July 27th :: I leave for Delhi tomorrow with my group. Seven of us, 4 of whom are my co-workers and two others, who are a colleague's friends will be travelling on motorcycles all the way from Delhi to Leh and back. It's a day of hectic activity, buying stuff for the trip, finishing up last minute work at office and in the midst of all this trying to find if we can get Bajaj Avengers for us in Delhi instead of Bullets. The point is none of us have driven a Bullet before, none of us are avid bikers, none of us have been on long bike trips before, none of us know how to repair a bike, none of us had the time to spend with a mechanic to learn basic bike reparing or even google on this subject before the trip. Except for some blind guts and a can do-can manage attitude, we did not have anything in the form of preparation for this trip.
July 28th: I am on a flight with the 6 other bikers to Delhi. As the flight takes off ( surprisingly for a budget airline, on-time), I cannot help wonder about this trip. I still cannot believe that I am actually doing it. I am not an out-doors person. I do not trek, I do not bike, I do not like to get all sweaty and dirty, the most time I spend in sun on a week-day is about 10min when I take a customary after-lunch walk around the tech park my office is located in. But here I am, on my way to drive a bike that is probably 3 times my weight, in blazing sun, venturing into the unknown zone, for not a day or two but for full 19 days. This is the most adventurous thing I have done in my life.
A good samaritan on this flight had a suggestion for me. Having gone to Leh on bike from Delhi once himself, he suggested that after hiring the bike, we take it to a Enfield authorised service center to get a check-up done before leaving Delhi.
First time in my life, I had the opportunity to take some pictures from inside the flight. Seems like they had relaxed the rules about using cameras inside the flight. Just to be polite ( and to be on the safer side) I had asked the cabin attendent if it is OK to take pictures from inside the flight. She had to to consult her superior and came back with the reply "You may take pictures in the flight but not of the cabin attendants".(??)
Yahoo weather had said that it would be thunderstroms all the time in Delhi and up north. But nothing prepared us for the 36C heat and humidity in Delhi. Soon we were bathing in sweat and heading towards Tony Motors in Karol Bagh, with whom we had arranged to hire bikes.
The owner, Rajesh had arranged 4 Thunderbirds and a classic Bullet, all 350Cc bikes, for us. One look at the bike, I was scared. It was huge ... much bigger than I had anticipated. It looked heavier than the 180Kgs, that Royal Enfield website had quoted for the Thunderbirds. I was so scared of the size and weight of this bike that I decided not to drive the bike until we reach a highway. For the rest of the day, I made myself useful by finding efficient ways to tie our luggage on the two carriers on the sides of the bikes, finishing up the paperwork for bike hire and most importantly, kick-starting Jomy's bike. YOu see, he had trouble kicking the bike to start, but for some reason, I seem to be able to do it.
By the time we are set, it's late in the evening and we need to find a place to settle down for the night. We went in search for a hotel that is cheap, clean and would give us a safe parking lot for the bikes. Finally we stayed in Hotel Volvo near New Delhi Railway station.
Tomorrow we need to start early, find a Enfield service station and check our bikes or if no service station would be open, get out of Delhi and take the risk with the bikes.
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