{"id":170977,"date":"2018-10-12T17:21:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=170977"},"modified":"2018-10-12T17:22:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:22:40","slug":"for-a-haircut-to-kathmandu-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/10\/12\/for-a-haircut-to-kathmandu-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist\/","title":{"rendered":"For a Haircut to Kathmandu: Adventures of a Globetrotting Cyclist"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Will McCarthy retired at the age of 55 from his job as a vice president of a meal voucher systems provider, he knew exactly what he would do \u2013 see the world by bicycle. In the 12 years since his retirement, he covered about 68,000 km by bike, almost exclusively in subtropical and tropical countries of Asia and Latin America, and almost always during the cold winter months that plague the upstate New York, where he normally lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will is an old friend. He recently stopped off in Prague with his bike to say hello, the first time we\u2019d seen each other in 40 years. He has cycled through many countries, from China to Peru, but Nepal, he said, \u201cmight be the most beautiful country I’ve visited. I rode\u00a0about 1,000 miles and few of them\u00a0were\u00a0ugly or boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Temple, Dhulikhel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The country\u2019s capital, Kathmandu, was also an exciting place to get a haircut.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarber shops there are tiny holes-in-the-wall\u00a0with a room for two chairs and two barbers,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cMy chair the was closest to the alley, up three steps from street level.\u00a0After a few snips the barber stopped cutting and started talking to a guy, who I assumed was his friend; they were both smiling.\u00a0Then not smiling, then arguing, then fighting.\u00a0The fight was serious and soon landed in my lap.\u00a0I was pretty much pinned in the chair before they landed on me \u2013\u00a0the only easy\u00a0way out of the chair, a heavy wooden one with high arm rests,\u00a0was for the barber to move it, so I wasn’t going anywhere. I dug my knuckles into the visitor’s ribs until he jumped into the alley and took the barber with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dhulikhel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But that didn\u2019t stop the fight. \u201cOnce they were on the street, their friends separated them, but just for a minute,\u201d Will said.\u00a0\u201cThe other guy came charging back and the barber grabbed his razor.\u00a0I was out of the chair by then; it was time for me to leave.\u00a0So I walked around with half a haircut, had lunch and went back to see if things had calmed down.\u00a0They had; the barber was laughing when I got there and singing while he finished the haircut.\u00a0Singing and looking over his shoulder every ten seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
No road…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biking long distances through exotic places requires stamina, a good and robust bike, up-to-date maps, decent roads, and basic communication skills. In Nepal, when Will was trying to cycle from Kathmandu to Janakpur via Dhulikhel and Shindhuli, all those requirements were severely tested.<\/p>\n

He said he spent a lot of time in Kathmandu studying maps and talking to mountain bike and trekking guides to see if he could leave the city by riding southeast.\u00a0\u201cSome maps show a road that runs all the way and on some maps there was a gap between\u00a0Dhulikhel and Shindhuli,\u201d he said. Everyone had a different opinion about his chances. \u201cThe most encouraging version of no problem was \u2018My brother go home that way for Diwali on motorcycle, 4.5 hours,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s the answer I was waiting for, even if it was a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sun Khosi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a lie. \u201cIt was 128 kilometres from Dhulikhel to Shindhuli,\u201d Will explained. \u201cThe first 30 were paved and had beautiful views of the Himalayas, the next 10 were an okay gravel road and then, in Nepalthok, a tiny village, the road ended, literally; it collapsed into a riverbed.\u00a0For the next 3 km, the road was a stream; when it resumed it was 45 kilometres of one-lane dirt track that\u00a0followed the Sun Khosi River \u2013 but not at river level. It would climb about 500 meters to the top of the gorge and then drop back down to river level, on grades that were often\u00a0too steep and too sandy to ride up or down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Janakpur.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took him four hours to travel\u00a010 kilometers\u00a0from Nepalthok, so he flagged down a bus. \u201cWhen I asked the conductor\u00a0if the bus went to Shindhuli, he didn’t actually\u00a0say\u00a0yes,\u201d Will said. \u201cHe wiggled his head, the subcontinental horizontal wiggle that looks like a \u2018no\u2019 to\u00a0Westerners but usually means yes, or something in the yes family. In this case it meant\u00a0\u2018in that direction\u2019. I rode that bus for over\u00a0two hours; it never got out of second gear.\u00a0And then it stopped. It didn’t go to Shindhuli. It stopped at the end of the line, 10 more kilometers\u00a0of terrible road and maybe 45 minutes of\u00a0daylight left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Janaki Mandir, Janakpur.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Will had made it a point to learn Nepali numerals, so he could read kilometer markers and street addresses. \u201cAnd when I stayed in a room that had a mirror,\u201d he added, \u201cI practiced the\u00a0head wiggle.\u00a0I don’t think I ever got it right.\u00a0I got it in theory.\u00a0In the Nepali version,\u00a0the top of the head moves left or right, on a plane with the shoulders, and then returns to the center while the chin stays centered.\u00a0The motion is always the same; it’s the eyes,\u00a0eyebrows and context\u00a0that convey the meaning and there are plenty \u2013 too many \u2013 of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is Will\u2019s (partial) list of Nepalese head-wiggle meanings:<\/p>\n

Maybe
\nOkay
\nYeah, but
\nIf you say so
\nAre you sure?
\nAre you kidding?
\nI understand
\nI don’t understand
\nI don’t understand but will carry on as if I did
\nThank you
\nYou\u2019re welcome
\nYou’re most welcome
\nDon’t come back
\nNo charge
\nI’ve enjoyed overcharging you<\/p>\n

Eventually, Will did make it to Janakpur, due to another essential requirement for the global bike traveler \u2013 luck. But the bike he used on that trip, and for the first 10 years of his adventure, was eventually lost. It was stolen \u2013 from the porch of his home in upstate New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Will McCarthy retired at the age of 55 from his job as a vice president of a meal voucher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":171049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[2353,2352,2351],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-170977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoor-mountain","tag-cycling-in-nepal","tag-globetrotting-cyclist","tag-travelling"],"yoast_head":"\nFor a Haircut to Kathmandu: Adventures of a Globetrotting Cyclist - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Will McCarthy retired at the age of 55 from his job as a vice president of a meal voucher systems provider, he knew exactly what he would do \u2013 see\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/10\/12\/for-a-haircut-to-kathmandu-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For a Haircut to Kathmandu: Adventures of a Globetrotting Cyclist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Will McCarthy retired at the age of 55 from his job as a vice president of a meal voucher systems provider, he knew exactly what he would do \u2013 see\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/10\/12\/for-a-haircut-to-kathmandu-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-12T17:21:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-12T17:22:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/10\/cvr-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/10\/12\/for-a-haircut-to-kathmandu-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/10\/12\/for-a-haircut-to-kathmandu-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist\/\",\"name\":\"For a Haircut to Kathmandu: Adventures of a Globetrotting Cyclist - 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