It is wonderful to be in the real India. And the real India is everything I could have hoped for.India

Entering \India
It was nice to get away from the escorts in Pakistan and have the freedom to stop when we liked again.
My first impressions of India was that it seemed to be richer and faster paced than Pakistan. The vegetation seemed lusher and thicker. The roads are lined with gum trees (there were lots in Pakistan as well but these are older) The food is more available (due to Ramadan) and more varied.

First stop New Delhi
We went straight to New Delhi because the Commonwealth games start there in a few weeks time and we want to be well clear of the city by then. The Hotel we stayed in was ok but new and pretty poor standards of service and setup. The bike was locked away for a few days and all transport was by the old 3 wheeled buggy.
The preparations for Commonwealth games have destroyed the city (from what I here it was pretty bad before preparations began). Everywhere and I mean everywhere the roads are torn up, the footpaths are torn up, the cityscape is torn up. The work to prepare for the games is mostly being done by hand with little machinery around. The mud and rubbish everywhere is terrible and the traffic mayhem because the roads are torn up is crazy. Talking to the taxi (3 wheeler) driver he is totally pissed with getting around and the way all the work isn’t being done. The main buildings in the city center area are only starting to be spruced up now and they are waiting for that to be done before they put the paving down. Utter chaos.

We went to another of Shah Jahans forts here and it was another amazing structure. The lack of maintenance of these buildings is startling also. Water damage in some of the buildings will take millions to fix but seems to be completely forgotten about. When we were there it rained quite heavily and in the forts museum the water leaking through the roof was horrible to see.

This was also where we first saw the prejudice here against foreigners, as we are called. Indians pay 10 rupees for entry, we foreigners pay 500 rupees. What would be said if we charged non-Australians 50 times more to get into tourists sites in Aus?
We had a look at the Hindu temple a mosque and all were great bits of architecture with some great art works.
After looking at the mosque a older bloke came up to us and asked if we wanted to see some of the old Delhi. We followed along and I discussed with him the need to discuss with us any fee for his services. He insisted that we discuss that at the end of the “tour” so we left it at that, and went on to see some of the way that people live in and around old Delhi. When it came time to pay he wanted a few hundred dollars for his time and I reminded him that he had said that we pay what we think the tour was worth. I think he was a bit disappointed with the amount we gave him.

We sent 6kgs of stuff home (We shouldnt have anything left on the bike but we do) and I am sure the bike will appreciate it. We purchase a good map of India to supplement the GPS for planning and navigation.

After a few days in Delhi we headed out of town via Qutv Minar the flower market and the lotus temple, all interesting and nice places to visit.

The traffic mahem was everywhere and after rubbing up against a few cars who just moved into me I decided that I couldnt allow the risk of being pushed into another car any longer. So some Indian drivers now have some dinted doors courtesy of my wonderful steel cap boots. Also I showed some drivers where there side mirrors were with a wack (that is if they did have side mirrors) Gee it makes a difference, they really back off, and give you some room and respect.

Agra
We traveled to Agra over the next couple of days and reached there in the early afternoon. The Taj Mahal was no 1 on the agenda so after checking in we headed the km or so from the hotel. The price was even more discriminatory here with 15 for locals and 750rupees for foreigners so things didn’t start of well. But after walking through the beautiful entrance area we were awe struck by the amazing presence of a wonder of the world. I can only describe the scene as breathtaking but it doesn’t seem enough. The only other time I have been so amazed at a sight was when I first saw Ayres rock.

We spent the next 2-3 hours venturing in and around the Taj, being awe struck at every turn, beautiful in everyway. The place has a real presence. Magnificent.
We ventures to the Agra fort the next day and I believe this is the best of Shah Jahan' s forts. It was quite a sight. Good veiw of the Taj mahal as well. I suppose it helped that I had read the book about Shah Jahan's life before we left and this helped me imagine him here during his lifetime.

On to the Ganges the sacred river and took a tour through the back streets of the village on the way to the river. The back streets were amazing
The same old big crowd gathered around us as we tried to have a look at the river. The crowd attracted a reporter who interviewed us for the local newspaper with photos taken ( yes we have celebrity status here and it does have a price tag)
Getting out of Kanpur seemed to take for ever. The market stalls along the side of the road went for ever. The railway crossings were a constant stopping point.
The amazing thing in India with railway crossings is the boom gates may be down for 15 or 20 minutes (probably longer at times) as they go down when the train is supposed to go through. So you sit there and slowly the traffic builds up on both sides of the railway line. Nothing unusual about that except they dont just take the left lane they take up both sides of the road on both sides of the railway line. So when the boom gates go up there is an instant traffic jam. It is amazing to watch. Just total bedlam.

Nauavganj
On the sides of the road are Sugar cane Rice, Millet and Mellons. Everything is amazingly lush. Very tropical.
We stayed at a bird sanctuary tonight. We were pretty buggered due to the heat and the humidity.

We left early and headed toVaranasi one of the seven sacred cities for Hindus and there is a major Buddhist site here too. We booked into a nice hotel after we told them how much we wanted to pay and they agreed with the price. After going for a walk and getting totally lost and down the wrong road we asked one of the 3 wheel go cart blokes to take us back to the hotel. He took us another 3-4 kms away from the hotel, stopped and said it was too far and tried to get some more money for his trouble. We were not having any of this so we got in another 3 wheeler and got him to take us back to the hotel for 1/3 the price. Yes I am getting ##%$E$^%$ pissed of with people with their hands out and people wanting extra money from us because we are foreigners. I am finding that my dealings with everyone are tainted with the thought that they just want my money. And anyone that displays these tendencies are getting a mouthful from both Bron and I. We have had enough and it has only been a week here.

Traveling out of Varanasi we went to the sacred Buddhist site where he gave his first sermon after being enlightened. Another group of people wanting money from tourists. The scenery is beautiful, every time we stop anywhere, we have up to 50 people around us, we stop to get money from the ATM or to eat or to look at anything we cant move.

We traveled along some rivers and the scenery was gorgeous, with more traditional mud huts and grass roof houses with bullocks and carts everywhere. Unfortunately as we have left the main highway the road has deteriorated and it has become one lane roads with a 200 – 300 mm drop of from the bitumen then a 1 metre wide muddy, rough strip then a 3 meter drop to the fields. Scary stuff when if you go to slow a bus or jeep will literally push you of the road and if you go to fast you are constantly fighting with the oncoming traffic. If you sit in front of any other vehicle they are constantly blasting their horns, it is hard to explain the bedlam on the roads, it needs to be experienced.

We got to Bairia about 4.30pm and decided we had had enough, it was another 40 deg humid day and we had sweated enough. We were tired and grumpy. We stopped outside the only hotel in town and the crowd gathered like usual, (it gets hotter when there are 50 people in close) Bron went in to the Hotel to look at the room and find where we could store the bike while I stayed with the bike, the people were asking the normal questions( where are you from?, what city? Where are you going? What are you doing here? How many cc is the bike? How did we get it to India?) when one person asked do you want to put your bike at my place? My ears pricked up and when Bron came back and said they had nowhere at the hotel to put the bike I said to Rocky(the bloke who offered to store it)
That we would love to take the bike there. We took the bike to his place and then he offered for us to stay there, he didnt have to say it twice, we jumped at it, it seemed like a nice quite place away from the main road where we would be mobbed and we wouldnt have the constant horn beeps all night.
Rocky's family were really nice, his extended family were there and his uncle (75yo) spoke excellent english. We set our tent up on the back porch and settled in for a home cooked meal and lovely conversation about how India works.
Initially we thought we had got away from the noise to have a lovely quiet night but then the town PA system started up and a women started singing on it, Rocky's uncle explained that the women had recently had a baby and the singing/chanting was a way of welcoming the baby into this world and telling everyone how happy she was to have had a baby. Well after 3 hours of this we certainly knew she was happy, it did make the conversation with Rockies family a bit tough, but they expressed how glad they were that she had had the baby and it was wonderful to hear her singing.

That is the essence of India, acceptance, for the way things are, and the way it are not.
(maybe I need to take a bit more of this on).
It was a lovely conversation anyway, the main thing I got from the conversation was the understanding of the Indian way of being and that is, Satisfaction, Be satisfied with who you are and what you have, my wonderful friend Tony and I often discuss being grateful for who you are and what you have and I suppose this is a similar mantra.

Rockie and his family were the tonic I/we needed to change how we are being in India with Indians. It helped us with some understanding.

We had a stinking hot night with no breeze and sweat pouring of us all night.
We left Rockies with a different attitude, on reflection I was resisting India, but it has infiltrated me finally, but this day there was lots more to come, India had to beat me into submission there was still some resistance.

The ride started out well enough, the road deteriorated and became horrible, the heat was sapping every ounce of energy then we got somewhat lost in an ever lasting city and taking a back street to get back on to the main road we were going through a “little puddle” when we hit the proverbial brick and over we went. ( always happens when you are &%^&*%^& hot and bothered)

Then after lifting the bike we had to negotiate a 45deg plank across a open sewer, then the cow who decided to get loose from its owner just as were we going past ( it took a full lock up in the rear and a fancy maneuver to get around this one).

Lunch was in a nice country town with hardly anyone around until we stopped, then the standard 50 line up arrived but as we tried to relax with our lunch and the famous 50, the crowd thinned out ( the cafe owner helped) the rest of the day was mixed with bloody hot weather and crowds whenever we stopped but a nice cheap hotel at the end of the day, with good secure parking.
We decided to do some shopping and the Indian's turned on the charm again, really looking after us where ever we went, what a contrast to the touristy places. When you go to give them a tip here or pay a little extra they politely refuse. They have a completely different attitude to around the tourist zones.
It is wonderful to be in the real India. And the real India is everything I could have hoped for.

Today we traveled from the little boutique hotel (that is what the Indian guide book would call it) to Bagdogra. What a ride. The day started out about 4.30am with the roar of the generator in the lobby and continued with the banana sorter/sellers telling each other very loudly how to sort bananas. We packed up and got the bike out of the banana room downstairs and headed towards Purnia.
The road was good and soon we got back onto some of the new dual carriageway trunk road that is being created throughout India.(the Indians go up and down both sides of the road so I suppose you would call it every which way carriageway here)

This started and stopped for the next 50kms or so. It was a real contrast of some of the roads we have been on over the last few days. Then we came to a large expanse of river with a very unfinished bridge across it. We were flagged to the left by the army person on guard there and we continued along a recently completed levee bank.

The view was amazing. The levee bank ran along side the river, which was on our right with an elevated view of hundreds of grass huts and villages and rice paddies on our left. There were mud flats about 50 metres out into the river and children were riding buffalo down to the river and swimming the buffalo out to the mudflats. It was an extraordinarily beautiful sight. It was what I have considered to be classic Indian scenery and it went on for the next hour or two while we made our way along the levee bank towards what we thought would be the bridge across to the other side.

We went through some many traditional villages with men plowing the fields with bullock and wooden plow.

It was difficult riding with sand, mud and pot holes everywhere. There was not a formed road anywhere to be found. For the next 2 hours we headed north along the river, then we came to a all to familiar police/army checkpoint. Guess what you are now leaving India and are in Nepal.

We discussed with the head honcho there (intelligence guy) which was the best way to go to reach our destination for the day (Purnia). He said that we could keep going the 15kms to the bridge and then head down the other side and we would be fine, so we continued up the the bridge and crossed over.
On the other side we were greeted by some nice Indian army blokes who wanted our passports etc but we convinced them that we had just got lost and we didnt intend to go into Nepal. So they let us continue without any hassles. Then it came to the customs checkpoint. They started ordering us around and getting tough. They said that no foreigners were allowed to enter India from Nepal though this route. We tried to explain what had happened but they were not listening.

So Bron and I slipped into good cop bad cop (usually Bron has played the bad cop but we changed roles this time and I was the baddy). I fired up and demanded to speak to my embassy and that being treated like this wasn’t being a good host etc etc. Bron did brilliantly at trying to calm me down, and was dutifully assisted by the customs officials who were now looking for solutions rather than problems. So after 30mins or so they let us go as telling us not to tell anyone that we have been into Nepal this way. Well we wouldn’t tell JUST anyone that we never went to Nepal this way.
The rain started just as we were leaving the customs station so we stopped for lunch at the town just down the road. Then after waiting a while we continued through the rain towards the highway. The road was in really good condition and the scenery was beautiful all day long. We took a shortcut suggested by the customs blokes and ended up in Bagdogra for the night.

From Bagdogra we road towards Siliguru but the road was so poor that we chose to head straight to Dargeeling. The road was fantastic (for most of the way) and there was some really lovely scenery and some tea plantations on the way. ¾ of the way to Dargeeling we were stopped as there has recently been a landslide here which took out the road and the rail track. We initially thought we may have to go all the way back down to the bottom to come up another way but the locals steered us in the right direction over a road made for 4wd,s with low ratio. We eventually made it to Dargeeling and the hotel that we thought would be good was out of our price range so we looked around at the seemingly hundreds of hotels here and found one that met most of our needs.

We had a look around town and found this place to be a really nice relaxed (cool) place to be. There is lots to do and see and there are lots of eateries.
The next day we ventured onto the train ride. This only takes you 8kms along the track but it was really nice, a bit like puffing billy. Then we spent the rest of the day wandering the streets and purchasing a couple of things to send home.

Today we spent most of the day servicing the bike. Poor thing hasnt had the care and attention that it deserves. It has been so difficult to work on the bike because of the crowds around you whenever you stop. So with the bike back together and running we are ready to tackle Nepal.

Spent the day relaxing, we sent some things home and then in the afternoon I had a well deserved afternoon nap. We picked a perfect day for it as it rained all day.

Traveled from Dargeeling to Nepal today. It took from 10am this morning to 4pm to go the 100kms required. The ride down the mountain from Dargeeling took ages because of the road conditions and the traffic. Then we hit the horror stretch from Siliguri to the Nepal border. It took 2 hours to get through the border (both sides were terrific) then we rode around the border town to find a hotel.