Our new thing as a family is mountain biking. We bought the bikes immediately after we found out we were moving to Nepal. Axel and I didn't know much about mountain biking. But going to a mountainous area was excuse enough for us to take on the sport. So, we went to a few bike shops in Dubai and we were conned into buying these cool bikes I know nothing about. Mine has purple on it--good enough for me.
Thank goodness we made the purchase we did because mountain bikes are hard to find here. And yet, there are so many great trails. Every time we ride our bikes in Nepal, it seems the locals stop and stare wondering why someone would choose to bike for fun. It is always hard to ride my comfy bike huffing and puffing as I pass some of these people. Geeze, such hard work pedaling, and then you have to shift gears? Gosh.
A couple weeks ago, we decided to take the kids on a trek. We went to a forest where the now abolished Nepali King resides. Nothing like riding on royal land. We were hoping to chat it up with the guy, but he did not make an appearance. We wanted to know how it felt to be kicked out of your own palace and sent to the side of a mountain never to be seen again. Oddly, he wasn't readily available to comment on the subject.
Looks like the ex-king and Axel share the same love. He has about 50 of these suckers on his land.
It was actually a pretty intense trail. The kids were troopers. I am sure the whipping stick helped motivate them as well. Kidding, just kidding.
Xavier's first orchid he collected on his own. Axel drove the car this time so he didn't have the driver to help. Good thing we have an agile 4 year old who loves any opportunity to climb a tree.
We may have spotted the ex-king himself, and then again, maybe it was just a Gurkha ready to kick our butts. Either way, he took one look at our bikes and walked in the other direction. I am sure he thought, 'Who rides a bike for recreation? Up tough mountains? With children?
...certainly a level of crazy I don't want to encounter.'
Phew.
2 comments:
Fun! Okay, I want to know more about your day to day. What's a typical day like for you? Does Axel work 8-5 on M-F? How did you bike with the babies/toddlers? Do you do all the cooking? Stuff like that. Enquiring minds!!
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