My friend, Ken The Scientist, had already warned me that there was a possible ‘bandh’ [political uprising] happening in town and that it might affect my travel plans. I got up early anyway and went to the motorcycle store to see. He was closed. The whole town was closed. Lock-down, to be exact. And for anyone who’s ever been on ‘Freak Street’ in Kathmandu – that doesn’t happen. In fact, I’m sure even Cat Steven’s was assaulted a few times by either the Tiger Balm salesmen or the kids asking for ‘one pen-one rupee-one bonbon?!’ and simply chose to keep it out of the lyrics. This area is Bourbon St + Kho San Road – it simply thrives on rich tourists with more money than time. But it was shut. It was all shut. Save for the shop owners that sat quietly in front of their income reading what was about to happen.

Half of me enjoyed it – save for the whole murders and riots part of it all. I walked back home after a cuppa ‘chai’ and a yak coat purchase that I convinced myself I needed although the money would have been better spent on travel insurance – have I mentioned never riding a manual motorcycle before?

Walked around town and found another Mr. Motorcycle who offered me a bike for cheaper (450 a day) and nicer (‘More like a Harley – less Japanese’ was the selling point) and, after playing around with a few things that I had no name for but felt was appearing impressive, I said ‘okay’. Went back to the guesthouse that night and practiced a few times on the bosses bike – stalling 4 out of 5 times. He shook his head and said ‘If you can’t drive this – tomorrow will face problems’.

Fantastic.