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Published: March 6th 2010
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helping out a rickshaw driver leaving Pushkar
my tools and their creativity arranged the problem Thanks for the nice reactions guys, I really appreciated it. Raul and other Spanish friends, I'm sorry for writing in English, but it's so much easier for me. In the future, I'll try to throw in some Spanish however.
I was planning to go from Jaipur straight to Jodhpur, but decided to work my way South first. There is this small town which is not really on the tourist trail, although it has everything to please. It's called Bundi, roughly 80.000 people living at the foot of an impressive fort and a Palace. It is way smaller than most towns, and therefor more laid back. I arrived there the day before "Happy Holi", a national festival celebrated every year at the end of February (last full moon). Happy Holi is all about the victory of Good over Evil. That day, people hug each other and all potential frictions and troubles are forgiven. They have a very original way of doing so, as I experienced the day of the celebration. I had noticed already that the previous days, people started buying powders in the brightest colours. And waterguns. The evening of my arrival, people painted the streets with these powders, build
up trees and pyres, decorated them with flower petals and than put the whole thing on fire. At the same time, the whole town, and apparently the whole country, danced the night away on loud music and fireworks. The day after however, I went for a walk to check out all the fuzz and the first group of youngsters showed me what Happy Holi was all about. They threw these colored powders all over me, in my hair, in my clothes, smeared them all over my face and wished me Happy Holi :-) And the next group did just the same. It wasn't just me, the whole town and every living creature in it got painted in the brightest colors. And just as I thought I had the worst of it, women started throwing buckets of water over me from the first floor of their houses. The mess was total, it took me two days to wash away the paint from my face and arms.
Remarkable was that most women stayed inside the house, knowing that the men were not so strict with their ban on alcohol that day and I've seen quite a few who were clearly not used
to drink. But it all stayed very pleasant and most of them opened their shops again the same afternoon.
In that same Bundi I met three Spanish guys, one of them being from Lugo. Don't know if the friends of Lugo know a certain Marcos Hervera, from Lugo city centre. 33 years old. He's trekking through India with two colleagues and a load of professional gear to make a pilto for a traveling program that they want to sell to the Spanish broadcast companies. It's a traveling program in the backpacking style, rather refreshing and not like "Peking Express" at all. I wish them all the best and hope to meet them again somewhere.
After that, I was all set to go, till I noticed a flake of oil under my motorbike. Nothing surprising for an Enfield, they say that if an Enfield doesn't leak oil, it's because there is no oil in it. There are limits however, so I decided to check out the local mechanics. They changed one joint, sealed another cover, opened things up and closed them again. The bike kept on leaking however. The thing is that Bundi is so small that there are
only 8 Bullets in town, so very few people have experience with them and even less have spare parts. The day after, I had to stay in Bundi still, but the mechanics, two brothers were very kind and invited me over for diner and lunch and finally I slept in the house of their family, where I had a great evening. Faizal and his brother Ashu, their father and mother, their wifes Shain and Khushb, and their lovely kids, all living under the same roof. I told the women I liked the way they painted their hands with henna. One minute later, they were having the greatest fun painting my hands in the nicest motives. I only learned later that only women have their hands painted like that :-) Which explains the funny reactions of men and kids afterward. By now, my hands are so dirty with oil and grease that it makes a funny mix. I told it to another Bullet rider, A tough looking French guy traveling at lightening speed through India, and he told me that two days ago, they had painted his toe nails red and he can't get it off anymore. Nobody cares however, it's
India.
I left early in the morning and although the engine was still dripping, I knew I would make it to Udaipur. The 260 km brought me through a nice area with small roads and hardly anyone around. When the bike hit a nasty pothole however, I heard something break under me. The chain protector had broken of on one point and was only staying in place with one bolt. I could not continue like this, because it was blocking my chain. I was in the middle of nowhere, the sun burning the barren landscape around me. And then suddenly, while I was on my back under the bike trying to fix the thing, two shepherd appeared behind me. The three of us, with the few tools I carry with me, could arrange a temporary solution and by the time I was cleaning up, 6 women had gathered around us, laughing and giggling with that silly white nose and his painted hands. I don't know where they hide, but you are never alone in India.
A nice road brought me in no time in Udaipur, where I found an official Enfield service station. That's where I met the
French guy, who is traveling on a '63 Bullet. Probably rebuilt ten times, and still driving. My bike runs like new now, so tomorrow I'm leaving this place for Mount Abu, a hill station in the very South of Rajasthan.
Udaipur is supposed to be the most romantic town of Rajasthan. People are really nice indeed and the City palace and the Lake Palace, both known from James Bond "Octopussy", are ok, but maybe I expected too much. This morning I took the motorbike for a ride around the town and to check that famous Monsoon Palace. A nice winding road of 3 km brings you to the top of a mountain, on which a Maharadja had this dream to build a 19 storey summer Palace. He died earlier than expected however after only having finished 1,5 floors, and they left it that way. It looks everything but impressive, but the views are nice.
Damn, just noticed that I didn't keep my promise to write things in Spanish. Sera para el proximo :-) Voy a ententar de grabar algunas peliculas tambien. Entente ya de gravar conduciendo, pero a la moto no le gusta cambiar marchas sin embrague(?). Ademas,
hacer dos cosas a la vez en este trafico es una locura, asi que estoy pensando en una construction. Por el moment, solo hay foto's.
Pues eso, os deseo lo mejor ahi y un abrazo para todos! Hasta pronto!
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Het ziet er enig uit,een echte ervaring.Geniet ervan. Ik heb het doorgestuurd naar enkele vrienden,zodat ze het ook kunnen volgen. Tot volgende week, ma en pa