I left the hotel with only 120km to travel, the first 114km was easy and only took 1 1/2 hours, the last 6km was a nightmare in the very heavy Delhi traffic. When I say heavy traffic it was mainly stationary. Stationary in stifling humid heat!
A friend from London who is riding his motorbike to Australia has been in Delhi for a couple of weeks and booked me into a central hotel, it took me another 1 1/2 hours to get through the traffic, the sweat was rolling off me by the time I arrived and the bike was so hot, even the metal parts of the handlebars were too hot to touch!
It was great to see Oli, the last time was in Soho, London when he had to fly home to sort his Pakistan visa out in March.
I was in Delhi 6 years ago and I saw many of the sights then, this time I need to sort out some practical things, visas for Myanmar & Thailand, bike repairs and what shall I do in September as I only need one month to travel east to Myanmar and my group crossing with 10 other bikers doesn’t leave until 30th October.
I’ve been so lucky with the monsoon rain, whilst I’ve been in monsoon areas I’ve never been caught in it walking or riding. It rained heavily in the afternoon for 30 mins, lucky it wasn’t in the morning.
Early in May I met Anamika, an Indian girl from Delhi when we were both attending The Whirling Dervishes dance in Konya, Turkey. We spoke briefly and kept in touch, now 3 – 4 months later I arrive in Delhi and she invited Oli & I over for food with her family.
Having been in poor counties for so long now seeing and experiencing western influences is rare but tonight I used the Delhi Metro to visit Anamika, I could have been in any western city. It was strange to walk through dirty streets and underground experience a modern metro system.
Anamika lives in South Delhi and after food we went to a bar and again I could have been in a bar anywhere in the world, the difference this time the bars were in tall buildings and the roof terraces were the busiest with amazing views over the green parks below. With lightening striking every few minutes it made for a memorable evening.
2 Responses
Ha! You’ve been very lucky with the rains. It hasn’t rained much up north anyway this year.
Good luck with your ride, cheers!
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