Kashinath, Mukthinath and Pashupathinath – journey to Nepal on Suzuki Samurai and Yamaha RX-135

[PrabhuG]

Friends,

It is 5 years today (30-Jun) since we did our motorbike trip to Leh / Ladakh region and I had shared a detailed write up as below.

Jammu - Srinagar - Leh (Ladakh) - Manali - Chandigarh on Yamaha RX-135

I hope it was useful for enthusiastic travelers. Meanwhile I thought it is appropriate to share yet another motorbike trip which we did to Nepal in Sep-2022. This trip had its own interesting stories that unfolded right from sending the bikes to Gorakhpur till we reached back Bangalore.

Couple of pictures to start with

 

[Tilak Francis]

Glad to see you back in action. Getting reminded of 90's , seeing Suzuki Samurai bike.

 

[PrabhuG]

Glad to see you back in action. Getting reminded of 90's , seeing Suzuki Samurai bike.

Thank you Tilak. My friend Vinod brought his 1999 Model Suzuki Samurai for this trip.

 

[PrabhuG]

I will try to keep the same flow of my narration as I did for our Ladakh travelogue but this travelogue will have fewer details in terms of planning and other items.

Planning the trip:

Post our successful trip to Leh and Ladakh region in year 2018, we had planned our second motorcycle (bike) trip to Northeast India in April 2020 and had booked the flight tickets to Guwahati from Bangalore in Jan 2020. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the trip due to COVID-19.

As the impact of COVID-19 reduced, we wanted to resume our trip in year 2022 and we planned to go to Nepal this time in place of Northeast India. We understood that the weather is favorable in September month in Nepal. We started booking the flight tickets in Jul 2022.

Our plan was to ship the bikes from Bangalore to Gorakhpur on Indian railways, start the ride from Gorakhpur, ride to lower mustang area, then ride towards Manang, visit Kathmandu, come to Patna, and ship the bikes back from Patna to Bangalore. The reason we chose Patna for return journey was, it was more convenient to ship the bikes back to Bangalore from there due to availability of many trains. We fixed our onward trip date from Bangalore as 9-Sep and return from Patna as 18-Sep.

Vinod did the flight ticket bookings for both of us. We enquired with Raja Prabhu and Narasimha who had accompanied us during the Ladakh trip, but they could not join due to other commitments. One of my colleagues wanted to join the trip and we did the flight ticket bookings for him too. So, it was 3 of us who planned the trip. Vinod wanted to get his Suzuki Samurai this time in place of Royal Enfield, I have only one motorcycle that is Yamaha RX-135 and my colleague had planned to come in his Royal Enfield Thunderbird.

 

[PrabhuG]

Plan for Shipping of the Bikes:

We had one experience of shipping the bike to New Delhi during Ladakh trip, so we knew the process. But we had to ship the bikes from Yeshwanthpur railway station this time instead of Bangalore Central. There are 3 trains running from Yeshwanthpur to Gorakhpur every week – on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We had planned to ship the bikes on Wednesday (7th Sep) so that it reaches Gorakhpur on Friday (9th Sep) afternoon. Our flight to Gorakhpur from Bangalore via Hyderabad was in the morning and we would reach Gorakhpur by 1:00 PM on Friday, 9th Sep. The plan was to go to railway station from airport, pick up our bikes and start riding so that we can reach Sonauli by late evening that day.

 

[PrabhuG]

Itinerary planning:

We narrowed down to following itinerary for the trip with our plan of reaching Gorakhpur on 9-Sep afternoon and starting back to Bangalore from Patna on 18-Sep 6:40 PM. We had discussed our plan with one of our friend, who is from Mumbai, and he had done Manang trip on bike from Gorakhpur. Three of us wanted to meet personally and finalize the plan prior to shipping our bikes but we could not meet at all. We could discuss the plan only on WhatsApp group.

 

[PrabhuG]

Preparing the bikes:

I have not been using the bike regularly as I carpool to office and hence, I had not done the servicing of the bike after our Leh trip. Couple of minor repairs were done here and there. My significant bike ride was to Bheemanakindi (near Kanakapura, Bangalore) when we went for a trekking in Feb 2021 (100 KMs) and one day trip to a place called Dabbaguli (300 KMs) in Apr 2022.

I gave the bike for service 10 days before the trip since no major repair was necessary except for tyre replacement and general service. I had purchased both the front and rear tyres from J C road, Bangalore and gave the bike for servicing at Ravi garage Ulsoor who had done the excellent job when we went to Leh.

The tyre replacement was due as I had not changed the rear tyre since year 2004 and front tyre since year 2009. They really lasted long, and I had done the Leh trip with those tyres. The battery also had become weak due to minimal usage, and it was replaced. The bike was ready by 30th of Aug but I collected it on 2nd Sep since I had traveled to my hometown for Ganesha festival.

Vinod also had got the servicing of Suzuki Samurai done from same mechanic. My colleagues Thunderbird also was serviced and ready.

Bike with new rear tyre

New front tyre

Bike is ready after servicing

 

[PrabhuG]

Carrier for Bike:
I had a Ladakh carrier that I had used during our previous trip which was removed and stored safely. I used the same carrier this time too. Vinod had purchased saddle bag in between and he decided to use it. My other friend who is a frequent traveler, has done some foldable permanent modification to his thunderbird so that he can carry good amount of luggage.

Physical Fitness:
I have been engaged in walking, running, or cycling from year 2015 onwards and I felt I am reasonably fit to face the altitude issues foreseen in Nepal.

Purchases:
I had most of the things needed for a bike trip from my previous travel. I did maximum use of them like raincoat, sleeping bag (never used), rain cover for luggage, riding gloves, riding guards and bungee cords etc.

Other items to carry:
I had kept couple of 5-liter empty distilled water cans for carrying additional petrol during our trip. I had provision for those can in the carrier and took them, but there was no need to carry petrol in Nepal as there were lot of petrol bunks in the route we traveled.

 

[NeerajVayu]

Itinerary planning:

We narrowed down to following itinerary for the trip with our plan of reaching Gorakhpur on 9-Sep afternoon and starting back to Bangalore from Patna on 18-Sep 6:40 PM. We had discussed our plan with one of our friend, who is from Mumbai, and he had done Manang trip on bike from Gorakhpur. Three of us wanted to meet personally and finalize the plan prior to shipping our bikes but we could not meet at all. We could discuss the plan only on WhatsApp group.

View attachment 804488

Nice plan , Sitamarhi is the birth place of Sita maiya, entire belt is called Mithila

 

[PrabhuG]

Nice plan , Sitamarhi is the birth place of Sita maiya, entire belt is called Mithila

Thank you NeerajVayu. Good info about Sitamarhi and Mithila.

The google map showed Mithila as a place between Bardibas and Janakpur. We thought we can stay there in case.