Nomadonwheels

I was surrounded and they were all carrying AK47’s, the arguing started to get a quite heated, I told Brian to go left around the truck and I was sure they wouldn’t shoot, Brian after a few minutes of deliberation took off, I tried to start my bike but one of them hit my kill switch and held is finger on the button so I couldn’t restart the bike.

It had all started about 30 minutes before; we had been stopped by the Police as we entered the Punjab region of Pakistan, we had been travelling by armed Police escorts all the way through Pakistan and the escorts were usually quite good and reasonably well organised, sometimes waiting on the side of the road as we came past and the last one handing us off to the next escort in a type of relay but the Punjab military police were less well organised, we had waited for at least thirty minutes and every so often they would say the new escort was about five minutes away, the intention was to protect us from the infamous Taliban but in effect it was only making the situation worse for us as every minute we were delayed they made our day longer and heightened the risk of having to ride after dark, no matter how many times I explained this they didn’t understand or care to, Tanya at one point got off her bike walked over to my bike and started to lecture the Police, the funny thing was the Police gave her a quick glance and in complete disdain just ignored her and continued talking to me, oh how lucky to be a woman in Pakistan, I know Tanja wasn’t happy but I did find it a little funny, Tanja had also managed to give them the slip and was a little further up the road with Brian, I however had around six armed Policemen standing semicircle around the bike, the guy with his finger was the Police Chief and he kept saying I couldn’t go, I pushed his finger off the kill switch and started the bike, his immediate reaction was to hit the kill switch again, it was a little hard as you had to try and do the clutch and hold the handle bar and kill switch all at the same time, this went on another three times with lots of shouting, on the forth go I managed to wack it into gear and started moving forward, one of the Police shouted and I assume the other said to “let him go” as they all suddenly gave up and parted as I roared off up the road to where Brian and Tanya were waiting, it was only about 10km up the road where another escort was waiting, we just continued straight past the Policeman in the middle of the road trying to wave us down, we knew they would catch us up but we were all quite annoyed at the last delay so kept going, they did eventually catch us up which was ok but we sure weren’t going to get into that situation again.

Public Transport?

What do they call the bike of choice in Pakistan?...."The Honda Cash deposit 70"

Brian checking the "Angry Birds" special edition!

Tuk Tuk Lahore style

Now where did I park my photocopier?

Downtown Lahore

Pakistan Bikers club leading us to their shop

Brian on rare occasions had a bright idea!

Well yes it also felt like a miniature bike!

Pakistan border

""I am not happy and I am leaving"

Happy chappy?

"A helmet"...yes great idea...WTF?

Yipee no wife!...just me and all my mates!

Whilst we were in Multan, Pakistan we happened to pick up the local (English version) newspaper, the front page had huge headlines splashed across it, we were quite surprised to read that lucky for all the ladies in Pakistan that it was now officially illegal to do any of the following things to women; Throw Acid in her face, sexual torture or forced marriage! before November 2011 it wasn't illegal? ahhh progress that's what its all about! Mind you I did see that a woman was recently forced to marry her rapist and save her families honour, I guess that's on next years list of laws to pass?

Hello India

Grhhhh...no really he did make that noise!

Arghhhhh

Pakistan Police forklift...ha yes your car is now impounded up on the curb?

Tanja being passed by the "Milkman"

Well at least if you ran into it it would be nice and soft...no?

Lucky Brian had already checked his AK47 and Narcotics at the door...not sure where he kept his explosives?

Money changers on the border

A Local street Flour mill

Oh here comes the bus!

Amritsar Curry House...very nice food!

Brian secretly ordered the extra hot curry for Tanja and boy was she surprised!

"Yes hello police?"..."Yes its my cart it appears to have crashed"

Wow Indian's have the best ideas....lets turn in our rear view mirrors so they don't get broken when we ride!

Future Cafe Racer?

Eating chips....instead of the street muck!

Ok well I did eat some street muck...fish in the middle of India??...It was the two cans off beer and one Whiskey that made me do it!

And this guy who said it was great!

Better than meat I suppose?....probably not!

mmmm smells interesting?

Now that's Rock and Roll!

The herd wandering the lush green fields of India....Lucky NZ cows eh!

Pakistan Bikers club (Hi-Speed Pakistan) who shouted us a Chinese dinner, tops blokes even let us use their workshop for free!

"Huh"

Another crowd of gawkers at the Gas Station

I know lets all gather around and just stare!!

Golden Temple Amritsar India

Originally built in 1574, the site of the temple was surrounded by a small lake in a thin forest. The third of the six grand Mughals, Emperor Akbar, who visited the third Sikh guru, Guru Amar Das, in the neighbouring town of Goindval, was so impressed by the way of life in the town that he gave a jagir (the land and the revenues of several villages in the vicinity) to the guru's daughter Bhani as a gift on her marriage to Bhai Jetha, who later became the fourth Sikh guru, Guru Ram Das. Guru Ram Das enlarged the lake and built a small township around it. The town was named after Guru Ram Das as Guru Ka Chak', Chak Ram Das or Ram Das Pura.
During the leadership of the fifth guru, Guru Arjan Dev (1581–1606), the full-fledged Temple was built. In December 1588, Guru Arjan invited Hazrat Mian Mir, a Muslim Sufi saint from Lahore, to initiate the construction of the temple by laying the first foundation stone (December 1588 CE).
Some of the architectural features of the Harmandir Sahib were intended to be symbolic of the Sikh worldview. Instead of the normal custom of building a temple on high land, it was built at a lower level than the surrounding land so worshippers would have to go down steps to enter it. In addition, instead of one entrance, the Harmandir Sahib has four entrances.
The temple was completed in 1604. Guru Arjan Dev, installed the Guru Granth Sahib in it and appointed Baba Buddha Ji as the first Granthi (reader) of it on August 1604. In the mid-18th century it was attacked by the Afghans, by one of Ahmed Shah Abdali's generals, Jahan Khan, and had to be substantially rebuilt in the 1760s. However, in response a Sikh Army was sent to hunt down the Afghan force. They were under orders to show no mercy and historical evidence suggests the Sikh Army was decisively victorious in the ensuing battle. Both forces met each other five miles outside Amritsar; Jahan Khan's army was destroyed.

You have to cover your head and remove your shoes

I didn't like walking with out shoes, the ground was actually very filthy!

Lost 25-12-2011

Soft sand plus 300kg of bike = Best Christmas day ever!

Just awesome!...no xmas pudding for me!

"Merry Xmas"

Indian Christmas dinner in Jaipur

Relaxing after dinner

Brian was surprised how good the Apple crumble tasted!

Romance is never lost between bikers!

The biker fountain dance of Love?

Monkey Business!

Go fly a kite!

Sunset Jaipur India

The Fort

"Where you from?....Taxi Mr"

Mission Impossible Monkey

Impressed with the mirrors Brian?

Banana and Nuts?

"What you look'n at?"

"On the Pigs back"

Driving in India...where to start, one of the hardest things is to put the experience into words; I will first tell you that after riding more than 80,000km in more than forty countries that is was the worst experience I have ever had with riding a motorcycle, nothing makes sense, you have to forget logic, common sense, morals, empathy, safety, respect for fellow human beings and then you can only start to imagine! You go through certain stages, I guess one of the first is the emotion of shock....shock that because that moron behind the wheel has decided that on a duel lane carriage way that because he has missed his exit he will stop do a three point turn and drive the wrong way back against oncoming traffic and its ok , but then to overtake a truck on the same freeway only to find another truck coming the wrong way flashing his lights as if you are wrong and should get out of his way, the white Manhindra 4WD which literally runs you off the road because he cannot be bother to wait....for anything! The amount of carnage on the road is unbelievable on a daily basis you will pass many accidents and wonder how on earth that could happen, how on a completely straight road that truck would end up on its roof....crashed down an overpass...crashed into another...etc ....then you arrive in the cities, a nightmare in itself, we spent at least half an hour physically stuck at one intersection because not one person wanted to give way to anyone else, the bicycles had jammed the road completely and every inch of space was taken up by someone trying to force a inch or two further. The road tally for “The Black Perl” was one chicken man, one motorcycle and three boots into the side of cars...now I am not proud of these incidents but when some idiot decides to run you off the road to get one car length in front then the shock turns to anger, I was reading another riders blog and he physically pulled the guy through his window and started slapping him, one day I actually lost the plot so much that I was just stopping at the guys window and a stream of profanity was pouring from my mouth, this happen a few times that day and another favourite was slapping the guys wing mirror as he proceeded to try and kill you, no one in India should be allowed to drive, they should have all trucks, buses, motorcycles and cars removed from this country, if fact the whole experience of this absolutely ruined India for me!

I suddenly felt a thud on my panniers and then heard a huge crash, I knew a motorcycle had hit me, in heavy traffic you cannot or even have time to look into you mirror and see what had happened as you are too busy avoiding objects like other motorcyclists flying around you like drunk mosquitoes a few centimetres from your front wheel, the chicken man I did feel sorry for, in a moment of haste I pulled onto the side of the road to overtake something and suddenly a bridge was looming a few feet from where I was, I had a tractor wheel rubbing my pannier and a cyclist with a basket of chickens touching on the other side, I did hear the shouting as the chicken man went over but was too busy trying to squeeze in before the tractor crushed me into the bridge, Brian later told me that the guy ended up completely upside down...I hope the chickens were ok??

India has the worst road toll in the world, 140,000 people die on the roads each year, you look at the buses and none of them have a single straight panel on them, their horns blow constantly, there are many cases of them killing people but they mostly get off because the bus companies are owned by the state governors. One day Brian who was in front almost got hit by a guy coming the wrong way on a duel carriage way, you instantly think that maybe we didn’t realise that it had now turned back into single lanes...but no you look across to the other side and can see cars still using it but because there are a few potholes and its bumpy the drivers have decided its quicker to race down the other side at oncoming traffic!! No one looks when turning on to a main road, motorbikes, trucks, buses and people all proceed at speed directly into your path with not a care in the world!!

Then when you do finally stop to take a breath and try to relieve the constant stress you get a crowd of 20-100 people all stopping to stare, saying nothing and constantly touching things on your bike, Then one day you realise the love of experiencing new cultures has evaporated like spit onto a hot exhaust and turned you into one of the ugly venomous tourists we all know and hate.

I for one will never return to this country especially on a motorbike, as soon as you cross the border into Nepal it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders, the traffic becomes somewhat normal, the people friendly and welcoming, yes people crowd around you bike but like to discuss your bike and ask if they are allowed to take photos of it, Nepal is a great place and washed away the bitter taste that had built up, India made Pakistan and Iran shine which was unexpected and not what you would expect if you watched a constant stream of western media.