The road from Pokhara back to India took me through some of
the most important sites in Buddhism, The city of Lumbini in Nepal was the
birthplace of Buddha making it an important pilgrimage destination for
Buddhists from all over the world. For a place of such religious importance I
was expecting the
Lumbini Unesco site
to be a serene place filled with gardens that offered quiet nooks to meditate,
the reality was far from that. Other than the site of Buddha’s birth place and
the world peace pagoda most of the grounds were overgrown and either in a state
of disrepair or under construction. There are a large number of monasteries from
numerous countries throughout the grounds however the possibility of enjoying
these with any peace was lost with the hundreds of raucous school children
touring the site, they were more interested in getting a selfie with the visiting
western tourists than they were in learning the religious significance of the
buildings they were visiting. Lumbini itself is a quiet little town with a
handful of restaurants and hotels down the main street to cater for the
visiting tourists, however the numerous hotels under construction hint at the
plan to develop the area into a larger tourist destination. I took a ride to
the town of Kapilavastu which was only about 20 km away from Lumbini, an easy
ride on bike but due to the lack of local transport I was the only tourist
there. Kapilavastu is home to the ruins of the palace that was home to Buddha in
his childhood, it was a peaceful place to visit and as I strolled through the
grounds I was joined by a group of local children who did their best to act as
tour guides, a nice way end the trip through what had become one of my
favourite countries.
I said good bye to Nepal and headed to the Indian border, I
was greeted by a 4 hour wait at customs and absolute chaos on the road, I was
amazed at how crossing a border could make such a big difference in traffic and
my stress levels rose accordingly. Riding the roads of India was literally a
daily gamble with your life, the larger your vehicle the more rights you have
to be on the road and a motorcycle is at the bottom of the food chain, this
meant that if a truck was heading in your direction on the wrong side of the
road while it overtook another vehicle it was your responsibility to take
evasive action whether there was space on the side of the road to pull over or not.
Trucks would overtake on blind corners and cars would cut you off just to save
a few seconds, at first this made me angry but eventually it just depressed me,
is that all your life is worth on the roads of India? A few extra seconds of
travel time. I was reminded of a quote by Major A.E Saggers in 1943, he
obviously said it in different circumstances but it summed up my feelings on
riding Indian roads. “Never have I dreamt that I would see a day where human
life would be held so cheaply”
My first destination
was Varanasi, which was 290km form the border, it was lunch time when I finally
left the customs office and after riding at a snail’s pace and dodging traffic
on the highway I managed to find a hotel in the town of Sarnath just outside of
Varanasi at 9pm that night. Sarnath is another very important place for
Buddhists, it is where Buddha first taught the Dharma and also the location of
one of the famous pillars erected by the emperor Asoka the great during his
reign in the 3rd century BC. In stark contrast to Lumbini the
pilgrimage site in Sarnath was an oasis of calm surrounded by a city of noise,
walking through the manicured gardens and ruins was a peaceful experience and
the museum showcased the history of the site that dates back over 2 millennia.
I had planned to spend a few days in Varanasi and the next day I headed to the
city with high expectations. Varanasi is regarded as the spiritual capital of
India, it is home to over 2000 temples and the famous Ganges River draws Hindu
pilgrims that bathe in its sacred waters. My enthusiasm hit a brick wall as I
neared the city center and came face to face with the most congested traffic
that I had ever experienced, I discovered that what is one of India’s holiest
cities is also one of its most overpopulated, congested and polluted. I sat on
my bike in the middle of the road with the traffic going nowhere, I had to keep
turning the bike off to stop it overheating and eventually made the 5 km ride
through the city in 3 hours. I headed to the banks of the Ganges to get some
photos, however I could barely see the other side of the river bank through the
thick cloud of pollution. Finding somewhere to stay where I could securely park
the bike seemed an impossibility and I had zero interest in once again
combating the traffic in the city center so I decided to say goodbye to
Varanasi and begin making my way to Delhi. Perhaps if I arrived in Varanasi with
nothing but a back pack , negotiating the busy streets would have been a little
more fun and I would have enjoyed the stay much more but the streets of
Varanasi are no place to try and negotiate on a big touring motorcycle.
The ride to the Nation’s capital was a pleasant surprise,
the highways were in decent condition and the freeway between Agra and Delhi
barely had any traffic, For the last 1 ½ years and 100,000 km I’d made an
effort to stay off main roads and find interesting secondary roads, that was
until I rode in India, If I had a chance to get on a highway and avoid the traffic
I would gladly do it. Arriving in Delhi was an absolute assault to the senses,
the sights and smells absolutely bombarded you and left you feeling like you’d
been slapped around the face. I parked the bike in my hotel and walked the
streets Delhi for the next few days, I’d often have to stop myself gagging from
the stench of stale urine as I explored the piss stained streets of the city by
foot and witnessed firsthand the extreme poverty that many of the cities
inhabitants face in their daily lives. Another surprise that greeted me on my
return to India was a financial crises, the government had decided to ban the
500 and 1000 rupee notes due to corruption and limited the daily withdraw from
ATM’s to 2000 rupee a day (about US $30). The result of this was queues that
stretched hundreds of meters from the few ATM’s that still dispensed cash, a 2
hour wait to get to the front of the line meant getting access to cash just
became very difficult and extremely frustrating. I was in Delhi to organise my
Iranian VISA which meant a 4 day stay and I made the most of it by visiting
some of the cities tourist attractions, no visit to Delhi would be complete
without a visit to the old city and the Red Fort and both were very impressive.
I met 3 Italian backpackers at the hotel and I tagged along with them while
they organised a train ticket to Agra. Traveling on bike I have never had to
deal with travel agents and I didn’t really believe the stories of being ripped
off until I saw it myself. What should have been a simple process of going to
the train station ended up with taxi drivers taking us to fake government
tourist offices for the next four hours, the agencies even had “Government
Tourist Office” signs on their windows but were completely private and charged
exorbitant prices for what should have been cheap tickets. We finally made it
back to where we started at the train station and after I asked a friendly
police officer were we can get tickets we found the real tourist ticket
counter….. what a fiasco, it made me appreciate travelling on motorbike.
Now, it might sound like I’m whinging quite a bit and I
probably am however I’m doing it with a few things in mind. As much as the congested
traffic is annoying, it’s also part of the adventure and that’s what I am here
for, if I wanted to ride well organised streets and sedate traffic I would have
stayed in Australia, I’m here for new experiences and India has certainly
delivered that. I would also say that “If at some point you haven’t
passionately hated this country then you probably haven’t experienced the real
India”. I discovered this later on in my travels when I stayed in an ashram in
Rishikesh for two weeks, it was peaceful, relaxing and totally enjoyable, but
if that is all that you saw of this diverse country you were missing out….the
poverty, pollution, overcrowded pushiness and chaos are as much of what this
country is about as the yoga retreat’s and the Taj Mahal.
I left Delhi to visit the crown jewel of India’s tourist
attractions, the Taj Mahal. I was back on that rare piece of uncongested
freeway between Delhi and Agra and saw the needle on the speedo reach over
100km/h for the first time in recent memory. You can’t visit the Taj Mahal
without high expectations, which is often a recipe for disappointment, however
the impressive ivory white marble mausoleum built in 1632 by the Mogul emperor
Shah Jahan as the tomb of his favourite wife certainly impressed, there was no
question that it deserved its place as one of the 7 modern wonders of the
world.
The financial crisis in the country had forced me to make
the decision to skip the southern part of India this trip, this meant I could
take my time exploring the north and I was excited about venturing into the
deserts of Rajasthan on the bike with some time up my sleeve. Rajasthan is a
magical area, most of the cities boast spectacular palaces and impressive
forts, many smaller fortifications can be seen atop valleys as you make your
way down the highway evoking images of battles that were fought hundreds of
years earlier. The city of Jaipur boasts the Amer fort and the city of Udaipur built
around its large lakes has a spectacular palace but the highlight was the city
fort in Jailsalmer. The 800 year old fort is still home to locals and many of
the rooms in the fortress are rented out to guesthouse proprietors, this means
you can actually stay in the fort and my guesthouse had a rooftop restaurant
and rooms with balcony both of which had amazing views over the golden city
below. Riding the big BMW through the large entry gate to the fort after a day
of sightseeing and making my way along the steep, narrow cobblestoned streets
to my guesthouse was a highlight of everyday I stayed there. Riding the desert
roads of Rajasthan was also a treat, the sparse landscape with the odd camel
wandering by left me with a peaceful feeling as I made my way down the highway.
I could have stayed here for longer but the mountains were calling and I
pointed the bike toward the Himalayas and the city of Rishikesh, India’s yoga
capital.
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