It seems that most people I have met in Nepal are in Pokhara right now.
It was okay going on flat ground (actually it wasn't; it was really hard work even on flat ground because it was a piece of shit bike and the brakes rubbed against the rims creating extra resistance and the geometry was just too small for me) but once I turned off onto the road to Sarangkot, which followed steeply up a riidge, it became impossible to ride the bike. The gears just wouldn't go low enough and with the extra resistance from the brakes and remarkably heavy weight of the bike (not to mention the geometry kept me from climbing any where close to efficiently) it just wasn't happening. So I resorted to pushing the bike up the hill. I thought that at the very least I would be able to cruise down the steep, twisty road. So that was my motivation.
After pushing that piece-of-shit-bike 3 or 4 kilometers up the steep hill and realizing that I still had another 3 km or so to go to the top, I decided it was really a stupid thing to be doing - pushing a bike up a road. So I stopped for snack, called it my personal summit for the day, and let the anticipation of the downhill ride build. It was down hill all the way back to Lakeside, the tourist district.
Off I went down the hill on the piece-of-shit-bike and to my huge disappointment I discovered that the brakes, although adequate on flat ground, weren't strong enough to keep me from accelerating down hill. My hands cramped intensely as I tried to squeeze hard enough to slow my acceleration. It was no use and I had no tools for any adjustments. I had to use my feet to stop and quite annoyed, I walked the bike back down the steep, twisting hill riding about half the time on the not so steep sections. What a huge disappointment.
It seems like every time I rent a bike some place I am disappointed with the bike. Bummer. Guess you get what you pay for though. It would have been a really fun descent on a proper bike and the views were awesome.
So I have the rest of the day to kill here in Pokhara and then tomorrow (Thursday, 16 November) morning I catch the tourist bus for the 7-hour (and Rs 300, ~$4) ride to Kathmandu.
Yesterday (Tuesday, 14 November) afternoon I randomly bumped into a couple of friends - Annick and Julianna - here in Pokhara that I had met in Tibet and then hung out with a bit in Kathmandu. They were on the Annapurna Circuit trek at the same time as me and we discovered that they were always just one day ahead of me. I kept expecting to see them on the trail and never did and then forgot they would be in Pokhara until I saw them yesterday. So we went out for drinks and dinner last night and had a good time catching up. It seems that most people I have met in Nepal are in Pokhara right now.
posted by Dustin at 10:57 PM
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