30 January Nepal and Khatmandu

Wow what a ride !

It started pretty rough as there was a strike. Some civil servants were being transferred and objected. So they stopped the traffic. Burning tyres, burning branches across the road and angry young men that were obviously not involved but representing the threat to world peace. Stupid young men.

These ones had sticks and as I was passing took a swipe at me hitting the top box.....

I was pleased to be away and soon into the foothills.

Again the advice on road conditions was more than a bit off whack ! It started well enough as I climbed into the foothills. A magic climb up the mountainside to 1930 metres, and a glimps of the mighty Himalayas.

Well then it got rough and I say really rough. The locals were managing it on their light bikes but for me it was a "handful".

I spent a whole lot of money going on an "adventure" ride labeled the pretentious name of the "World Tour". I had more adventure on this ride than the whole Goat riders debacle. What a ride. It had everything including a water crossing, steep ups and downs and a surface that ranged from stones, to dust and everything between.

It was just amazing and 24 hours later I am still feeling stretched muscles, and no I didn't bite the dirt but I inhaled plenty of dust !

Khatmandu was a shock. Its slums on the river and its full on commercialism. Hotel was good though. Internet, clean, and polite people ! Goodmorning can I help you sir ! Culture shock.

Hope I got some OK pics of the ride and the road. The shot with the bike has a background of road not a shingle slide !

nzl04

Before I go some rural images

nzl04

29 January Patna to Nepal

My last day. It has been rough and tough. The roads bloody terrible to fantastic, the countryside, I loved and the cities I hated. The attractions other than the Taj Mahal were frankly disappointing. The poverty and the dirt and the rudeness just plain unpleasant. As my Granny said politeness costs nothing. Perhaps they have the wrong Grannies ! They sure do have something wrong to live in such poverty and be so miserable.

However the last days ride included the dreadful and the wonderful.

Lets see what inages I can create that reflect the countryside.

Even getting across the border was a shambles. Immigration do not have lighting, so riding past is easy. Customs was a man in the street that stopped me and took me to an unlit office for processing the Carnet. I do not have a passport stamp I said. You do not need one, just go ! I objected but was told to move on.

I was sent back by Nepal to find the Immigration (Police) and get my stamp. Well there you go.

So you guessed it I was again loking for a Hotel in the dark. And I found one and the man was smiling and said welcome ! Aaah a new land !

nzl04

28 Jan Allahabad to Patna

I was up early to see the sun rise at the Sangam. No transport. Fortunately I decided against taking the bike.

The Pics are the tent town, well part of it, a small part of it !

The publicity says 80,000 people were there two days prior on Anniversary day. It that was 80,000 then I am astonished. I reckon there must have been more than half a million still there.

I rode into the "camp" and after a Kilometer was nowhere near the river so I headed back and looked for the bridge out of town. It was just bewildering how big this site was.

I frankly still have trouble believing the size of this riverside campsite. If it was a misprint and there were 800,000 then it would not suprise me.

I was heading for Veranasi where the sacred Ganges flows past the Gats, where Pilgrims wash and float their dead and so on. So as usual I rode right past the city and NOT A SIGN DID I SEE. So being the sacred being that I am I took this as a sign and kept on going.

I was fortunate because I had several hours of beautiful rural riding.

Then I paid. The usual truck jam at the usual rail crossing and 40k of horrible road in the dark to find a dump called a Hotel with rude staff. I think they practice rudeness. Every question is met with a blank expression. After repeating the same question often more loudly there comes the reponse which as far as I can tell is exactly what I had been saying. Then a type of communication takes place.

Now that I have left I can say frankly if there is not an anti white resentment alive and well in India then I am totally mislead. I have not in all my travels mixed with a more humourless, sourfaced, unhappy unhelpful, people. Their arrogance that they speak english and what ever I speak is not, is frankly bewildering.

So I stayed a night in Patna with increasing optimism that my India ordeal was nearly over. The truck is "broken down" and there it sits with the driver asleep in the shade beside it.

nzl04

27 Jan to Allahabad

What a hell of a day. I got the "dinkum oil" on the road to take......well of course when you get over the hill you just pick up speed so a was off and running and not realizing I was on the wrong road.

The pics, the "bridge" and party of the beauty of the paddy field. The rural area is great.
Sorry about my humour but I couldn't resist "port and sta'board"

Well I got the firsyt 25k right then I must have missed a turn. I had ridden the "bad" section I was warned of, and then came a really good road. The countryside was like nothing else. Magnificent. And you know what no traffic, I should have known better.

Soon the good road got a little narrower, then even narrower, and finnally pretty bad just before it petered out in a river bed.

That was a ooohh shit moment. Then I realised people were walking and not out so I carried on and there was a approach to a culvert through which the water was passing and suffient hard fill to ride over. So I did.

The far bank revealed a suprise, as there was a swing arm barrier manned by a bunch of kids. They asked for 30 rupee. I just sat there. After a while they were getting uneasy so I offered 10 rupees which was accepted and away I went.

The road improved as well. So that was good as I made the half way town. I was then back on the actual road.

So then in succession I got good bad, over a hill on good, bad, over another range of Indias version of the Swiss Alps, or what Yanks ( we need to call them something because American covers a continent) call twisties, then bad, then atrocious, then 10k of truck jam. They are a nightmare. Trucks all over the road. Often caused by a railway crossing that they close for up to 40 minutes at a time. So then the trucks line up on the left and cars and bikes line up on the right totally blocking the road. Yep you can see what happens when the barriers go up. Not much ! What a crazy business.

So again I arrived in the dark.

Allahabad is the point of confluence where the Ganges and the Yamuna and a mythical River the Saraswati meet at the "confluence" which are special to Hindu's and this one the most sacred, known as the Sangam.

So I was here to "see" that.

nzl04

Tigers

You thought I didn't get a picture I guess !

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26 January is Anniversary day in India

The small town of Tala no exception with a ceremony at the school of singing and dancing.

I was also interested in getting the washing done ( well it was Monday, washing day !).

Then the highlight a safari.

I should have had no greater expectation really but I did. After the pathetic performance in the other two parks this was supposed to be good, but when you put a youth in a jeep and let him loose on a closed road what do you expect. Yes a very erratic and rough ride. So we raced round in the trees, the only person having fun was the driver. We saw precious little wild life until the call went up Tiger ! and the race was on. 25 to 30 jeeps taking whatever path they could to find the tiger that had been seen. Soon there was a crush of jeeps reving, people talking phones ringing, cameras flaching as this Tiger ( they couldn't decide wether it was male of female which suprised me) strolled out of a creek bed, rolled in the grass and wandered back into the bush !

That was the show folks.

nzl04