Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year

 

Here is a special Christmas message from me...

 

 

 

I've now ventured onto a motorbike for a few days, so it seems a good time to tell you about India's roads

 

Take 1.2 billion indians, of vastly varying road sense and indeed common sense.  Then equip them with every conceivable mode of transport - camels, buffalo and cart, horse and cart, camel and cart, motobikes, scooters, cars, lorries, buses, jeeps and bicycles. Allow all of them to drive exactly how they please - wrong way around a roundabout?  No problem?  Drive a lorry the wrong way down a main road?  Hey, like what's the worse that can happen?   Next, add about a billion random animals - goats, sheep, cows, dogs and camels - and allow them to roam un-attended, just to make the roads a little more challenging.  Then add some horrendous road surfaces, and take away any modern device that might bring some order - so good bye to white lines, road signs, traffic lights, traffic police, the highway code, cat's eyes etc

 

And there you have it - utter chaos

 

The upside is that some of the roads are set amongst spectacular scenery.  This week I've been exploring the Indian holiday retreat of Mount Abu by motorbike and it has been some of the most exhilarating riding I've ever done.  And I lived to tell the tale

 

Mattu

Now into my second week travelling solo around the desert region.  so far have visited Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and am currently in Birkaner.

 

Jaisalmer was a magnificent site to behold if a little touristy - Loney Planet describes it as a giant sandcastle which is pretty accurate.  It's made of sandstone and turns a beautiful orange colour at Sunset.  I stayed in an old Haveli (old, large Indian House) inside the fort which was wonderfully atmospheric.

 

A couple of days ago I did a three day camel safari, just me and an Indian guide on two camels trekking across the desert and camping out at night underneath the stars.  It was a wonderful experience, but really bloody cold at night.  The camel is generally a fairly comfortable ride, as the seats are more padded than those generally found on horses.  Bit of an old bumpy ride when it's trotting, and you can't do the rise and trot as you can on a horse.  Hopefully I can still have children.   On the first night we were joined around our campfire by a wandering musician and a couple of shepherds so spent a magical evening listening to something akin to the bag pipes and trying to understand the largely Hindi chatter.  It was more enjoyable than it sounds :-)

 

One funny thing happened on the way back.  We were trotting back into Jaisalmer town, when I felt something bump the Camel's rear leg, followed by a shriek and the sound of metal scraping against tarmac.  I looked down to see an Indian family - mother, father and two small children, lying straddled across their now dented motorcycle.   The camel had taken against the motorcycle for some reason, and with a deft side swipe of it's leg had kicked the family off their bike.  Lucking they were not hurt

 

At one point I was thinking of hiring a bike and touring India on two wheels.  Now I am glad I didn't - not only are the roads utterly chaotic, with no discernable road rules, buit they are also inhabited by occasionally malevolant camels

 

More soon. 

 

Mattu

 

 

The teaching was a fantastic experience and I am so glad I did it.  I think my girlsgot alot out of the lessons and most themgave me some nice feedback.  On the last day my first class gave me a present to "respected Mr Matt, Sir" which was sweet.  I'll also miss the glory of the countryside and all of the walks and treks through the hills with the Himalaya's in the background.  The rest of India is so dusty and polluted in comparison.

 

During the last week a couple of the girls from our camp had a few mis haps with some of the village dogs.  First off Barbara got bitten by a pretty strange dog in the local village.  Like most of Asia, India is full of village mongrels and most of them are fine.  The first sign that this was a psycho dog was when it chased after a passing scooter and hurled itself at the scooters spare wheel, catching the fabric wheel cover in it's teeth and pulling it right off, while the scooter was still moving at some speed.   When we approached it walked up to Barbara and started to pull on her fleece and then bit her in the leg.  Lucking she had had the anti rabies course.  Then the next day, a male dog came up to the camp very early in the morning and attacked the little puppy that Mel had rescued and had been caring for.  Most of us had got quite attached to "Little Buddha" or "B'stard" as I preferred to call the little orphan mut, and sadly it got chomped by the big dog and died.  During the mellee Mel was tried to get the big dog off, and she too got bitten.  So both Mel and Barbara had to go to the Doc's and get anti rabies and tet jabs.  Glad I got my jabs now.

 

I'm now on my own, and for today at least enjoying the first day of my own company.  I'm in the town of Jodhpur when the funny riding britches come from, and enjoying the luxuries of my hotel, especially the imaculate bathroom with a proper sit down toilet.  Toilet's have been on my mind alot this week as I have had a pretty bad stomach bug for most of the week.  Today it has began to pass thank goodness and I have just had a fantastic lunch of non Indian food. The food is good here but I am really over all the spices at the moment

 

Hope everyone is well and looking forward to Christmas