I very well could have titled this Holy #@!&ing &%(! (Part II) or To: Steve O’Neil From: India Memo: We’re not done with you yet, but my final day in India was easily one of my longest and most tiring. It’s a strange thing sitting down to recap events over here. While toiling away on the bike for hours I think up endless quotes and snippets to weave into these stories. On most days when the snippets are really flowing I’ll pull over and jot them down over a chai. Yesterday was the Niagara Falls of one liners yet not once did I pull over to put them into ink. Not once did I have time. March 2nd (Day 173), my final travel day in India lasted thirteen hours…
5:43am – My internal alarm clock beat my real alarm clock by 2 minutes. The day begins.
6:20am – After packing and kick starting the Tuna I noted my time of departure. From the dyed rubbish filled streets where the party ended just hours before, I thought to myself I might as well be riding out of the French Quarter at dawn on Ash Wednesday.
7:00ish – After getting turned around in the labyrinth that is Varanasi and receiving several conflicting sets of directions I found myself heading north on the two-lane secondary Rt. 66 and not National Highway 29 which I had intended. The morning sun rising to my right for the first time since that fateful ride from Jaisalmer to Bikaner, I began traveling in the direction I will grow most accustom during my remaining time in Asia – North.
7:30ish – After carefully selecting the location of my final morning chai stop I pulled over for what was one of the best. After downing two cups and preparing to head out the friendly boys of Steel Workers Union Local 205 demanded I take their photo. I hope it’s not the case but I doubt very much that morning coffees will ever be as entertaining again in my life as they were on the magical morning roads of India.
7:30 – 11:00ish – To describe this chunk of the morning is to backtrack to Varanasi. The Festival of Colors is a national celebration so in no way are “the shenanigans…tomfoolery… or ballyhoo” limited to select locations. Like the streets of Varanasi the road to Nepal was dressed in a kaleidoscope of colors from the previous day’s celebration. Pinks, purples, greens, blues…the day-old watercolor dye still covered everything from asphalt to clothes to skin to hair to cows to dogs to even monkeys. On my final day in India I can’t think of a more special visual to remind me of the vibrancy of this nation than the living rainbow all around me.
11:00 – 1:30ish – The secondary two-lane Rt. 66 from Varanasi was an accident waiting to happen. Crowded with cyclists, pedestrians, and speeding buses the unsealed road was miserable. I knew eventually the road would link up with my intended route – NH29…as in national highway 29. I was anxiously counting down the distance markers until I hit the merge city from which point I figured it’d be smooth sailing on the national highway. Things couldn’t have gone more differently if Bruckheimer himself was calling the shots. When I finally linked up with NH29, the road to the border, India decided to have one last laugh at my expense. To my horror the road was not a pristine blanket of asphalt on which I could cruise at 40, but rather…drum roll please…The Worst Stretch of Road in India. I know what you’re thinking. This is the final day and O’Neil is embellishing to enhance his story, but trust me when I say that for 18 painful kilometers along NH29 life was hell. Those 18km took me ninety minutes. That’s an average of 7.5mph. The pavement simply dissolved into crater size potholes. There was absolutely no escape and every vehicle, large and small, was slowed to a crawl. The shaking and jolting the Tuna endured was horrific. The mere fact my chassis is still intact is a testament to the durability of the Royal Enfield brand. If the Bullet were a lacrosse player it would no doubt be the stocky defensive mid-fielder who never runs out of steam and can take whatever is thrown at him. I should have named my bike John Rice. When the road ceased to improve after an hour of riding I started to panic. I quickly concluded that if these conditions remained unchanged all the way to the border (some 100km away) I would be spending another night in India. Salvation finally came when I hit the urban outskirts of Gorakhpur and stability (and speed) returned.
1:30ish – I had confirmed that Nepalese tourist visas were issued at the border in exchange for one passport photo and $40 dollars in cold hard US greenbacks. The most memorable ATM run in my life back in Varanasi had produced Indian rupees, but due to the festival all banks and money changers were closed so I faced the annoying task of converting rupees to dollars prior to the border. I figured there would be services to trade currency at the border but given my turtle-like speed I didn’t want to chance arriving after dark, finding shops closed, and stranding myself in a dusty border town for the night. The logical solution was the city of Gorakhpur, 90km south of the border and the last major settlement before Nepal. After riding to what I surmised to be Gorakhpur’s urban center I located the first military uniform and asked where to find a currency exchange. The entire ordeal took no more than thirty minutes before I was off with a crisp $100 dollar note in my wallet to tackle the final stretch of Indian road.
2:00 – 4:45pm – The roughly 90km from Gorakhpur to the Indian border town of Sonauli was unforgettable. The two lanes of NH29Extention shared nothing in common with its dismal counterpart to the south. The road was smooth and empty, or as I like to say at the outset of a day on heavily groomed ski slopes…the track was fast. I hadn’t braked all day since the morning chai stop and I was pretty much running on fumes and adrenaline. Adrenaline fueled by my final moments in India but perhaps more so by the nervous anticipation of the impending border crossing. It was during this final stretch that the what ifs started to flood in. Crossing the border from India into Nepal on foot with a backpack is a no brainer. Given the current political stability in Nepal the doors are wide open and visas are handed out to foreigners as nonchalant as business cards at a commercial real estate brokers convention. The catch was the Tuna (no pun intended). About a week ago I emailed the owner of a Royal Enfield rental shop in the tourist heavy town of Pokhara regarding the logistics of bringing a bike into Nepal. I wanted to know (a) if it was possible, (b) the cost, and most importantly (c) whether the bike’s registration number would be attached to my visa/passport thus creating a problem when I exited the country on a plane and not the Indian-imported, Delhi-registered Royal Enfield Machismo Bullet motorbike on which I entered the country. All concerns were assuaged when the female owner replied back with positive news on all fronts. She said I would have to pay a daily import fee ($1.60usd/day) for the duration of the bike’s stay and that the import certificate would not be attached to my passport. This apparent info from a would-be reliable source gave me the green light but my nerves were still rising as I got closer and closer. My entire day had been music free until I pulled over at the 30km marker and broke out the camera. With a crowd of a dozen looking on I said a few final words into the camera lens before announcing that one song would be taking me home the final 30km stretch. The serene xylophones of So Cool accompanied me into India and it was unthinkable that they wouldn’t accompany me out. My final forty-five minutes of riding in India were magical. I found myself surrounded by lush green fields that went off in the distance seemingly forever. Perhaps the greatest compliment to the music, the setting, and the moment was the late afternoon sun. Never before had I ridden that late in the day so suddenly I found myself in a familiar yet unfamiliar place I loved: the Sweet Spot. The Sweet Spot is that photogenic golden hour in the afternoon sun when blenders come to life and rounds of 18 to a close. For me, like many I assume, it has always been the most feel good time of day. With that the stage was set for my goodbye to India and as the road markers counted down and the inevitable got closer images from my five previous weeks started flashing through my mind. The tearful flight into Mumbai…the wild days of discovery and exploration in Mumbai’s streets…the overnight train to Jaipur…the first Bullet test drive…the drive to Pushkar…the rooftop beauty of Udaipur…the unforgettable arrival into the Blue City…the freezing morning drive into the Great Thar Desert…the outpost beauty of Jaisalmer…the 33 hour of hardship to Amritsar…the border closing ceremony…the first view of the Himalayas…the broken cable adversity…the icy mornings of McLeod Ganj…the twists & turns of Himalayan roads…the three day haul to Delhi…the awe of the Taj…the morning euphoria riding east…the night in Kanpur…the unexpected in Varanasi…and now finally the test of endurance to Nepal. Not gonna lie to you I definitely got choked up and shed a few tears but you probably could have seen that coming. And then it happened. From around a bend come into view my final stop: Sonauli.
4:45 – 5:45pm – I’m pretty sure I would have ridden right up to the border and blown through it had a plain-clothed man not stepped into the street and waved me to stop. He politely ushered me to the Indian immigration office which consisted of three chairs and three old men. I turned on my “yes sir/no sir” switch and started with the paper work. Within minutes I was officially stamped out of India without so much as a word of the massive Delhi-registered Bullet parked outside in plain view. I quickly mounted up and pulled away towards the border not 200 feet away. Inching along in 1st gear I passed two heavily armed Indian border guards and entered no man’s land. For about 100 feet between India and Nepal there is a dusty clearing that runs to the horizon to both the east and west. Merchant stores run right up to the edge of this buffer zone on both the Nepalese and Indian sides. It was fantastic. I’ve crossed some cool borders but this was by far the most out there and Wild West feeling. I rolled into Nepal, parked my bike outside immigration, and walked in. Twenty minutes later I walked out with a fresh 30-day visa. With that first piece of the puzzle securely in hand I turned around, walked back in, and asked what to do next about my bike. Across the dusty road sat the customs office and my final hurtle. I parked outside in plain view of the entire office staff and walked in. I approached the counter and with a giant smile said ‘namaste’ and “happy holi.’ If I could win these guys over I would be in the clear. A massive pit formed in my stomach when one of the agents asked “carnet?” I replied I did not have one and took it to be a very bad sign when he began laughing. The men spoke in Nepalese for a very long minute before one yelled into the next room and a t-shirt wearing, English-speaking, twenty year old appeared. We shook hands and walked outside. I quickly produced photocopies of the bike’s registration card and my international drivers license. We talked about the daily fee and the hefty penalty for violation and I requested a 29-day permit. Shortly after I was back in customs watching my guy fill out paperwork and getting that giddy feeling inside that I was in the clear. When he presented me the permit to sign I did a mental fist pump when nowhere on the document did my name (or passport details) appear. Hell he hadn’t even asked to see my visa. A handshake later I was off with docs in hand and smile ear to ear. It was done. We were in. Probably not the last time I cross an international border on bike.
5:45 – 6:46pm – The sun quickly heading for the horizon I bolted across the street and produced $60usd at a currency exchange window. With a wad of Nepalese rupees in hand I fired up the Tuna and headed west towards the sinking sun to cover the last 28km to Lumbini – the finish line. The tree-lined ride to Lumbini was pure satisfaction as the realization started to sink in. I had done it. I had ridden a motorbike across India. Even now to write those words seems pretty surreal. It was after nightfall when I finally pulled into the quiet streets of the tiny hamlet. I turned off the engine and marked the time: 6:46pm. The 340km from Varanasi to Lumbini had taken me 13 hours.
7:00 – 10:00ish – Traveling in India you feel like a single drop in the ocean. You simply don’t run into other travelers that way you do in Southeast Asia. Nepal is totally different in that respect. The ocean of Indians shrinks to a pond of Nepalese and the backpacker scene becomes more visible. I was more than pleased to get an immediate taste of that difference at my guest house. After showering I joined two jovial 30-something English couples for a huge dinner and tall bottles of Everest beer. Great company right out of the gates and a welcome indicator of things to come. I can count on one hand the number of drinks I enjoyed in India over five weeks. I’m happy and ready to say the same won’t be true here in Nepal.
…
I’ve been thinking for days now how to conclude India in writing and I still don’t have a good answer. India will always be many things to me. First, India will always be a place of great discovery, adventure, and endurance on the back of a motorbike. All told I rode slightly over 3,300km in India. That’s the same as riding from Manhattan to Albuquerque. I relied on smarts, ingenuity, discipline, and some luck to safely navigate some of the world’s craziest roads. I’m very proud to say I did this:
Second, India will always stand as an example of what is possible in life. No idea should be considered off limits, out of bounds, or too farfetched for the undertaking. It’s only by putting yourself completely out there and discovering how you response to unforeseen adversity that you truly get a measure of what you’re capable of. I learned an immeasurable amount about what I’m capable of accomplishing when I commit fully to an idea, project, or in this case a dream.
Finally, India will always be a blinding reminder that happiness doesn’t need to be measured in rupees or dollars. If those that possess so little can find so much love and contentment in their seemingly destitute lives, what the hell are we all really complaining about?
You can take my word or come see for yourself, but it truly is like the advertisements say. It truly is…
!ncredible India