HOW MUCH FOR THE GOAT??

Back in Kathmandu, the bikes finally arrived from Bangkok. After consulting numerous people in the customs office, who studied the paperwork carefully, then wrote stuff down in ancient ledgers, we went to the collection area. Here we were entertained by the total chaos as pallets of stuff fell over, forklifts collided with pallet trucks, & about 300 people all yelling at each other. Two huge wooden crates appeared, & as they were systematically destroyed by two guys with a steel spike & a couple of hammers, the crowd of spectators grew to include just about everyone in the airport. As the bikes were gradually revealed, the crowd was abuzz. "Yabber, yabber yabber.......BMW..........yabber, yabber, .............fast...etc." We got them roadworthy with about 100 people gettting in the way at every turn, debating what this tool was for, lots of oohs & aahs, you get the idea. We then rode out of the airport, following the freight forwarder, who took us to a servo which was guarded by armed police. Petrol is in short supply in Nepal. We filled up out the back, & it turned out that this was where the police vehicles were refuelled. Its not what you know, its who you know, as always.
We left for Chitwan National Park at 6 am next morning, to beat the worst of the traffic, and made good time until we hit the chaos of the ring road. At this point, all the trucks coming in from India converge. Cars then try to pass the trucks, driving on the wrong side of the road, & leaving nowhere for the outbound traffic (like us) to drive. Bikes then fill any available spaces. Oh, & they were digging up about two miles of footpath, with no signage or any other form of control. At the height of this madness, a paper boy ran up & tried to sell Chris a newspaper written in Nepalese!!

We finally got to the outskirts, & at the first checkpoint, a cop pulled Chris in & asked to see his lisence. After about two minutes of pulling the luggage apart trying to find it, Chris found it, but the cop had lost interest & waved us on. Thats Nepal.

We then had a good run for an hour or so, then it happened. Chris was in the lead as we rode through one of the many small villages when a goat bolted from nowhere straight at my bike, just as I was concentrating on passing a bus. I felt a big jolt as I hit the goat or vice versa, & for a split second I really thought I was gone. The bike dropped down on its left side, I got it back up again & then felt it drop onto its right side, jamming my foot on the road in the process, & finally got it level again. In the rear vision mirror, I saw a black lump on the road. I just gunned it & got out of there. About 10 km up the road, there was a police checkpoint, & we were hauled in. Someone had phoned ahead to tip off the cops. We ended up in the police station with about 5 cops, only one with any English, & all he could say was "Goat is dead, owner is coming". A sticky situation indeed!!

Before much longer, there were about 15 people in the room, all yabbering & pointing accusing fingers at us, with lots of "Goat is dead". I protested vehemently, putting forward a very convincing argument along the lines of "you are an irresponsible bastard letting your goat loose on a public road, what if I crashed my bike or injured myself, would you still own the goat then, you prick, etc." The reply I got to every valid argument I uttered was "Goat is dead". We could see that we were on a hiding to nothing here & that the only way we were getting out of here was by opening the wallet. The owner started the bidding commenced at 6000 rupees. We said for 6000, we would expect to keep the dead goat & your sister as well. We closed at 2000 rupees, thats $34 Aust, with him keeping the corpse. Lots of hand shaking & smiles, honour had been preserved. I'm guessing they had a barbecue that night. I got a badly bruised foot, and was a bit shaken up when I realised the whole trip could have ended there & then.


We pushed on towards Chitwan, keeping a wary eye out for livestock & everything else. We stopped to check directions, & my bike wouldn't start. The ignition problem I got checked out at the BMW dealer in Bangkok was back again!! This time, no dealers until Tehran. At this point, I'm very disappointed with the bike, it has been very unreliable, greatly overrated & it remains to be seen whether I can even get as far as Tehran. If it gets any worse, I will just put the bike in a crate somewhere & ship it home, game over. Thanks a lot, BMW.