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!

Belize

the fishing is great - baracuuuuuuda

without a hook or line....

typical old wooden home - Belize City

sea kayaking the Caribbean


our home at Glovers Reef for a week!




Lori gets a helping hand

floating down the Macal River

catching a nurse shark by hand (with dog help)

a couple of wahoo - great eating for sure!

First of all “sorry for the delay” in updating our travel site but Lori lost interest and it has taken me this long to find the dang kickstarter to get this computer started!
Belize was one of the few countries that we did not pass through on our way south, but we have been here before during a 2000 backpacking trip. Our remote border crossing was a breeze...just a stamp in the passport for the motos...but insurance is mandatory and expensive at 9 US dollars per day per moto! (a car only costs 6$ per day?) so we sat down with our insurance fellow and worked out the days we were going to ride and picked up 4 days worth...definitely on a schedule now! (Our first question was “How much does it cost if you get caught without insurance?”...the answer of 500 US wasn’t what we wanted to hear, thus the insurance!

Our first stop is the pretty village of San Ignacio where we pitched our tent and explored town. The next day we rented a canoe and paddled 15 kms of the Macal River...beautiful and our friends the giant Iguanas were still hanging around the large jungle trees. We got a little treat while we were gone in the form of a massive tropical rain storm that had our tent and down sleeping bags floating in 4 inches of water...NICE!
Needless to say the next day was spent trying to dry things out and visiting some of the locals...any time of the day is the right time for a Belekin (cerveza)...pretty laid back and super friendly are the words that come to mind!
Its a 6 hr (we move SSLLOOWWW) ride to the Sittee River via the gorgeous Hummingbird and Main South Hwy. One look around the bug infested jungle at Glovers Reef Hostel convinced us that camping was NOT a good idea and we grabbed a fantastic small cabina that sat on 25 foot poles and most importantly had a huge fan to blow those darn noseeums back into Guatemala! First job (only job!) on the agenda is to get the 650 running as it has been smoking, farting and backfiring its way across Belize. It took a while (fingers one foot long and ¼ inch across would help!) to get the carb off and completely dismantled after which we hiked the 5 kms to Hopkins Town where I found a fellow with a 50 year old compressor and cleaned the carb (one buck). Yes...we have success as it runs like new!
This place is super nice...folks are incredibly friendly and the local kids have “adopted us” so we spend the evenings relaxing on the deck with the fan blowing and watching some fantastic sunsets. The local owners tell us that one can still buy a riverfront lot for 10 thousand dollars but the prices are rising quickly..! We did some exploring of the area on our bikes and used the kayak on several streams before we headed out to Glovers Atoll (46 miles off shore) to spend 8 days on a remote 8 acre palm tree covered island. (one can buy island property at 99 thousand per acre)
We spent a fantastic 8 days enjoying our island (I say our island because for about 4 days we were the only tourists on the island) and Becky (the owner) moved us to a beautiful off-shore cabana (built in traditional style) from our tent (rain!) after she heard about our moto trip. Thank you Becky!
So relaxation is the word of the week...absolutely unreal snorkeling in the water surrounding the island (which is a world heritage site where fishing etc. is illegal unless you are an indigenous person)...huge rays, sharks and fish of every color and description floating through huge mountains of corral. We didn’t think it could get any better than this but some folks that had visited the Atoll prior to the hurricanes that hit Belize a few years ago said that the corral forests consisted of stag horn corral over 10 feet in height...none of which was left for us to see!
We also managed to get out fishing...incredible as we caught 20 plus pound King Mackerel, Barracuda etc. Every night the fish are cleaned on the islands dock and sharks (Sand, Black tip and Reef) flock around in 2 foot deep water to eat the fish entrails etc. So we had this idea of catching a shark without a hook...tied a rope onto a fish carcass and sure enough the shark would not let go of the fish until we drug it up on shore and Warren (owners son) and his trusty dog grabbed the 5 foot shark and held it up for photos before tossing it back in the ocean!
After a long boat ride through to Dandriga and back to Sittee River (rough and wet but we did manage to get a look at a rare sea manatee) we hit the road North. Another fantastic ride and we are chasing a huge black storm cloud across the rugged Maya mountains. Belize City is well known for its dangers and wouldn’t you know it...just as we pass the sign “Welcome to Belize City” (70,000 pop.) just before dark (4:30) in the rain...another flat!. At least we were only 5 m away from a army check and my tire changing skills (?) had the army fellows smiling if not outright laughing! There goes my last spare tube so we are not going anywhere until I get some extra tubes (and it's Sat. Night).
Picked up a room just at dark and spent a wonderful Sunday riding around Belize City. This really is a neat city...we love it! No downtown core at all so virtually all the buildings are one or two stories tall, made of wood and feature a very distinctive Belizean style (lots on stilts) that feature lots of open veranda and the brightest colors one can imagine! The streets are really narrow (no RV’s need apply!), rough and completely devoid of traffic. We can see why you may not want to wander about these parts after dark but today the folks are nothing but super friendly...relaxing everywhere...makes this city seem like a small town...wonderful!
One thing that is interesting is that Belize is totally shut-down on Sundays, which is very different from most of the countries we have visited!
For our final day in Belize we headed north through parkland to the Mexican border near Santa Ellena (after picking up tubes (only took us about 3 hrs to figure out where to buy tubes!) and surviving horrendous overnight rain storm(s)) We were surprised to see how much garbage was thrown about in the Parks...every side-road was literally a garbage dump...getting close to Mexico are we?

So what did we think of Belize? First of all the people are absolutely fantastic (what is funny is that during our 2000 visit we had a tough time dealing with the locals)...in this country black, colored and white people all live together and to at least our eyes, live more in peace here than any place we have ever visited. Maybe we can all learn something from these beautiful people!
Belize is expensive...and if it is expensive for us, it is sad to think of how tough it is on the locals, which for the most part are relatively poor. Many people we talked to said that they were going to have to leave Belize (most head to Guatemala) because they simply could not afford Belize.
Lastly...do not visit Belize during the rainy season!