Nepal and Mount Everest

So welcome to the Thailand to Nepal update.

This video update is split into two because of the speed and reliability of Nepal internet. If this works it’s taken 3 days to do!

This is the first part from Thailand to Nepal.

And this is the second part where I go to Everest. (second video is with blip.tv due to copyright issues)

Where to start? Well while in Bangkok I decided to get some tongue in cheek stickers made up for 90.

nolins funny stickerTouratwat sticker

And then I decided that as my faithfull 90 had stuck by my side through thick and thin for the last 5 or so years, I decided that I would try to marry her at the Bangkok Valentines Love Festival where each year thousands of people get married.

I made her a lovely wedding dress and bought her a rather fetching tiara.

C90 wedding dress

I then put on my smartest shorts, shirt and tie. I made some sashes that said bride and groom in Thai and English to help my chances of showing the officials my intentions and off I went.

I got interviewed by TV stations and questioned by the officials, but no matter how much I tried it just wasn’t going to happen 🙁 I did get into the wedding office and thought I was getting close but the other main problem apart from wanting to marry a motorbike was that the wedding office was on the 7th floor! Bugger 😉

After the failed wedding attempt it was off the shipping agents to arrange shipping of my bike from Thailand to Nepal (you aren’t allowed to ride through Burma)

In total the shipping came to £400 and from this picture you can see just how small 90 is once she’s dismantled.

dismantled C90

This is 90 compared to a BMW 1200GS which is in the crate behind. To ship the BMW costs about £1000 to do the same journey!!!! Yet another reason why I love travelling on a small bike 🙂

4 days after dropping the bike off she was in Nepal ready to put together and assault the streets of Kathmandu. This is me trying to ride her without putting her together haha.

This is me riding through the streets of Kathmandu with a cool guy Pramod on the back. Pramod showed me where to go and also helped out with all the customs paperwork of releasing her from the airport. It cost me $50 to clear customs and pay all the storage charges etc.

So…..Everest. Yeah it was amazing! I’ve never seen such raw beauty before (except for 90 of course 😉

The recommended time to trek there and back is 12-14 days. This time is needed to acclimatise to the altitude and not get altitude sickness….which can and has killed people.

And so began another Ed March moment where I decided that it would be a laugh to do the trek in 7 days plus two days for flights and a backup day if needed. This is not recommended, above 4000 metres (also the height where my medical insurance expires haha) I had constant headaches, some blurred vision, loss of balance and my nose kept exploding blood. Is sounds a lot worse than it was but I was racing my Pakistan visa and I also like a challenge and I still haven’t found what my limits are yet.

I was kind of enjoying the pain and the extremes of what I was putting my body though so I think I may have enjoyed it a bit more than if I had taken it slowly.

This is the runway for Lukla Airport. It is frequently voted as the worlds most dangerous airport and you can see why. Where I am in this photo is the end of the runway, if you land too short you crash into the side of a mountain……and if you land too long then you crash into the side of a mountain.

Also…the pilot only gets one attempt at landing, once you commit to landing there you have to land, there isn’t enough space to pull up before hitting the mountain at the end of the runway! COOL 🙂

The route up there seemed to involve nearly as much uphill as downhill and these amazing suspension bridges that crossed valleys filled with raging rivers and jagged rocks beneath.

There’s the first sight of Everest

I’ve also had some custom t-shirts made too 😉

Getting higher…..

There’s always time for some glacier ice-skating…..in trainers. My guide wasn’t too happy with the idea of me messing around on ice when you’re 2 days walk from the nearest hospital haha.

Yak and rock…..done:

Cool kid eating a pie:

This is me at Everest Base Camp after 4 days of walking up to 5300metrers from 3500metres.

This is me at Kala Patar having a relax, yes I did do the whole trek in those DC trainers. DC If you’re watching…..can I have a new pair when I return to the UK please 😉 These are my only footwear for this whole 7 month trip after all. I think they’ll deserve a rest 🙂

This is not photoshop’d and is one of my favourite pictures.

This is also a badge that the infamous Austin Vince gave me at a motorcycle rally last year. I told him about my planned trip and he took his genuine Terra Circa badge off of his overalls and pinned it on my jacket and said I deserved it!!!

Many of you may not know who Austin Vince is but he’s my adventure motorcycling hero and when your own hero does something like that it means a lot. I can definitely recommend his DVD’s Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa, they inspired my imagination for this trip and ultimately made sure that I didn’t chicken out and abandon the idea.

Anyway, I hope that this update portrays the amazing times I’ve had over the last 3 or so weeks. I’ve received more donations since the last update too and I get an email from Just Giving with everyone and I always read your messages that you send with them 🙂 Remember www.justgiving.com/c90adventures is the place to donate and make me happy 🙂

Thanks for you time, knowing that these updates are making people happy makes them worth all the effort.

Until next time,

Many thanks

Ed and 90