You Can’t Top The Taj!

The ride from Amritsar to Agra and the Taj Mahal was horrendous, the traffic keeps on trying to nudge us out of the way and the roads aren’t in a great condition which means that I don’t get to see anything apart from the vehicles around me and the road in front of me which isn’t great and both Kadri and I are really quite stressed. Two days into this and a major introduction into city driving in the form of an accidental detour through Dehli and we have agreed that we will change our plans and ride to Mumbai, leave the bike there and then do the remainder of the India and Nepal sections by train. It hasn’t only just been the nightmare on the road that has made us arrive at this decision, we have had pretty bad drivers for a long time although to be fair to the Indian drivers they set a whole new level at bad driving, we also seem to attract a sort of very minor celebrity status when we turn up in a town, I know this might still be the case if we travel by train but we expect that to be a sort of status one of the early evictees from Big Brother a few years ago gets rather than the just won Big Brother a couple of days ago status that we seem to get with the bike.

Tore sissejuhatus Indiasse – Kuldne tempel Amritsaris

Kuldne tempel kogu oma saras

Peale piiritseremooniat oli vaid luhike soit Amritsarisse, kus plaanisime paar paeva veeta Aemoni ja Keni poolt soovitatud sikhide koige puhamas paigas – Kuldses templis. Peale vaikest tiiru linna peal leidsime me templi lopuks tanu heade inimeste abiga. Tegemist ei olnud vaid uhe templiga vaid suure kompleksiga, mille uhes tiivas pakutakse nii palveranduritele kui ka muidu huvilistele peavarju.

Golden Time In India

When we first arrived at the Golden Temple we were totally surrounded which isn’t totally surprising as there weren’t that many Westerners there, let alone westerners arriving on a blinkin great big motorbike all of which meant the guards had to usher the people away to allow us to unpack the bike and move into our private room, WOOHOO a room of our own!!  The Golden Temple is a pretty big pilgrimage to a huge amount of Sikhs and allows anyone that turns up to stay for free or for a small donation, the pilgrims seem to be mainly left to sleep on the courtyard floor, probably due to the sheer number that must arrive each day, whilst Westerners are usually allowed to stay in a pretty reasonable dorm room but luck seemed to be shining on us this time as the dorm was full which was why we were given a room of our own.  It did make us feel a bit bad at points during our stay there though when we would have to tip toe our way back our room over sleeping families from small children to elderly grandparents.

Incredible India

Our last day in Pakistan and we unintentionally decide to sleep in, Kadri because she was up watching the Sufi night and me because I got into an in depth deep and meaningful conversation with on of the other guys at the hostel ….. no honestly I did!! Who knows if it was due to the late night or just because we weren’t completely sure we wanted to leave Pakistan quite yet (we were still thinking of heading up to the SWAT valley for a look see) but whatever it was it took us forever to get the bike ready, in the end we left the hostel just after two o’clock in the afternoon with one of the guys there promising to post our Pakistani postcards, lets just hope he does (he did!! ).

Tasuta teater Pakistani – India piiril

Lahkusime Lahorist taas viimasel minutil (mina ei tea kull kuidas see meil alati onnestub ) ning joudsime Pakistani piiripunkti viimasel minutil. Piirivalvurid olid aga vaga abivalmid ning peale tavaparaseid kontrolle lasid meid kiiresti ule. India piirile joudes juba krimpsustati meile nina ning tasaveeri uritati pistist meie rahakotist valja meelitada.

Kõik ei ole mitte sepad, kelle silmad mustad on

Enne Pakistani joudmist oli Pakistan minu jaoks vaid luli Iraani ja India vahel, seoses hiljutiste pommitamistega nii Islamabadis kui ka Mumbais, mis esmakordeselt olevat suunatud ka valmismaallastele, ei uletanud ma Iraani – Pakistani vahelist piiri just kerge sudamega. Ikka kartus oli hinges. Ei oskagi oelda, mille ees tapsemalt, teadmatuse arvatavasti.

Lõbusad lood Lahoris

Kohalik buss, VIP kohad katusel

Multanis veetsime me paeva lihtsalt telekat vahtides, politsei saatel linna peal ringi vaadata ei tundunud meile just koige ponevam ja ausalt oeldes kulus meile vaike puhkus kullaga ara. Jargmine hommik oli politsei taas kohal, valmis meid linnast valja eskortima. Ilm oli nuud juba usna paikesepaisteline ja palju soojem kui paar paeva tagasi. Kohe paris tore oli taas teele asuda. Moodusime pollupaelsetest kuladest, mis olid tais palmipuulehtedest ehitatud hurtsikuid, poriloigus mangivatest lastest, loendamatul hulgal tee aares poit kergendavatest meesterahvatest, riisivaljadest, moseedest.

Sufi Night

We were supposed to leave Lahore two days earlier but had decided to hang around partly because it was a place both of us liked, partly because there were some other people we got on with there but mainly because we had been told that the Sufi night was a Lahore cultural experience not to be missed!!  For the whole time we had been at the Internet Inn the event had been referred to as Sufi night but in actual fact it was more a Sufi day with an early evening break before it went on lloooonnnngggg into the night

I’m Looovvvviiiinnnnn Lahore

We had been in Lahore for three days and still only seen one of the infamous tourist attractions, a pretty obismal record by anyones standar so today we were off to find another of Lahore’s gems, the Masjid Wazir Khan Mosque.

The mosque was tucked away near the back of the old town which innevitably meant we got lost a few times before we found it but when you are wandering around a new city with nothing much to do, are you really ever actually lost or are you just doing some unscheduled discovery?   Anyway, as we wandered around trying to find a good vantage point to get a good photograph of the mosque Ken managed to get himself absconded by one of the locals for

I Met The Music Man & He Can Play ….

After all of our time in Pakistan, with all the police escorts, we were seriously beginning to think that we might only stay one night in Lahore and then leave for the Indian border and Amritsar, the hotel we ended up staying at was the mightily talked up The Internet Inn run by the infamous Malik.  The hostel wasn’t really the best that we had stayed at during our trip but it seemed to have a good vibe and although there wasn’t any secure parking we were told that the bike would be safe enough outside (and it was ).