With 1 month to go until I arrive in India, but only 2 weeks until I leave home (Melbourne), it's time to get the blog up and running and the packing list finalised.
With everything packed up already because I'm housesitting, I feel like I'm already living out of a backpack. But I don't mind that too much. At the moment. Give it a couple of months with nothing but what I can carry on a bike and I might be feeling different :)
A quick check through the baggage and paperwork, for the umpteenth time, shows the following to be my closest friends for the coming year.
I am over-prepared for this little trip. If I had jumped on a plane 2 weeks ago, or even a month ago, I would probably have been prepared enough. But since I'm still here I've looked through that little red bag of mine a dozen times, adding things and taking things away.
Here are some of things that have been considered over the past few months
Stories from the beach stopover before the motorbike journey begins...So, a few nights in Kuala Lumpur watching the rain come down could have been boring, but for a Melbournian it can be pretty exciting haven't seen much rain in recent years. As my mates and I say in the barren land, better get a photo of that to show the grandchildren, could be the last time it ever happens
Building up the sleep bank while lazing on White Sand Beach on Ko Chang - beautiful
It was love at first site. I saw her, I knew I had to be with her.
Unfortunately common sense prevailed and I realised she wouldn't fit in my carry on luggage, so I had to settle for sneaking into the drivers seat for a quick photo.
The first two days in India and purchase of Royal Enfield Thunderbird
Confirming arrival in India; hundreds of people to greet me at the airport, check; dozens of persistent rickshaw drivers, check; sneaky illegal money changers, check; dusty boogers within minutes, check; ample supply of grotty hotel rooms, check; visits to three different offices needed to buy one simple train ticket, check; beaming smiles after initial unease, check; cheap prices for just about everything, check! Indeed I have arrived in India :)
Trichy Airport
First few days on the road have been enjoyable and it's been good having Torb join me...
17 Feb: Chennai
So my birthday was different, just hogged the internet airwaves of Chennai for the day and spoke to parents, sister and a couple of friends on Skype. Skype. Free calls. I love Skype! I performed my daily duty of making a INR40000 payment to Abbaas Autos for the new bikes. And I spent an hour or so roaming the streets looking for someone to make custom luggage racks for the bikes, with no luck.
Great riding through central south India. Slept in a beach hut at "Paradise" beach. Attacked with coloured powder and eggs as part of the Hole festival.
22 Feb 1 March: Ooty, Mysore, Hosdurga, Hampi, Gokarna, Panaji
Had an enjoyable time in Ooty, visiting Hebron International School where my brothers and sister were students back in the day.
Here's an entry specifically for HU people and Enfield owners because nothing much has happened the last 10 days except for bike related stuff.
Enfield Service Centres
Here's an entry specifically for HU people and Enfield owners because nothing much has happened the last 10 days except for bike related stuff. So here's my impression of the four service centers we have visited in the last two weeks:
Panaji: Service manager was one of the rudest people I have met in India, and that is pretty rude. Wait time for a service was 8 days. No good.
Quite a few long days on the road, quite a few stops for bike repairs, quite a few tandoori chickens and butter naans.
2 March 10 March: Baga Beach Goa, Lingasugur, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Tanuku, Annavuram, Srikakulam, Kolkata, Krishnanagar.
Quite a few long days on the road, quite a few stops for bike repairs, quite a few tandoori chickens and butter naans.
With Darth Vega at my side
Beautiful road, beautiful people, beautiful mountains (though these are hidden behind pollution and dust mostly at this time of year)..
11 20 March: Maldah, Gaur, Balurghat, Darjeeling, Legship (Sikkim) and Pelling (Sikkim)
Everything north of Kolkata has been enjoyable, especially the Nepalese-type people in the hills up here :)
In India pedestrians don't walk across the road, they run:
when we came across a fork and an unmanned check post we decided we'd take a wrong turn and see where we ended up...
Sikkim, what a blast! Permit applications, magnificent scenery, riding to high altitudes north of the Yumthang Valley.
Gangtok gave us Snow Leopards
From the stifling heat of the low lying eastern border of Nepal to Kathmandu, the nations busy capital.
Not too much to report from Nepal so far.
A 6am start from Kakarbitta, the eastern border of Nepal, meant we didn't have to deal with the heat of the Terai (low lands) as we headed north into the middle hills before it really heated up. The quality of the road to Ilam was outstanding and a pleasure to ride. Torb couldn't believe just how different Nepal is from India, even though we were only 60km from the border.
I find it really hard to put into words just how special it is to be included into the life of a village and impossible to express the joy that comes from loving and being loved by these people.
10 April 21 April. Kathmandu and Mayattari
A week in the village.
Out the west of Nepal into the north west mountain states of India where the scenery is stunning..
Mayatari to Kohalpur, 350km.
Leaving Mayatari is never easy, as much because I don't know what to do with the handfuls of flowers that each person gives me as I leave as because of the sadness of leaving the little ones.
A frustrating week of visa applications and waiting. Oh the waiting. Oh how I hate it!
Having given up on a Pakistani visa when the embassy in Kathmandu told us it would be a 6 week wait, I was pleasantly surprised to be told by the embassy in Delhi that I could apply on Friday, have an interview on Monday and collect my visa on Tuesday. So, I applied on Friday and rode down to Agra to meet up with Torb again after his two week trek to the Everest Base Camp.
In Iran - am alive - have bike - great landscape - will write soon.In Iran - am alive - have bike - great landscape - refreshing after a week in Delhi - will write soon.
A short magic carpet ride across the land of the Persians where the carpets are wooly, the smiles are friendly and the landscape is special.
Flying out of Delhi towards Teheran I had a stopover in Dubai and upon landing the thought popped into my head that if it wouldn't cost too much to delay my connecting flight then this could be a good chance to see the city that glitters with gold, black gold.
I've whirled my dervish and I've donated my Kebab.
Turkey has been a blast and I should probably never leave.
Phase 1 Joburg and the Grandparents
Living close to what I like to think is the heart of South African Australia meant that I had plenty of South African friends reply to my request for someone to fooding and lodging me in Johannesburg for a night.
Phase 1 Joburg and the Grandparents
Living close to what I like to think is the heart of South African Australia meant that I had plenty of South African friends reply to my request for someone to fooding and lodging me in Johannesburg for a night.