mountain bike ride

saturday we went walking around thamel (the tourist part of kathmandu) looking for new places, when i spotted an adventure company offering a mountain bike ride the next day. i'd been itchin to get out and do something active and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. the man told us there were 2 american women signed up, but we wanted to know their intensity level before committing! we were all out for a nice, leisurely, non-technical ride through the country side so it seemed like a good match. then, another woman, minerva, from the philippines, joined in, but she had only arrived in kathmandu a day before from dubai...where she works. she by no means looked like an 'athlete,' but was game so she also signed up. the next morning came and we were all geared up with snacks and camelbacks in tow. the ride started out heading out of kathmandu at rush hour. ??  yes, we had to ride through traffic. i felt like a little duck following its mother, only santosh, our guide was way ahead of us. lol. also, kathmandu is in a valley, so whenever you head out of the city, you naturally head UP! we climbed quite a while before getting to our tea break. kari and lindsay are from montana and colorado and are young, so they did fine, but minerva was hurtin and lagged behind. we finally turned off the main road onto some less travelled roads, but that's when we hit the mud. i enjoyed it all tremendously, but it became more technical than we had bargained for! we were sloshin around in the mud and slippin our way through some deep truck tire grooves. the only scary part was riding along a 10 inch path that sharply fell down a mountain side to the right...hold on! 2/3s through we came upon the women from the video clip. they spotted us, so i waved and they waved us towards them. we ditched the bikes and worked our way along the narrow pathways in between paddies until we reached them, shin deep in the water crop. they were very jovial and friendly, offering us water (pani) and thrilled to see their image on the screen of my camera. christy gave them some gummie bears and they shared them amongst their group. it was really a nice excursion as i'd never seen how rice was grown up close like that. it truly is labor intensive work and demands so much water. 20 minutes later, we continued on our way, and after stopping for lunch at a local joint, did we arrive back in thamel...our starting point. tired, sore, muddy, sweaty, stinky, hot, and happy, we walked home to even more stares than usual...being in shorts and all muddy...we got many smiles, giggles and points! christy got a funky tan line from her shorts and mud spatters on her legs. it's so pretty... : )  good times...i love getting out and having an excuse to get all muddy...haven't done that in a looong time!  hope you get the chance soon. love, j