world , setup on a suspension bridge over a deep ravine !
I ’ d heard nightmare stories of this border crossing . After negotiating the seething mass of people at the border we pulled up and were checked through the Nepal border check post . This crossing is like a closed crossing which means that all freight and trade goods are unloaded on the Tibetan side and “ portaged ” physically across the joining bridge by hundreds of locals to the Nepal side and vice versa .
The Chinese run the show on the other side of the bridge , so no cameras . A quick check of our documents and passports and it ’ s on further to Customs . The road was being upgraded , so piles of reinforcement rod and mesh as well as construction vehicles added to the bottleneck .
Customs were out to lunch , so we decided we ’ d do the same . After lunch it was a perfunctory check of our bikes and a receipt for the $ 227USD per bike “ observation fee ”.
Alas the road further on was also undergoing a major rebuild and we were not permitted to travel until work ceased for the day at dark ! It was a single lane road , traffic travelled down the mountain from 6pm to midnight and up traffic from midnight to dawn .
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