Rishikesh, Pushkar and busses without windshields...

Rishikesh, what to say....yoga, meditation, ashrams, and tourists. This is one busy little place with everyone on their own special journey so to speak...it looks to me like a few of the tourists have gone more than a little overboard in their spiritual journey..but each to their own! We are surprised to see some pretty old tourists...but then again there are some really nice hotels and tour groups arranged through the big hotels in Delhi etc....but still India is not the place to visit if your stomach isn't strong. Talking of which the cows here are dammed tough and basically survive on eating plastic and paper bags. One lady we met says that they are outlawing plastic bags in some cities as they are killing the cows (which are obviously holy) and some cows have over 90 lbs of plastic stuck in their stomachs! (I was wondering about this plastic as the cow dung looks pretty much the same as our cattle just being a little looser (plastic laxative!).

even the cows like the shopping in Rishikesh

The pigs play a major role in garbage disposal eating cow, human crap and most anything else around here. So Ernie...the answer to your question is that "no" they don't eat moose meat..and no beef or pork (thank god!)...the goat (we had some okay goat in the Himalaya) and mutton (always tastes like crap to us!)...we are 100% veggie/fruits here in India.
We spent our five days in Rishikish exploring the streets, relaxing on the beaches along the Ganges (mother Ganga) river, watching the monkeys (lots and one of the "red ass" fellows attacked me and chomped on my pants), watching sunsets, reading and relaxing...very nice and we leave Rishikish with some great memories!

After "organizing" our getaway we took a tuk tuk to Hardiwar (about 25 km) and just about sucummed to fume poisoning (might as well have sucked on a diesel pipe for an hour) before we unloaded at the bus(?)station...bears a distinct resemblance to the Alexis Creek landfill...only dirtier. Some strange sights on the way to the bus station the least of which was a baba, awash in gray ash and standing buck naked in the middle of a bridge slowing down traffic...strange! Bought our ticket at a travel agent promising a tourist sleeper bus.. pay 650R each which to put in perspective is slightly more than what we had just paid for 5 nights lodging in Rishikesh, so even though it only costs us $12.00 each, is expensive......get to the tourist bus station which is little more than a very dirty dirt parking lot with some chai stands, people waiting around and a few buses in various stages of neglect. There is a bus on the outskirts that has seen better days....no windshield, hood doesn't shut, a few boarded up windows and what looks like a flat tire. Chris laughingly takes a picture of this derelict. Some of the other buses look okay. We sit in the shade sipping chai and wait until our appointed departure time when we are to leave on bus #3206. Time comes around and minor chaos is starting so Chris goes looking for our bus...returns laughing his head off - guess what - that broken down bus with no windshield is ours! But enough of our bitching...what about the driver..as it is frigging cold and I cannot even imagine what is thrown up by traffic (and speaking of traffic it flows non-stop...bumper to bumper all night with huge traffic jams in Delhi at the toll booths even at midnight. In fact this is our first sleeper bus and its pretty cool as we have our own private space above the seats (not good in a roll-over!) and one entire side is window...that opens wide open (like wide enough that someone small could easily fall out of the window onto the packed street!)...a great place to see India from! So the bus stops every once in a while to allow people to grab a chai etc. These stops rarely have a bathroom and are considered "open" areas...that is you whiz or take a dump where ever you want. Needless to say the smell would gag a hyena and one definitely wants to watch their step! (good for the guys..not so much for the gals!)

So after a bus switch (where our sleeper was already taken and the bus full...so we had to stand in the front for the final leg to Pushkar. The driver assured us he would make it in two hours (the book ways 4) and sure enough he definitely had some kamakazee blood in his system as he maneuvered this huge bus through the throngs of motos, Tata's laying on the mega-horn almost non-stop!



Pushkar...here we are...on the ghat lined Pushkar Lake...very nice and not even a village in India terms with only 17,000 souls. We have spent five days here, climbed both of the mountains at sunset, taken a camel ride into the desert (great Thar Desert) in Rajisthan and walked the ghats and virtually every street in this colorful, bustling and NOISEY village. First of all a short list of what is illegal in holy Pushkar: Eating/serving of meat. : Kissing : No drinking : No sex (hold it...can't be true given the expansive number of kids!) So what isn't illegal is Charas and Chillum...smoking of ganga and hashish which is definitely a national pasttime throughout all of India we have visited...people light up any and everywhere especially the locals...and just an observation...there are no rowdies, people acting stupid and mean like when folks use alcohol! Even the lassies (a fantastic drink made of curd(yogurt) and fruit (like a superthick better tasting milkshake), also come specially made as "special" or "bhang" lassies mixed with ganga...they taste good and work (as evidenced by Lori making me do a mega chocolate bar run after a special lassie)! Our local restaurant guy said "I want to go to Canada and open a restaurant selling chai and "special lassies"!...no doubt he would get RICH..but only until he ended up in jail!

Our camel ride was definitely fun as we headed out of town into the desert for an overnight trip. So riding a camel is like riding a bumpy horse that sits 2 stories tall...you're a long ways up! You turn the varmits like a horse...except with their long necks you can stretch the neck of a stubborn camel right to your leg...not good as they are biters. We were surprised to see many birds species and even some large antelope...but then again that is one of the good things about being a vegetarian society against killing...despite horrific environmental degradation there are wild animals living right on the outskirts of towns etc. We were also surprised to learn that the government actually grass seeded many of the sand dunes with pampas grass in the state of Rajisthan to stabilize the sand dunes and allow farmers to grow crops where they could get water.

our camel camp out in the desert

I think that we mentioned that the best way to describe India is "sensory overload".....well we can define it even more after 5 days in Pushkar...NOISE is India!!!! We are convinced that most Indians are scared (no kidding!) of silence! Even in the desert music was blaring at mega decibels wherever people lived and right now we are listening (because we have no choice!) to the babbling of some lunatic spewing religious Hindi at 50 words a minute over a massive loud-speaker...and they have been at it for over 20 hrs non-stop!!!!!! Myanna...you got it right as the most important luggage to take to India is ear plugs...but they are not even working with this lunatics dialog (and although the Indian weddings are incredible...color...life...dancing and music the noise is insane...they blast off these huge fire crackers (better than M50's) but they pale in comparison (in terms of sheer noise) to the music which is broadcast though a mass of 10 plus 3 foot speakers powered by their own generator towed behind a horse...I swear I can feel my balls giggling when they pass by!!! Leaving for Udiapur this evening...lots of bus time and a tuk tuk/bus transfer...will we make it? stay tuned!

Detour to Tehri and the Mountains

We are watching the sun set over the Ganges River (mother ganga) in the town of Rishikesh. It has taken us awhile to get here as we were diverted north to Tehri and the mountains by a new friend Niyaz whom we met on the bus coming from Delhi. He invited us to accompany him to his hometown of Tehri to stay with his family and visit the 'mounts'. It was an amazing experience. Niyaz and his extended family of aunt, uncle, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephew and niece all live in a beautiful home in New Tehri, up in the foothills of the Himalaya.


The original town of Tehri (50,000 people) was flooded to make a huge dam on the Bhagirathi River. The lake that was created is 43 kilometers long and 850 meters deep and the dam is one of the largest in the world. The people that were displaced were moved up the mountain to 'New Tehri' which overlooks the beautiful lake that covers the entire old town.

The road we drove on was immortalized in the Ice Road Truckers (IRT) movie filmed in India where they hauled cement into the Tehri Dam...we drove the road twice and all I can say is that US truckers are pussies compared to their Indian counterparts that drive this road pedal to the metal with ancient Tata trucks. (Actually the Indian made, Indian tough Tata trucks are my new road heros!) And if the IRTs thought that the road they drove on was bad they would have fainted if they saw the road beyond the dam!

So we were toured around for a day by Niyaz, Shiraz, and MD Sameem, fed incredible Indian food and treated like very special guests. The next day we travelled by bus and share taxi (6hrs) to Garam Bhati, a small village further up into the mountains where the road ends and trails take over. It was just like being in Nepal. We stayed with MD Sameen's mom and gramma in a very rudimentary home. No heat except a wood fuelled cooking area on the ground, two rooms up and the cows live below. When we hiked up into the Himalaya foothills (a misnomer as these "hills"are thousands of feet high and near vertical as one can get without being a sheer rock wall) we followed the village women who with their brightly colored dresses head into the mountains everyday to collect firewood. Let me tell you...these sub100lb women are TOUGH...I could hardly lift up the bundles of firewood they collect with their small scythes (bundle into a roll and pad with grass then wrap a nylon rope around the bundle and across their shoulder like backpack straps!....can you even imagine hauling a hundred pound load with nylon straps digging into your shoulder for 2 hrs!!!

So we go on this hike and our good friends are talking about beers (bears) and lions of which they are deadly afraid...and when we came to a spot where they thought that they spotted a lion track we decided to turn back. The men (of which there are very few as most of the men (with the exception of the old men (elders) work in the cities and only come home once in a while) were amazed that us fellows and Lori climbed up the mountain...it is dangerous and steep...but the women do this every day of the week!!!

We had alot of fun and owe Niyaz, Shiraz and MD Sameen a big thank you for showing us a side of rural India that we would have never experienced on our own! The trip back was as much fun as the ride to the foothills as the roads are a disaster with avalanches everywhere! Every hillside is a mass of earthen scars caused by the monsoon season rains. The hand work stone road walls are a work of art and it is mind boggling to think that all the millions of walls/rocks were moved by hand!! After travelling through places like Indonesia and Nepal we are kind of used to the driving antics of India (that used to scare the crap out of us) and in fact they drive more sanely here than Indonesia. However every once in a while a driver thinks he is Mario Andretti and in these cases we have learned to just close your eyes and try to go to sleep as one fact of these mountain roads is that if you do leave the road it will be the last 'exit' of your life.

and these women are all carrying cell phones...true!

Anyways we made it to Rishikesh and this place is a sea of calm in the chaos of India!

Greetings from Delhi

Good morning everyone...from the top of the Lord Krishna hotel (?) main bazaar Old Delhi.  Its about 19 degrees with a beautiful wind and the sky is full of the usual smoke (looks like a forest fire!) which gives the scene below us a surreal look.  Ear plugs are our new best friend as the sounds of horns blaring (you don't need a motor over here..but always a horn!) dogs barking etc.  The street are crawling with people (that's what happens when 18 million people live in a 1700 sq. km city!) tuk tuks, rickshaws a few cows chewing on garbage!


the untouchable caste tries to deal with the garbage....




view from our humble abode in old
Delhi

 This place is amazing...the food absolutely amazing (the best we have ever tasted!) at about 2 dollars a meal...a ghetto room for 10 dollars a night and you have it made!  The people are super friendly and it is one of the safest places we have ever travelled!  Lots of scams to keep one on their toes and masses upon masses of people.  The transit systems are like cattle loading and unloading chutes and the security tight (you get checked like the airport just getting onto the transit etc.)
A day here is truly a mental and physical test...and although we have only been here four days it feels like we have experienced two weeks of life!  If you have ever wondered how one might die in India consider the following:  India has the worst traffic safety record in the world with 166,000 traffic DEATHS per year..yes there is alot of people but in fact very few vehicles!  I guess one might consider this just another form of population control.
Lots of amazing old forts and ruins strewn about the city.

  We are staying in the old (read poorer) parts of this huge city but the downtown area would challenge downtown Vancouver for money, massive infrastructure fancy cars etc. but none of that in Old Delhi (old Delhi is area constructed prior to the British leaving in 1947-48)
Just heading out to Rishikesh in the North...if we can figure out how to get to the bus station!!!

Last Day in Bangkok

Good evening everyone...yes it is 5:12 here in Bangkok as we relax in the 30 degree plus heat having a Chang "over" beer (justifiably named!)  Yes it is hot...almost hot enough to complain..but then again not quite! 
It was one long journey to get here...by our calculations 45 plus hours of Greyhound bus, taxis, subways, 2 plane flights of over 17 hours, more bus taxis and finally deposited in the middle of the night on Khao San Road in Bangkok.  We can definitely see this getting a little tough to handle as one gets older!
So we don't need gumboots and the good news for us tourists is that we have never seen so few fellow tourists in Bangkok (which is bad news for the very friendly locals).  There is some flooding and I guess the Chao Phraya River is getting higher by the hour but these people are tough...getting flooded out but life goes on as usual.
We have seen a few Pomeranians here...they are a pretty popular dog and have us missing the Spudster.  We have moved from our original nights accommodation into what Lori calls a "jail" at 200 Bhat a night (which is app. 7 dollars)...just getting ready for India I say!  Lots of sandbags everywhere around here...Dylan could pack in his job millwrighting and take up his previous profession as a sand bagger!
No snakes, crocodiles (as reported in various reports which you know must be BS as they would be chopped up and sold to tourists like us as chicken!) just some monitor lizards and lots of garbage.  We took a tuk tuk ride along with the required visits to the gem stores today and had a great time...tomorrow it is off to the floating market then to India where we are supposed to arrive in New Delhi at 11 pm.  Lots of good food here (and cheap!)...we have to move or we won't fit on the plane! Oh yeah...better fill everyone in on what are the latest sale craze in Thailand...this would be Billabongo  (rip off) shorts...a sale item that has moved north from Indonesia (in 2010 this was the big sale item in Indonesia).  We know from experience that although they do look nice you don't want to buy them as they have no liner so your balls hang out of the bottoms! That's all for now...porkchop signing off!  See you in India....


Chris partying on Khao San
750ml Archa 50baht ($1.60) and the usual Changover



Egg delivery Thai style....and we have trouble getting a dozen eggs home unbroken....



Garbage floating in the flooding back eddies...guess this could become a problem...



Flooding near the river



Some minor flooding near the Grand Palace



India here we come!

Soon on the way to India for 6 months or so....will keep you posted.....

The Good Old USA

Welcome Home!!

Sequoia National Park - big tree grove

Lori in the Redwoods

one wet night in the Organ Pipe Desert

Our last night on the moto ride south is being spent in Organ Pipe Desert Park where we pick up a remote campsite pass for Alamo Wash. This is truly a gorgeous spot but just before we hit the dirt road into Alamo Wash the skies opened up with a miserable cold rain that had us soaked by the time we hit the campsite and puddles in the tent by the time it was set up. It`s ironic that one of our last nights in the tent is our most miserable…but we slept surprisingly well and a beautiful Arizona day waits for us in the morning.
About 5 hours later we roll into Dick and Cathy’s place in Phoenix…a final hug and tears as our moto ride is over. We are really SAD…this has been a wonderful experience for us..we love it. Even though we miss all our friends and kids we want to keep going…unlike our Africa trip where we were actually looking forward to returning to Canada.
Dick and Cathy are the perfect hosts and by the time we leave the next day we feel like new people…clean and full of great food and even wearing some “new” clothes we stashed in the truck before we left.
Our next stop was a visit to Uncle Marty and Judy in El Centro..ironically enough we were only about 20km away from them 5 days ago when we travelled Mexico 2! (but didn’t know it) We spent a wonderful evening with them in their gorgeous 40 foot motorhome…now that is a comfortable way to travel!
Next stop is Sequoia National Park…oh so gorgeous covered in winter snows! Some of the trails were packed down and we managed to get some hiking in to see some of the largest trees in the world including the General Sherman Tree…the largest living organism in the world (1156 m3 of wood!) This is our third trip to this park…I for one just cannot get enough of these fantastic trees!
From the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains to the California/Oregon coast to see…more big trees. This time we camp and travel through a series of National and state parks full of the last intact groves of old growth Redwoods. Beautiful and impressive!
Now it’s a “road race” north. In Washington (near Kennewick) we get caught in the worst snow storm I have ever encountered. No kidding! I initially slowed down to 4X4 first gear low range at an idle when I could not see past the front of the hood..then it got worse! Lori started yelling at me to stop…and I was STOPPED..it felt like we were doing 30 mph at a dead stop…total whiteout vertigo! However we did manage to get the truck off the road (which was closed to traffic..that flashing light on the road traffic sign we passed should have been a warning..but seeing as our radio didn`t work…) and pull out our winter bags and settled in for a surprisingly enjoyable night in the front seat of the truck.
Crossing into Canada was super simple..no drugs…no guns..no fruit…no veggies…no seeds…no dirt…your free to go! Hello CANADA we love you!

Mexico

Our scorpion friends - lots of these while camping in Mexico

Negro Tortuga - only 1 in 10,000 will live to return to this beach to lay their eggs

lunch break on the road - Baja style

Living the real tourist life (for a day) in Cancun with Cari & Henning

First day of 2007 - Agua Verde, Baja - doesn't get any better than this!

Arbole de Tule - the largest diameter tree in the world

a friend on the road..

Yup...this feels like good old Mexico! Just like our trip south the woman at the border crossing says “the registration papers you have are not original...no good...no enter Mexico! This despite the fact that we showed her our passports (with 28 border crossings including our crossing in Jan AND a official receipt of our Jan 07 border crossing! So we argued and argued (I was ready to just ride through) until her boss came along...no problem at all and in minutes we were through and heading into the Yucatan.
Lots of tarantulas on the road as we visited and camped on the hurricane ravaged shores of the southern Yucatan..not a sign standing and total destruction of what was once a stunning beach and tourist area.
A few days later we roll into Tulum..the beaches of which we had fond memories during our 2000 visit. One would be hard pressed to find any similarity between today and the Tulum of just 8 years ago...literally wall to wall resorts and eco-lodges BUT we managed to find the only remaining camp spot (up for sale) on the beach and set up the tent under the cocos (not too close!) as the only resident of the camp site. One thing that has not changed is the beautiful white sand beaches and coconut lined shores...we love it here! Spent several days wandering the beaches, visiting nearby ruins and exploring the town of Tulum...we will probably never be back but at least this is one of the places we re-visited and will leave with memories as beautiful today as when we first visited 8 years ago.
Our next stop is the tourist town of Playa del Carmen where we found a nice room (25$) to stay at and store our bikes (on the street which is awash in police...no crime (except corrupt cops!) in these high end tourist towns!) while we explored and visited Lori’s sister and her friend Henning...still remember (barely) the night at Senor Frog’s...and surprisingly enough woke up without a hangover the next morning! (we are one boring couple when it comes to night-life activity this trip!) Its a few days ride to the ruins of Palenque (our next stop) but the riding is easy if now somewhat boring.
Palenque has some of the nicest Mayan ruins we have visited and today we stay within the park at a very nice campsite where we work on the Hondas and have a few brew with the locals and tourists. As always the Palenque ruins and surrounding trails are a joy to explore and photograph. Not much has changed here since our last visit.
A few days later we head west with intentions of visiting Aqua Clara and Aqua Verde. Both places are amazingly beautiful with gorgeous peacock blue water, innumerable falls in a pretty jungle setting. We chose to camp at Aqua Verde (2$) but were disappointed at the condition of the camping area...it sure looks like much of the tourist infra-structure in Chiapas is being completely neglected...a bit of a mess to say the least.
A great ride through to San Cristobal (a little slower than I anticipated) and then N where we found the same campsite we stayed at almost exactly one year ago (near Cintalapo)...relaxing and comfortable!
For the next week we travelled along the coastal mountain roads of western (Pacific) Mexico...basically retracing our route south but staying at different beaches. Our first major stop was Puerto Escondido....lots of fun and a jumping off point for Oaxaca where we spent 3 days wandering about the old town (full of absolutely gorgeous old churches and buildings) and exploring the ruins of Monte Alban and or course the famous Arbol del Tule...the largest diameter tree in the world! (we or should I say “I” have this fascination with large trees...more on that later) For a change of pace (and free sleep’s!) we took the night bus back and forth from Oaxaca /Puerto Escondido.
Back on the road as we head North...a combination of camping in campsites and or “bush camps”. Some fun getting through Acapulco but we made it (barely!!!). Christmas was spent on a un-named beach about 100 km N of Playa Azul...a fantastic place to spend Christmas...a Christmas we will always remember!
The mountain roads along this section of coast are made for motos...and Lori is carving up the road like you wouldn’t believe...a far cry from out trip south!
Some great riding and sights...Puerto Vallarta sneaks up on us quickly and in no time we are through this tourist city and tracking along the coast to San Blas...a place I swore we would never visit again...but we remember that a friend we met on the way south always winters in San Blas and sure enough...here comes Bob (he said he though we looked like street sweepers when he first saw us...I guess everything we have is worn out and trashed!)
After a fantastic visit with Bob (and no bugs!!)we head north to Mazatlan with intentions of crossing the Sea of Cortez to Baja. In a classic case of perfect timing we roll into Mazatlan and straight to the ferry docks and right onto our scow to Baja (after paying the 350$ boarding fees for bike n’ bodies) I’ll never complain about BC Ferries again! Our overnight trip required we sleep in these chairs that we packed together..thankfully the scow was empty and we were able to lay out on the chairs. Or should I say the chairs that were bolted to the floor…our sleep was interrupted a few times when errant waves rocked the boat and a series of chairs with folks sleeping in them tipped over depositing bodies on the steel floor. Nice!
After 18 hours of boat time we unloaded in La Paz…it’s a beautiful Baja morning as we ride south towards Todo Santos. Although we have spent considerable time in Baja (8 trips) we have never travelled south of La Paz so this is new country to us. It is beautiful, but insanely busy and we swear that every second vehicle has California plates! Motos are everywhere…lots of road riders like us but also a fair number of off-road bikes. It is obvious that Baja is becoming a off-road vehicle paradise for California (and in general US) residents as local laws severely restrict off-road vehicle use in most states.
After finally finding a nice quiet beach and enjoying a great nights sleep we headed north…a long desert ride through to Cuidad Constitution where we camped in the desert and continued North the next day. We are now on familiar territory (although our last visit was in 1999) and we found a exquisite campsite to celebrate Christmas eve on the Sea of Cortez near Aqua Verde. Beautiful and Christmas morning sunrise was spectacular!
We worked our way north with various bush camps along the Baja playas (lots of nice fat scorpions!) to Catavina where we washed up in ice cold streams and explored the “rock desert” that holds so many special memories for us as we used to camp here every trip with our gang.
The Baja trip closed off with a dirt road run up the east coast to Puertocitos and its hot springs then San Felipe. Although it has been 17 years since we last drove this route one thing has not changed…it is a bumpy and rough as ever. Having not been touched since the Nov running of the Baja 1000 she was a mess…the old Hondas shook themselves apart and I just about killed myself a few times when I hit some sand sections at high speeds…not overly enjoyable ride when you combine this with insane winds!
Our final day in Mexico consisted of driving Mexico 2 to Sonoyta..basically paralleling the US border. One desolate piece of Hwy. and we had high winds and blowing sand that reduced visibility to 20m in places. Crossing into the United States was super easy…matter of fact the quickest border crossing of our entire road trip!