Nepal
from October, 14th 2006 until May, 5th 2007

and

from October, 19th 2007 until November, 9th 2007

Coming home in a strange country
Suddenly we have become old people: Peter is one-hundred-and-three and I am a year younger. And we’re still cycling. Honesty commands us to mention that we also have become sixty-nine years younger.... READ ON>>

Adultery after sixteen years
But the body next to me is unfamiliar, the voluptuous curves are missing, the breasts are smaller, the back is tight, the skin thin. I feel bones and hard places where two months ago everything was still soft.... READ ON>>

The patatje pindasaus, an invisible river and the man who was covered with vaginas
In November we have an entire furnished living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom at our disposal, for the first time in years. We push Gyanendra off his wobbly throne and become king and queen of.... READ ON>>

The cutest dentist, the blackest Peter and the most arduous view
In Patan he seeks refuge at the Alka Hospital, where he enters a spotless and modern furnished surgery. He looks around and - to his relief - sees neither hammers nor pliers. A young and beautiful woman approaches him.... READ ON>>

FC Elephant – FC Pachyderm: 1-3
Via something that resembles a one-two the ball rolls to the other side, where the goalkeeper is dozing already: he is standing back-to-front in his goal and his rider urges him to pay attention. But it is too late: the centre forward receives the ball in one flowing movement, accidentally makes a shearing.... READ ON>>

Will we make New Year’s Eve?
This year again no Dutch doughnuts, no cabaret, no apple-fritters, no champagne, no television show with a 2006 retrospect, no full living room with friends and loved ones, no.... READ ON>>

The ancient spear
He is seventy-one-years old, but has no idea of his age. After three hundred metres we overtake him, when he is standing open-mouthed at the side of the road, trying to catch his breath. We friendly greet him, but moments later he takes off again like.... READ ON>>

Strikes, trunks, snakes stupas and thrilling games
Triumphantly he readies himself to stick it on his fork, in order to provoke our envy, when Peter snitches it off his plate. A wrestling match follows and his father falls backwards, his head hitting the wall. He pretends to be dead; we.... READ ON>>

The end of the world
The demon couldn’t be killed by a man or a beast, not by day or night and not by a weapon. Vishnu appeared as half man half lion, waited until dusk and used his nails to open up the devil and disembowel.... READ ON>>

Our hearts are fluttering like silk in the wind
Pujas are performed; snake charmers whistle their merchandise out of their reed baskets, police men openly take a puff of a joint, a helicopter scatters flowers in the applauding crowd and twenty metres further a dead person is.... READ ON>>

A hurdled trek (part I)
At the first stop en route to Pokhara the clutch gives in. It takes three mechanics two hours to replace the broken part by another somewhat less worn second hand one.
A couple of hours.... READ ON>>

A hurdled trek (part II)
A small calf thinks the needlework to be very interesting. Casually walking past he quickly puts it in his mouth. The old woman sees her labour disappearing in the direction of one of its seven stomachs and fights to retrieve the treasure from the calf’s throat.... READ ON>>

A hurdled trek (part III)
Peter pushes on a little bit more, but keeps sliding off the slippery path and regularly falls into invisible holes. When he sinks unto his waist into the snow and really has to wrestle to escape from the hole.... READ ON>>

A hurdled trek (part IV)
Now the race against the clock truly commences: left, right, in front and behind us we hear and see avalanches come down, mainly small ones, but only is single big one suffices to overwhelm a couple of western hikers for eternity. We thump the heels of our boots into the smelting snow in order to avoid sliding and.... READ ON>>

Our last weeks in Kathmandu
The god Machhendranath looks on from his seat in the middle of the chariot how sweating boys and men, whipped up by drums and a hysterical crowd, pull him toward Pulchowki Chowk. In the bend that leads to the centre of Patan the colossus starts slanting even more and.... READ ON>>

Queens Day or Buddha's Day?
I look at him with a smile on my face, but Peter doesn't see a lot of reasons to smile. “I really wanted to go on after having stayed in Kathmandu for six months, but not with a one hundred and twenty kilometres the first days, with a 38 degrees Celsius and a lot of climbing.” “But that's what you taught me the last five years: on the bicycle every day is different and you get the circumstances for free! Isn't it wonderful?”.... READ ON>>

Bandha's for wedding and road
Back in the village we're startled by fighting and yelling men. The commotion is huge and goes on for hours. We ask for the reason of this mini-war: the groom has fled! Yesterday we saw how local women decorated his hands and feet.... READ ON>>

My name is Osama bin Laden
The last dozens of kilometres in Nepal we cycle through the Suklaphanta Wildlife reserve, passing towering termite mounds, a herd of Bambi-deer and groups of cheeky macaques. Two pied woodpeckers hammer away and a swarm of parrots flies over our heads whilst screeching. The heat has returned and.... READ ON>>

from October, 19th 2007 until November, 9th 2007

The day of Daman
The children reach dreadful heights in these beautiful killing toys, and every year again someone crashes down. But: tradition is tradition. A fit of cramps forces Peter to get off his bicycle quickly; in the shrubbery he lowers his.... READ ON>>