Life = never ending adventures
Four years ago, I dropped everything in NZ and travelled to Europe for almost 6 months.
After I got back, I thought "ok I've got the biggest adventure in my life over and done with, now it's time to come back to the real life, have a career & create a lifestyle that I want."
Little did I know, the adventure is far from over. Four years on, the current of life take me to places that I would not have imagined before.
All it takes, is for me to let go of my worries, doubts, and dive into the flow. It feels good to be alive, even though it scares me from time to time.
Ever since I came to India, I feel like a handicap because I don't know how to ride a motorbike. Everyone agrees that riding a motorbike is the best way to travel in India, it gives you the freedom to go wherever you want & stop whenever you like. And almost every Indian guys I've met knows how to drive it.
Sure I've been riding bicycles since I was a kid, and I have ridden a scooter in Tuscany (fully automatic), but a motorbike is slightly more complicated than that.
Today I have finally broke my personal record. I rented a motorbike this morning (Yammaha RX100 for Rs. 350), and threw myself into the deep end. Before this, the only times I've driven a motorbike were the four 10-minute tutorial & practices given by Marcus back in Hyderabad, so when I first started, I could not get the bike moving properly and the engine always dies. But after awhile, with some instruction from the guy who rented it to me, I started driving on the main road.
Unfortunately my first experience only lasted for about 15 minutes. I came to a bridge and it was sealed off (looks like it was damaged), so all the vehicles have to drive through a very bumpy & rocky detour. I drove behind a car, and when it suddenly stopped, I hit the breaks and just like that my engine died. I was in the middle of the road and I couldn't start it again! Well...long story short, 2 guys helped me to push the bike back onto the normal road, a local stopped by because his bike had a punctured tyre, he helped me to restart the engine, and he drove my bike with me on the back to a bike repair shop to get help for his bike, and I drove the bike back to the guy who rented it to me, who took the bike & repaired whatever the problem was.
2 hours later, after lunch, I was on the road again, but heading for the opposite direction towards Naggar, a village about 21kms away from Manali. This time everything went smoothly.
Man~ driving in India, it is fun & scary at the same time!
Let's see...how many things have I drove pass (or overtook me)? Trucks, jeeps, buses, cars, other bikes, auto-rickshaws, tractors, people, sheep, dogs, cows, donkeys, horses, an elephant....yes, a real live elephant, with a guy riding on top of course.
My ultimate goal, is to be able to ride to the highest & 2nd highest motorable roads in the world (which happened to be both in this region of the Himalayas), in Nubra valley & from Manali to Leh. But at the moment I really couldn't make the decision, to do that I'll need really solid experiences in handling the bikes, the roads are not easy at all~
Anyway as the saying goes, let's wait and see.
