Another day, another puncture (Jais – Ud)


Oglejte si Trip Jaisalmer – Udaipur na večjem zemljevidu.

“I feel very olympic today!” i said and turned south instead of east. Why take the same road twice, if you know what’s waiting for you there? So we took a small field trip on the way back to Jodhpur. The plan was to crash there and continue to Udaipur the next day.

Random road block

On the way we saw where the majority of the areas electricity is coming from: wind turbines. At least 200 of them.
The road was straight and empty so it felt like an appropriate time to spice things up a little. So we let Tilen do the driving for a while. :) The straights were fine and he got used to leaning the bike in curves quite fast. But then then the road transformed into a busy town center.

-“Tilen, switch one gear down! You have to have power at your disposal if you’re in a tight spot…”
-“Ok.. ”
-“… And keep your hand on the clutch, we’re going to slow now for first gear.”
-“I’ll try… Hey Uros, if it dies, we switch! Ok?”
*censored happenings*
Tilen: “SWITCH!”

”Here’s some more. For the rest give him euros, we’re broke!” Tilen saidOn the second half of the way we turned the tank to reserve. “Next stop will be a gas station.” i said. “500 Rupees” were the magic words to get the man at the pump working. When you hear a ding, it’s time to get the money out.

-“Shit, I only have 200 left! Do you have anything, Tilen?”
-“Yeah I have enough…. ” searching for his money belt. “Fuck! 200.”
-“Great,now what? Any change?” i searched the small pockets of my purse “Now we have 423”.
-“And i just found 10 rupees in my pocket.”

We gave the money to the worker. He was most amused with our circus, laughing at our act like he hasn’t got a worry in the world.

-“Ti se kuj smej cejpec, ko bos ostal brez dnara.**” I said to myself.
-“Here’s some more. For the rest give him euros, we’re broke!” Tilen said. Hmmm… About 60 still missing. Wait, I have 1 Euro somewhere! The pump worker nearly collapsed on the floor laughing when he saw me produce an European coin.
-“What? That’s all we’ve got! It’s not funny.” He didn’t speak English. *facepalm*

I looked at the worker. Still smiling like it was his birthday and we were the opening act to a whole evening of joyful events.

-“So what now? Should we just drive away?” i asked. Tilen just raised his hands.
-“ATM, city” the worker gestured the road where we came from.
-“Fuck no, the town is at least an hour away. I’d rather take my chances just riding away in the right direction.” i said thinking about a solution. How did we go from Jaisalmer with no money? I was sure we had some spare bucks… Where could I have more change? Pockets? I looked at the worker. Still smiling like it was his birthday and we were the opening act to a whole evening of joyful events. Smart ass. Maybe I have some in the backpack.. Oh, where’s my wallet?! “Yes, found some more change!” We craved for change like a man in the desert craves drops of water.
-“.. If we add this and open the wallet compartment, Yes! We find more riches! Ok… Together we now have… Heh, 497 Rupees! Here you are my friend.”
The worked smiled pleased with the outcome of the situation and extended his hand: “Tee (three) Rupees.”
-“Look we don’t have any more! That’s the cost for entertainment..”

At that moment the crowd of mopeds waiting patiently for the last 5 minutes to get petrol went berserk on the worker. He had no other choice but to say ok and let us go our way.

We got to Jodhpur in the evening. Standing on the rooftop I looked down at a random girl and she said: “Oh, hello there! You guys arrived already?” Wow… Is that Kerry – a girl we met in the desert, exchanged contacts and planed to meetup in Udaipur? What’s she doing in Jodhpur? I went down to speak with her. I was dirty and exhausted of the trip and to be frank, I wasn’t 100% sure it was Kerry. When i came down there was a certain weirdness in the conversation… It looked like the girl wasn’t sure she knew me either. :)

New day, new power!

Near miss. One of them.

Road from Jodhpur south was a steady highway. Nothing interesting except a few near misses with buses passing trucks passing trucks. No, that’s not a typo. A truck was passing another one and a bus was passing both of them at the same time. And all that on a normal two way road.
At one point we saw a road sign that said “&larrow;- Udaipur”. We knew we should go straight because the national highway goes directly through Udaipur, but what’s the fun in that? :) So we went left, into the wild. Through the mountains?! :-O it turned out one of the best rides so far. The road was windy and there was a dangerous hole once in a while but it felt fantastic. The scenery, the curves and low traffic. A dream road for bikers. Just like the roads in the mountains of north Italy. But you know… Of Indian standards.
Finally I got to show Tilen what riding a bike is all about. I think he liked it. :)

On the other side of the mountain we found a nice bridge with stone elephants. Under it was a river, a dam and of course a waterfall. But the water wasn’t falling because of the drought. This must be a truly magical place in the monsoon time. We came back to the bike and something felt wrong. Shit. A flat tire. It must have been the hole we hit on the way up.

Monkey problem

So we set up camp. Again. We got the wheel off and Tilen changed the tube. “Where are we going to find a pump in the middle of nowhere?” i wandered. Maybe a bus or a jeep has a compressor. But they were all so rare here. We got some info off a tourist guide passing through so Tilen hitchhiked a jeep to the nearest village. It took him more than an hour to get back and i was sitting there, alone, meeting random friendly people and keeping the monkeys company.

The road from there was even nicer and in great condition. The last part was on the highway again. By now it turned in a proper looking European highway with a random car/truck driving on the other side once in a while. Or maybe an avalanche.

All the information, diary, financial records, contacts of people we’ve met… Gone.We came to Udaipur very late. “Show me the name of the hotel” said Tilen. I searched my pockets -“What? Where’s my notebook?”. We stopped by the road and I searched everywhere “Shit! It must have slipped out of my pocket somewhere through the mountains.” How the hell are we going to find Andrew in a 600 000 people city? We don’t know the hotel nor where it is. All the information, diary, financial records, contacts of people we’ve met… Gone. GONE, GOD DAMN IT!?!

-“Let’s just drive to the lake and try some hotels there. Maybe a name will sound familiar.” proposed Tilen.
We drove on through the streets and stop at a point near the lake.
-“Ok, let’s try the hotels here… It’s getting late.” We left the bike and went to the lakeside to start from the edge up. On the way one of the hotel promoters started -“Hello guys, need a room?” I wanted to say no “You came by bike from Jodhpur? You friend waiting in room 102.”

I couldn’t believe it. We found Andrew! The group dinner after 690km and all the fuss was a perfect happy ending to this story.

[geolocation]

** Rough translation: Yeah, we’ll see who’s laughing when we ride off without paying. Dumb ass.


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