Motorbiking Through Rajasthan
Chais 1-2.
We woke in the dark at 7:00am for our “tour” of Kumbulgarh fort and Ranakpur Temple. Farida had breakfast and chai waiting for us, which Cara and Azad needed much more than Adam.
Chai 3.
We knew it was going to be a long day when Cara fell off the bike. Thankfully the bike wasn’t moving and she grabbed onto Adam to stop her from hitting the ground, almost toppling Azad, the driver, and Adam with her. Her asleep leg from the first hour’s drive however did not stop the highly amused villagers from serving us our first chai of the ride.
Chai 4.
After adjusting her seating on the bike, the next chai disembarkment was much neater. A good thing considering we were probably the first tourists to stop there that year and definitely the first to take a picture of the chai-maker’s hand-powered coal stove. He gave us his address, and we owe him a copy of it when we get back. While drinking our chai, the villagers formed a circle around us, smiling, a little spooky to say the least.
Within another butt-wrenching hour on the cramped bike we arrived at the huge walls of Kumbalgarh Fort and walked to its summit with Azad, admiring the surrounding dry forest covered rolling hills, the natural habitat for now almost extinct tigers. Time passed quickly at the many centuries-old structures of the fort and we were already running late when we left at 2:30.
Back on the bike, the pain of our hindquarters was only alleviated by the almost constant ecstatic “hellos” of the village children as they saw us ride by. Riding through the countryside was like stepping back in time with village after village featuring straw huts, ox-drive water-wheels supplying rudimentary irrigation as well as the village’s water needs, and women balancing half their weight in pots or baskets on their heads.
It was in one of these villages that we stopped for a picnic of Farida’s omelettes and chapati to fill our stomachs and rest our bottoms. One by one the village children became brave enough to sit next to us and gawk while we ate our food. After lots of giggling, pantomiming, and posing with the motorbike, Cara’s heart was warmed enough to give them each a square of chocolate which they orderly lined up for and savored over the next few minutes, while we got on the bike and rode the rest of the way to Ranakpur Temple.
We arrived at the temple at 4:45, 15 minutes before they stoped admitting new visitors for the day. Ranakpur is an important pilgrimage destination for Jain devotees. For us, however, it is an amazing architectural, artistic and human accomplishment with 1444 unique marble columns carved with intricate and beautiful detail, all coming together to form a place of worhsip and peace.
Chai 5.
As the sun set on the temple, we stopped for our first chai on the way home, right outside the gates of the temple. Azad needed this chai to even contemplate beginning the 18km uphill climb on narrow winding roads through darkness with sheer cliffs on the right and maniacal drivers everywhere else.
Chai 6.
A grueling hour later we reached a plateau and the first village from the temple. We immediately stopped for chai. Our butts were once again really sore and we had just begun the journey home.
Over the next hour the road deteriorated to alternating patches of normal Indian ill-maintained “road” and lengthy dirt “diversions” as smooth as the coast of Maine caused by construction as honest as the Big Dig. Halfway back to Udaipur after passing many sleeping villages, we found an open chai shop.
Chai 7-9.
Chai 7 quickly turned into chais 8 and 9 as our fingers thawed, our bodies unrattled, and Azad’s tongue loosened, telling us stories of his family and his dreams for his hotel. We all resisted getting back onto the motorbike for the last dark, cold, construction-filled leg of the journey.
Azad requested music to keep him alert and it being Christmas Eve, we sang the bits of off-key Christmas carols that were in our heads.
After another eternity on the bike our entire bodies were aching and our butts were absolutely numb. We eventually reached the city limits of Udaipur where the new challenge, speed bumps, was only bearable because we were close to “home”.
Chai 10.
Azad had chai 10 with his wife while we retired to our room at 11:30 with plates of food that lonely Farida had cooked for us during the day. Christmas Eve has never been as exciting or tiring or long-winded, and next year we hope to spend it much more quietly. For this year, it was the perfect antidote to homesickness around the holidays.
Tags: India
Adam
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