Welcome to our travelreport of our adventurous trip through the north of India and part of the Himalaya by ancient motorbikes.
On the 31st of October our trip will start! Tickets are booked already, only left with details like vaccinations, visa and a cool sponsor! We want to try and get the story published by a magazine, in return for a bit of sponsoring!

Motorcycletrip in Pokhara (I found the picture and also the movie Tanja!)

Really cool 20 minutes of explanation about our map from this old guy at a “Roadhouse” for truckers. We called him “Opa” but didn’t understand a single word he was saying. At the end we made the familiar ahaa noise so it sounded like whe had understood the whole story! Very nice people in Nepal!


17th of november, view just after waking up.. Life is hard in Nepal.


Ganga (the Ganges)
About the dirtiest river in the world, but not for Indians they drink the water, wash their clothes in it and take their bath in it. their dead are returnd into the river their sewerage ends in the river, everything..


Sign to “MC DABBS” with the beautifull Taj Mahal (Crown Palace) at the background

Camels are the most relaxed animals I know, even with a huge amount of weight to pull they walk like nothing’s going on and they’re actually on a stroll in the park.

National park 150km’s under Dehli, stuffed with wildlife! Even saw a leopard! have to wait for my film to develop to see if I cought it on camera..

After a month we found a M-snackbar, coudn’t resist to take Ronald on the bike, shame he was glued to the seat, so we took the seat and put it in front of the bikes!

Red fort in Dehli, at night.

The fort is heavily armed with automatic guns etc, by the army. It took me 30 seconds to wear one of their bulletproof helmets and I could even touch their guns, haha very good safety measurements!

First of all, thanks for all the reactions, we read all of them every time we got the chance!

The ride back from Nepal, to the Indian border was superb!! We have been
smiling from ear to ear! Great roads and hundreds of sharp bends in hill
country! We counted 12 sharp corners following each other on just one hill!
And I am very very proud to say that we touched ground with both sides of
the bikes on several occasions on this ride. Not good for the Enfield foot
pegs, but very good for your ego! Haha!

After this, we reached the border and had to stop at three separate offices
to do some paperwork. For some reason they always want money for “all” the
work they do in the office. To explain the work, it exists of looking at
your passport for a while, turning it upside-down, than back again, looking
some more. We figured that they all have bad eyes, because they press it to
their face and than look for while again. Then we found out that they were
illiterate, because they started asking all our details, which were already
mentioned in the passports. They told us that the stamps for the passport
were expensive, so we had to pay a fee for that of 50 rps.
This smells like corruption, and when you smell orruption always ask for a receipt so you can declare it at the company you work for. Offcourse they cant give you a receipt so after a couple of minutes of staring and arguments both ways we could go without paying! haha!

Then we Entered India in the region Bihar, which is one of the poorest regions in India. Immediatly we found out that riding in Nepal with its good roads is not the same as in India. The roads were sandy roads with some small remains of what used to be an asfalt-road and enormous potholes.
It took us till dusk to reach our destination. But on arrival we found out that there were no Hotels whatsoever. So we decided to go for the nearest city (Mothihari), I had to take of my sunglasses because my vision was about 20 percent, it was to dark. But riding without glasses in India is no walk in the park, sand in your eyes constantly, potholes everywhere and crazy truckdrivers blinding you with their headlights and pushing you off the roads just beause their bigger! Sounds like hell, but actually these are also times off enjoyment, this is the real adventure! haha!

The next day we drove out of Bihar region into Utar Pradesh region and immediatly there was a huge improvement in the roads! We were very glad about this, because of our planning which consisted of 200-300 km’s a day was very hard in Bihar. So on these better roads we could reach 80km for whole stretches, which made traveling a lot quicker. Our average speed (when moving) was usually about 35-40km/hour which is really good for India.

The next place we visited was Varanasi, this is a piece of Indian culture and therefore important to visit (at least that our opinion). Varanasi (or as the Indians pronounce it; baranasi) is the city of Shiva on the bank of the sacred Ganga (Ganges). Hindu Pilgrims come to bathe in the river’s waters, a ritual that washes away al sins (If only it was that easy!). The city is an auspicious place to die, since expiring here ensures release from the cycle of rebirths and an instant passport to heaven.
We went on a Ganga boattrip early in the morning and saw people bathing in the “Ghats” (Steps leading down to the river). People were also drinking the water, making prayers, washing there clothes, filling bottles etc. Then there were ghats where people were being openly cremated, that was weird to see, we had a look onto the Ghat, but were glad that no semi-burned corpses could be seen, all the fires were about to be finished and there were no dead people to be seen, for the next load.
We did see a few dead people on top of cars, on stretchers etc. under a colourfull sheet with orange and yellow flowers, these were ready for cremation.
All by all, varanasi was not as bad as I expected, but I can imagine that the wet season would be a worse time to visit this place. The food was ok, especially “Lassi” which I have been enjoying every day in Nepal en India! By the way “Lassi” is not the Indian version of a hotdog, but a yoghurtshake with fruit, very good! we even found a real Pizzaoven in varanasi and had a very good Italian Pizza!

After Varanasi we went back on the road and found a lot of new roads, partly under construction. We even got on a 6 lane highway! unheard-off in India. The road consisted of 3 lanes, then a higher green area in the middle and then a another 3 lanes. That was the only comparison with europe, the 6 lanes were all being used in both directions and there was traffic for only 2 lanes. Riding on these roads is exciting you never know was coming next!
We spend the night in Kanpur, and went on in the morning to Agra.

Agra was a good place to be, we arrived before dusk and drove by the Taj Mahal, it looked huge and beautifull even from a distance.
The next day we went to the taj mahal, I believe this was one of my first Riksja-rides. (Because of our motorbikes we never took a riksja) But on this day we were the perfect tourists, both camera’s with lenses and everything around the neck, and arriving on a riksja! To be honest, the Taj Mahal is as beautifull as I read, especially the inside with beautifull inlaid gemstones of various kinds. There a gemstone flowers inside consisting of 34 seperate gemstones, nice.. Couldn’t make pictures, wasn’t allowed, Jan tried to make some without flash, when I started to ask a lot of difficult questions to a guide to create a diversion, but it didn’t work. I guess you just have to see it for yourself.
The legend says that the “Taj Mahal” has been build for the wife of “Shah Jahan” wo lost his wife and wanted to make a tribute to her in the form of a “beautifull Crown Palace” which was also the complete full name for the “Taj Mahal” (now only Crown Palace). He wanted to build an exact replica on the other side of the bank in pure black, which would be his own Tomb after his death. there have actually been found some buiding foundations on the other side of the riverbank in perfect allignment with the Taj Mahal, so who knows..
Then there was the red fort in Agra, from where the Taj Mahal can be seen with clear weather. But the clear weather was probably on vacation that day.

The next day we left of to

———-Not finished yet – under construction – try again later———–

Parasailing, needs no further explanation..

View in between Pokhara and Katmandu

Flat tyre, were getting good at fixing it! this was only the third one..

Near Dunche

We left off with the parasailing in Pokhara, which was great!! (see pictures).
At the parasailing shop we met Tanja, (a dutch girl who was working for the shop to pay for her parasailing licence) She was also good with a motorbike!, so the next day we went for some offroad riding, to a small river. During this trip we found out what the waterlimit for an Enfield is, we tried to use a lot off throttle but on the way back my Enfield stalled in the middle of the small river, not nice!
But the journey was great, Tanja showed us a nice place to swim, freezing but refreshing! Thanks Tanja, let us know how the course is going!
We came back in the afternoon, and had some time to kill. While shopping is not one of our great hobbies we decided to do some sailing on the Pokhara lake! The boat was looking like something from a mad max movie or waterworld, but it floated so no worries. We hadn’t seen anybody use it before and the wind was hardly noticeable, but Jan likes to sail with a minimum amount of wind, it’s one of his greater talents and therefore he did the sailing (I just call it drifting) and I tried to fade the bright red circles I have around my shoulders from riding a bike in a T-shirt in the baking sun.
So at sunset we were still x81gsailingx81h at the lake and it was getting colder, so we had to use peddles to get back.. Being Dutch we felt a bit ashamedx81c

The next day we left of to Katmandu to try and get to Everest base-camp by motorbike. I already knew is actually only possible by foot, but small dirt tracks are ok for Enfields so we wanted to try anyway. After talking to an englisch couple we found out that the walking track to the basecamp of mount everest has steps, is very steep at some places and to narrow. On the other hand the told us, that it is possible by the tibbetan border to get reach there by motorbike, but it is not possible to take youre own vehicle into Tibet nor driving it being a foreigner. So we looked for something else and decided to go for a 3 camping trip to Dunche, in Langtang nationalpark. We had 3 days off offroad riding, the hard way.. so no sandy roads just lots of loose rocks round pebbles, potholes etc.. really cool, but also very tireing. We were not able to stand on the steps because off the load on the back of the bikes, if we stood up, the backside of the bike tended to get a life of itx81fs own, wich is bad for youre heart when there is a 2000 meter drop just beside you.
We didnx81ft meet any tourists on these 3 dayx81fs, the children were not begging but still sincere unlike Pokhara and Kathmandu (these are actually the only places where you find a lot off tourists). On the first campout we bought a full chicken (from the lokal butcher, not a live one) and a pot with some vegies, first we fried parts of the chicken wich tasted good and were well done. But because we were cooking on an open fire we wanted to roast the legsx81c bad idea.. but good for youre running skills!! (to the toilet)
So today itx81fs a resting day, getting some souvenirs and stuff and tommorow were off to Birganj, to the border of India!

Greetings Jan & Don

Border of Nepal

Offroad to Royal Bardia national park, to see tigers, Rhino’s, monkeys etc..

Arrival in Royal Bardia national park

My second flat tyre, after treating the rim with duct-tape no more problems, DUCTTAPE RULES!!

Busy adjusting the carb after the sparkplug died (we gave it an official royal burial offcourse..)

OK, where to start… Well, we’re on our way, but not to Sikkim. Plans tend to change a bit every day. Last plan was to go for Sikkim, but by taking the faster route through Nepal, so the Nepali border was the first destination from Delhi. And yeah, we reached the Nepali border and we crossed it. All it took was our last supply of Euro’s to get the visa, a bit of a bribe, time and lots of formalities. But we managed to get on the Mahindra National Highway, and started heading east, cruising with an easy going 70 kmh through the Nepali Terai….
First stop in Nepal: Royal Bardia Nation Park, which we only could reach by crossing a river (no bridge, see picture) and a 15 km of dirt road. And sure no, these Enfields are not made for dirt roads. But we disagreed and we went for some extra shakin and bumpin and got the bikes in the park. Great park, superb hotel with mud-and-straw houses, a friendly owner and good food. For the next day we could choose between a rough and heavy hike from early morning 5 till late in the evening with high chances on seeing the Bengal tiger, rhinos, deer, birds and more, or a dull river ride in an inflatable raft. Of course we took the latter! And yes, we saw the tiger; that means… her foot print. And some cool rhinos far far away, but definitely rhino-shaped moving objects. What a great day.
Ow, did I already mention that this was about the time that we started enjoying Nepal too much and that we agreed that we made a slight miscalculation when planning to reach Sikkim in 7 days…? Who wants to go to Sikkim anyway, Nepal is the place to be. So Indian King goes Nepal.
Next day (don’t ask me for dates) we made it to Butwal, more beautiful Terai area, and some great foothill roads (and a new record of 310 km and 9 hours riding and one flat tire with professional duct-tape fix). In Butwal, we had the best Indian food so far and slept till the local bus driver started testing the horn for a good 5 minutes, just next to our room. OK, on the bikes again, heading for Pokhara, the tourist hangout in Nepal. Great roads (= bumpy roads with great views) and only two minor problems with Jan’s bike with the carburetor.
Now still in Pokhara, enjoyed an amazing paragliding flight in the mountains, more good food (apple pie!!), great views and uhh… local beers. And some spare time to do some major maintenance on the bikes, including valve timing. Now heading for more food, more beers, more mountains, and Katmandu on Thursday.
More info from Katmandu, some time later this week!
Cheers!
Don & Jan

Our trip has started! We picked up both bikes at the bikeshop of mister “Lali Sing” the bikes were in the proces of a complete overhaul, so we had to wait a bit after a good explanation and testdrive we took the bikes to our Hotel, shifting was weird that first ride, and the fact that is was completely dark and that there were fireworks everywhere made it very interresting! I also noticed that sunglasses in the night are not advisable.

At this moment I’m sitting in a little shop on the border of Nepal with a very slow internetconnection and regular powerloss, so Im going to kep it really short.

First day of riding we got out of delhi, took us 4 hours to make a stunning 100km’s!! We were very proud of that, today we drove from 6:30 to 17:30 and did 230 km’s our topspeed has been 85, which is also about the max for the enfields.

Ok till next time , hope to find a faster connection then.

greetings
Jan & Don

Only a few hours remaining before I have to leave for the airport!! I’m excited!

This afternoon I received a phonecall from Ingrid, who asked me if I had seen the news? Which I hadn’t , been to busy arranging all the last minute details. She told me there had been bombings in New Delhi and there were several casualties, by probably terrorists.
I called Jan, after that, he had just arrived in New Delhi (after the bombings, luckily) he told me that the streets were full of police and the army, there is a lot off confusion by the people on the streets.

Why do people do these kind of things? I just don’t understand..

We will just have to try and get out of Delhi as soon as possible, without visiting any of the busiest places. The chance of another bombing is not that big I guess, but it’s not worth the risk.

Today I’ve spend a lot off time cleaning my house which I’m now really sure off will never be one off my hobbies. I’ve put all the stuff that might be usefull together on my bed and that’s where it still is. If I would have actually packed it yesterday, I would have taken it apart today again anyway, to make sure everything is there.
After that, I went to Bart and his girlfriend Jessica to produce the first ever “D.A.B.B.S.” T-shirts. (Thanks again for that!)
We will wear these on our trip, for commercial reasons and to find some new members in India! For the terms and regulations on how to become a member please click on the link in the link-list on your left.

So the start of our Journey will be a serious and cautious one, but we are both still really excited about the trip! So with a few hours left its time for me to see if the huge pile off stuff I gathered will fit into my special luggage bag for the bike.

I tried many ways of packing when I was backpacking before and I have learned that when you just can’t fit every thing in when it’s nicely folded, it probably will fit when you put everything through each other and fill up every little hole. (this will also be today’s tactic I’m sure!)

Greetings
Don

Copyright by Jan Nederstigt

At this time Jan and I are a bit further with arranging all the stuff that needs to be arranged on beforehand.

Jan has completed his project in Sri-Lanka and has arrived in India yesterday. He will be working on a water filter project he has set up last year for a couple of weeks. After that he will travel to Delhi where we will meet and start the journey. You will hear more from him later on.

I have now received my shots and I went to Den Haag for a tourist visa. I got some strong army boots which will do fine as motorcycle / mountaineering boots, as we are planning on going to the Himalaya. Apart from a travelling bag (suited for a bike) some clothes, a medical kit, camera equipment and a toothbrush there’s not much else on my list yet. I believe in travelling light, but that can still change..

A good set of bikes have been found at a rental shop called “Inder Motors” in Delhi. Today I received an SMS from Jan that he went to take a look at them and that they were good working order!
Below a picture of a bike from the rental shop in full setup.

The bikes come with a sturdy couple of metal travelling-boxes full of spare parts and tools. These spare parts might sound a bit over the top, but you must know that these bikes are still the same as a good 50 years ago. The quality of these bikes is very poor, good thing we are both alright with working on bikes.
For starters we will have to put a big magnet at the back of the bikes, for the bikes are bound to loose some parts while travelling. On the other hand you can ask yourself, if the part falls of and the bike is still going, is this an essential part for the bike and should I have got rid of it in the first place? While it is a rental bike we should return the same amount of parts as we rented, so I guess a magnet would be good..

We still don’t have a real travel plan, but the amount of places we want to visit have grown over the last month:
Agra (Taj Mahal), Varanasi, Sikkim (Region in the north of India/Himalaya) and we like to see a bit of dessert under our wheels so we’ll try to reach that in Rajasthan. Offcourse we want to see a lot more, but not everything we will see can be found in books, that would make the trip a lot less interesting, there must be a great deal of adventure to!
Jan has arranged a GPS so we can keep a score of where we are, its a nice way to find your hotel again, haha. But also good to plot a map at the end of our trip to see where exactly we travelled.

Next update will follow soon..

Yeah! Preparations… Does taking a lot of rest to be hale and hearty for the trip count as preparation?? Err, managed to get a helmet here in Sri Lanka and I found someone who is going to bring my army boots from the Netherlands to Sri Lanka (thanks Guusje). And that’s about it.
Some six more weeks to go in Sri Lanka before I leave to India. First for some serious stuff (called ‘work’) in Jalpaiguri, North Bengal. That will be the second half of October. And then back to Delhi to get ready for the trip. Guess I should start worrying about my visa for India, as I have to get it here in Sri Lanka, and that probably means lots of bureaucracy on both the Sri Lankan and Indian site. And a flight ticket… And probably many more things that I will forget. Luckily Don will do all the planning for the trip, so no need for me to worry about that.
In the meantime I have to get rid of my dirt bike here in Sri Lanka (Suzuki DJebel 250) as my current employer refused to pay for the rent (as it is potentially unsafe to ride a bike in Sri Lanka and they don’t want to get sued if anything happens). Instead they gave me a shiny white Toyota Corolla, which is almost as dangerous I guess, as it doesn’t like the dirt tracks at all.
Anyhow, I am going to try to tape some videos of Colombo from my bike to give you all a nice impression of the picturesque surroundings that is part of my habitat at the moment. Welcome to the urban jungle of Colombo!
To be continued…
By the way, did I mention that I am Jan, in Sri Lanka also known as Yang, Johannes, Jam, Mr Jan, or whatever.

At this time I’ve got a ticket and a travelguide, and thats about it! The trip is going to be about meeting people, crashing into a different culture and dealing with that in a creative/humourous way! There’s 2 things I want to see for sure; the Taj Mahal and the Himalaya
Offcourse I don’t want to miss out on the wildlife, but there’s many places where we can observe them, on or of the bikes. In the coming months the plan will probably alter a few times, and will probably change again when traveling in India. I don’t believe in fully prepared travelling, there should always be plenty of room for 180 degree changes!

I’m going to travel with my good friend Jan, at this moment he is not able to write anything in this weblog, because he is already abroad in Sri-Lanka for a waterfilter-project. But he has the same way of dealing with things, therefore the seriousnesslylevel (cool word, made it up myself!) will probably average below 50%. Which is more then enough for us. After hearing some stories from Ingrid (a friend of mine who recently enjoyed a cool trip through the North of India!) I found out that half the time the people in India have no clue what you’re talking about anyway!

So for myself I have to get my vaccinations done soon and get a visa. Jan will have to get his visa in Sri-Lanka to get to India, which won’t be a problem for him, he’s used to the procedures by now.

Now I will have to invest some time in writing to some magazines who need to publish our stories!

Oh, and by the way I’m Don! (better late then never)