Hi, I wanted to tell you
that we've arrived in Nepal
and that’s a country which is
a bit further away than Italy.
Wait, wait, stop everything,
let me introduce myself first.
He loves being called “comicista,”
something in between comedian and cyclist.
Paolo Franceschini!
Paolo Franceschini!
So, this is me,
I’ve been a comedian since
I was 5 years old,
and at almost 40yo, I became
passionate about the bike,
I’ve put the two together and
that's how everything has begun.
I was born and raised in Ferrara,
the city of bicycles
and the flattest city on Earth,
so flat that the highest point, 18m,
is called the “Big Mountain.”
So, this is how I got the idea of
doing mine on the Everest
to enter the Guinness World Record with the
highest altitude stand-up comedy gig in the world.
Nepalese New Year
be careful,
it's hot.
First of all,
first of all,
right now, it must be
about 10° outside.
About 10°? No, c’mon,
it must be 6° or 7°
and I’m very cold.
How can you know that it’s 7°?
You don’t know it, it’s bullshit.
“Quel mazzolin di fiori, che vien dalla montagna” [Italian popular song]
I've just heard that they’ve
said that @#*@#*@#*@#*
which means that the
bikes will stay up there.
Awesome,have you
heard what he said?
Juve sucks
because here in Nepal
they root for Spal.
What’s that? Am I going to Spal?
We are about to go to the
airport of, I don’t remember
what’s this airport called?
@#*@#*@#*@#*
And we’ll fly to Lukla,
we made this quite a smart choice
of doing a 6-hour bus drive
and a 15-minutes flight…
Plus, my fear is that it will be a
15 minutes concert of “Il Volo”
[Italian operatic trio, lit. “The Flight”]
This is my true fear,
it’s better to land 6
times in a row in Lukla
than a 15 minutes concert of Il Volo.
THE DAY BEFORE
I’m alive, I’m alive.
As I was saying, are there any girls?
I’m with Bandana
Listen, I’d say we are heading out,
I just don’t know what time is it
but it’s a time at least.
We are going to go that way,
everything couldn’t have started better:
I got a flat,
a shifter broke
and so did a frame
Everything else,
we are fixing things, so
I would like to say something,
reaching by bike the Everest
base camp might have been
a cool idea for so many reasons
but to paraphrase
the great Ugo Fantozzi
to me “this is a load of shit”
and we are only 2-hours
in the first day,
so now I’ll stop it,
won’t say anything else,
I’ll purify myself.
Look the typical way to go by bike,
look here and here,
and then over there…
43m pedaling
but look if I can stay on
this thing for this 43m…
That’s so bad-ass guys!
Happy Easter and Enjoy!
Chef, what are you making?
The pasta with...?
Amatriciana.
Today we’ll pedal for about 23meters
of the 10km we have to do,
I think
Sometimes I ask myself
why are we doing this thing,
we are wondering the same,
yet it’s beautiful.
Not but today is pretty easy,
it's pretty easy.
Today it's easy, eeeasy!
You are tired, you pieces
of shit, aren’t you?
The shortcut
if it wasn't for Marrini carrying my bike,
we would have been still there.
We are climbing
more and more,
today I’m feeling good,
I have a good feeling,
the weather is perfect,
you feel good,
and as soon as the wind
blows a bit it like now,
it gets awfully cold but now
we are going higher and higher.
I’ve been asked quite a few times
why I wanted to reach the
Everest base camp to do this thing
and to be honest, I haven’t quite
found the answer yet,
we are at 4000m and
you have Italian waving “hello”
or he is the hero who has
just had a smoke now
this is smoking, and this is waving
so smoking is not waving.
[in italian "salutare" means "to wave" or "healthy"]
"Ho riso"
[in Italian "riso" means to laugh and rice]
Today has been great,
today also the guys are beautiful.
Sit, sit!
“Lasciatemi cantare, con la chitarra in mano”
[Italian popular song]
I'm dumb
One says, are we there yet?
You wish!
So let’s move, heading
for the base camp.
I want you to stop filming
because you have to see
what’s there.
Have you seen it?
Have you?
You have the
base camp there, man!
But such bullshit we won't do
any more though,
No more.
"I don't know what to sing,
it's hard to breathe,
but when is it gonna happen again
to have the Everest base camp
right there"
In theory, the story should
have had ended here
but the trip back from Lukla to
Kathmandu we should have done by bike
was so full of setbacks that…
there was a small
organizational problem,
I mean, there was a misunderstanding,
basically, since this morning
we’ve been in this uncomfortable
situation also clothing-wise,
we’ve completely lost our dignity,
that been said,
this is like the weather
in Ferrara in November
where the road looks like that,
I don’t know if you can give the idea,
right now it’s 4.06 pm
and it’s been like this since
10:30 am more or less
Up here you have, a dog,
two dogs,
all is good,
yeah
Now, we only need the dogs
to fuck themselves…
c’mon do it, do it…
So, it’s Tuesday, April 30th,
it’s 11:27 am,
we’ve been trying to reach Karikhola
from Lukla for the last 2 days.
Now, in just a minute, I’ll try
to sum up what our journey
from Lukla to Karikhola has been:
Is there a road from Lukla to Karikhola?
Yes, it ends after 500m
and then stairs and stairs...
But does the road begin now? Yes
Stairs, stairs, stairs,
excuse me, for Karikhola?
Karikholaaa
Is Karikhola still far away?
Stairs, climb them
Donkeys, donkeys,
Rain, rain
Very spicy potatoes
That sucks!
And you just go down
and donkeys and you go up and it rains and donkeys shit everywhere donkey, donkey, donkeys...
And Karikhola? Who knows!
Let’s go back mid-way,
we fell asleep.
Tomorrow morning we’ll leave
for Karikhola, how long? 3 hours,
you leave, donkeys, donkey,
donkey, donkey shit,
2 hours for Karikhola, okay, walk, climb, go down and Karikhola
is almost there.
Some indefinite hours later
Basically, what happened
was a discussion of two hours
about the fact the locals
wanted to rent out 4 vehicles
whereas our staff said
that 2 were enough;
apparently, because
everything is "apparently"
here because we trust what we are translated
cause we don’t understand anything.
There was some sort of agreement of paying for 3 jeeps to use 2
but I mean we pay for 3, let’s use 3
instead we have to be packed in the car
yet it’s all part of the game
and now they are
trying to get everything
inside the 2 jeeps.
Out there they are loading the bikes and
I have no clue how they did it and there’s
still one left
and we have ahead a 5-hours ride to
Phaplu or something and it’s 4 pm.
All the schedules are given {\an8}
like whatever
if before they were talking about a 5-hours drive,
now, they are already talking about 6-7.
No, no, no wait, now,
as long as we laugh, we can joke…
we are gonna topple over here,
the current is too strong.
They want to cross the river there,
but I don’t know,
I don’t know what to say,
How the fuck can we pass there?
The locals realized
that crossing the river in those
conditions would be too risky,
thus we are going back
to the “famous” Karikhola
then tomorrow we’ll improvise.
Meanwhile, we’ll have a beer and chill.
From the jeeps to here, where the fuck were we?
Did you film there?
Now we’re going to cross the bridge
with bamboo poles to keep it balanced
then we’ll walk until we reach the jeeps.
We’ve walked already
for 50minutes, about 3km
and now we’ll walk 2 or 3
and probably it’s all uphill.
Filming these moments,
it’s like kicking
someone taking a shit.
For the record, it’s 1 am,
we are somewhere in Nepal,
with a van that has not enough gas to reach the next gas station.
Ah, that one
Is our driver, who's been
driving for 15 hours
I would like to say that the plot twist
here is that there is no plot twist,
for now.
In the end, the days we had
to spend riding our bikes
turned into an adventure
that got us lost for 3 days
on impassable roads
to get to Karikhola,
the almost unreachable Phaplu
and the forced search for a van
that would take us to Kathmandu.
A night-long journey of hope,
all stinky and packed in, on dark
bumpy roads with occasional cliffs
that in-between naps would
trigger spontaneous prayers,
an improvised breakfast at 6 am
with tea and curry chickpeas,
a 10-hours trip to the destination,
but a wonderful trip.
The adventure is over,
but what wonderful, funny adventure
with so many unexpected things.
In some ways, it was way harder
than what I expected it to be
When you let yourself go with the flow of life
and you let life do everything for you
you then the good happens
and everything went well, everything was
perfect because we trusted life
and life is always right.
Bravo!
Thank you
Thank you to my wonderful fellow
adventurers for the laughter,
the meals, the efforts, the hardships,
the tears, the joy, the frustration,
the fights, the discussions,
the immense emotions,
the fears, the moments of despair
and the unique moments we shared.
Thank you to all those who
worked behind the scenes
and to those who helped
us in person along the road
with particular attention to our
untiring and very strong carrier,
to our super guides
Ashish and Roshan,
to those who dedicated 20 minutes of their life to see
my performance for the GWR at 5270m above sea level,
to Olympia Cicli, to Dama Sportwear,
to Ursa Italia,
to Lumia group, to Civetta movie, to Play Valley
and Generali Baluardi,
to Kodama, and Jecofilms for
the footage, the awesome photos,
to Lucy Rujan for the
indispensable bags,
to all the people we
crossed path with, to their
“Oh my god, you’re crazy” and to their
“you’re amazing guys!”
to those huge eyes,
snotty noses and big smiles
of the kids that would look
at us as if were Martians
to Planet Hotel in Bhaktapur,
to freezing-cold lodges and
the neglected hygiene,
to all the setbacks,
to the spicy food I ate
and that’s still burning.
To the Nepalese people
that teach what respect for
others is with simple gestures.
To everything, I’ve experienced and that
has left me with a big whole smile.
To all the messages
of support I received.
To all my dear friends
and my family.
To the holy mother Sagarmatha
for the simple fact of existing,
to Mother Earth for letting us exist.
I’m every day more alive,
thank you.
Ouch, you deep shit,
you’ve hurt my shoulder.
