Day 2 started with an annoying wake up at 5am for me. Angry birds started squawking bang on 5am, which were impossible to sleep through. Mike however was relatively undisturbed with his earplugs in (something he would be thankful for later in the trip as well).
After a shower (warm for once) and a buffet breakfast (not the best) at the hotel we decided to get our bikes out of their bags and get them fixed up and ready for cycling. Ox arrived and we chatted whilst putting the bikes together. We quickly discovered that Mikes rear mech hanger had been bent in transit, which meant he couldn't get the back wheel on properly. Ox made a call to Saroj who cycled down from the shop with a part to fix up the bike. This was useful as he needed to reattach the stem and suspension, which was looking like a bit of a chore. Saroj explained that he was 'an excellent mechanic' so took over fix up duties. Mike also had a brand new saddle bag, which neither he or the bike mechanic could fit, and it was decided to just put it in the rucksack and sort it out later (this is known as saddle-bag-fail!)
We also at this time met Gerard for the first time. G (g-man, g-force) as he came to be known, was on one of many cycling holidays that he'd been on over the last year and had more planned in the future (Marocco last, Armenia next).
Once initial repairs had been carried out we took a quick cycle down to Ox's shop (bikingfirst.com) to grab a quick drink (non-alcoholic), pump up tires and carry out final maintenance to Mikes bike. At the shop we met the #1 MTB rider in Nepal, and found out that Saroj was #9 best in Nepal. Also Ox claimed he was #10, but we were a little dubious! Ox explained a little about the route we would go out riding today and also what we were doing tomorrow (a tample tour (no that isn't a typo)).
After G finished his tea we set off on what turned out to be a fairly aggressive first ride with Saroj. It was an eye-opening experience to cycle through Katmandhu. As stated on the first day, the sheer magnitude of obstacles you need to overcome/be aware of is staggering. However like with many things after a little bit of practice you get used to it. A slow 5-7km to get out of the city and towards the hills (anything below 2000m is a hill in nepal). Once we hit the off-road we started to climb up and away from the city. Saroj (pronounced Saroz (or as Mike called him Shiraz)) set a fairly brutal pace on the uphills which left G and Mike struggling a little, especially as they weren't used to off-road riding. At the top we paused and took a couple of pictures, before beginning the descent. This was mainly off-road but drivable, which then descended into single track technical. The best part was a thin path about a foot in width which we cycled along the top of, before heading back towards the dusty streets of Katmandhu!
Predictably the one place I would get a puncture was when rolling gently down a street that didn't have any pot holes or bumps. As we stopped and flipped the bike over, a crowd started to gather around to see what was going on. This mainly consisted off small kids who were intrigued by the up to date bikes that we all had. Saroj quickly changed the tyre (he insisted on doing it) and we dispersed the fast becoming unruly crowd and set off back to the shop. Total ride distance was ~25km.
We took a short ride back to the hotel after dropping off Saroj and decided to take a quick nap before meeting up with everyone else at 7pm.
Up at 18:30 and a quick shower, Mike and I, came down to the lobby area and found the rest of our group and Ox already there. Introductions were made and it was a pleasure to meet the rest of the group, which are, in no particular order, Judy & Scott, James, and Michael, that crazy Dane!
Ox got us all a beer and while we were enjoying sipping that, he presented us all with a map of Nepal, a phrase book and our itenarary. We learnt the general greeting of 'Namaste' which can basically mean hello, goodbye, welcome, how are you etc... which we would hear thousands of times over the next couple of weeks from all sorts of people.
We then set off for dinner at the 'Northfield Cafe' where we sat and got aquainted with eachother and found out interesting things about the trip. It turned out that I knew some people that Scott & Judy knew and also that James lived round the corner and cycled with the same club as me. Michael - that crazy Dane, had been to Nepal quite a few times before and had also been on a red spokes tour as well (in Tibet). We also learned more about what G had been doing, his recent cycling trip to Marocco and also some of his other exploits (end to end being one of them).
The restaurant was quite nice, with a large outdoor area, and a strange Nepali band playing odd music and a wierd dancing man (no one paid them much attention). The food was adequate but nothing to write home about but did the job of sating our appetites.
After dinner, all of the gang except Mike and I went off to bed as they had, had long days (flying) so wanted an early night. We were also scheduled to start riding around 9am the following morning. Mike and I went to find a good bar and stumbled across a place that does shisha, which we thought would be a nice end to the evening. The place was quite busy as there was a Nepali band playing western music (Oasis, GnR's etc..) so we sat down next to a couple of guys we thought were Indian. It turned out these two were Neapli software developers so having the professions that Mike and I have we quickly stumbled across common ground.
Yuvraj, became quite animated when he found out how much we were paying for drinks as it turned out this was about 3 times the amount that they were paying. So he ordered the rest of the drinks for us at the locals price.
We didn't stay for too long, and decided to head back around 23:30 as we would be up early tomorrow morning. Day 2 over. Bring on day 3!
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