Hello travelers!
My name is Suhas 'Rocky' and I am a traveler. I am 23 years old. I am studying Aerospace Engineering masters.
This is my first post in this forum.
This is my story of my ride across the beautiful country of India. The bike is a 150cc Yamaha FZ.
26 days. One traveler. One bike.
"One Heart, One Ride" is what I call my story as. It is a story of going to the famed Leh-Ladakh, a destination that has been made immortal by countless of bikers from the country and around the world. It is widely considered as “be all end all “ for many a rider. Well, not for me though. There's always the next ride. Going to Leh is not just a story of riding a bike from Bangalore to Kashmir for me. It is more about pursuing a passion, a pursuit of a dream. I envision it as a pilgrimage for the biker in me, a tale of travel, meeting new people, and creating memories for the traveler in me.
And here we go!!
http://tinyurl.com/OneHeartOneRide
Day 1: Highway Nirvana
Starting from Bangalore at 3am, an hour later than my intended start time, with Dempsy, Prajwal, Girish, Jupsy and Kiran to see me off, I started my ride, with all sorts of feelings and thoughts running around in my head. There were a lot of people counting on me, and I couldn’t afford to fail them, nor myself.
The bike is loaded fully, a pair of saddle bags that hold my essentials: the tent, sleeping bag and mat, the bottles for petrol, the laptop, tools, and other odds and ends. The backpack had all my clothing, while the tank bag had the camera, the visor, chargers and what not.
The road to Hyderabad was, and is one of the best highways to ride at night, so far in my experience. On the entire ride to Hyderabad, there was hardly any traffic at all, and the lack of road humps made the ride enjoyable. The only problem is that it just keeps going straight. All the way!
The FZ was all prepped, serviced fully, and ready to go. I, the rider was the one who needed self convincing!
The first ten kilometres was all about learning how the bike would behave with the load it was carrying. Any slight movement i made on the saddle caused an immediate reaction on the bike; It would sway or just shake a bit due to the load. That done, for the long ride, it was all about finding a comfortable position where I could go on for a stretch without feeling tired. Crouching low, taking the support of the tank bag, while using my knees to support my elbows was comfortable for me, and I often ended up doing more than 50kms at one go in that position.
I ended up missing the exit to the highway, and ended up on the road to the Bangalore International Airport. I didn’t realise at first though. Tarmac quality was excellent, and I was pleasantly surprised. And a big surprise it did turn out to be! The road was a dead end! After 10kms, I did a roundabout, and got on the correct route. And then I kept going straight.
The oncoming traffic was less as well, and this highway is well maintained. Every one and a half hour, I covered 100kms, and after the first 100km of the ride, the much needed confidence came back, and it was a different feel from then onwards.
A quick stop to capture the sunrise; The horizon started showing up different colors, and from a hue of black to a ghostly blue, to carelessly thrown streaks of orange, that became brighter with each passing moment, dawn was breaking. Another day was born!!
250km later, I stopped at Kurnool for breakfast, and started off again, stopping for a 20 minute nap by the side of the road. Without any incident, I reached Hyderabad, 537km and 8 hours later, by 12 pm.
The one funny thing I noticed was that in Andhra Pradesh, people tend to jog, take a morning walk, do pranayama and what not on the national highway! With such humorous thoughts and singing and talking to myself, I reached Hyderabad after a stop for fueling up.
Hyderabad to Secundrabad was a bummer, negotiating city traffic, getting lost and riding around in the heat, the 30km distance took me well over an hour to complete, and was tiring.
Staying with a lovely little family, major Chinmay and his wife Pooja, along with their 2 year old kid, and parents, it was wonderful. Warm, open hearted people. Pooja said “hats off to you” and that made my day! Wonderful people, truly.
With Chinmay and family at Secundrabad.
A heavy lunch, and rest later, dinner followed suit.
The next destination is Jhansi, nearly 1000 km from Secunderabad. Nagpur is the first destination for day 2, and then, further on, to Jhansi.
Day 2: The Heart of India
A good 1000km run awaited me today, with Jhansi being the ultimate destination.
Leaving at 5am, I met a fellow rider Souritra Ganguly, and had a brief chat with him. It was heart warming to know that he had woken up at that unearthly hour to meet me.
After fueling up, the ride started. Another straight ride awaited me. I hate straights, and no matter how good I sleep the previous night, I still feel sleepy in a short while when riding down a straight road... And so it was, 100km later, I was sleepy. I pulled over to the side of the road, and had a powernap on the bike itself,
The 400km run out of the 550 Odom to Nagpur was essentially without twists or turns, and I was cruising leisurely at speeds of 80-90kmph. And then came the twists, the bumps and the potholes!!
The 4 lane highway eventually became a two lane, ultimately turning to one without lanes! Deviations due to on going constructions were many, and at one part, a market appeared out of nowhere on the highway itself, creating a traffic pile up!
Potholes were numerous, and to add flavor to spice, along came the rain. A drizzle lead to a downpour, and as I pulled over into a fuel bunk to get the rain proof covers on my baggage, the rain stopped! And on I rode!
2pm, I was in Nagpur, having done 1100km and it was lunch time for me.
The ride thru the city was easy, thanks to navigation, but the city was a mess. It was pretty on the outside, dusty on the inside! And to make matters more fun,almost everyone was curious and staring at me.
4 pm came and went, and I had barely covered 50Kms from Nagpur, thanks to more bad roads... The highway ended abruptly and a narrow winding road took me thru Pench Tiger Reserve. Atlast, I was in the heart of India!! Madhya Pradesh, 1300km from Where I was yesterday!!
Jhansi was ruled out, as the roads never seemed to get better. I decided on Jabalpur for the night, 200km away. The ride thru Pench was filled with avoiding trucks and buses and jumping over the potholes and bumps! Many a truck had broken down, and a couple of accidents had happened too. I happily rode on, enjoying the greenery and not giving an iota of thought to the bad road.
The highway appeared again, and I came back to cruising at 90's. And then the cloudy sky was replaced by a pelthroa of colors!! Blue, grey, white and what not!! The beauty of the countryside was mesmerizing! It was life in high definition!! I couldn't help but stop and take it all in, and click pictures!
Another hour later, I was at crossroads! I had to choose to take a left to continue to Jhansi, or go straight to reach Jabalpur, nearly 90km away. And then next tithe highway was a small town. I decided to stay here, and got a good room for 200 INR. The owner was a friendly chap and he was stunned when he realized I had rode all the way from Bangalore!!
Day 3 will be a straight run to Agra and on to Dwarka. An early start should see me thru.
Day 3: The Capital Run
Reaching Lakhadon the previous evening had been tiring. The hotel owner where I got a room for the night seemed decent enough that night. I got place in the garage to park my bike for the night and having informed the owner that I would be leaving super early in the morning, I went to sleep.
2.30am And I woke up. The owner was sound asleep, after what was probably a hard round of booze and rum the previous night. He refused to budge, inspite of my yelling, prodding and shaking. I finally got the water bottle and splashed his face with water. After about 3 or 4 attempts, he awoke. And he slept again. Out came the water bottle again. He finally got up and handed me the garage key. Thankful, I got my bike out, loaded it up. The guy was still in that state of stupor and kept moving around, swaying his arms and legs. I pocketed the return on the advance, had a cup of tea at the chai walla (tea shop) opposite to the place and was off! Goodbye Lakhadon!!
Rejoining the highway, I started seeing signs of why me stopping at Lakhadon was a good thing. The highway, or more apt the broken road with all its deviations, constructions and loneliness was terrible. Not one soul did I see for a long while.
By 6am, I was at some point and I didn't know where. There was a bridge and there was a raging river flowing underneath. No directions. No human being. No sign of the highway. I continued on the road for lack of options and not wanting to wait and eventually after bad bumpy roads rejoined the highway.
The first question that came to my mind was " is this the road to Jhansi?" and no one I asked knew. My GPS took forever to get network connectivity and I rode on hoping I was on the right path. I was.
Eventually a milestone marker mentioned Jhansi as 100km away. The deviations were numerous. My back and shoulder blades were hurting due to the bad roads.I pressed on.
Another deviation came, but I didn't take it. I stayed on the highway and then encountered some off roads due to construction happening. I negotiated it all, much to the surprise of the workers and continued on the highway.
There was a deviation, and I was in no mood to take it. I did off-roading instead.
I crosses Jhansi early in the afternoon, and the roads were worse beyond Jhansi. I was disappointed with the way the town looked. The buildings were crumbling and decayed. People were walking around without direction nor aim and I was glad to be out of there. Land of the brave? Definitely not.
Stoping for food at a dhaba, my first since I had started in the morning, I had a good meal. Along side, I answered the usual volley of questions; alone? On bike? From where? Bengal? Bangalore? Going where? Etc.
Stopped at a nondescript dhaba for breakfast/lunch.
I zoomed towards Gwalior at full speed, and crossed the town without giving it a second look. As I stopped for a butt break after Gwalior, I knew I definitely couldn't have had reached Jhansi last night. Travelling on the roads at night was to invite trouble in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Armed robberies, dacoits were the norm. I was glad and smiling for once that day.
160km from Agra, the good roads returned. Reaching Agra by 4pm, I directly went to see the Taj Mahal. And it was closed!! It was a Friday. Thought luck I thought. I didn't want to spend a night there as I could always visit the Taj Mahal with a girlfriend(s) later on ;-)
Fueling up at a bunk in Agra, I got the usual barrage of questions, and then one more; "Shadi nahi hogaya kya?" (are you not married?) asked the attendant. I laughed and replied on the positive and headed on to the capital, 180km away.
I took the Yamuna Expressway to Delhi and after a long boring time of riding, came across the Buddh International Circuit on the left, very slightly visible in the haze and smog that filled the skies of Noida and Delhi.
Delhi beckons!
Getting on the DND(Delhi-Noida Direct) I reached Delhi by 7pm, just as the sun was going down in the west amidst the sky scrapers and apartment complexes.
With precise directions, I reached Sriniwaspuri and docked at the gate of my friend Meghan's house. The ride was done.
About 900+ km and close to 17 hours of riding thru some of the most bad and bumpy roads of the country had brought me to Delhi and amongst friends.
Meghan and Sanchita were good hosts for this tired traveller that night. Punjab awaited me the next day.
While the ride from Lakhadon to Delhi had been very, very tiring, with the never ending stretch of bad roads, the umpteen diversions and the long stretch of riding, I was all prepared to head out of Delhi immediately. My original plan was to take a day off in Delhi, look around and click some pictures. But I knew that I would have more time to spend in Delhi on my way back. So I decided to leave the next day. The sleep that I got that night was one of the best. I was amongst friends. And, I had some really lip-smacking chicken (Malai Tikka) for dinner along with some Bengali sweets thrown in for good measure. I was asleep comfortably.
Day 4: Temple of Gold
Breakfast at Meghan and Sanchita's
Time to start!
Amritsar was my destination for the day. On the road by 7am, getting out of Delhi was a breeze. I had very specific directions from Meghan as to how to hit the highway on my way out from Delhi. The traffic was just starting to come alive, and I was quick on my way out.
The highway took me thru Karnal, and after crossing Panipat, I stopped for my first break after the Panipat toll. This was more to click a picture actually. It is actually hard to believe that wars were fought here; The First, Second, and Third battles of Panipat were all here, if I was to believe the history I had studied in school. No such signs. No commemorative landmarks. No memorials. Nothing. It was as if the place had been in existence, witnessing human life on a daily basis without having any scars upon it.
At Panipat. Hard to believe wars were fought here.
The next place I witnessed was Kurekshetra. The land of the Mahabharata!! And again, no such signs. Not even a board which said “Kurekshetra”. I would have loved to get a picture, but no such luck.
The Grand Trunk road had been fine thus far, but once I entered into Punjab, the GT road turned worse. When there weren’t potholes on the road, there were deviations. When I was back on the highway, there were potholes. Sometimes the deviations had potholes and heavy traffic pile up. I was cursing under my breath under the hot sun.
I stopped for a brealfast/lunch stop at a McDonalds somewhere outside of Ludhiana. I had a good meal of egg burgers, and some coke to wash it down, and that filled me up. Here I met some riders. For the first time on my trip.
Lunch time
On and on I went, taking more deviations and flying over more potholes, as time slowly ticked away. 4 pm, and I was about 50km from Amritsar. The heat slowed me down a bit, and I had to take numerous stops to ask people for directions to Wagah Border. And it was then I noticed. Brightly coloured heads. Everywhere! Orange, red, black, yellow, white and any other colour that you mention! It was like a rainbow of heads, except this rainbow had a whole lot more than the 7 colors that are normally found on it! “Santa and Banta” I thought, and laughed quietly inside the helmet. (A typical Indian joke)
30 kilometres from Amritsar is Wagah border. I initially called it “Land of the Brave”. But after being there and looking at the place, I was thinking twice about the caption I had given for the place.
Wagah Border is nothing, if not a typical tourist place. Foreigners, locals, other tourists come from everywhere and anywhere to watch the closing ceremony there. I was the only traveler. The others were tourists. I was still hot, and I was sweating underneath all the gear I was wearing, and I was swearing profusely trying to navigate among the sea of people there to get to the parking lot.
Jeez!! I wonder what the hell is this all about!
After what seemed like an Herculean effort, I managed to park my bike in a supervised place, got my camera, and off I came to the gate. The gate that let us in, so we could walk up to the gate of India-Pakistan. A board here said Lahore was 23km away. And the border 1km away.
The gate opened. And it was a mad rush of people rushing in. Stamping, pushing, shoving and literally a no-holds barred approach! I was desperate to protect my camera, and I was getting dehydrated. Barricades were pushed over as the crowd swelled and jostled to get to see the closing ceremony.
Nobody gave a damn about this monument. People climbed to the very top to witness the ceremony.
The gate. Another 100 meters from this gate is the gate of Pakistan.
I could hardly get a place to stand, let alone click pictures. The ceremony was supposed to start at 6, and some patriotic songs were blaring loudly over the speakers. I hated the place. I didn't wait to see the ceremony. I pushed my way out of the crowd, got some drink to hydrate myself, and off I came!
Riding back to the city, I found it a maze. I had to take directions to navigate to the Golden Temple, and after some effort, got there. A sardarji very kindly asked me to follow him. I dutifully did, and reached the temple.
I found a place to stay near the temple, and dumped my luggage. I had a bath to wash off all my tiredness and sweat and grime.
The Golden Temple was a place I had read about many a time. And it was magnificent! I don’t have any other words to describe it. The holiest of the holy places for the Sikhs was this one. There is a huge pond surrounding the temple, and it stands right in the middle of it, a walkway leading up to it from one side.
There were probably a million people there. People of all religions, faiths and customs. And many were sitting and praying, in accordance with the religious music that was being blared over the loud speakers. You are not allowed to expose your head in this place, and I had to pick up a saffron band to tie around my head. These things are just kept in a huge basket at the entrance of the temple, and you can just pick it up, and drop it back on your way out.
This was the first day when I actually took my camera out for its true purpose. The temple looked astoundingly beautiful, serene, and the whole atmosphere was quite calm, above the music. I walked around the entire complex once. There was a huge rush on the walkway, and I avoided getting into the temple. However, I could make out that it was more beautiful from what little I could see.
I had some traditional Punjabi food, but had to give the sweets and other food a miss. Next time!
It had been a very good day. Riding on the historic Grand Trunk Road, being mere meters away from the country of Pakistan, and visiting the Golden Temple, one of the places that was on my ‘must visit’ list.
I slept soundly that night. Next day was interesting and exciting for me. I was going to enter into the state of Jammu and Kashmir. 400+ km, and some very beautiful scenery. I was looking forward to it, as I switched off for the day.
3Likes
silicone valley to himalaya valley
nice story & ride, have ridden some of them roads & I gotta say you were making really good time 
I try not to drive at night 
Yamuna expressway is a blast, but yep boring, I rode it to Delhi in november last on the way back from Nepal 
Looking forward to reading more safe journeys Vince
Hybrid Mode
