We stayed in Amritsar a couple of days longer than we initially planned as the bike broke down on the way to see the Wagah border parade on Wednesday forcing us to delay we delay our visit until Thursday (on the way Tasha had her first motorcycle driving lesson!!). Having effectively lost a day, we looked at options of making up time and getting to Nepal quicker. Catching the train and freighting the bike seemed like the obvious choice as Amritsar is directly connected with Gorakpur by rail. The railway officials informed us the journey would take a mere 15 hours, so we were not particularly concerned when they also informed us that the entire train was unreserved hard seats. We finally left Amritsar, after more work being done on the bike throughout Friday afternoon at 7 o'clock on Friday evening. The bike was also aboard the train.

We initially became concerned about the true duration of our journey when 13 hours into the journey we had only just passed Delhi, slightly more than half way between Amritsar and Gorakpur. 11 hours and a failed escape attempt (the guard refused to let us take the bike off the train as it was registered to be unloaded at Gorakpur) later we arrived at our destination to discover the bike had been not insignificantly damaged on the journey. Dave was not happy!!!! He persisted to argue robustly (furiously) with the railway officials until they agreed to pay for the damage, we agreed to return the following morning.

Upon returning the following morning, as instructed, again, they refused to pay for the damage, and again Dave argued with great prowess (rage) until (through fear of physical harm) they finally agreed to repair the damage. We returned later to collect the machine, which had been bodged back together. Dave admitted defeat and we set off for Nepal. We crossed the border late in the evening of the 3rd, finding accommodation a few kilometers into Nepal, sleeping well knowing we had but 5 hours of riding before we would reach Kathmandu?..Unfortunately this was not to be.

All things started well on the 4th September and we departed our hotel at around 10. We made good progress and by 1300hrs we had cover 120km of the 280 required to reach Kathmandu. However, things quickly went downhill (although we weren't to find out for some time).

We ploughed on after lunch made solid progress, covering at least another 100km. We weren't in the least concerned that on the occasions we asked how far it was to Kathmandu the responses consistently increased, 'these country folk must be confused' we thought. They weren't and we had take a wrong turning on one of Nepal's 3 roads and ended up 220km from the capital, with the alternative of a 130km, poorly maintained mountain road. We chose the later, fully aware of the risk of the bike breaking down (Dave had been nursing a clutch problem since we left Gorakpur).

We decided to stop at about 7 that night at a friendly looking restaurant about 80km from Kathmandu and, as the place looked so cosy and they gave us dal baht, thought we would stay the night. Little did we know that the hotel was not above the cosy little restaurant but rather about 5 minutes down the road in (quite possibly) the scariest place I have ever been to in my life (Tasha). We were the only people in the dilapidated and rat-infested little shack, yet lights mysteriously kept turning off and doors unlocking from inside. When Dave went to investigate, in true horror movie style, he discovered the mutilated remains of an unspecified animal hanging from the wall of the floor above us (picture to follow). Tasha spent a restless night (with Dave slumbering peacefully beside her) half expected a crazed local simpleton to break down the door and hack us to bits at any moment.

We left as soon as it got light, needless to say, this morning (5th) and reached Kathmandu at around 10. We intend to spend a couple of days here sampling the local cuisine (pizza and beer) and meeting some of Dave's Nepali friends before heading to Pokhara and possibly a trek, although we are still unsure if we have enough time. We'll keep you posted.