Quick update

Just a quick update because finally I've got a ticket in hand for the India v England one day international cricket game at Chandigarh (Mohali)!! This is great news, it was pure chance that England were here while I was in India where I'd hoped to catch just any game, never mind one this big, even though England have been thoroughly thrashed in their first two tests in other cities here! So I'll be in Chandigarh until the 21st then heading directly to Nepal for the next stage of this trip up in the Himalayas. Proper update to follow in the next day or so.

A ticket in the hand is worth 2 in... well 1,500 rupees
but well worth it, a great way to say bye to India

03-07 Oct: Jaipur to Nainital

To get away from the heat in Rajasthan, leafing through Lonely Planet I noticed a little place called Nainital described as like an English Lake District town. A former hill station - a retreat for the old British colonials up in the hills - it sounded perfect as at 2,000 meters it was bound to be cooler and a bit quieter than the madness of the triangle between Delhi - Agra - Jaipur.

So it turned out! The ride there would take two days but having made it to within 80kms on the first day, a town called Rudrapur was effectively closed off due to rioting. Something to do with tensions between Muslims and Hindus burning each others sacred items had meant the army moved in and road blocks were in force. There was no easy way round, and with the sun setting, just no time to go investigating side roads for fear of getting marooned in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black.

Monkeys on the road

Marriage advice

Riding up into the hills

The rain starts

One of many landslides on the way

Finding the nearest hotel, the manager knocked 30% of the rate which was fortunate given how plush it was, and fortuitous that such a place was sat on the roadside having not passed anything like it in the previous few hours! A bit of last minute planning showed two options, a long detour round several cities totalling over 200kms, a decent days riding at least, or a shortcut through farm tracks to then re-join the original road to Nainital. Trying and coming up with two dead ends (a river with no bridge) it was third time lucky and off to the mountains. For the first time in India the roads became interesting, well surfaced, twisty and quiet for about 30kms, heaven!

The track then wound up to Nainital over increasingly broken up road as mudslides had taken chunks out of it. STaying in a small cheap hotel room complete with mouse scurrying around, the town was lovely. Trees just turning autumnal, cool air in the mornings and evenings and a pleasant Lakeland look was a huge boost to morale. Fortunately, a local festival was underway which brought parades out to the streets in the day and fireworks and more at night.

Parked up for a few days

Boaters on Naini lake

Lakeshore at night

Looking like the Lakes

Sail boat on the lake

A parade passing through

Prayer flags in the hills

Hire boats on the shore

Fireworks at a local festival

Getting set for fires

Crowds watch the effigies on fire

After a day walking in the hills (sadly too cloudy to see the famous Himalaya views) and one walking the loop around the lake its time to move on to Chandigarh for a few days. A large city thats meant to be somewhat different to most in India, more ordered and laid out on a grid pattern which will be great, it's so hard to navigate around places here for lack of signs and general cutter / mayhem on the streets. There's also the small matter of an India v England cricket match there that I'm really hoping to get a ticket for!

25 Sept - 02 Oct: Gwalior to Jaipur

Woah, where does time go, a lot to fit in from just a couple of days so here’s pretty much a diary entry from 25^th Sept to 2^nd Oct.

Having ticked off the big sights of Agra, my next stop was south to Gwalior, known for its huge fortress. The ride down was easy enough, such as it can be here and included crossing railway lines surrounded by deep sand, always fun on a loaded bike, but no major issues. 

Despite apparently being a fairly common tourist sight, people round Gwalior were extremely interested, just in me rather than the bike. Looking for some food on the way to the fortress, a guy on a scooter saw I didn’t really know where I was and gave me a lift half way across town to a parade or cafes near where I needed to be. Then on the way up the hill to the entrance, a young guy on a bike started talking, bought me some bananas and introduced me to his family. Finally a salesman from the Honda Hero showroom gave me a full tour and offers of any help needed. It’s all lovely of course, but the second guy, with the pushbike, like a guy on the Delhi metro, was a bit odd in that they get so excited they’re almost whipped up into a religious like fervour and start slurring their words which gets a bit much. 

The fortress, its huge indeed, great to look at, but the day was too hot to go walking around every nook along the almost 2km length, so I took in the main gate and palace parts before calling it a day – you really can’t aim to do much at all in humidity like this.

Gwalior fortress

Gwalior town

Carved rooms in the palace

After just a day in Gwalior, it was back on the road, this time towards Jaipur ‘the pink city’ that everyone gushes about how beautiful it is. Finding a decent looking hotel for £7 a night, I planned a few nights there after a visit to Sariska Tiger Reserve, or so I thought.

Reading that the tiger reserve, once famous for having no tigers in it, was now fully stocked, I set off on the 300km route through the first India countryside I’d seen. Lovely as it was, the potholes and patches of gravel and dirt road became frustrating for slowing progress not least because my bike was starting to surge, the revs would blip up then die for a few seconds, making control a little tricky but not impossible. Then starting to stall at low revs, all clearly wasn’t well and I was clearly a long way from any useful source of mechanical help.

Things came to a bit of a head when I hit an unsigned, unmarked and all but impossible to see speed bump literally in the middle of nowhere and a pannier fell off. Quickly stopping, turning round to go pick it up before a truck driver some way behind would run it over (they are pure crazy) I propped my bike on the side stand in the rough at the side of the road, ran to get the pannier, then heard the crunch of it falling over. Happily another bunch of guys appeared out of nowhere, helped pick it up and get the pannier firmly back on without too much hassle. 

All this added to a tough days riding that didn’t improve when I arrived with the sun setting at Sariska Tiger Reserve gates, to be told there was no way I could go through and I’d have to go back to the nearest small town for the night. This was a nightmare situation as there is no way round meaning a 50km ride over pure rutted track, no lights, no road markings, just a bumpy rocky track. There was just arguing so it had to be done in rapidly falling spirits – at the end of some days, you just want to be off the bike as soon as possible and get your feet up, you really don’t have the energy for the extra effort. Watching the kms tick down unbelievably slowly as the light faded. At the end of it all, found a hotel that was more than it should have been, but when you’re in no mood to shop around, it had to do.

So that was the hardest days riding so far, having a pannier fall off earlier in the day and cutting my hand to bits fitting it back on, my bike then toppled over again in some soft sand at the side of the road). With the now ever-present mozzy bites on my feet, it’d been a bit of a day all in all! 

Desperate to get to Jaipur to just stay somewhere for a few nights in a row, I was up early and off to the only stop off on the way (being cheesed off at the Tiger Reserve for sending back down the dangerous road, I wasnt going to try again). Despite not being on my sat nav, and marked as about 20kms in the wrong direction on my Indian road map (which I now have no confidence in!) the little village of Abhaneri was the target. It has one of the largest ‘step-wells’ in India. I’d seen these for some reason on the internet in England and wanted to see one in real life. Build in the 7^thcentury, they provided a permanent well of monsoon water over the long arid summer to farmers and sometimes also served as religious sites. It was certainly spectacular to see and well worth the diversion (really wish I had more time to write about this but I've got a 1 hour internet connection and its ticking down quickly!)

Abhaneri step well

Me at the step well

Drawing a few people on arrival

And quite a crowd on departure

My bike had been attracting a bit of a crowd as ever when I stop. It’s nice in one way, but the same questions every time soon wear a bit thin, and there’s some English hesitance I always have when everyone’s first question is ‘how much?’. You get this absolutely everywhere from everyone. Luckily, an American lady on an Exodus tour bounded over to say hi which took some attention away. Paige McMahon (http://www.turnthepayge.com) adventurer and all round bundle of energy was a pleasant diversion and had the local guys nudging and winking.

And your wife sir? 

The thing is, everyone also asks ‘where’s your wife sir?’ and generally stare in a stupor when you say you’re travelling alone. Whilst there are apparently still issues with too-young child brides in India, the general tradition seems to be towards marriage at a young age of high-teens early twenties. So particularly rural people have a quite childish sensibility to men meeting women which causes a stir when someone like Paige comes along. The idea not falling into a Bollywood style romance and running off to get married post-haste is a bit of a strange one to swallow. That’s probably a bit unfair, but closer to the situation than it is wide of the mark.

Anyway, so onto Jaipur, the most non-pink of all famously pink cities. Staying here for a few days was good relaxation apart from having a sauna of a hotel room that just couldn’t cool down. The old city, supposedly painted pink from top to bottom, like many things in India, clearly hadn’t had a lick of paint to refresh it for quite some time. It has turned the same dusty red colour that the earth is here and therefore most places have touches of it around. 

Aware this post is going on a bit, here’s some photos of the Jantar Mantar, a highlight of the city, a huge astronomical park build for the Maharaja who was very much into this just opposite the city palace. There are several impressive forts around, but I was a bit ‘forted out’ after Delhi, Agra and Gwalior so gave them a miss. 

A sun dial and true north arrow at Jantar Mantar

Astrological charts

A huge sun-dial at Jantar Mantar... and me

A small shrine in a leafy corner

Jaipur 'pink city' walls

What was worth a look though was the Irani cup, a cricket match between Rajasthan and a Rest-of-India team to kick off the domestic cricket season. The match was free, just turn up and watch, with a few some star names on the go. It was a good morning watching the fanatical crowd go crazy anytime a player walked anywhere near the stand, but lacked the interest of having your own team involved (am hoping to catch an India v England One Day International in Mohali later in the month). Sensing a stomach ache coming on, I headed back at lunch. One great thing about India is the love of cricket - 3 full time TV channels, everyone knows the English counties, and that Leeds is the home of cricket in Yorkshire. Also when they ask my name (Stuart is really unusual in Europe and nobody gets it right), here they just say 'oh. like Stuart Broad'!

Irani cup cricket match in Jaipur

Drawing a bit of a crown on the way home

Well unfortunately that was it for the next two days after what I’m now certain was a dodgy cup of coffee, am sure the milk must have been well off or something was in there, regardless, it knocked me back for two days. One of those was spent in a panic as I’d downloaded a map of Nepal in preparation for heading there onto my Garmin, great but it also deleted my map of India in doing so! It took forever to re-download the 500mb India map over an, at very best 30kbps intermittent internet connection, but it eventually worked to much relief. 

Panic over it was time to leave on the 3^rd, heading to a lesser known part of India called Nanital – time to get some fresh air up in the mountains!

As a side note, though I don’t speak Hindi, I’m doing fine in India so far with this simple rule of thumb:

BEEEEP: I’m overtaking you, stay there

BEEEEP: I’m driving the wrong way down your side of the dual-carriageway, move

BEEEEP: Hey, unusual bike, what is it, how much? Petrol or diesel?

BEEEEP: I’m on a broadly working, relatively fast German bike and overtaking you, stay there pal

BEEEEP: I’m swerving to avoid a massive pothole and will be swinging into your path, move.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEP: I’m not moving for you

BEEEEP: I’m a taxi and have space, want a ride?

BEEEEP: I’m a taxi and fully loaded, out of my way

It might be a while before the next update as I’ve no idea how freely available internet connections will be in the mountains. Also I have no idea how long I’ll be spending on the road, its impossible to work out because dual carriageway’s often become single lane roads with the left hand lane being used by locals to set up shops selling the same stuff in each town to traffic that now is moving more slowly, handy for a bottle of water but keeps average speeds down to about 50kmh which isn’t great!

21-24 September: Delhi to Agra

Well, as I’m writing this with a bit of a cold and a lungs full of dust from a long day on the road, I just can’t find the words to do these couple of days justice nor write without it sounding like a junior school diary, and then, and then and then... So skim the waffle and just try the pictures this time would be my recommendation! 

So the great day finally arrived after a week of paperwork and waiting. Having spent a whole day waiting at the BMW garage for my bike not to turn up because of a paperwork error at DHL preventing it being shipped, then a second morning there before a call to my mobile saying it would go instead to my hotel as it’s nearer, was that OK. A rapid taxi ride across town got me back to the hotel just in time for a call from another person from DHL asking why I wasn’t at the BMW garage to sign for my bike as they wouldn’t do it, another day down the bin! 

Anyway, all thats in the past now, and with the bike re-assembled in very little time, topped up with petrol, thanks to an eager guy from the hotel running to the nearest station and bringing a couple of litres back, oil thanks to local biker Praveen and the new battery is working as a treat. The only oddity is a constant slight oil leak from the top of the oil tank where you pour it in, I could understand a leak from the bottom, but for it to be coming out the top is a bit strange, hopefully it’ll be manageable. 

Uncrating my bike on the street

Finally! Back together, thanks to the hotel
guys who did loads of running around

The first thing you notice about India is the humidity of post-monsoon rain, the temperature is similar to Turkey, but the air is totally different, so close and also so dusty. Getting ready to leave Delhi was a nerve jangling moment, glad to be moving again but apprehensive about the insane traffic. Luckily there’s a strange logic to it, the volume keeps speed very low and once you accept anyone will go anywhere in any direction at any time with no indication, it makes a strange sort of sense. 

First destination on the radar was Agra, home of the Taj Mahal and a straight 200kms down the road from Delhi. This journey really made me sit up and re-think the rest of my plans for India. Even on National Highway routes, the equivalent of major motorways, average speeds keep close to 50km/h which means going anywhere will take at least twice as long as you’d expect. Also with the humidity, riding anything over 200km, not an otherwise taxing distance, becomes almost impossible without a huge break because so much happens on the road, your brain becomes as frazzled as your body is dehydrated. 

Other main points of interest are speed bumps with no markings which come up on you quickly if you’re following another vehicle, endless, enormous ‘like you wouldn’t believe’ potholes and stretches even on major roads where the tarmac ends to be replaced by rubble and sand. 

After a long, long days ride to Agra, seeing the Taj Mahal briefly through a line of trees on the main road into town was a moment to remember. Finding a place to stay was easy enough, Agra is the ultimate tourist town with hotels for all budgets strung along every main road through the old part of town. After learning the Indian way of turning right at a roundabout – go all the way round, pah, just cut across oncoming traffic to take the most direct way there, I found a simple place with a place to park out of view and only a kilometre or so from all the sights. 

With it getting late I just took a shower and called it an early night, the dust and grime that comes off your neck after a day on the road is incredible! 

Sadly because of the tourist-trap nature of it, you notice a completely different attitude to people. In Delhi taking an auto-rickshaw taxi is easy, you just flag one down (they’re everywhere) agree a price and off you go. In Agra, once you get in one, they want to stay with you all day, and will wait outside anywhere you go, just to jump on you on the way out to earn a half days guide fee rather than a single ride. It’s kind of annoying in a place where nothing’s easy, every little annoyance just feels that much worse than it really is.

Discovering the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, the first day in town I headed off to see the Red Fort in Agra. Similar to the one in Delhi, it’s another Mughal fort part occupied by the army to this day so only a small section is open to walk around, though importantly the outer wall facing the Taj is OK to access. It’s odd that such an amazing sight in itself is limited really to being an elaborate viewing platform for another, smaller building a short way down the river. Enormous 2.5km long dusty red outer walls are an impressive sight, though not quite as impressive though as the riverside spot on the opposite bank of the Yamuna river to the main sight in town.

Red fort, Agra

Red Fort, Agra with the Taj in the background

Red Fort, Agra looking towards the Taj

Inside the Red Fort, Agra

Taj Mahal from the riverside

Women carrying sticks along the river

Me at the Taj Mahal!!

Sun going down, as the mozzies
come out in force its time to go

Lingering around on a little spot of hard packed mud that locals said was well and truly underwater a few weeks ago, watching the sunset off to the right hand side with the Taj Mahal changing colour infront of you is something else. Occasionally herders move cattle up the muddy riverside and women walk past in bright coloured clothes carrying firewood which all just adds to the atmosphere. 

It’s really impossible to find words to describe the Taj Mahal, its far more beautiful a place than the millions of photos you’ll have seen suggest. Getting up at 4am is always rough, but a short bicycle rickshaw ride to the west gate to queue for tickets with the few other early risers is well worth it. Like visiting Machu Picchu, getting there at sunrise is the best time of day, crowds are light and the air is clear before the sweltering heat of the day mixes with the thousands of visitors that must pass through everyday.

Sunrise at the Taj Mahal before the crowds arrive

A shadow from the mosque on the Taj

A photographer watches the sun rise

The story of this place is fairly well known, build as a mausoleum to his wife Mumtaz Mahal by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Symmetry is important to both the main building and surroundings. A mosque to the west is repeated on the east with a building that has no specific purpose, just there to balance out the site. There are so many technical descriptions of how it was built and all the rest at many places across the internet, so no need for me to replace them here. 

That it is a monument to love makes this place truly special. Architecture and landscaped gardens articulate what their creators cared about. Barely anything is built from love or delight these days, for many good economic reasons, which makes it all the more special to enjoy some time spend in a place like this. The minute detail on every surface from inlaid floral patterns to delicate carved marble screens, it’s impossible to appreciate the effort put in and attention to detail. It’s a building to be appreciated in fine resolution, few cathedrals and palaces anywhere in the world have such close-up detail matched with incredible beauty of the whole when seen from a distance.  

 

There are actually fairly extensive grounds beautifully landscaped, all designed to give glimpses of the Taj through tress and from unexpected angles. The few folks there early on all just walk round, looking for a quiet corner, nobody says anything because we’re all thinking the same thing, wow! It’s the architectural equivalent of meeting an a-list celebrity, something you’ve seen so many times in photos and on TV that it’s really hard to believe they’re right there infront of you!

At the Taj's mosque

You have to do this pose apparently!

Early morning light over the Yamuna river

People watching shadows moving
as the sun rises

Details of the Taj Mahal

View from the gardens

Famous viewpoint

Reflecting in a water pool

People walking on the platform in front of the Taj Mahal

People walking on the platform in front of the Taj Mahal

A couple sitting on a bench infront of the Taj

I was there!