---
type: Video
title: "Cycling Around Nepal With My Dad!🇳🇵"
description: Harry and his dad rent bikes in Pokhara and ride out of the tourist strip into the rice-field villages — a house tour, a buffalo farm, roadside fried fish — and he comes back convinced the countryside is where the happy people are.
tags: [nepal, pokhara, cycling, villages, farming, haggling, rural-life]
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvBqliHXrzk
video_id: LvBqliHXrzk
upload_date: 2023-04-05
duration: 3274
---

# Cycling Around Nepal With My Dad!🇳🇵

Harry and [his dad](/people/harrys-dad.md) rent bicycles in
[Pokhara](/places/pokhara.md) — his dad's idea, and Harry gives him the credit
— and ride straight out of the tourist strip into the countryside. It is the
simplest video in the [Nepal](/countries/nepal.md) cluster and the one with the
clearest argument in it.

They get invited into a village house, watch a woman winnow rice by hand, meet
a buffalo worth more than a year's earnings for most people there, and eat
fried bighead fish at a roadside guest house. The conclusion Harry reaches on
the ride home is the point of the whole thing: he hasn't met one unhappy person
out here, while the people working the tourist town are the ones who seem
worn down — and his read is that rural people have what they need and are
living in the nature that the visitors flew in to see.

## Key moments

- [00:00] Pokhara as the Jewel of the Himalayas and the gateway to the Annapurna
  circuit.
- [01:23] A fresh juice at 250, which he's convinced is the tourist rate.
- [03:07] So he waits and watches an Indian customer pay for the same thing.
  Same price. He apologises to the seller.
- [05:28] Bicycle hunting, including a seller who wheels his stock home at night
  rather than riding it.
- [06:14] 150 rupees an hour, 450 for three hours each. Name, hotel and an ID
  card as the deposit.
- [07:42] Sweetcorn grilled on coals, unwrapped from the husk in front of him,
  100 rupees.
- [10:10] The seller moves 40–45 a day, and has come from India.
- [10:46] Harry tells him to keep the change, because he's working hard.
- [11:54] Pokhara's streets are numbered rather than named, which he finds a
  considerable improvement.
- [12:24] The rental shop's advice: go that side, for countryside and rice
  fields.
- [14:09] The city from the saddle — tourist shops, hotels, clean streets,
  mountains behind.
- [14:43] He notices his back brakes don't work. He carries on.
- [15:45] Out of the city, uphill, waved through a police checkpoint.
- [16:43] Happy Village.
- [17:11] A family invite him in to look round the house.
- [18:57] Inside: dark, a bed, stacked metal pots and plates, a cat.
- [19:31] The construction is earthquake-proof, with the water supply, the
  firewood furnace and the hay stores all shown to him.
- [21:45] A farm, where a woman is winnowing rice by hand — cleaning it by
  tossing, and the before-and-after difference is obvious.
- [23:58] The buffalo, which he gets closer to than he'd like.
- [25:25] Five litres at a milking, and the animal cost around 150,000 rupees
  (from video – unverified).
- [28:20] Buffalo milk sells at 200, and he isn't allowed to try it — not safe
  unless it's been boiled for tea.
- [29:14] A roadside guest house that also does food, with no menu.
- [29:29] Fried bighead fish, 450, cooked while he waits.
- [30:46] Raksi, which he decides he has earned by cycling up here.
- [31:20] The place is a guest house as well; one man is a week into a stay.
- [33:39] The fish run to about 17 kilos each.
- [37:29] Village industry along the road: fishing nets being made by hand,
  chickens, a catfish, and two turkeys that see him off.
- [40:33] A herd of buffalo with calves, blocking the road and unwilling to move.
- [41:08] The reflection on the ride back: he hasn't met one unhappy person in
  the villages, while people working in town are worn out by it. His
  explanation is that rural people have what they need, and that nature is the
  thing doing the work.
- [43:20] Back into town for a wool jacket he'd spotted earlier.
- [46:34] 6,000 asked.
- [47:08] Down to 4,300 — then he mentions another shop quoted him 3,000.
- [49:51] He takes two items, and she offers 4,500 for the pair.
- [50:26] He pushes his own price back up to 4,600, on the grounds that he wants
  to give her the business and she's a better negotiator than he is.
- [51:36] She works seven in the morning to nine at night.
- [52:52] Her offer: they swap countries, and everyone's happy.

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Pokhara](/places/pokhara.md)
- Country: [Nepal](/countries/nepal.md)
- Person: [Harry's dad](/people/harrys-dad.md)
- Tips: [Ride out past the tourist strip](/tips/ride-out-past-the-tourist-strip.md),
  [Haggle with a reference price](/tips/haggle-with-a-reference-price.md),
  [Reward honesty and hard work](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md),
  [Insist on paying](/tips/insist-on-paying.md)