India – a land of contrasts

Travelling from the north to the south, seeing the difference between the rich and poor areas, India is a land of major contrasts that make it interesting, frustrating and a place I won’t forget. Below are some of the contrasts that I experienced during my 10,000kms:

Cold in the North to Hot, Humid weather in the South
I wore all my clothes on the drive to Delhi from Katmandu while under a blanket of smog. In the south the sun burnt through a thin layer of smog and made for hot days.

Mountains to beaches
I did not get into Kashmir, Indian Himalaya, but relaxed and explored the coasts of Kerala and Goa. Beautiful landscapes of palm trees down to the green waters in Kerala and the beaches of Goa. Each place I stayed was a traditional fishing village turned into a backpacker resort.

Mumbai – the haves and have nots
I visited a few nice restaurants, drank some Indian wine (more work required) and enjoyed a few western luxuries. I visited the biggest slum in South East Asia, where people lived in fox holes and Western work place healthy and safety would have shutdown the whole slum, but I came away positive about human ingenuity. The slums had education, healthcare and vibrant energy while rural Indians battled against drought, famine and access to education and health care.

Conglomerates to an individual
A visit to India sees every man, women and child using all means to make a rupee. Anyone that has demonstrated success has had their ideas copied by everyone around them. This is in contrast to the conglomerate Tata Group who comprises of 114companies, from steel , cars to tea and water. Tata had revenue of US$70 billion in 2009… a little more than the average man, woman and child on the streets.

Socialism to democracy
India is the largest democracy in the world but there is socialist populism in the southern states of India. Southern India is the economic, agricultural and industrial power house of India with the highest literacy rate and university educated individuals but have a leniency towards socialism. Part of the reason for high education and regional economic power is the colonial rulers occupied the south of India, yet Socialist parties dominate the political landscape.

Rules to practicality – motorbikes on the freeway
We need rules to ensure there is order in society but they need to be sensible. On many freeways in India motorbikes are not allowed, makes sense when they only travel 30km/h. The rule should be under 150cc no freeway. I got past one set of officials to drive travel 80km along a 120km section where the alternatives limited – 5 officials flagged me down after the several individual officials on the side of the road I ignored.

Religious openness to closed communities and untouchables over 10% of the population
The former Portuguese town of Fort Cochi or French town of Puducherry are opposites of the Muslim and Hindu communities in the North of India where communities are isolated in a different world. In Fort Cochi Christian women are emancipated but in the north Hindu and Muslim women are veiled and are second class citizens. I visited a rural community near Jodhpur where women attended only the equivalent of junior school, married below 18 years of age and were veiled. Gandhi spent a majority of his time to remove the idea and segregation of the underclass but still today the hierarchy of Indian society sets your path in life.

Culturally unique – constant staring and no personnel space
On my travels to date, I have to conclude that Indians on a whole are culturally unique for three reasons, staring, personal space and sharing.
Staring - the most amazing part is the staring. The unflinching, frozen state where people do not flinch when I say ‘Hello’, wave and even jump up and down.
Personnel space – stopping in remote places, men would gather around, jostling to get forward to the bike. Sometimes I was getting pushed away or onto the bike...similar to a Bollywood star stopped at a truck stop.
Touching - The expectation that my bike is the same as any bike where they can sit, touch and borrow for a ride goes against my culture where you do not touch other people’s property. A Norwegian biker referred to it as touching ones wife... but the language barrier lost the menaing.

Lost in Translation

Often I have met people who are keen to jump on the back of the bike but timings have never worked out. I meet Yvonne climbing a pass out of the Everest valley, both on the way to India in 2010. After a month in India we met up in Mumbai with the plan to drive 4,000km to Kathmandu – easy for me but you never know how the reaction of riding on the back, bumps, rough roads, heat and dirt would put most people off the idea.

After several days exploring Mumbai, we headed north, to Gurujat, several hours in the freeway car parks of Mumbai and several more on the freeway north. Yvonne quickly learned that the BMW only has one speed, fast, and enjoyed riding on the back. The busiest road in India varied from single lane road works, dual lane freeway and to a car only European freeway (which we got ¾ of the way along before being forced off, but that is another story).

Rajasthan, the state between Delhi and Pakistan, home of Mughal forts, Rajput Kings, Mosques, deserts and the busiest tourist state in India. We did the standard tourist stuff, visited the Mughal forts, learnt about the history, walked the markets and then moved onto the next town.

Travelling with Yvonne was filled with constant miss-interpretations, requests to ‘please repeat’ or ‘please talk slower’, and general miss-communications caused by my slang. My quick, intelligent wit was lost on her, the Aussie sarcasm received with confused looks so we were left to talk about the weather.
The bike performed fantastic, overtaking with incredible speed, much to the horror of Yvonne. Travelling with Yvonne was enjoyable after 10 months alone but for a long trip, the only way is for everyone to have their own bike. The experience of motorbike travelling has converted another and Yvonne learnt to ride the bike and is keen to get her licence back in Germany.

Driving in India

A video speaks a thousand words. Click on the title.

Simple equation => Sum all bad drivers in all the countries upto India = One Indian truck or bus driver.

Crossing Paths

One of the unexpected pleasures of driving half way around the world is meeting the same people in different countries as we each follow our own path. I have meet Dutch riding bicycles to Melbourne, people driving 4x4s around the world and backpackers flying, busing and training their way on a similar path to me. It’s great to hear each person’s experience of a town, country and culture - amazing it can be so different. The best part is developing a friendship over time instead of meeting people once over dinner or a beer – which can be like ground hog day…. the same conversation.

South India – a different world

On my Christmas break all warm clothes were left behind because now only hot days and warms nights were ahead of me. In northern India I was forced to wear all my clothes to stay warm, so I was excited to step off the train into warm weather. Bangalore is a modern city with footpaths, booze shops and wi-fi cafes…just what I like.

I drove south down the center of India through old British hill stations, tiger reserves, national parks and winding roads with little traffic, fantastic riding conditions. I was reminded how unfit, inflexible and a little fat I am after a few yoga classes and made the resolution to continue yoga for my duration in India, but a yoga classroom was never to be seen again. Instead I visited two western beach resorts, one in Kerala and one in Goa, where I swam for 30min every morning, explored the coastal towns and read my books, I was super chilled after this week.

Gurus

Arriving in Bangalore, I contacted a friend and former colleague, Suresh, from my last contract in London. It was good to meet his family, learn about South Indian culture and drive around the technology parks, which make Bangalore the I.T. outsourcing capital of India.
Suresh’s son attends the free Sai Baba School about 140 km north of Bangalore. After learning about the ashram from the Russians, I had to take up Suresh’s offer to visit with his family on Sunday. The ashram is a living city, 15 tower blocks of dormitories, hospital, restaurants, supermarkets and cafes. It has a real buzz with thousands of people visiting for the day or staying for months. I estimated about a tenth of the people there were western which explains 114 Sai Baba centers around the world.
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others. This explains the description of him from his devotees as an avatar, godman, spiritual teacher and miracle worker. It was explained to me that in Hinduism a god can take many forms, this would explain the many Guru's in India.

The Sai Baba’s organisation has made a big contribution to people around the Ashram, with free health care in modern state of the art hospitals. I was impressed with the ashram setup, generosity of devotees and the benefits provided to ordinary Indians but being a devotee is not for me.

New mode of transport

To save some time, wear and tear on the bike and petrol cost on my wallet we jumped on the train for a 40 hour ride from New Delhi to Bangalore. I went for the premier way to ride, 2 AC sleeper, which means 2 bunks in a compartment with air-conditioning. I was lucky enough to share the compartment with 3 Russian ladies on their way to spend a month at Sai Baba Ashram (but that’s another story). Only one lady spoke a little English….so a quiet 40 hours for me.