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Delhi: Finally Shepa was finished!!! We drove him 200km's around Delhi to make sure, and all seemed good. So after waiting 3 weeks for him, we set off into the sunrise, towards central India: Madhya Pradesh.
Agra: The adventure begins... Travelling by motorbike is a whole new kettle of fish and from now on we must look for hotels which have some kind of parking for Shepa. Easy in theory, hard in practice (like so much of India...). A quick "hello my love" to the Taj, then off at sunset again towards the deep centre.
Gwalior: We set our routine at rising at 5am, on the road by 5:30/6am. It's cold! Mendo wears his snow jacket and I wear my snow and wind jacket. This early the crowd who gathers to watch us pack Shepa is minimal, the crazies driving on the road are limited, and once we get to our destination, roughly at lunchtime, we still have half a day to explore the sights. Gwalior seems to be an average city, but thanks to the exploring power of Shepa, we venture past the cement and grime out into the 'old city' which hides the entrance to the magnificent fort, palace, temple and rock carvings on the hill. We watch the sunset over the white-washed, soft crumbling walls of the old city far below, speak Spanish with a local and marvel at the fantastic, bizarre turquoise and yellow ducks which decorate the palace.
Orchha: What a friendly, quiet, beautiful place! We arrived in Orchha as a convenient stop-over in reaching Khajuraho. As Shepa was due for his first service, we decided to stay an extra day and seek out a Royal Enfield mechanic in the nearby town of Jhansi (full service for $7AUD). We found a gorgeous hotel "Hotel Ganati" which overlooked the Palace and bargained for a room with HOT WATER, a SIT DOWN TOILET and secure parking! $6AUD, what a bargain! When we were bringing in the luggage some men asked us to join them for a Chai, they spoke good english and we decided to join them. One man was working for a small NGO shop who's profits went to schooling some local village children. He was in a pickle because he had a French girlfriend who wanted to live in India, but he wanted to live abroad. His mother was desperately searching for a 'good Indian wife' for him and that day had requested he send her a picture of himself with a big mustache, so she could find him a wife easier (he did not have a mustache...). Another man at the table was the owner of the hotel who was sad because the new Lonely Planet Guidebook had left him out and he was worried he wouldn't get many guests. Another man at the table was familiar... it didn't click until he said he was an artist - we had bought a painting from him a month earlier in Manali. He was now on his way to Khajuraho to try to sell some paintings and had picked up 2 men on his way - 1 from a small town who had never ridden on a train, so the artist decided to pay for him to have a small trip on a train, the other from a small rural village who just seemed to be along for the ride. So we spent the night with them, enjoying the local beer, food, music and dancing from a Lady-boy. They explained to us their philosophies on life, Indian Culture and Society and their family problems (which became more graphic as the night progressed). We explored the palace which was mind-blowing. An ancient King who had 6 wives, airconditioning, hot-water, a huge kingdom etc... amazing! I have never been someone who is much interested in History, but India is changing me, slowly but surely. Shepa helped us explore the local Nature Reserve, and after we watched the magnificent sunset on the river at Orchha and later witness the nightly Puja in the large Hindu temple. Orchha was definately one of our favourite places so far because we managed to get past the touristy crust and into the hearts of the people and energy at the core of the place. As I type this I can still see the wide river with young men swimming, women washing beautiful coloured sari's, little red dragon-fly's and the sun setting behind the ancient temples... magic.
Khajuraho: The Kama Sutra Temples. This was possible one of the most touristy spots we've been to besides the Taj. Just like the Taj, the sculptured Temples are pretty much in the village, rather than being set aside. The actual art-work and skill involved in these sculptures is incredible but because of the subject it is sometimes difficult to focus on this. We met some nice locals who showed us the 'old town', including a local tradesman who now made a living sculpting tree-roots into imaginitive masks, animals, gods etc. We also met 2 real 'bikers' (we're just amateurs!) who were very lovely and shared with us their wisdom of riding a motorbike around India and dealing with Indians. They told us that the most dangerous thing in India was not the roads or the public, but in fact the corrupt Policemen with their ego, greed and 'power'. One of the men, Jules, had been living in India for 10 years. He is a Social Worker and had been working with Tourists who had ended up in Indian jails, usually because of drugs... what a job! Hopefully we'll be meeting up with him in Pushkar.
En-Route to Bhopal: After a full day of riding, we were listening to our MP3 player, singing along, happy as Larry when something didn't quite feel right on the Shepa... so we checked and yes - 2 screws fell off from the Luggage Carrier. So I walked to the next town with a lovely local and Mendo drove to find the screws. The local man spoke a bit of English and walked with me because he felt it was his 'duty' as a guest of his country... and he wanted to protect me from the children hastling me... He was a very good body guard, those kids never even came near me! Anyway we got the screws and again on our way... when we discovered the Luggage Carrier had snapped. So back to the town, and found a welder, but they didn't have electricity until 8pm. It was about 4pm, so we waited in this small town, being entertained by the local drunk, the children, and a band. Of course we were their entertainment also - we pulled a huge crowd who stayed with us until we left. Once it was all welded (8:30pm), we had to drive to the next town because the local Police Station wasn't big enough to sleep in. So we rode in the dark to Banda where the Police opened up the Government Rest House. We both had in our minds the fresh advice which Jules had given us about the corrupt policemen, also the Rest House had trees outside it which was covered in crowing Crows (100's of them in the dark - spooky!), and the police wanted to lock us inside this place until the morning... it was dodgyville, so needless to say neither of us slept that night. The Luggage Carrier snapped again, so the next day we spent in Sagar getting them welded and generally just relaxing. By the way the Luggage Carrier keeps snapping not because of our luggage, but because of the 'new' Racks were in fact very old, rusted racks which had a fresh coat of paint... bloody Indian busines-men! We enjoyed Sagar and the friendly people, but the hotel we stayed at had loud-speakers just outside it with horrible Hindi music blaring from it until all hours, then once that stopped a woman gave a very passionate speech about something (in Hindi) and lots of people thought it was great because there was heaps of clapping and cheering until about midnight and possibly beyond - thank goodness for ear plugs.
Sanchi: Much like Orchha, once we stay a few days in a little town we really get below the surface and enjoy the local people and places. We stayed in Sanchi for 4 nights, although we were only planning 1. We visited the local World Heritage Listed site of the Buddhist Stupas and admired the history and culture of the place. We then met a local called Padiha who showed us a nearby village, an ancient stone-carved horse and some beautiful caves with buena vistas and rock paintings from many many years before. Padiha had interesting philosophy's, stories and ideas about Indian life. He showed us his local swimming area which was a storage tank for a deep well which then watered the Government nursery - it was heaven! Surrounded by green, quiet and peacefully under a big old mango tree. Nearby was a Bodhi tree which incense would waft from gracefully. And so we spent the next few days relaxing at the 'pool', sharing Chai and good conversation with Padiha, sampling the delicious food or exploring the nearby sites. 20 minutes away from Sanchi was the Udaygiri Caves which housed carvings of the Hindu Gods. One of the funniest things I've seen in a while from here: on our walk up we marvelled at the large bee nests hanging from the roof of the caves... then suddenly Mendo jumped, and screamed! His dred-locks flying about the place as he yelled for me to help him - a bee was after him! Mendo was too quick for me (or I was too busy laughing), and he ran up 100m's worth of steps in 2 seconds, whilst stopping every now and then to check if it was still following him, again with his dreds flying about the place... the bee eventually gave up - we think it thought his hair was one of the nests. I'm cracking up just thinking about it again! Another excursion led us off the highway and into the deep villages. Of course there was someone out here who spoke English, so he invited us to his village for Chai. About 50 people stood around as Mendo and I drank Chai, all of them belonging to the same family.
Bhopal: Here we are, in the laked city of Bhopal, famous for a chemical disaster. We met Gus for drinks and dinner twice and thoroughly enjoyed every nano-second of it. It was fantastic to see a friendly, familiar face from home and have some stimulating conversations (rather than the usual "which Country? Ohhhh Australia - do you know Ricky Ponting???"). So thankyou Gus, we loved our time with you and truly appreciate your generosity. Hope to catch-up again soon. Bhopal as a city we are finding rather depressing. When we walk down the street I see judgement in their stares, rather than fun curiosity. There are a large nimber of Muslims here and very often we see women walking down the street in long, black tents. But tomorrow morning, very early we will creep out of the big city and head for Ujjain, on our way to Rajasthan!
Hope you're all enjoying the photo's - it's very difficult to acess good internet with an anti-virus facility but C'est la vie! We get there in the end... Hope you're all happy and healthy, as we are, and look forward to hearing your news also.
Love Nic and Mendo.
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