sábado, 12 de outubro de 2013

Bike Trip - Kashmir (Sep/2013)



Before start writing about the trip I did with some friends to Ladakh, I want to thank everyone who somehow helped on this mission. And it wouldn’t be so easy to get all I needed to start the journey sorted if I hadn’t had an amazing support of many friends or new friends I made here in India.

Buying/renting the bike I knew would be the hardest task and could be very tricky as well since I’m not an expert on the topic. So through people I already knew and some other I got to know through Facebook or CouchSurfing I got offered their help to join me and check the bikes in KarolBagh, which is probably the biggest market for bikes in Delhi and even in India. Indeed that market was a crazy experience to me; there are thousands of bikes standing in front of the shops and the negotiation isn’t easy as I expected. But at the end I could get a good deal, or I should maybe wait to confirm it at the end of my road trip.



First day: We left Delhi (Gurgaon) at around 3pm and drove for around 5 hours to reach Ambala (around 230km). The traffic in Delhi is usually huge and leaving the city took us maybe 2,5 hours until we reached the highway. We didn’t make any proper stop since we start the trip a bit late, so basically we made two brakes of 5 min to sip some water and then back to the road. 
Putting the Bullet on the road was an amazing experience, the bike is solid and powerful and its noise gives a nice feeling.
Driving at night on the Indian highway was a tough mission, at least for me. Cars and bikes coming on the wrong direction, not much signalization, the fact that lights is “not mandatory” for vehicles and so on. But at the end I survived!
Well, to close the day nothing better than some good Indian food and beer. We also got the chance to meet both "Bhaiji" Preet and Dinesh, who later on joined us in Srinagar as they had the trip planned to start the next days.