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India Highs and Lows: What are yours? India Highs and Lows: What are yours?
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  #1  
Old 27 Jan 2005
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India Highs and Lows: What are yours?
Was thinking about my experiences in India. This is what I came up with. What were your highs and lows?


*Places
High
Palolem Beach, Goa

Low
Rush hour in Delhi

*Events
High
Dalai Lama’s Birthday celebration

Low
Trying to sit in the lotus position for more than 5 minutes on a 10-day meditation retreat.

*Attitudes
High
Man who rented me Bullet in Delhi

Low
The touts in Srinigar. The kids on the way into the Zanskar valley who all demanded a pen

*Roads
High
Where do I start? Manali to Leh, Spiti Valley, road to Pangong, Nubra

Low
Srinigar to Patankot: traffic jam because army had just shot a militant and they closed the road

*Bikes
High
Nearly new 500cc Bullet with steel luggage

Low
Clapped out sad 350cc Bullet with plastic bags on the back

*Experiences
High
Hindu ceremony at Temple in Hampi, Karnataka

Low
Dealing with rickshaw wallahs in Paharganj in Delhi

Cheers
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  #2  
Old 6 Dec 2009
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High's & Lows's of South India
Sounds like you had a great trip - i did the south of India, and loved it.

Overall Highs were the roads down south - and the ultimate High was the sunrise in Kanyakumari - simply amazing.

check out the video:
YouTube - straightandleft's Channel

I did the entire East coast in the US as well, and it really didnt compare with India.

Enjoy:
Home (Straight And Left)
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Old 6 Dec 2009
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Words, stills and videos: Indian Himalayas TBSdotCom

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Old 7 Dec 2009
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Bike rental?
where/who rented you the bike?

Thanks
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Old 7 Dec 2009
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Soni Motors Royal Enfield Customising Restoring Maintenance Spares - Home in Delhi rented me the 500cc Bullet in 2004. I had no problems with them or the bike. I would recommend them.

Lots of people rave about: lalli singh.com in Delhi. When I was there he didn't have a bike for me at very short notice. He's booked up months in advance.

In 2003 I borrowed a 350cc Bullet in Manali: lots of problems.

Do a search on the HUBB. There's lots of opinions.

Chris Scott's about the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook - Chris Scott book has some info too (written by me )

HTH
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Old 7 Dec 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris View Post
Soni Motors Royal Enfield Customising Restoring Maintenance Spares - Home in Delhi rented me the 500cc Bullet in 2004. I had no problems with them or the bike. I would recommend them.

In 2003 I borrowed a 350cc Bullet in Manali: lots of problems.
I'm doing a fair bit of investigative work at the moment re a trip to Manali -Leh way sometime next year. A lot of the hire bikes in Manali seem to be very old and a lot are really old cronkers that are well past their best. Others are just downright dangerous. Any one who intends to bus it up from Deli and hire there is well advised to look around to see what you are getting and not book anything from the UK. Not sure what Amritsar is like for bike hire but I don't think there is much at Chandigarh. Standards at Manali apparently vary a great deal.

However, the advantages of hiring further north is that you miss the Deli traffic and the intense heat of the plains........can't win really I was thinking of going from Deli but making a really early start just to get out of the place with some kind of sane level of traffic if there is such a thing in Deli
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Old 7 Dec 2009
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Having had a mate who hired a bike in Manali (we checked every shop there) and also investigate hiring in other parts of India (incl Mumbai and Goa), I can strongly advise to only get a bike in Delhi from a reputable source (see Sonimotors and Lalli Singh) mentioned above. There's a lot of dodgy Bullets and even more dodgy Indian bike dealers in India. It's a false economy in terms of time and money to get a bike somewhere else than Delhi.

I can also recommend Nanna Motors in Delhi.

If heading north, do as Jimmy suggested, leave at 4am to miss the heat and traffic (don't be surprised if you pull up on your loaded bike at a busstop and ask for directions to the Grand Trunk Road that person thinks you want a bus... )


Heading south: put yourself and the bike on the train to Mumbai and head south from there.

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Old 8 Dec 2009
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I left Amritsar a month ago, didn't see any Bullets for hire there. Did Amritsar to Goa in 5 days just to get out of the north, which leads me onto the thread topic nicely
Lows, so far, Coming in from Pakistan the north of India was a massive shock, nobody interested about you or your journey( why should they be I suppose) just how much everything you've got costs, trying to rip you off at every opportunity and the driving is terrible, when you're facing that traffic on a motorcycle it's not a nice place to be, us and others we have met up with have had all types of thefts,ipod,money,camera, petrol.( all in Goa,all by locals)
Highs, so far, Goa beaches every bit as stunning as the guide books say they are
We haven't ventured out of the town where we are due to Caf's broken arm but we've had good reports from others who have so it's looking like south India is going to be a marked change from the north which is good to know
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