Repaired bike and a full tummy – things that make me happy

I really have to say it: the home cooked food at Falcon Inn Guest House (Bharatpur) is spectacular! Easily the best we had so far. And we are fond of eating. A lot.
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Tilen, get the tools, something’s wrong …

So we left Agra on the Republic day of India. I thought some roads will be closed for the parade, but didn’t imagine that we’ll be shufeled around by the police so much. Well, it was partially our fault because we forgot the map at the hotel. It seems we can’t get enough of adventure – if the trip looks like it’s going to be quick and easy, we subconsciously do something to spice it up a little. :)

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Road, road, road, HOLE! (Rm – Ag)


View Rollin’ India: trip Ramnagar – Agra in a larger
map

“The Taj is waiting, hurry up!” was going through my mind as I was watching Tilen pack at 5:30. We decided to go earlier because we had about 20% longer trip ahead of us.

FINALY leaving Ramnagar! Something to set the mood:

Pretend they’re singing I’m PACKIN’ up, packin’ up … :)
Backin Up Song – Walk off the Earth

Mostly the road looked like this. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

We thought the first part of the road would be bad (because we had to backtrack a little, and had a hard time on this road when we came), and then better closer to Agra. But how wrong we were… The national highway looked pretty much like this: about 2km of great asphalt and then… (pause for effect) a FEAKING GIANT HOLE of gravel for 20 meters. But we managed it pretty good- about 340 km in 9 hours.

I can say with certanty now that you can see anything here… Immediatly after seeing the first road sign for Agra, we’ve met a new kind of vehicle: moped-rickshaws! But as they came, soon after they disappeared too. *confused*

Another thing we saw was a truck driving insanely fast BACKWARDS on the main road. o_O When we passed it we learned there were actually two trucks connected back to back (with no space in between 😀 ). No comment on this…

The sugarcane poured out into a big swamp and people were showeling it back on the road.

Further down the road we passed two places where the big trucks, overloaded with sugarcane, tipped over. The sugarcane poured out into a big swamp and people were showeling it back on the road. :) The overturned trucks are actually a really common site in India. I think we saw at least 6 of them already (haven’t managed to take a photo though :) ) There was one in a lake right beside the road – now only a rusty skeleton stripped of everything. Must have been at least 5 years old. People just don’t seem to care.

Oh, another thing we just noticed: we’ve lost part of our luggage somewhere on the way. :/ It was just 3 liters of water, but we still miss it. :)

[geolocation]

P.s.: Today was the first ‘postcard’ day. I hope you guys get them. If some of you don’t, that doesn’t mean we forgot about you, they probably just got lost on the way. 😛


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Staying in Agra: Taj Mahal

View of the great Taj from the rooftop restaurant.

In Agra we booked Hotel Kamal whitch turned out to be a really nice choice. It has a nice rooftop restaurant with a view of the monument (as most hotels near Taj Mahal) and some really friendly staff (they speak very good english as opposed to northern folk). There was a waitor at the restaurant (called Aamir) that we joked around with a bit and he ended up giving us a representation of curently the most popular Bollywood songs and dances. He was actually quite good. :) If you’d met him, you would love him instantly.

There we’ve met Claire and Rebecca. Would you guess they’re Canadian, eh? (damn, I hope I used it right :P) We got along really well, had some beer (which is really expensive compared to other things – it’s about 120Rp = 2€; coke is 20Rp :) ), and went to Mehtab Bagh park to see the Taj from behind at sunset. Sadly, there was no sunset – one moment the sun was there, the next, it was gone. I think this was the lamest sunset in my life. :)

This is only half the crowd at the entrance of the Taj in the morning.

The next morning was an early day too – we got up at 5:50 to get in line at the ticket office for Taj (the office opened at 6:30). This is the best way to se this marble if you want a photo that doesn’t have big black spots of tourists on it. To our luck it was the 26. of January: The Republic Day of India. That ment even less (Indian) tourists in the morning!

The ticket was expensive (750Rp = 11€ – relatively speaking, of course), but it is totally worth it. The next time I go to India, I am going to visit it again. It’s THAT specatular. The architecture can be best observed at sunrise or sunset. The direct sun at noon makes you think you’re looking at a cheap poster of the real thing. :)

This is where our paths seperated. In a few hours we were riding west (Bharatpur and the ruin city of Fatehpur Sikri!) and the girls were waiting for the train to Varnasi. Good luck to you girls and hope to see you again!

[geolocation]


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Ramnagar (Corbett Motel)

An unapealing place that lives mostly off tourists of Jim Corbett National Park. We had a hard time locating the Corbett Motel (that is the ‘best choice’ in Lonely Planet). It was written that the staff is extra nice,but after the first quarrel we were the main targets for ripping off.

We expected the staff would speak at least basic english, but mostly what they new was some words and a sentence here and there that they kept repeating.
One more thing I noticed: if they don’t know the answer to your question they look at you with the most innocent look and assuredly say: ‘yes’. :/ DON’T give them yes/no questions-that way you know if they understand you at all.

Enough words for this place. I don’t have the slightest wish to return.

[geolocation]


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Tigers, Birds, Elephants and Crocodiles

Jim Corbett National Park. Now this was something special.

We took an overnight pass for the park-you get a jeep and a driver and you go at about 10:00. Then you reach the camp (Dhikala), get a guide, try to find some elephants or tigers and get back to camp in the evening. There you sleep in loghuts with 10 other turists (we were the only foreigners there-the camp is not known so much internationaly, but a lot of Indian people come to visit). In the morning you have another jeep safari or elephant ride. Weee! :) And at the end: checkout.

The park is closed in summer because monsoons flood their temporary roads

The drivers were all saying they know where tigers can be found, but we kept our cool and stayed with Dany (Danish – 22 year old guy who’s actually a great driver. Knows a lot about birds too). We knew we had to be extremely lucky to see a tiger, because the sightings are rare (and for elephants – it’s not the elephant season now :/).

On the way there and back again Tilen got his treat: we saw at least 50 species of birds that he hadn’t seen before. Dany was shouting for them too, so it was kind of nice seeing them on the toes with curiosity. (there is a whole list of sighted species in the slovenian translation of this post)

Tiger claw marks on tree (just to let you know you're on his terf now)

So we reached the camp, got a guide and went on search for wild cats. The jeep stopped on a long straight road in the bushes. The other jeeps were there too. Waiting in total silence we were afraid to ask what we were doing. .. And then we heard it: snap! Something’s mooving! Somehere slowly coming out of the bushes was … an elephant? With tourists. Dissapointment. :/ But wait,they went back in the bush. Something was up… There was to much excitement in the air. Is there something in that part of the thick forest? We heard banches break and some fast steps… Looking through the sea of leaves and branches I thought I saw something orange… Is that a bird or is it.. OMG, it’s a fucking TIGER!!! It came running out, jumping across the road just 5 meters from our jeep. I still can’t belive it was so close and we saw it after 10 minutes of searching for it.
Tilen got some crazy shots and I made a video. Happy!

Back at the camp the receptionist explained: ‘door on loghut always close-pin here,close here.’ then nodded his head: ‘… monkey problem…’ it was hilarious! But when we went to sleep, we found monkeys were the least of our problems. We slept with 7 indians – three of them snoring and one farting all night. A full orchestra. I had my music on full but couldn’t get to sleep until 3am.
Tilen was sleeping on the bed below. He had one more problem… Rodents – and not the pretty ones. But after two visits on his sleeping bag, they let him sleep. Or maybe he just didn’t notice it anymore. :)

The idyllic jungle in the morning sun

The next morning we booked an elephant ride. It was very misty and seeing the giants come slowly out of the dark was just like in the movies. It definetly set the mood for the morning: tiger hunting in the unknown woods. On an elephant. Pretty awesome.

Well, what can I say … Incredible India.

[geolocation]


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The Great people of Delhi

Just our luck, Tilen (looking out the window) found a Royal Enfield dealer right around the corner of Amax inn.

In the office, to our surprise, we met Chris and Vivian – a couple from New Zeland, living and running the busines (BulletWallas) in Delhi for the past 5 years. Chris is a very pasionate customization artist and looking at his work made us want this iconic bike even more. (They actually customize the bikes anyway you want and upgrade them to EU standards – then ship them to EU,USA or Australia -check their portfolio on Facebook). They were our guardians in Delhi: They were of HUGE help in finding a bike to buy and providing us with every bit of information possible. We can’t express how grateful we are.

We bought a used bike at Joga motors. The boss there is Rana, the only female bike dealer in Delhi. But she’s not as fierce as she acts. She took really good care of the bike, did all the customization and gave us a present for the road: the jackets. She also has a really nice daughter, but she’s already married. So no use barking up that tree. :)

Of course we met some fellow travelers at the hotel. Just wanted to say that we hope you guys are doing well and maybe we’ll meet again in Goa (everyone is going there for some reason :) ).


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Not for the faint of heart (DE – RM)


(Yeah, we missed our planned course… but just a little 😉 )View Rollin’ India: Trip Delhi
– Ramnagar in a larger map

6 am. Packed our bags and off we went. The first real test of the bike – 300 km to Ramnagar (Jim Corbett National Park).

The day before we planed the trip online and wrote major towns in our booklet just in case something was wrong with GPS.

And so we rode into the mist…
6:30 and so much TRAFFIC?! Well, that’s a thing to get use to here. You’re never alone on the road. So honk, honk, blink, blink and be careful! Oh and another thing – traffic signs: sometimes in Latin, mostly Hindu. Take my advice: if you’re not sure where to go anymore, go straight. :) And every once in a while ask someone(that’s driving at least a ricksa).

After a while Tilen found a practical holder for the GPS-of course our phone navigation didn’t work(it would help remembering to download the app before the trip :P) so we had to improvise.

Leaving the city chaos, the trip got nicer and nicer. The scenery changed from gray concrete and rubbish to grasland and farm fields.

Now that we've seen it, we believe it. :)

But here we came across another problem. All those farm products need transporting and that’s where the trucks (with power greedy drivers) come in.Gravel, bump, bump, bump, aiiiiir and landing. Some cursing in between and hysterical laughter after. We survived! There are only two trafic rules in India:drive on the left and ‘bigger is better’ – lighter vihicles must give way to heavier ones. So driving with a bike is … like being almost at the bottom of the food chain.Ok, back to the trip. About half way to Ramnagar the road got bad so we had to slow down and were not able to pass the big trucks. So we cruised on for a while until we heard something new,something huge blowing its horn and pushing the big trucks out of the way. It was a massive 8-wheeler with an (unnaturally) crazy Indian driver. I guess you can probably imagine what happened next… Gravel, bump, bump, bump, aiiiiir and landing. Some cursing in between and hysterical laughter after. We survived! :)

The last 50km weren’t going anywhere. While driving through one of the last towns we found a shue nail (using our front tire, that is). We stopped, a crowd gathered and the first person offered us a pump or a fix. His son took it apart, fixed it and was extremely happy with the 50Rp (about 85 cents) we gave him.

At about 16:00 we found the Corbet Motel, put our filthy clothes in the washer, ate and went to sleep.
Enough adventure for one day.

[geolocation]


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Brrrum brrrrrrrum….

… and we were off in the busy Delhi streets. We spent most of the time in Delhi getting info for buying a bike. We met a lot of great (and i mean GREAT) people that helped us with that. But more of that in the upcoming posts. I need to get some rest (Tilen can sleep while i’m driving. 😉 ).


(Picture of my own Royal Enfield Electra, 350ccm – don’t get fooled by this, it’s a really fast bike :) )

Next stop: Jim Corbet National Park (Ramnagar).


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One more stop and the real thing …

Istanbul. So far, so good. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun on the way. After all, Adventure is our middle name. And generous as we are, we wanted to share our exitement. So we asked my sister Jasna to drive us to the train, but we were already really late … Adrenaline guaranteed. We instantlz transformed into a panic getaway driver (Jasna), the scared co-driver (me) and the desperate hostage in the back seat (Tilen). Fun times … :)

In the end we had plenty of time – we arrived 2 minutes to departure. This picture confirms it:

We opened shampagne, drank it, and before we knew it, we were in FREEEZING Prague.. eEEe, Budapest! After a good night sleep came Istanbul. I had a little problem with airport security when they asked me to remove my scarf. The problem was I didn-t have one. :)

Beti, hope to see you again after the return flight!
[geoposition]

P.s.: Iva (Ivi? :) ), good luck with the exam on wednesday!


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