Day Five
Day five, and I picked up the motorcycle.
Started out with having breakfast at the new hotel. It was funny, because I got there the night before and was all settled in, getting an early night, what with it seeming that nine oclock is, for me, the new midnight, and I heard an incredible commotion outside the building. I'd been weaing earplugs, but even with them in I could hear a tremendous racket outside, so I got up to investigate, went downstairs, and went to the front door, which had a big piece of wood barring the door closed. I looked around and saw some people asleep, and was kinda reluctant to do what was needed to be done to open the door (since it was so loud with drums banging and explosions and what not) that I just let it be.
Turned out it was a wedding.
Anyway. To get on with the day.
They served a rather nice breakfast, and I got my obligatory cup of chai, and went for something a couple of women were ordering who were staying there. Got talking to a Russian woman who'd lived in London, and she was absolutely delightful and hilarious. She said she loved British people as we were so funny, and I have to say she was so easy to talk to, I wanted to stick around. But it was about half an hour that I got to talk to her, and it really was a delight. Got me thinking that I really should have exchanged numbers with her, just to keep in touch, but I didn't want to be that guy who asks women for their numbers. I don't know...I just like to let things be. There's something about meeting people you get on with and just letting them go. It's trusting the universe that there is an abundance of friends, so much so that you don't even need to see them more than once. I've never really bothered to keep friends. I don't know why people do it. Friends end up being obligations, I think. There are so many strangers out there we can connect with, without thinking we have to have this one set person to relate to and get our needs met. Is that an odd way to think? I don't know. But I don't have close friends, and never really have.
Anyway. My tuk tuk driver, Irfan, had been waiting for me for a while as it turned out. I'd arranged to meet him the night before. Didn't really think he'd turn up, let alone be on time. But I have to say, I find the whole business of planning something like a trip to India to be so unnecessary. I like to have fluid plans. I like to be spontaneous, and here I was having to be on time for someone I really didn't need. I could get a tuk tuk any time I wanted. But this person was manipulating me into needing him, and it kinda pissed me off.
It took me back to a time I was on a trip to France back in the 70s. Must have been around 1978, when I'd gone off on a trip to Scotland, hitchhiking, which turned out to be a trip to Wales, which turned out to be a trip to France. I traveled all over France entirely on my own, just upping and leaving when I felt like it, and making no plans, having no obligations to anyone else. I ended up meeting a couple and got into the obligation mode that takes all spontaneity away, and ended up leaving my stuff in their car which got stolen. It messed up my careful plans, led me to losing a nice jacket, and having to return to the UK wearing just a sweater.
But anyway, I went down to Irfan, and we set off for the motorbike rental place.
Irfan had been in love with some American woman a few months earlier, it seems, and was getting engaged to her so he could move to America. She'd dumped him apparently, and he wanted me to contact her to let her know he still cared about her. Which I did, kinda reluctantly. I mean, who wants to hear from some dude you've never met to talk about a dude he's knows for three hours about some incredibly personal issues? Anyway, I agreed to text her and tell her some BS about him. She gave me a fairly non committal answer. My matchmaking services ended there.
Got to the bike, paid my money, checked it out, rode it up the street, got everything together, and was all set for the big adventure.
The bike I'd intended on was a 500cc Royal Enfield Classis. But after looking at the Enfields, I plumped for the Thunderbird 500, which the guy who ran the rental place didn't have. He did have a 350, though. I had the choice of red or blue, and since the blue one was a lot newer, I went for that.
Strapped everything on that needed strapping on: backpack, second backpack with spare cables, tire tubes, wrenches, gloves, jacket, etc, then I set off for Agra. Thankfully, Siri was operating in India, so I had a street by street, turn by turn voice in my ear all the way. What I wasn't expecting, however, was just how insane the ride was going to be.
First of all, it was an absolute blast getting back on a motorcycle for the first time in 40 years. I had no idea it would be so much fun. What surprised me was how much everything came back to me, from gear changes to clutch use, to braking with foot and hand, and the whole balance thing. It wasn't long before I was changing gear without the clutch, and really hammering the thing into the high revs before doing so. But it wasn't quite like that at first.
At first, I had to ride the bike into the densest traffic I'd ever been in in my whole life. It was quite crazy. I didn't get the directions thing sorted out right away, since I was in a hurry to go in the general direction first. I figurted the first thing I had to do was get out of the traffic, and I didn't know if Siri would do that. So I asked for directions. I had a journey of about half a mile before turning right, apparently, so I did so, turned right, and kept going. Eventually the traffic dwindles a bit until I was able to stop and sort out Apple Maps. From then on, I had the voice in my head telling me what I needed to do, where I needed to go, and my trip to Agra and the rest of Rajastan began.
Started out with having breakfast at the new hotel. It was funny, because I got there the night before and was all settled in, getting an early night, what with it seeming that nine oclock is, for me, the new midnight, and I heard an incredible commotion outside the building. I'd been weaing earplugs, but even with them in I could hear a tremendous racket outside, so I got up to investigate, went downstairs, and went to the front door, which had a big piece of wood barring the door closed. I looked around and saw some people asleep, and was kinda reluctant to do what was needed to be done to open the door (since it was so loud with drums banging and explosions and what not) that I just let it be.
Turned out it was a wedding.
Anyway. To get on with the day.
They served a rather nice breakfast, and I got my obligatory cup of chai, and went for something a couple of women were ordering who were staying there. Got talking to a Russian woman who'd lived in London, and she was absolutely delightful and hilarious. She said she loved British people as we were so funny, and I have to say she was so easy to talk to, I wanted to stick around. But it was about half an hour that I got to talk to her, and it really was a delight. Got me thinking that I really should have exchanged numbers with her, just to keep in touch, but I didn't want to be that guy who asks women for their numbers. I don't know...I just like to let things be. There's something about meeting people you get on with and just letting them go. It's trusting the universe that there is an abundance of friends, so much so that you don't even need to see them more than once. I've never really bothered to keep friends. I don't know why people do it. Friends end up being obligations, I think. There are so many strangers out there we can connect with, without thinking we have to have this one set person to relate to and get our needs met. Is that an odd way to think? I don't know. But I don't have close friends, and never really have.
Anyway. My tuk tuk driver, Irfan, had been waiting for me for a while as it turned out. I'd arranged to meet him the night before. Didn't really think he'd turn up, let alone be on time. But I have to say, I find the whole business of planning something like a trip to India to be so unnecessary. I like to have fluid plans. I like to be spontaneous, and here I was having to be on time for someone I really didn't need. I could get a tuk tuk any time I wanted. But this person was manipulating me into needing him, and it kinda pissed me off.
It took me back to a time I was on a trip to France back in the 70s. Must have been around 1978, when I'd gone off on a trip to Scotland, hitchhiking, which turned out to be a trip to Wales, which turned out to be a trip to France. I traveled all over France entirely on my own, just upping and leaving when I felt like it, and making no plans, having no obligations to anyone else. I ended up meeting a couple and got into the obligation mode that takes all spontaneity away, and ended up leaving my stuff in their car which got stolen. It messed up my careful plans, led me to losing a nice jacket, and having to return to the UK wearing just a sweater.
But anyway, I went down to Irfan, and we set off for the motorbike rental place.
Irfan had been in love with some American woman a few months earlier, it seems, and was getting engaged to her so he could move to America. She'd dumped him apparently, and he wanted me to contact her to let her know he still cared about her. Which I did, kinda reluctantly. I mean, who wants to hear from some dude you've never met to talk about a dude he's knows for three hours about some incredibly personal issues? Anyway, I agreed to text her and tell her some BS about him. She gave me a fairly non committal answer. My matchmaking services ended there.
Got to the bike, paid my money, checked it out, rode it up the street, got everything together, and was all set for the big adventure.
The bike I'd intended on was a 500cc Royal Enfield Classis. But after looking at the Enfields, I plumped for the Thunderbird 500, which the guy who ran the rental place didn't have. He did have a 350, though. I had the choice of red or blue, and since the blue one was a lot newer, I went for that.
Strapped everything on that needed strapping on: backpack, second backpack with spare cables, tire tubes, wrenches, gloves, jacket, etc, then I set off for Agra. Thankfully, Siri was operating in India, so I had a street by street, turn by turn voice in my ear all the way. What I wasn't expecting, however, was just how insane the ride was going to be.
First of all, it was an absolute blast getting back on a motorcycle for the first time in 40 years. I had no idea it would be so much fun. What surprised me was how much everything came back to me, from gear changes to clutch use, to braking with foot and hand, and the whole balance thing. It wasn't long before I was changing gear without the clutch, and really hammering the thing into the high revs before doing so. But it wasn't quite like that at first.
At first, I had to ride the bike into the densest traffic I'd ever been in in my whole life. It was quite crazy. I didn't get the directions thing sorted out right away, since I was in a hurry to go in the general direction first. I figurted the first thing I had to do was get out of the traffic, and I didn't know if Siri would do that. So I asked for directions. I had a journey of about half a mile before turning right, apparently, so I did so, turned right, and kept going. Eventually the traffic dwindles a bit until I was able to stop and sort out Apple Maps. From then on, I had the voice in my head telling me what I needed to do, where I needed to go, and my trip to Agra and the rest of Rajastan began.
Comments
Post a Comment