8th October 2013 Karnal, India to Jaipur India

8th October 2013 Karnal, India to Jaipur India

I have vivid memories of driving through Dehli last year. So this year I attempted something different. I exited the highway at Sonipat to take a number of minor state highways to circumnavigate India’s capital. On Google maps and on my Satnav this appeared to be straight forward…. A simple proposition. Within minutes I was lost. On a map India’s towns disguise themselves as small villages. In reality they are thriving metropolises. Traffic is always at a standstill in the bazaar area of any Indian town, and Satnav always took me through. Satnav gave me directions to a railway line, the level crossing for which was blocked. I spent an hour attempting to take directions to escape and then experimenting with various roads. This situation repeated itself through the morning.

My important fast food investigation continued...... In India the sacred cow makes no contribution to the Menu. As an alternative McD India offers the Maharaja Mac.

If you boil riding across continents down… you end up with 3 main travel experiences enjoyment, challenge and survival. This morning’s riding offered challenge and survival.

Finally I exited a rural landscape onto the NH8, heading south from Dehli towards Rajasthan. Much the same as the NH1. I reached Jaipur via the town of Amber. The last few miles of the day’s journey were beautifull. I entered Jaipur and had a ride round, stopping to take photos and be a tourist. Wherever or whenever I stop, the bike attracts immediate attention. Even If I deliberately pull up on the side of the motorway to pause for thought…. Young males appear from thin air to ogle. People take photos and if I am more than a few metres away start molesting my bike, prodding, pressing…. My satnav has not been working well for the last few days. I am fairly certain someone tried to operate the touch screen with a key or something hard. The screen now keeps jumping to various route finding pages when least required. When people look at the bike they often ask questions… “How much..” is by far the most common. I really don’t like giving a price because by Indian standards the bike is obscenely expensive… and so I often lie and say $5000. Today several tourist tat shopkeepers who know about the value of anything and everything said they wanted to buy it, doubling and quadrupling their offers within seconds.

I found a hotel and checked in ,reassured by secure parking and the promise of good internet. I logged onto the Wifi network, good signal but no internet! The receptionist had cynically told me that Wifi was available and taken payment for the room …. Metres away the hotel owner sat trying and failing to access the internet.

I took a walk in the dark to buy snacks. Labourers lay asleep on the pavement, nothing to lie on, no sheet to cover themselves with. Riding halfway round the world is fairly tough (and in the afterglow of the adventure it is easy to forget quite how tough) however not as tough as the life of someone truly, merely surviving on India’s streets.

Jaipur mileometer 22151, 251 miles ridden