Blew up my piston, back on road soon

Started my trip from Pokhara back to India 5 days ago, and made it maybe 60km before I heard a nasty sound and lost power/compression immeditely. I feared the worst, and was right. My engine catastrophically seized and my piston subsequently broke in half at the pin. Somehow I was able to get a truck to drive me and my bike 100+km to Butwal, which is the first (and last) major city I pass through to go to india. I was first planning to get my bike via truck all the way to india, but this is unrealistic considering the issue of walking my bike accross the border would be beyond a spectacle. Luckily I found an enfield repair shop in butwal, called the royal workshop, which agreed to fix my bike for between 32,000 npr, which is arround 330usd, a fair price in nepal for a full engine rebuild and new piston cylinder head kit, the cost in india would be 10000-12000 for an engine rebuild and 5000 for a new piston cylinder head kit, installed, which is around the same price. In pokhara I was quoted 45000 just for the engine rebuild, without a new piston or cylinder. My piston and cylinder were already bored out to the largest oversize 0.040", so now I won't need to change the cylinder for another 2-3 rebores... my cylinder was also destroyed upon impact from my piston breaking, so a new kit was needed. There is aguy doing 350cc to 450 cc conversions for the enfield in america, so there are other options.

Sunday I watched as they did my main bearings and most work, today in the mornig I went over and they completed the job and closed her up. I am into doing work, but after spending 8 hours with competent Mechanics and my bike, I realized I am glad I wasn't doing the work, as it is not as simple as it seems, and many tools and psrts are needed, which need to be collected.

Monsoon is here in full force in july, and it has been raining atleast once a day, generally in the evening. For this reason, It is a good idea to get as many hours on the road before rain starts, and start as early as possible.

I am now in the process or 'running-in' my engine as if it were new, which it effectively is. This requires me to run at 50km/hr for the first 500km, then an oil change to remove metal debris, then a careful ramping up of max speed over the next 500km as per nandens website. This will be tough as i have no speedometer, but i will use my gps for speed verification, the next 500km are on the mahindra highway, mostly a strait line to banbasa, the highest north crossing into india, utterkhand.

Utterkhand is in the midst of a natural disaster caused by the unprecedented rain, withthousands dead and tens of thousands trapped. The char dam yatra has been suspended, which is the pilgramage every year by millions of pilgrams to yamnotri, gangotri, badrinath, and kedernath. This was were myles was planning to be at just this time, luckily he was delyayed. Kedernath, which we got clowe to a few months ago, was destroyed by a large avalanche/landslide. This is a massive disaster that is getting very little news in the west.

My first stop in india will be almora, which was sparred from diaster, and is a good place to relax for a few weeks, then to rishikesh via the highway, avoiding the mountain roads. Then up towards manali in himachal pradesh, the next north state in india from utterkhand.

Beer in Nepal

Expensive, but clean and pure, beer, and other harder alcohols are available in Nepal. Even American alcohols like Johnny walker are avaivlible, unlike in India where the quality of alcohol is abysmal.

Attached is a photo of Everest beer, as found in Pokhera.

My new favorite beer is by far Chyang, which is a simple unclarified unfiltered beer, made commonly from rice, but also wheat and barley variants can be found. It is quite thick, and most often freshly squeezed from the mash by hand after ordering. It is made by simply steaming and letting the grain ferment. It is a clean beer with almost no hangover noticeable, and quite nourishing with a lot of carbohydrates left. It can be described as so thick it is chunky. Certainly an acquired taste, but I definitely have a taste for rice Chyang now.

Barley Chyang is more sour and somewhat yellow clear, while wheat Chyang is more like fermented flour with bits of whole grain mixed in. Of the three I prefer rice, but wheat is second, an I only tried barley once, so probably have to try again. Rice Chyang was available quite cheap (20-40 rupees a cup, or 100-200 per liter, sometimes less for a pitcher.) at most spots on the trail.

Completed the Annapurna Circuit Trek

I have completed the Annapurna circuit and base camp trek over 20-21 days.
Our route was counterclockwise over the Thorung-La pass. From Tatopani Myles and devin went to Pokhera, and I went to Annapurna basecamp

We started in Besisahar, where we got into the back of a Tata army truck filled with bags of rice, and got driven to Chame in about 6 hours. From Chame (2710m) to Upper pisang (3310m) was a day, then upper pisang to Ngawal (3680m), where we stayed for a rest and acclimatization day and visited Padma-Sambhavas' Cave, which we were told is the most extensive cave in Nepal. From there we went to Manang (3540m) where most people acclimatize, then Letdar (4200m), then high camp at 4850m, then did the Thorung-la pass (5416m) to Muktinath (3800m) where we stayed a rest day before getting a jeep to Jomson.

Jomson has an airport and an army base, and food is almost normal prices again. We had the thickest local wheat beer, thick and white like flour, hand squeezed from the grains right as we ordered at our hotel.

From Jomson to Tatopani (Tatopani means hot water in Nepali) took 3 days, stopping in 2 small towns filled with cannabis. We slept the second night in a tent surrounded by plants just starting to flower. On the way down to Tatopani we tried our hands at rubbing, quite successfully.

In Tatopani we spent 2 days before devin, and Myles