I am an expat living in India, at the end of my contract, I am planning to take off on my locally made KTM for a whirlwind tour starting on around 17th Feb.

Hoping to do Delhi to Jaipur - Rajasthan and the desert, Punjab, Kashmir, Northern border to assam then Bengal, south to Pondicherry, kerala, Goa and Mumbai.

If anybody is going that way would be glad to perhaps meet or travel together.

Best wishes

Michael

Gujarat is on the way. My city is Vadodara. Be my guest. Also see my FB page The Silk Odyssey. Send me a PM

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

Cheers Kayjay,

I will contact you as soon as I know when exactly I will be coming your way. working on the route plan now...

thats not enough time for that route ! It may be physically possible but a waste of time IMHO ! .....i did a similar trip in '96 and it took 6 months ! Feb /march is winter in the mountains ! my advice is either split the trip into 2 trips or allow 4 months or more ?
Feb / march you could do the south including rajastan and i think 7 weeks would be ok ....after all you want to enjoy those wonderful places not just ride past them at 60mph ?

if you have any Q's i'm happy to help if i can

....between calcutta and madras is 1500 km of nothing ! Its a major trunk road absolutely loaded with trucks / busses and almost nothing of interest along the way ! accomodation is dire and you often have bandits on the roads at night ! Same applies to Bihar if you are west of Bengal ?

yeah, thanks for your input.Once I started working on the route i realised distances, see my latest thread which was posted a few weeks back.

You must remember I have lived and worked in India for a year so its not that I need to get to know the place so much, I am also not interested in inspecting every single tourist attraction on the way, for me its about the ride.

I am about 10 days into the trip,so far have been to Agra, Orchha, Khajuraho, Bandhavgar and Pachmari. Currently overnighting in Indore - nothing like the route I planned lol, Found that I hated the idea of doubling back. So far all has been good roads are mostly excellent compared to what I cut my teeth on in Cambodia in the late 1990s, and for the most part quite quiet. The NH11 to Jabalpur was outstanding, as was the 1000m climb up to Pachmari and the descent. Accommodation ok mixed prices depending upon supply and demand.

Ultimately in this area its only a couple of days ride back to Delhi so if I run out of time its simply a case of turning right and shoving my bike in its crate when I get back home to Delhi the export papers are ready. I actually have a visa until Mid June so quite flexible on timings too, its just that my employer wants to drag me back to Ireland.

I had fairly low expectations and have been blown away by some of the things I have seen. The locally made KTM Duke 390 has been a great bike so far, if not a bit cramped perhaps.

Its a shame that more bikers don't come to India - you pays your money and takes your choice I guess.

Oh just meant to add that in India its possible to cover large distances by sleeper train,there are luggage vans at the back of the train where one can keep your bike and then saves on accommodation. Not an idea for the purist perhaps but it was an option I looked at at one point.

glad you're having a ball , Its a fantastic place i was back in India 3 yrs ago ( not by bike this time ) and couldn't believe the change ? i travelled the south in '93 '94.... by bus ..!....scared the living shit out out of me ! thats why i bought an Enfield next trip in '96 ! idea being that i am in ( relative ) control of whether i snuff it or not ? Roads were quite horrendous and the drivers .....? well .....???? worse ! i would be run off the road between 10 and 20 times a day ....every day ! After 8 or 10 hours i was happy if i'd made 250 km's ? ....much less in the mountains ! ( 120-150 ish )
best six months of my life ....truly !
had a couple of stints in Cambodia too on the XL250 baja rental in '02 and dodging bullets in '94 ? .....second best time of my life lol
hope you get up the himalaya when the snow clears ride safe

glad you're having a ball , Its a fantastic place i was back in India 3 yrs ago ( not by bike this time ) and couldn't believe the change ? i travelled the south in '93 '94.... by bus ..!....scared the living shit out out of me ! thats why i bought an Enfield next trip in '96 ! idea being that i am in ( relative ) control of whether i snuff it or not ? Roads were quite horrendous and the drivers .....? well .....???? worse ! i would be run off the road between 10 and 20 times a day ....every day ! After 8 or 10 hours i was happy if i'd made 250 km's ? ....much less in the mountains ! ( 120-150 ish )
best six months of my life ....truly !
had a couple of stints in Cambodia too on the XL250 baja rental in '02 and dodging bullets in '94 ? .....second best time of my life lol
hope you get up the himalaya when the snow clears ride safe