Holy shit..

We survived the bike trip. I'm in Manali, trying to fill my body with enough caffeine to handle normality after too many days on the road without it. The roads were horrific, the traffic insane and the country incredible.

But it was really, really hard.

Plenty more later, when the body is full of caffeine and the mind is something other than a quivering mess.

I went to Delhi and all I got was this hangover

Joburg to Cape Town to Dubai to Delhi.

Crazy from work in Joburg and Cape Town. Onto plane. Emergency exit. Thank you god and the Emirates checkin staff. Alcohol. Sleep. Fights for the arm rest. Then Dubai, full of tired, frustrated, joyless people in transit. Just want to leave, Delhi. heaving and mad, a city falling apart and under construction. Infused with life and colour and sound and smell. Lots of smell.

Takash, our airport transfer. Navigating through the most mental drivers in the world. Suicidal. No accidents, unbelievably. Right into the seediest market we'd ever experienced. Stops car "you're staying down there". Confusion. Sorry Rob, I fucked up. The Smyle Inn, tucked in a quiet corner in the midst of the mayhem. Huge tip for Takash.

Touts. scams. Dirty streets. Train station beaurocracy. Train ticket to Kalka, but not sunday, only monday. Shit. White Mischief vodka and Kingfisher beer. Beggars. Street food. Amazing park. Luxury and wealth. The Embassy restaurant and the Gem Bar. Cricket mania.

Fuck, this is overwhelming. Some tourons, but no mixing. Except the argentine, who wanted to talk soccer and rugby. Into another, another world.

Rain, Red Fort and street food today. Bring it on.

Delhi

We're here. This place is completely insane. More later.

And thus it begins..

"You better take care of me, Lord. If you don't you're gonna have me on your hands."
- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Here we go, an hour until I leave for the airport.

This is going to be a wild, scary, incredible journey. I'm completely burnt out from too many late nights and early mornings, trying to sort out the last of my work and my admin and my packing and everything else. But 10 minutes into that plane ride, I'll feel like a kid again.

Bring it on.

I'm Alive.

Yes, I'm alive.

This kind of self-evident writing is no less than you, dear reader, deserve but it's probably going to take you a little while to stop banging your head against the table, continually wondering why you read this utter codswallop.

Once you're done, let me finish, because I'm going to describe a pivotal moment in the preparation for this trip.

Are you quite done?

I hope it hurts.

While the swelling subsides, let's meander back to the matter at hand. I am alive. More importantly, I am alive after spending a weekend riding a motorbike on a combination of farm roads, tar roads and dirt roads. I am remarkably intact, with the exception of a kick-starter-related shin bruise and a slightly more bruised ego from being utterly incompetent and 'kicking like a girl'* when it comes to kick-starting, or more accurately, trying to kick-start a bike.

Rob even had the good grace to tut knowingly and pronounce me competent once we'd made our way to Clanwilliam, via the tar road, and back, via a much longer, more challenging dirt road loop. High praise from Sonny Barger himself. There was one significant difference between this and India - it was hot. Actually, hot doesn't begin to describe it. When Rob checked the temps, it was 39 degrees. At 4pm. I'm not built for heat.

So, India's 4 days away. I survived biking for a weekend. We've got most of our gear.

Bring it.

* Quoth Rob

Another littel update:
(1) Book accommodation for our first night or two in Delhi Iced like a cake.
(2) Get our visas Ka-pow.
(3) Work out where to rent reliable motorcycles from in the Shimla area Rob done stepped up and seems to have, through some sycophantic comments about the Indian cricket team, gotten us the hookup through some dude called Sanjeev. Go Sanjeev.
(4) Buy the necessary gear Bar the caveat below, shick-a-dink.
(5) Oh, and actually work out what the necessary gear is. We think we know what we need. Hence, this one's toast.
(6) I should probably learn to ride a motorcycle. Back. Of. The. Net. Swish.
(7) Vaccinations. I am unkillable by disease. Ish.
(8) Travel insurance Crushed.

Shit, I think we're actually ready. Except for Huck of course. Top Gear rules apply. Thy will be done. etc etc.

It'll be fine..

Every 'proper' trip has to have a memorable quote, a tagline if you will. On the last serious climbing trip I went on, it was "Don't start anything Trent will finish". This was amended to "Don't start anything Julia will finish" after a particularly suprising off-colour joke from Ms Chen. Trent may be Durban's biggest hooligan, but we breed them filthy in Cape Town.

I'm not sure that this is a good thing, but this trip already has a quote. And the trip hasn't even started yet. Worryingly, the quote is "It'll be fine", accompanied by a dismissive hand gesture. This served us well yesterday when Racist phoned to tell me that "bad news.. road to Leh closed.. 15 foot of snow.. highly unusual.. it'll be fine..". I could almost hear the little hand wave over the phone.

Said road closure does cramp our style somewhat. We really wanted to go to Leh. But, and this may be news to you, India's a big country. There's lots to do and see from the vantage point of a Royal Enfield. Hell, within a thousand kilometers of Manali is the Great Himalayan National Park, the Pin Valley National Park, Nanda Devi Biosphere, Lahaul Spiti, Govind Pashu National Park and Shrinagar (where they poison stray dogs) and loads more..

I'm not going to say it..

Brief update:
(1) Book accommodation for our first night or two in Delhi - Iced like a cake.
(2) Get our visas Ka-pow.
(3) Work out where to rent reliable motorcycles from in the Shimla area Rob done stepped up and seems to have, through some sycophantic comments about the Indian cricket team, gotten us the hookup through some dude called Sanjeev. Go Sanjeev.
(4) Buy the necessary gear Bar the caveat below, shick-a-dink.
(5) Oh, and actually work out what the necessary gear is. We think we know what we need. Hence, this one's toast.
(6) I should probably learn to ride a motorcycle. Oops. Not so much.
(7) Vaccinations. A new addition. I am unkillable by disease. Ish.

Brief update redux: Holy shit, this thing is nine days away. Holy shiiiiit.