MAY 16, 2010, 12:12 PM
STOPPING IN NEW YORK, ON A NINE-YEAR PEDAL
By COREY KILGANNON
Lok Bandhu Karki riding his bicycle in Manhattan as part of his mission to promote world peace. Even among the Nepalese –- who always seem to be attempting strenuous feats to promote world peace — a 33-year-old former teacher named Lok Bandhu Karki stands out.
Mr. Karki traveled the 53 districts of Nepal by bike for the noble mission, but then decided to extend his trip. He left Nepal on Dec. 7, 2004, and has visited 79 countries so far, traveling a distance of 90,000 miles, he estimates.
“I am riding bicycle to promote the world peace and universal brotherhood, sir,” Mr. Karki said on Thursday while wheeling his mountain bike along Second Avenue at 44th Street, near the Nepal Mission, where he is staying in New York for the next few days.
He has amassed quite a few stories. And they sound almost like scenes from cartoons.
First, the attacks — by a herd of elephants in Laos, gorillas in Uganda, robbers in Thailand and an angry mob in the Sudan (they were enraged that he was flying the flag of a dissident political faction). He said he has had 17 digital cameras and nine cellphones lost or stolen.
On and on with numbers: 23 days sleeping in the desert, and 27 nights in the forest. The man keeps a meticulous journal, not only of the misery, but also of the high points, including meeting Nelson Mandela in South Africa and Kofi Annan in Ghana.
Mr. Karki is on his fourth passport – “filled with customs stamps, sir.” – and he is on his fifth bicycle. Two were sent back to Nepal for public display, one was stolen in the Congo, and one broke down in Nicaragua.
On his current bike, he has several bags on the bike rack and three flags: the Nepalese flag, one with a peace dove and a third for the country he is visiting. He entered the United States, from Mexico, two months ago, after a jaunt through South and Central America, he said. There is also a handlebar plaque: “World Peace Tour 2004-2013 — Nepal.”
Mr. Karki rattles off the countries he has visited on his fingers, like a child’s playground chant — China, Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore. Mr. Karki says that once he visits roughly 150, by 2013, he will call it quits.
He says he has pedaled the whole trip, except for 13 flights and 20 boat trips. The longest flight was from Senegal to Sao Paolo, Brazil, and the shortest ferry trip was from Jordan to Egypt.
He fortifies himself with vaccines and multivitamins, and he carries water purification tablets and antimalaria drugs. He rides 6 to 13 hours a day, he said, and when in the countryside, sleeps in his tent. In villages and cities, he stays with friendly people, in cheap hotels or in housing provided through the Red Cross or diplomatic officials.
Mr. Karki says he has been featured in hundreds of newspaper articles and television and radio spots, and he began pulling out a huge sheaf of newspaper articles stuffed into a backpack — The Kathmandu Post, The Ghanaian Times and others.
One of 14 children growing up in Taplejung District, in Western Nepal, Mr. Karki said he lived “seven hours by walking to the city of Taplejung.”
So far, he said, the trip has cost him $55,000, which includes his life savings of $14,000, and the remainder raised mostly from aid groups, local governments he visits and Nepalese and Indian groups he meets along the way.
He says he has no bank account or credit card or Web site; he must be handed the money in cash.
“I want you to write this, sir,” he said. “Nepalese in other country have been very generous, but in this country, they do not give.”
Surprising bluntness from Mr. Karki. “I’m sorry, but I need money to continue,” he said.
After this weekend, it is on to Boston and then Canada, and then down to the Caribbean and a flight to England.
By 2013, he figures he will have a book in him. After writing it, he said, he hopes to open a foster home.
“By then, sir, I hope we have the world peace,” he said, and began riding the wrong way on Second Avenue, bound for Central Park.
