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From Goa To Nepal
2010 June
30
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"We
were in India for
3-months and at the end of that time, if we're
really honest we were ready to leave. The country is fascinating,
vibrant, beautiful, dramatic and easy to fall in love with in spite of
the incredible levels of poverty and hardship we saw whilst there. But
riding there was shear hell and utterly miserable.
The fact is, that it's so bad that it ruined parts of our journey and
experience in this huge country. There really is no way of describing
the levels of stupidity and insanity we saw and dealt with everyday.
We'd get hit (nudged at times, others times a real smack) by other road
users several times a day, it's not aggressive it's simply stupidity
and a total lack of road awareness. After 68 countries, India is easily
the most dangerous country we've ridden. We needed 100% concentration,
every second of every minute of every day, whether we'd ride 50 km or
500 km in a day, the result was that we felt exhausted.
Then of course
there's the cows, in India a sacred and untouchable animal. Millions
are wandering the length and breadth of India, meandering along the
roads they cross slowly bringing all and any traffic to a halt.
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On the more positive side, we were stunned and often overwhelmed by the
beauty and history of India. We watched the sun rise slowly over the
the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Sheik's most sacred of temples, the
photos don't come close to capturing the beauty and serenity of this
magnificent structure. A week later and the fort in Jaiselmer had us
spellbound. Rising like a giant, elaborate sand castle out of the Great
Thar Desert. Walking the labyrinth of tiny crowded streets inside the
still inhabited fortress kept us busy for 4-days.
In mid Feb I was in my element, as my parents had jumped on a flight at
the last minute and joined us for a 2 week vacation in Goa. We had
planned to ride the southerly tip of India but after a 100 kph front
wheel blow out on Simon's big GS (yes we know that he runs tubeless
tyres but due to a run of punctures he'd had to resort to putting an
inner tube into his front tire) the blow out saw him sliding along the
road and into the oncoming traffic, we decided to wait for my parents
who were bringing out new inner tubes as its impossible to get anything
for big bikes out here. The time gave Simon's bruises and cuts a chance
to heal. We spent a wonderful two weeks in Agonda with my parents. A
little known beach village, that's as yet relatively unspoilt unlike
Arambol or Palalema. Yeah, it was tough being spoilt for all that time,
in that way that only parents do.
Well, after weeks of little to no Internet in India, we left Varanasi,
after seeing the Ganges, during a heat wave! - the temperatures were
debilitating. We found India was experiencing a once in 100-year heat
wave. Who knew? We figured 'hey it's India, it's meant to be this
painfully hot'. 126 in the shade, sitting on top of a boiling hot BMW
engine, stuck in city traffic where pollutions levels are 500% higher
than is safe, really is pretty uncomfortable. No matter how much water
we drank, we were dehydrated the whole time. Much like in Mali all
those years ago, our riding suits were covered in crystallized salt
from our perspiration. I think due to all of this I was suffering with
a very bad chest infection during the majority of my time in India.
We crossed the border into Nepal and the change between the two
countries was instantaneous and obvious. India hectic, chaotic, dusty
and dry with absolutely mad traffic - Nepal, quieter, calmer, the
traffic is still not like the States or Europe but much much better and
you could call it almost considerate! Our first ride in Nepal was to
take us into Pokhara via the mountains on a great twisty road with
greenery everywhere. Great!
We have been waiting for quite a few items for the bikes and so, as we
have had no choice but to wait, we have access to the net for a few
days. We had been waiting for tires to arrive and a new coil for
Simon's bike! It gets frustrating as we had been waiting for the very
small parcel containing Simon's coil to be released from customs here
in Nepal for 7 days! (all duties had been paid 7 days ago!)
So we received this very special part yesterday and placed it into the
bike....and hey presto! ......... Oh NO!....the bike still deosn't
work! Now we are stuck - both geographically and mentally! Now
it’s just the process of going through everything with a fine
tooth-comb all over again. Oh dear. It’s not often that Simon
can not fix a problem - but this has currently got him stumped.
Anyhow it's a good time to scribble an update and continue to work
online and other projects such as the following: We've put together a
screensaver program and it's our hope that a few of you will buy a
copy, it'll all help put a few more litres of fuel into our tanks. The
screensaver is available from our store, the same place as the
calenders. It's a complete program, which downloads directly and
quickly and comes complete with an installation package and 40 or so of
our favourite images from the five continents we've travelled over."
If you would like to learn more about Simon and Lisa’s
travels you can view their website www.2ridetheworld.com.
Pictures: Simon & Lisa Thomas
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