Haunted Highways and Thats the Life

It was misty when I started, the road almost seemed to just disappear in white fog twenty metres ahead of me. Eerily quiet, with no one else on the roads, trees and buildings would loom up suddenly, almost out of nowhere. Like I was on a haunted highway.

After an hour or so, the sun rose high enough to start burning the moisture away. In patches, the road appeared, and then would be lost again, but then came back stronger before.

It took about 3 hours to get to Butwal, the junction of most of the main roads of Nepal. It was here I turned off, on an inconspicuous road, to turn north to get to Pokhara.

Very quickly, mountains appeared and the road began winding through. Much better than the roads in Himachal though, with about a quarter of the amount of traffic. This is where Ambliss came into her own, nothing could keep up with her power and acceleration and we passed everything we saw.

Sculptured paddy fields, steep river valleys, green jungle, and when I saw the first snow capped peaks I let out an involuntary yee-ha.

But 150km along a winding road, however pretty is tiring. Four days of constant driving had begun to have its affect on me, I was getting tired. I could not wait to get to Pokhara and the lake under the shadow of the fabled Annapurna mountains.

I drew in, just before sunset and made my way to the lakeshore. Lots of tourists there, but the lake was calm and beautiful.

As I was pulling away, I spotted a famliar face. 'No way man!' he called out. 'We meet again. Its the life, no!' It was a spanish guy I had met briefly whilst I was with the breakfast club. 'Its Saul isn't it' I said. 'When did you get here?'

'About ten minutes ago. So this is your bike? Beautiful!' He came and cooed over Ambliss. 'I have a girlfriend who has one. She has a box on the back where she keeps her dog. Sharine'.

'I met her!' I exclaimed excitely. 'In Manali!'

'No way man! Thats the life hey!'

'Palestinian girl, reads palms? She's crazy! Smokes a lot, but very beautiful'.

'Yeah, the eyes, beautiful eyes. We lived in Barcelona, but she gave up job and flat and came here, maybe one year ago. I will find her soon. Hey man, thats the life'.

We hugged and parted. I had already made my choice of guesthouse. After a gruelling few days I needed some luxury, Saul needed something cheaper.

The room was luxurious, the view stupendous, the bathroom sparkling clean, the water hot and plentiful and the bed soft and warm. I showered, lazed around on the bed, had a beer, watched the dying of the light, just glad that I didn't have to rise and bike all day again.

I left briefly for some food, a medium rare steak followed by chocolate brownie, and then returned to my luxury. I didn't leave it for sixteen hours.