Delhi

You didn't think it was over did you?

Since plan A didn't work so well and my bike didn't make it past Austria, the new plan is to hire a bike in both India and Nepal and go for a trundle around both countries. It is possible to hire in just one country and sneak it through the border but since things are a bit tense in most of southern asia at the moment i'm going to try to avoid doing anything too stupid.

It became obvious that using the Yamaha was no longer my best option for getting here, and again i can't say i wasn't warned about it, but i've always had a weakness for things that are broken. One day it'll get me into trouble.

So i've flown into Delhi, via Paris with Air France. I don't like Air France that much because of a previous bad experience with them but for some unknown reason they were much cheaper than anyone else, and the flight got me into Delhi on the same day rather than next morning with BA.

Needless to say things started to go wrong almost straight away. In Edinburgh we were sent to a gate that had another flight departing, but that was ok since we all had to get on a bus anyway. The flight took off about 40 minutes late which was really all of my safety margin in changing planes and terminals in Paris. Helpfully neither my second boarding ticket nor my online confirmation told me which terminal i had to change to. I'm not sure why but when we landed it felt like we "drove" for almost as long as we'd flown, then we had to wait for a bus, then we drove around the airport for a bit, sightseeing i think, before being deposited at the terminal.

Slight tangent for a second while i mention i was standing next to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Robertson,_Baron_Robertson_of_Port_Ellen on the bus.

Once at the terminal i had to check the screens, and run for another bus to another terminal hoping it was the correct one. Then despite coming from a secure area and going to a secure area i had to go through security again, which i duly set off. This time i had to take my boots off too. A few minutes later i'm running through the terminal noticing the flashing last call sings for my flight. I make it out of breath only to be ushered onto another bus to complete the airport tour.

The flight was ok for the most part, and immigration and health screening fairly harmless. I opted for a prepaid taxi which was more expensive but saved me the hassles outside with the touts. it's still 28degrees at that time which was a bit of a shock, but the bigger shock was the drive to the hotel.

Even at that time at night the roads are teeming. There are a lot of "stealth" vehicles that don't use lights at all, or sometimes just lights at the front. Most have no indicators, or don't use them, with horns being used in their place or simply to warn other road users that they are being passed. It felt like a fairly long ride in with me constantly waiting to see a built up area with good roads but there just wasn't any. Even the street with the hotel is chaotic, and busy at midnight with horns sounding every few seconds. I'll come back to this later.

The hotel had decent reviews, but even if you forgive the rabid dogs outside and the traffic horns, and the dirty sheets and leaky bathroom, there is still the problem of the building work next door going on. Rather than use the traditional wrecking ball or explosives routes the approach here is to give 20 or 30 guys sledgehammers and let them knock it down a floor at a time.

Daylight is 5am and they start not long afterwards, going on until 5pm. Not quite the refuge from the heat and the noise i was hoping for.

Regardless i had to go and find a man to rent a bike from. There is a sort of legendary figure in the India for bike overlanding called Lalli Singh that i had been emailing but without response. He has a place in Karol Bagh so i set off to find it. Not long from the hotel i pick up the first "new friend" who asks where i'm from, where i'm going, when did i arrive etc. I'm always wary but this guy was quite helpful with directions and tips then he wandered off. The next guy wanted me to go into a travel agency to get a free map, stating it was a government office. They never are, always privately run, but i did get the free map and it was good to be out of the sun for a bit. I then decided to take the Metro train and wander around Karol Bagh until i found the bike place which i eventually did. For all the hype about this guy his place looks like nothing from the outside, but stupidly i didn't get a picture. Anyway we chat through the terms and i have his number so i can call from Kathmandu and get him to prep the bike. I also got a quote from another place run by a woman where the enfield sitting outside it looked fabulous, but again i didn't get a photo. I'll do so when i go back.

Getting back to the traffic, it is chaotic, but i'm not finding it that nuts. Everyone is just trying to get somewhere and for the most part take care to avoid hitting anything, even when bikes and cars run on the wrong side of the road. I tried to take a short video of it but i'm not sure it will come out.




The guy you can see in the tuktuk stopped for long enough that i figured i'd let him take me back to the hotel since i'd been out for about four hours now and was flaking in the sun. The first guy this morning had warned me about paying these drivers too much, so i tried to agree a price with him before i got in, but he wasn't having it. He did ask if i wanted to move to a hotel he knew and go shopping but i managed to get my No across. When he got me back i then offered him 40 rupees, which is about 50p, knowing that another guy would have done it for 50 rupees from further away. My original guide this morning had said 10 rupees for short journeys so i thought i was being reasonable, but he wanted 100. In the end i left him the 40 and got out. You feel like a clown arguing over less than a pound, but if you don't tourists being excessively overcharged becomes the norm.

In the evening i wandered out again to find a hotel a friend had recommended, which i'll move to tomorrow. It doesn't feel right taking many pics here, so you'll need to work with me to imagine the potholes and broken roads, the smell of the open sewers, the mass of people wandering around, the random cows, some being milked. Hey wait a minute that one has horns mate.

Anyway i found the hotel and booked a room for tomorrow then had something to eat. I know the advice is not to eat meat but i had chicken tikka then legged it back to my hotel in case of an internal explosion then venting, but so far all is good.

Tomorrow i'll hire a car for a day and do the sightseeing bit, taking in a shop that sells bike kit, then maybe another day here before heading for the rains in Kathmandu. This will give the mountains another week or so for the snows to melt.