India ( + Photo Gallery)

My initial plan for India was to ride down to Mumbai to visit a friend, chill out at one of Goa’s beaches and then possibly ship the motorcycle from Chennai to Bangkok. But after I had a good look at the travel guide again, and after listening to what other overland travellers had to say, I realized that this was a somewhat crazy idea. After all, I only had about 5-6 weeks time, and India means huge distances and, as I was told before: crazy traffic. (I later found that ‘crazy’ is the wrong expression. ‘Homocidal’ comes to mind – at least when you’re on a motorcycle and therefore on the receiving end of the psychotic drivers’ style of steering a bus or truck).

So instead of going all the way down to Mumbai, I decided to take a 'short-cut' through the provinces Rajasthan and Uttar-Pradesh into Nepal... still a good 3000 km. That way I didn’t spend most of my time on the bike, but actually managed to actually see something of the country and spend a few days in each place. And I’ve got to say: India is beautiful, and I’ve got some fond memories from this country.

Two questions I asked myself towards the end, after I survived India without any accident, relentlessly dodging busses and trucks for 3000km: Would I come and visit again? – Yes. – On a motorcycle? – No. Maybe. But not unless it’s the right season to go up into the mountains around Ladakh.

For a more detailed report (including comments), have a look at my India Album on FlickR.

The full-screen slideshow version can be found here. (To read the report during the slideshow, click 'Show Info' in the top right).

Here are some samples from the album:

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Pakistan ( + Photo Gallery)

Our route through Pakistan took us from Khunjerab Pass down the gorgeous Karakorum Highway to Islamabad. Because of our delays with getting through China, we went down the Karakorum Highway a few weeks later than expected. But as it turned out, early October was just perfect for us: clear skies, moderate temperatures and colourful tree-foliage during the autumn season.

Whilst up in Pakistan’s mountain regions, Len and I split up to go our own ways, and I took a side-trip with 2 other motorcyclists into the Deosai Plains high-altitude plateau: a rewarding side-trip, but unfortunately I had my first major off and injured my right leg (nothing broken, but a fairly swollen foot & knee).

In Islamabad, I took a bit of a rest whilst I was waiting for the Indian visa: camping in Islamabad was cheap as chips, and I had time to get my broken laptop screen fixed, wait for my leg to heal, do some route-planning for India and ‘pakistanify’ the bike with some colourful stickers (still not quite as colourful as the Pakistani trucks).

I followed the Great Trunk Road down to Pakistan’s “cultural capital” Lahore and from there crossed into India. As always, pictures say more than words: For photographs, which include comments & descriptions for a more detailed report, have a look at my Pakistan Album on FlickR.

The full-screen slideshow version can be found here. To view comments during the slideshow, click 'Show Info' in the top right).

Here are some samples from the album:

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China ( + Photo Gallery)

Coming from Tourgart Pass, the road to Kashgar is not much different to the last 200km we had done in Kyrgyzstan: mainly corrugated washboard, the trickiest part of which are the never-ending lines of enormous Chinese trucks on their way to export goods into Central Asia: they hammer down the road and throw up so much dust, visibility is about as good as on a foggy winter morning in the Lake District. And just as the dust-cloud opens, the next truck’s already approaching quickly. General attitude of the truck drivers: “survival of the fittest”

Kashgar lies in China’s Xinjang province, which is predominantly of Uighur (muslim) population & tradition. It is the most westerly city on the Chinese Silk Route and has a very relaxed atmosphere to it. As long as we left the bikes parked at the hotel, we didn’t need a guide for the city, and so we took a few days to relax and enjoy the diversity of Chinese & Uighur food. One evening, our agents from Newland Travel took us out for a meal (or should I say feast?) in a traditional upper class restaurant. I’ve got to say it was the most delicious meal I’d had in a very long time: at least 6-7 courses of local specialities, accompanied by various kinds of tea in different flavours.

Over the course of one long & interesting day, I went to see the Animal Market, Sunday Market and Kashgar’s Old Town. This (and our onwards journey to Pakistan on the gorgeous Karakorum Highway) is probably best described in photos rather than a lengthy blog-post:

I’ve uploaded some more photos into a separate China Album on FlickR, including a brief write-up underneath the photographs. (Here's the same album as a slideshow. To read my comments in the slideshow, click on "Show Info" in the top right corner).

A few sample images:

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Kyrgyzstan to China

On a Tuesday afternoon, we’re told the final ‘go’ for China. We’ve got three days to get from Bishkek to the border (Torugart Pass): the pass has just been re-opened one day ago and will close again in four days for Chinese holidays. Guess we’re lucky for once…

In anticipation of flying to bikes (which would have meant: drain engine oil & petrol for safety reasons), we still have the crap fake Chinese “Shell Super Helix” engine oil from Tajikistan in our bikes. But with the help of a local biker from Bishkek and Yulia’s translation skills, we manage to source some decent Motul oil, which we take with us to do the oil change en-route in Naryn.

The road from Naryn to the Chinese border takes us through the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen so far on this trip, the highlight being the valley around Tash-Rabat, where we stay in a yurt-camp about 3h ride from the Chinese border. It’s the end of the season, and with winter approaching quickly, most yurts have already been taken down. In the morning, we realize that we were lucky the yurt-owner accepted our last (and insufficient) Kyrgyz cash for a ‘yurt & breakfast’: at 7am, the nearby river is still partly frozen – it would have been a freezing night, had we camped out in our own tents.

We leave around 8:00am and get to the border about 2h later. On the Kyrgyz side, the border crossing is reasonably straight-forward (although a bit lengthy due to a bus-load of tourists going the same way as we). About 10km through no-man’s land and we get to the first Chinese check-point. As promised, our Chinese guide-car is awaiting us. Another 5km later, we get to the second check-point: we leave the bikes outside & get taken into the border building by our agents to have some Chinese instant noodle soup and ‘do business’: $1400 change hands (counting twice on either side) – the price for 2 people & 2 bikes to cross for 5 days through China with a guide-car. An insane amount of money, but still cheaper than bypassing China by airplane.

Over the course of our instant noodle-soup meal, we realize how difficult it was for our agents (Newland Travel) to get us into China on such a short notice: the managing director himself had come to the border to pick us up. At first, the Chinese border guards didn’t want to let the guide car through to pick us up at our meeting point – until the managing director made a phone-call to a ‘special friend’ at the Chinese Immigration in Urumqui.

To cut a long story short: after a thorough luggage-check (border guards looking at every single item and opening every bottle from contact-lens fluid to mouth-wash), we’re permitted to enter China. And we know: this time we’re really “off the radar”: not the usual Chinese license plates, no Chinese driving license, no insurance paperwork, no nothing: We just let the guide car go in front & let the agents do the talking at the various check-points on the way to Kashgar. Agent’s connections & bribes. THAT’S where our $1400 went. (Note: doing China on your own vehicle the official way costs the same amount of money – Newland Travel’s price was good, and I can highly recommend them).

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