About to start my journey, riding solo from Chennai, India to the UK. I'll be travelling through India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Europe over 3 months. My bike is a Suzuki DL650 Vstrom 2008. Its currently being shipped to Chennai from Auckland NZ. I'm leaving Auckland on 14 June and will spend a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur before getting to India to pick up the bike which is due to arrive on 18 June (hopefully!).
Just one hour before I leave to catch my flight to KL.
I would just like to thank all those people who have phoned, texted and emailed giving me their best wishes and support.
I have tried to keep this trip low key (as much as you can) and have shied away from leaving parties etc.
Your support has been I must say,unexpected and quite overwhelming.
Thank you all
Kia Kaha
Arrived in KL, 30C temp. welcome after 14C in Auckland.
Stayed in nice hotel and didn't venture far from shops and swimming pool.
2 nice days just relaxing and looking forward to getting to Chennai and starting the trip proper.
Got a surprise when checking in at the airport, I was 8kg over the limit and was charged heavily for it.
Quick 3.5 hour flight to India
I need to point out that this is, I think, my 4th trip to India and I love the people and the country,what I had forgotten was quickly realized on boarding the plane in KL.
I thought that the flight would be half empty, but that idea changed as soon as the call came to board.... a mass of Indians charged for the gateway to get on the plane blocking the doorway as stewards tried in vain to take control.
Oh yes that's the India I remember.
Great news after a incredibly trying day I have my bike
The details of my day are too long to go into right now, I will do later
I'm shattered and am going to bed.
I'm heading off tomorrow early morning.
Finally after all this time and numerous frustrations, I'm about to get underway...
First I promise to mention clearing the bike yesterday.......
No surprise it took all day, getting security pass to go into secure customs warehouse, meeting customs officer and all his helpers, locating the bike crate, then opening it.
As soon as the crate was opened at least a dozen workers all gathered round poking and playing with every part of the bike. This is something I'll have to get used to.
Anyway after about 6hrs I had the bike assembled and rode out off there.
trying tocatch up and i"ve got little time till internet closes
rode from Vijay to Hydrabad lovely city and stayed the night long ride on bumpy road
today I rode from Hydrabad to Nagpur long way ( keyboard won"t do numbers)
Had everything great bit of motorway then the most terrible road you could see
Also had major rain storm with very strong winds luckily I was coming into small town so took shelter< captured on video > stopped for about half hour then it stopped as quickly as it came
Great great days ride best yet
Rode from Ngapur to Katni stayed night and left at 6am for the approx 500km to Varanasi.
My worse day so far, for the first time I started having doubts whether I can actually do this. India is in the middle of a heat wave, monsoon is late, water is scarce (people have died fighting over it) and there is civil unrest in Delhi and other parts of the country all over water. Google it....
It is sooo hot, official temp. in Varanasi yesterday 45C my thermometer gave up and 50C now longer works (yes it was in sunlight but so am I)
Namaste
Agra to Delhi is only 200km on 2x2 lane road so I left early to arrive before it got too hot. Didn't allow for traffic (probably busiest road in India) and took longer than I hoped.
It's been a few days since i have been able to get on the internet.
Stayed only one night in Delhi and headed to Chandigarh, wow what a fantastic city.
It was built after partition and is beautifully designed big wide tree lined streets set out on a grid, it's the only city so far where i haven't had to ask for directions to get to my hotel. even though I only stayed one night i had a good look around before I left. Lots of gardens and sculptures, very modern as are the people also I couldn't get over how quiet the city is compared to others (no traffic noise).
Here I am in Lahore, feels like dark side of the moon as far as communications go.
I had a very easy crossing of the border, very quick got carnet (bike passport) stamped out of India and into Pakistan no problems. No one even bothered to check my luggage.
I have now been in Lahore for 2 days and must say that I'm pleasantly surprised, Lahore is probably the most liberal and cultural city in Pakistan. The locals are very friendly and I am often invited to sit down and have a cup of tea.
What can you say?, Pakistan has problems as we are well aware. My personal belief is that they will get worse before they get better. I had a great time in Lahore apart from one incident which didn't concern a local. The scenery was fantastic, from the green of the Punjab to the isolation of the deserts. Did I enjoy Pakistan? well alot of the riding was very hard but that is why this is my adventure if I was shooting down motorways it would be boring and I had expected it to be hard, maybe not so hard. So from the riding side it was adventurous. BUT here's the thing....
Left the next morning for Sukker (478km) and again a great ride until about 75km outside of Sukker when I picked up my first police escort. To explain, escorts are a bit like the pony express. The police take your passport and you follow them for around 30 to 40 km when the next escort will take you onwards. Again I appreciate the efforts by the police to take care of me, but oh so slow!!! sometimes only doing 40km/hr. I actually joked with one english speaking officer that at this speed someone could walk up beside me and attack me and I'd rather take my chances at 120km/hr.
The trip (409km) to Quetta will go down as one of the most differcult so far.
Escort was late and when it turned up sooooo slow, even had 2 guys on moped pass us. Leaving early was important because I was about to cross my first desert (Kachhi Desert) and I didn't want to arrive in the middle of the day, I did!.
Hi, we have contact......
A lot has happened since my last entry so I will go back to when I left Lahore and continue in a series of brief entries and then give my final impressions on Pakistan as a whole.
Had to make a tough decision and gave up doing the KKH not for security reasons, it is safe to do that route.
I had always been concerned about this part of the journey as it is the only route to the Pakistan border (Taftan), it is all desert, runs adjacent to the Afganistan border and is well known for it's security concerns. I had intended to join up with another biker to do this but of course no one here.
I set off early with escort again slow going (what can you do?).
Easy border crossing into Iran. Welcome welcome everyone says.
Still had security to and from Zahedan all the way to Bam, but I'm told that is all over with now.
Zahedan felt like I was still in Pakistan, couldn't leave hotel even to go across the road to get some food. Police were called and they escorted me. Another tough ride through the desert but at least the roads are good.
As I mentioned previously I intended to only stay in Bam for one night, I have now been here three.
This is more for the Horizons Unlimited community but I just want to give them some up to date info on Bam.
A lot of overlanders seem to bypass Bam altogether when heading to or from the border and stay in Zahaden (bad choice).
Bam, even though still recovering from the tragic earthquake of 2003 has a lot to offer and despite what you might read in Lonely Planet has no security issues.
