The best laid plans...

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It is always important when planning a decent overseas trip with big details like planes, trains and motorcycles to do as much research and organising before you depart. Which is probably why my plans have fallen apart.

I had planned and booked all the planes trains and buses to a T, but left the motorcycle section, probably the biggest and trickiest section, open. Surely in such a bikey country, getting a bike and just rding off into the smog-set should be easy right? Hmm, turns out not quite so.
"Wow, I didn't realise you were planning such a big trip."
Steve was a bit taken aback when I told him I was planning to ride to Kathmandu and around Nepal, then on to Rajastahn and finaly down through central India to Hyderabad before returning to Kolkata.
"Yea, unfortunately the bike I'd planned for you to use has fallen through, and a hire bike is gonna have all sorts of difficulties. You'll get robbed on the renatl, then theres permits for crossing state borders, I've no idea what you need for Nepal, and on a rip that long you're garunteed at leat one crash which will cost you in repairs along the way and probably at the end aswell."

Dang. I'd assumed from the start it could be a little tricky, but this sounded like it could easily turn into a very expensive disaster.

Ka ka happens little buddy. But this trip was never so much about the destination, it was always about the journey, and this was part of it.

So I finaly did some research. Nepal. I dicovered it ws much cheaper and easier to hire a bike in Kathmandu, and another friend through my Aunty said that he could organise a nice hotel for cheap, help with trekking and even help me find a good deal on a bike.
And I set a hundred little wheels in motion.

Redirecting my flights home to fly ex-Kathmandu, booking bikes, planning routes and treks, visas, trains and buses to the border and then the capital. Because of the limited flight availability and having to reschedule pre booked flights it would likely have me home before christmas, but this was ok if it meant a month or so in Nepal riding and trekking.
My feet were itchy and it was time to move.

"The ghats were interesting and the river smelled..."

Sadly, passing through Agra and Delhi turned out to be what I'd soo wanted to avoid on this trip. The Taj was impressive, the Agra fort was very interesting and the Red Fort at Delhi was big. I have little more to say really. The extreme pollution, large numbers of tourists and the much higher expense really diminished these places for me.

Having seen the Taj in all its splendor six years ago, attempting to view it now through a thick haze and thronging tourists made it seem somewhat less. And for Delhi, even the guide book said "Delhi is no longer as rich a place to visit as many other parts of India. Its a big metropolitan city, so just do what you would normally do at home, just in another country."

It was a relief to head back to Kolkata with the though of biking ahead, even though it meant 26 hours in a 1.7m by 0.8m by 0.8m sleeper box on a train. As I am 1.86m tall, this turned out to be a particularly unpleasant experience, only managing to sleep for a couple of hours all up. I clocked 'The Motorcycle Diaries' onto the growing list of books I've read here and listened to all 6 hours of 'Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency'.



My second stay at the BMS now has been brilliant. I've met some really wonderful people doing amazing work here, and every one with a rich and interesting story. As much as many people come here to volunteer, most of them also seem to be trying to escape and find something.
I know that is why I'm here.
Kyoko from Japan, Angela and Rita from Spain, Hector from France who is now sadly in hospital and likely to be going home at the end of the week, and so many others whose names I can't remember but whose friendships I treasure.

I have much much more yet to write, but never underestimate a keyboard with nasty sticky keys. Its taken me a ridiculous amount of time just to write this, and I'm on the verge of riping it off its cord and throwing it under a tuk-tuk.

So for now, Traveller out.

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Comments

[gerd]

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