Yesterday shall be known from now on as "Adventures in Nepali Cycle Travel Day". Nima and I decided to take a cycle trip south of Patan to a town called Bungamati. The day was stunning, as they have been the past few days, so we set off at about 9. 12k later we arrived at our destination. Bungamati is a small Newari town of about 8,000 people. They are so entrenched in their culture that the older people of the town don't speak Nepali, only Newar. Nima told me that he didn't understand any of the conversations taking place as we cycled through. We stopped at a temple (why else does one go out of Kathmandu?), and realized that Nima's tyre (haha steve) was going flat. He set off to find a cycle shop while I took pictures. There were many people in the square surrounding the Temple, washing cloths, taking baths, and generally milling about. 10minutes later Nima came back without a repaired tyre and less air than he left with. We decided to walk back about 2k to where we had seen a repair shop. Fixed flat, and we were on our way again. Cycling south still, it began to rain. We took shelter under a roof for a bit, then headed off again. As we were just starting to ascend a particularly rough bit of road, I ran over a rock, no big deal. We both dismounted (riding single speeds is FUN, fun I tell you). As I grasped the handle bars, the skewered to the right, funny, the wheel remained straight. HUH? The stem had broken inside the headset and YEAH, no more steering. We both commented on how it was good that it had happened while we were walking. We trugged back through the mud for an hour to the cycle shop, and the gentlemen repaired the cycle for 275r (just under $4). At this point we were deadset against going any further away from Kathmandu, and headed home.
While having an afternoon snack with Nima on Friday (french toast-this spurred my memory), I recalled the last time I had made french toast, about a year ago for a high school classmate who I was trying to impress. This got me thinking about the past year. 12 months ago I was working 55hrs a week. 9 months ago I was going to school at Berkeley extension. 6 months ago I was working part time and going to school (and doing well!!!). Three months ago I left a job that I loved, the comfort of my own place, and two months ago I was trying to figure out what the hell I was doing in Nepal. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings.