Before setting out for winter trekking to the remote Lapchi valley the two Silkroad chiefs had a meeting with Bharat Basnet. He is the most prominent figure of the environmental movement in his country and in fact its pioneer. For decades the successful entrepreneur and owner of diverse "green" tourist businesses is trying raise ecological awareness in Nepal, a very popular tourist destination that is suffering more and more from environmental damages.

In absence of a public transport system, the capital city of Kathmandu is heavily pollued by a chaotic traffic that is based nearly entirely on fuel consumption. As a first and symbolic step, Baumann, Strohmann and Basnet agreed on developing plans to open up Nepal´s first loading station for electro-bicycles, most likely situated next to the Kantipur Temple House, an eco-hotel in Kathmandu owned by Bharat Basnet. The idea is to rent electro-bicycles to hotel guests and other tourists in a testing phase. After that phase options will be evaluated to use electro-bicycles for tourist companies and small scale businesses in and outside of Kathmandu.