In Varanasi

19/2/12

   Rode up to Askot for a bit of fun and the road was terrible, so not so much fun, just great views with plenty of time to see them. Decided to do the loop as the road was so bad and headed to Thal via Didihat. The road between Didihat and Thal was in a very good state and lots of fun, dropped over 1,000m in 17km so lots of twisty nice roads, lucky the Karizma has disc front brakes would hate to have done it on an Enfield with drum.

 Land slides are a real possibility on this road.

mmm Look at that road, oh and there is a view too.

 The Askot cricket pitch was small, i wonder how they score 4's or 6's. 4's if you hit a building, 6 if you have to lower someone down the cliff by rope to get the ball lol.

 

   The way back to Pithoragarh from Thal started out average but the riding good anway. Had the usual problems getting directions in Thal, if I asked for Pithoragarh they pointed to the petrol station but I eventually found the way, mainly as there is only 3 real roads in town and I had taken 2 of them lol.

20/2/12

   Rode to Jhulaghat to see Nepal, well it's weeks before I will be there, well less than 2 weeks lol. Very nice ride I stopped about half way there, it's about 40km, and had a great view over the river of Nepal. Once I got down a bit further I discovered the last 20km is basically a massive back and forward along the slope below where I was parked. Nice village Jhulaghat but the locals where a bit confused by my presence as foreign passport holders are not allowed across the bridge to Nepal and every one seemed sure I had come there to go to Nepal. I had actually gone there for breakfast, but unfortunately no food places had a view of the river only the market.

NEPAL, just down a few hundred meters and over the river.

Jhulaghat 

21/2/12

   Started heading for Varanasi with absolutely no idea how far I would make it. The road was in a good enough shape, and the views great.

 A temple in the middle of the river, well sort of river.

Creating and connecting now bro, but still no email/comment for your actual brother mmm.

I have found out that BRO is Border Roads Organisation, but i can still hope my bro is creating, connecting, and at my service lol

Finally some where to beat those bloody kids, oh belt sorry.

 I've been seeing these piles of poo paddies in various forms since late in Raj, this was first time i have seen all the different stages of poo building from start to finish.

I've said to a few people resently that i had done 10,000km so far in India, well now I have.

 I ended up stopping in Shahjahanpur, and no I do not know how to pronounce that even though I have heard Indians say it lol. It's an industrial town, not much more I can say about it.

22/2/12

   Started out early still unsure if I would make it to Varanasi, the road was not a dual carriage way so could only average about 50kph for most of the way. When I got to Sultanpur I was thinking about getting a hotel, unfortunately I didn't see any so, even though it meant arriving in Varanasi in the dark I went for it. Still had almost 50km to go when it got dark, and town was very busy when I arrived. Then I got to the Ghats area and people where everywhere. I final found where the Hotel I had called about 3 hours earlier was, after a old man was put on my bike by a tuk tuk driver to show me the way. It was down all these very small alleys and even though the hotel guy had said they had parking for motorbike, what he meant was up some stairs and by a wall down an alley blocking most of it. The last bit was hell.

23/2/12 to 26/2/12

   Got woken early by someone going to the toilet, share one outside my room, so decided to go and watch the sunrise as it was 530am. I managed to get a soft drink from one of the workers and while I was watching the view a big ish male monkey come up behind me and laid the bottle down quietly on the table and started drink it. He got real pissy at me when I grabbed it back, I even had to get the stick which is when he ran away, “cheeky little monkey”.

 Taken well monkey was stealing my drink.

   Decided to move to a different place and found one next to a road with burning Ghat view and security parking, INR10 per day. And the double bed, two single side by side, where even the same height unlike the last place.

   I finally found the Hero work shop for a full service, as I'm not sure if Hero is in Nepal I want everything right before I go over the border, unfortunately they couldn't fit me in today so have to wait till Monday, which doesn't really matter as I was looking at trying to cross the border Friday or Saturday.

   Other than watching people get burned, monkeys playing, kids playing, boats floating, touts annoying, etc things are quite nice here in Varanasi. 

 All is well here i look forward to seeing some in Nepal soon

   Enjoy your life

 

In Pithoragarh

5/2/12 to 12/2/12

   Not too much done, a few walks, a few rides, a few temples, a few sleeps, a few movies, you get the few ideas.

   One ride I went up the canal system, yes it's empty, and found a nice half pipe up the way so did a bit of pipe riding lol. Got airbourne accidentally on another, there was a hump that looked easy enough from my side, but it actually dropped off a lot on the other side.

 An ants nest from one of the rides

 one of the many rose fields around.

Pushkar from the higher temple, if you look close you can see the path up and all the rose fields.

  A couple of Aussies rocked up on Enfields, and I very quickly realised that at least one was not impressed that I was driving around on anything other than an Enfield, lol, so I did what any good Kiwi would do and put my Royal Enfield shirt on, from the Rider Mania in Goa. This went over as well as I expected lol. God I love winding up Aussies, especially if he is a bike snob as well lol.

13/2/12

   Rode out for Jaipur, nice easy ride only 150km. I went to the famous theatre there, Raj Mandri, and had a ball. It is an amazing building and for the first time I didn't care that a baby was crying in the seat in front of me and some one behind took a phone call. This isn't just because the movie, Agneepath, was in Hindi but mostly the cheering, clapping, etc.

   I also had a few people point out that I looked like the bad guy in the movie lol, it's probably the Full Moon. I should explain I have noticed people calling me Full Moon in the shopping area in Pushkar and didn't understand for a while, then it all clicked, shaved head is Full Moon here, in the north anyway.

Can you see the likeness lol.

14/2/12

   Bloody Valentines again and I'm heading towards the Palace of Love, The Taj Mahal, I think this is a bad move. Was an easy enough ride only 200ish km, but when I got to Agra the traffic was bad. Had a Tuk Tuk driver take the India flag stand off the bike, this involve ripping the tag it was attached to off the bag. Bugger.

   Once I found a hotel I tried to go and see the Taj so I could ride out early tomorrow, unfortunately I got lost and made it to the gate 10 minutes after it closed. So I went to one of the touristy places for dinner that has a view of the Taj, unfortunately it is not lite at night so didn't see much at all lol. I did realise that I have been out of the tourist route, well regular places anyway for a long time, how the hell can these people do it, I look forward to getting to less touristy places.

15/2/12

   Went to see the Taj in the morning, it is big and white lol, mmm what else can you say about it, quite nice. Agra on the other hand is a bit of a tourist trap, I had one guy try to tell me about some new tax and that is why his golden Virginia was INR560 ($11US), I laughed at him and walked off to find a pack for INR250 in the shop 3 doors down. This lead to the first guy running after me down the street saying 280, 280, well I laughed at him again and told him how I would never buy anything from him.

 Hey it's the Taj if you want good photos of it look it up on line.

   Got back to the hotel before check out so decided to try and get a bit closer to Almora. I headed north via the most direct route and found that it was shit, in fact it was probably the worst tar seal road I have been on so far. Sure this was mainly traffic but at one point it took 45min to travel 7km. I finally got to Moradabad at about 18:30, having left at 11:00, that is 7.5hrs to travel around 200km. If you want to go from Agra to Moradabad I recommend you go via Delhi it may be almost twice the distances but probably easier. Oh and this road is flat and no twistier than an Aussie outback road.

   I then had trouble finding a hotel, for the first time there is nothing near the bus station. None of the Tuk Tuk drivers where much help so I ended up asking a biker who pulled up next to me on the road and in good English asked if I was really from New Zealand, and he gave me better directions.

16/2/12

   Knowing that I'm heading into the mountains I got up late and got an oil change and chain tightened, well this was going on I noticed the Royal Enfield Rider Mania sticker was gone from the back of the bike. I wonder if it was helped by an Aussie, if so and his mate reads this let him know I have another sticker so my Hero Honda Karizma still has a Royal Enfield Rider Mania 2011 sticker on it lol.

   The ride started out nice and flat and fairly good, especially after yesterday, but as I got close to the last town before the mountains a big grin spread across my face, looking up near the top of the one in front of me was a road hehehhee nice and twisty. And yes it was, I had a ball getting to Almora, the road is in a reasonable state for most of the way. For about the last 30 to 40km there where a few land slides which were still being cleared, saying that I only had to stop at one. I also had to laugh at the Indian guy who came sailing straight past the mass of waiting vehicles and stopped right behind the digger that was loading a truck, which is why everyone was waiting. Yes he almost got run over, even started beeping the digger as if the digger driver would care what a stupid motor biker wanted. Sometimes I wander what is going through these peoples heads when they do such dumb things, I've come to the conclusion that there is no thought, none at all. Unfortunately this means they never learn the lesson and will never understand why people like me sit there laughing at them.

 mmm look at them roads, although this one is from the one i saw when down entering that town

17/2/12

   I have decided to stay another day in Almora even though my hotel room is bloody freezing, should have asked for a room with a heater. I went for a joy ride north towards Bageshwar and had a ball, the road was pretty good really and not too cold when in the sun.

   When at Bageswar, well I think that's where I got to, not many English road signs here and my GPS doesn't have any roads out from Almora except the one I came in on, I finally got to see snow again. I cannot remember the last time I saw snow, maybe when in NZ saying good bye to everyone there. Saying that the snow was still more than a valley away.

mmm snow.

 Almora well riding back from joy ride

   I'm not sure how cold the water is in the rivers here, I wasn't walking down in full riding kit just to find out., but I saw a couple of guys in the river digging. Not sure why but they where using an interesting 2 man one shovel technique where one controls the shovel and the other pulls a rope attached to the shovel, this is not the first time I have seen this in the north.

 You can just see the 2 guys in the river there.

18/2/12

   Rode out for Pithoragarh reasonably early, well 9ish as it is bloody cold here in the mornings. I have got most of my gear on now, wet weather linings in pants and jacket, thermal lining in jacket and thermal pants on, also using the winter gloves. I wander if I will be able to deal with the cold in Scandinavia in summer, mmm may need some more gear for that.

   The road started out good and stayed like that for most of the way, there was a small bit where there had been a heap of land slides that was in bad shape but still easy enough. Interestingly enough the road gets worse when in the little villages, in fact it gets quite bad in most villages, but get a kilometer out and it goes back to good again, don't know why this is? 

 can you see the lady climbing the hill with a load of sticks on her head, look for the blue  skirt.

   I have to say though for all you bikers out there, get your ass over here and go for a ride, but prepare yourself before you get here. You will need a bib for all the dribbling you are going to do, and make sure you exercise your face before coming or you will end up like me. My face hurts after today's ride, far to much smiling and laughing. 

 look at those roads, oh and the views good to lol

  

  Unfortunately even though the view is great, you don't get much time when riding to see it as you have to pay attention to the road, but shit what a ride. Bro hurray up and kick the kids out, they are old enough now, and get over here, you will love it. I just wish I had another 2 or 3 months on my visa, and the weather was warmer lol.

 good to know you are here for me brother, i think bro is the ministry of roads here as i have seen it on a few signs just normally at the bottom.

  Well must get some sleep more riding to do tomorrow.

   Enjoy your life

In Pushkar

25/1/12 to 28/1/12

   Been walking around a bit, the fort is great even if a bit touristy. On the 28^th I though I should get the new fuel filter as they don't have in line fuel filters at the Hero shop. When I got to the shop my parts had arrived so started putting the bike back together, they finished at about 20:00, all done for INR5300 or $106US lol, shit that wouldn't have got the motor out in Aussie let alone the whole job with parts.

 The is the main guy at Hero, they let me watch the whole thing and they did a good job. I only had to stop them once when they where not going to change one casket.

29/1/12

   Went for a nice slow ride to Sam dunes about 50km out of town, and did the touristy thing and went for a camel ride into the sand dunes, by dunes I mean 2 lol, not very sandy desert at this area.

I meet an English lady who owns a camel in Pushkar, and when i found out there is metal in the saddle and my magnet on tank bag holds to it, i started to wander, camel mmm 

  Was a good start to running in of the new piston, going 50km an hour and stopping every hour. Back in Jaisalmer did the usual and went to Shanti kitchen to chat to the boys.

30/1/12

   Decided to go for another ride same sort of thing as yesterday, 50km an hour max of an hour with 30min rest. Now have 250km out of the recommended 750km running in of the new piston. This is what coursed the second round of problems with Gracie (GN125) in Vietnam, i hadn't run the piston in properly and i had to race up a mountain to make it to the border in time. So I'm not making that mistake this time.

  When I got back to town I had to go and order a new battery, well get it on charge for pick up the next day, as the Hero shop had decided that some of the things I wanted where not needed. They did not order the new air filter, battery or spark plug, they said they didn't need changing. I'll have to change the air filter somewhere else as I'm not waiting for it to be shipped in, the battery shop was just around the corner tho so easy to get a new one of those.

Last sunset in Jaisalmer

31/1/12

   Nice short day planned only 115km to go, which is lucky as the battery shop doesn't open till 10. But got the battery in and off for the slow ride to Pokaran. Once there I went out for another 80km ride, this means on the bigger ride tomorrow of 350km I will be able to speed up a bit by the end.

I had spotted this temple well coming into town, so decided to have a closer look.

So all you married people stop speeding, us singles are expendable.

The first sleep sign I've seen in India

1/2/12

   Big day ahead so started early, and shit it's cold here in the morning, winter gloves, thermal lining, and still got cold. I'll have to put the wet weather linings into both pants and jacket when I leave Pushkar. The ride was pretty easy, even if it took all day. The roads here are good enough and there wasn't much traffic.

View from the roof of hotel in Pushkar

2/2/12 to 4/2/12

   Pushkar has some very touristy areas, but a lovely sight walking around the lake anyway. I have managed to get some things done tho, have got some more maps done and placed them on the side of the blog up the top there. I still have the India map to do and that is a big one.

  Enjoy your Life.