India!

[Inglsman]

It's a long story, but suffice to say, was going to Kenya, that got cancelled, told a friend, he said he's going to India, why not come with?

And he has a bike he can lend me.

So this bike is a Suzuki Gixxer SF. A sportsbike looking 155cc that gets 624km from a 12 litre tank!

Along the way I got invited to a wedding.

I started in Punjab, now in a place called Mcleod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, in the Himalayas. At the bottom of the hills, on the plains, it was 821m above sea level. The city below McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala is 1475m above sea level, and where I am is 2082m...

Riding in India is a bit like riding through Mthatha multiplied by a few times.

I'll add to the thread as I get time.

Here's some pics

 

[Inglsman]

Before I set off from Scotland, I was told I needed to get vaccinations. Now they don't know I grew up in Zims eating mud pies, and got a job where they wanted me to work in Lagos, so I got every vaccination known to man, and I've either been bitten by dogs or fallen off my bike so many times they now tell me I'll never need another tetanus shot, but I duly went to get my travel shots to stay on the right side of the NHS.

I get to the place, and the staff are standing around blethering and I say I've come to get... No, you must book first. So, standing right in front of them, I go onto the website, make a booking, and suddenly the folk on the other side of the counter are interested.

They pass me a price list..

Bliksem!

I could only afford one, and all Rhodesians had their polio jabs, so I took the cheapest. And a box of doxy.

Yellow Fever. £84

Cholera £44 x 2

Dip polio £46

Dengue fever £125 x 2

Hep A £74 x 2

Hep B £59 x 3

Jap Encephalitis £119 x 2

Tick borne encephalitis £74 x 3

Rabies IM £79 x 3

Rabies ID £72 x 3

Typhoid £49

 

[Inglsman]

So, I guess I should start at the beginning.

As one does I spent August 24 planning a "maybe one day" ride through India. I really did my stuff and discovered travel insurance isn't what you need, as motorbike travel breaks every one of their conditions - no, you need Global Rescue. You pay them a fee according to time away, and they'll send a helicopter to pull you out that ravine, down that road that wasn't even on your itinerary.

They quoted me £184 for 5 weeks riding adhoc in the Himalayas. Not bad if you've ever tried to get a thumb fixed in Australia (broke it coming off in a supercell storm in the outback - all the leaves were blown off the trees, and covered the road, so I couldn't see where the road turned and the culvert began). I digress.

Only thing is you need a gps tracker.
Yeah right.

Early September 24 I'm browsing through FB marketplace and I see an ad saying "free gps tracker". I replied, he tells me his address, and it's 2 miles from my house!

They are the Kenyan's who originally invited me to "come visit us" in Kenya, we have a bike you can use, at which I bought the ticket.

Afterwards they started laying out the ground rules of such a visit, a single giy arriving in Kenya when only the wife was there. It was all about what it would look like - the husband is famous in Kenya, and has paparazzi watching every move, he says.

It boiled down to please come, you're welcome to stay 2 nights but you need to leave the premises before the wife arrives, travel for 10 days, and the husband's brother would stay with her to ensure no funny business appeared to be happening when you return.

I said I had envisaged their home being a base I could ride out from, spend a night or two away, then come back to a welcome, and since being single wasn't welcome, I cancelled the trip.

The town I live in, in Scotland, is about the size of Port Alfred. It has 3 fish n chip shops, 3 charity shops and a post office. I go for a ride in the rain to console myself, and on the way back I stop in at the fish n chip shop closest home. I tell the shop owner I cancelled the Kenya trip. He knows the husband, and fully understands the predicament.

So he pipes up and says he grew up in Punjab, but he moved to Scotland when he was 18, so he's never been anywhere else. He would like to ride over to Leh, and down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

He then looks up and says they're closing the shop for 5 weeks, they're going home to Punjab to go to a wedding, why don't I go with. The other fellow in the shop says I can use his bike.

I don't think he fully understood what I mean by I like to ride long distance, but after giving me a tryout at the marketplace, and a test to ride to a temple 20kms away, he then let me take it.

 

[onderbroek]

My well traveled colleagues always say
India is not for beginners

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