First trip in India!

[serieux39]

Hi folks, I turned 40 in november and as a present to myself cooked up the idea of a spending a month touring the south of India on an Enfield. I've nearly come to the end of months of horrendous factory work plus extra overtime to raise the cash so now need to do some serious planning. My rough plan is to fly into Mumbai at the end of january, buy a bike with a buy back scheme from a vendor or buy from another traveller and hopefully sell myself, I plan to do a rough clockwise route around the south saving the beaches till last. I would really appreciate any help and advice anyone can give regarding : places to get/sell bikes, places to stay in Mumbai/southern India/ routes to take, well, basically everything really, bearing in mind i'm on a pretty tight budget.

[CosI'mFree]

It seems to me that you might be better off hiring a bike if you're only going there for a month?

Anyway, You might get good advise here http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...angalore-39205

Best of luck and post some photos after your trip!!!

Cheers

[pecha72]

I wouldn´t plan to buy & sell in just 1 month, even if you can get everything to ´click´, you´ll still lose some precious days from both ends of your trip. Also you may end up selling it dirt-cheap, once you´re in a hurry to your return flight. But that´ll be your decision of course.

For me, the highlights of South India were the hill stations & ghat roads (mountain roads) in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, like Ooty, Munnar and Kodaikanal. Of course the big temples are worth seeing, and there are many places to do that. And if you have a few days, then Kuttanadu backwaters in Kerala are not to be missed, but they´ll be best on a boat, not a bike. We left our bike in some guest house in Alleppey, that also arranged the boat trip (some photos & stories from that trip can be found at (triple-w dot) moto1.fi/blog).

If you´re a first-timer in India, the traffic may seem..... well, very exciting, I really cannot describe it actually, you´ll need to see it for yourself! Compared to some other parts, there may be a little less traffic in the south, but there are over 1 billion people in India, so I believe you won´t feel alone there, either! This, and the condition of the roads combined means it´ll be wise not to plan very long days. In mountain roads, there may be less traffic, but they´re very curvy and once again your average speed will be slow.

Sometimes just 200 kms felt like a long day of riding, I´d estimate I could ride for 500-600 kms in Europe, and still not feel as exhausted! And the place is very, very big. But it is a very interesting and beautiful country, even if it is a little bit tough to travel on 2 wheels.