This motorcycle adventure was 4 years in the planning phase and then convid happened, which delayed us by a few years, but this was a blessing in disguise. During the downtime i had ample time to compare tour operators, costings, reputation and inclusions, before deciding to go with Ride Expeditions Himilayan Heights for about $6000 AUD. Flights were an additional cost as were the side trips to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur which is also known as the Golden Triangle.
I opted to arrive in delhi 4 days prior to the motorcycle tour and 4 days post tour to do any extra touristy crap and recovery from the 1450km ride, and booked a hotel in Connaught place upon arrival, this is a tourist hub where some individual will ask you where you’re from and pretend to be your mate every 5m , its totally overwhelming.
Im always respectful in other countries and know how to handle the constant pests who want to sell you useless trinkets or shine my shoes even when im wearing thongs on my feet lol. First mission after hotel check in was to organise a local Indian Sim card, so after talking to 5 official government tourist offices we managed to get one from a dodgy bloke for 500INR $10AUD for 1.5GB daily for 28 days, using the Airtel Network. All that is required to activate this local simcard is someone with a local number who can paste the code sent, (said dodgy bloke) who then assumes he’s your long lost brother forevermore lol. Its worth noting this simcard will not work in Leh Ledakh where our tour ended up passing through, so another trip to the local Airtel store sorts out a new number etc.. Same price and takes 15 minutes.
After checking out various bars and restaurants i opted to try to organise a side trip to the Taj Mahal some 250km away to the south, se we got to talking to a random driver outside the hotel and he told us he could take up to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur over two days and one night and we would leave 9am the next morning. I negotiated a price of 35000inr ($700) to take us a total of about 900km in an aircon taxi over the next 2 days and one night all inclusive of all entrance fees, acommdation,tolls and fuel. The drive to Jaipur was about as exciting as watching paint dry, with people wandering aimlessly around the national highway 20km from anything in 36 degree heat, like some pilgrimage, the landscape is flat and drab with very few towns or cities to break up the monotony. Its worth mentioning the fuel stations along the way are not like western ones where a customer may purchase a drink or a snack, its virtually the wild west out there. We eventually arrived in Jaipur after the driver took us to his favourite Chicken Biryani restaurant in the middle of the dirtiest suburb it seemed where the hand basin was dirtier than the floor lol. The food was divine and cheap and the dirty paper plates were disposed of a crack in the pavement that led to probably the lost indian catacombs housing the biggest rats in the southern hemisphere.
The pink city was interesting with this astromony park The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur is a collection of 19 different astronomical instruments built by the late Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur, Rajasthan. It was extremely hot so walking around gawking at stone creations wore thin very quickly so we got back in the cab and went out to the Amer fort, only stopping to watch a snake charmer doing his thing.
I love photo opportunities especially with water and reflections, this one above is simply stunning. Then we wandered around some side stalls within the fort, where the usual vendors sold t shirts, floor rugs, gemstones, and even a copy of the Karma Sutra for some outrageous price.