Driving day 2 & Arambol

To summarize day 1:

km: 369
police checks: 2
bribes: 0
documents wanted: driver's license 1x
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Day two started off easy on highway 17 but around Ratnagiri I couldn't wait any longer and wanted to see the ocean, so I headed East until I found it and then south on some obscure little roads all the way to Rajapur where I found highway 17 again. This took a lot of time and it got dark shortly before I crossed the border into Goa, which was no problem at all.

The roads were easy on me and the bike, as expected even though traffic on the 17 was a bit annoying sometimes. A bigger problem was finding Arambol... the people along the highway all sent me to Mapusa to get directions, which is some 40km in the wrong way. So I took my chances and drove down the next road leaving highway 17 to the right. After going through Pernem and some villages I finally arrived in Harmle, next to Arambol. There I met Amar and bam! I had a room for the night!


Größere Kartenansicht



So day two we have:

km: 400
police checks: 1
bribes: 0
documents wanted: 0
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Right now I'm stuck in Arambol waiting for new front brakes. Somehow there is some air in places where it shouldn't be and they got stuck, blocking the wheel...
They are coming in from Mapusa and will cost a whoopin' 1750rs (+ installation)

Then, either late in the afternoon or tomorrow morning, I'll be off to Agonda, where there is less trouble. Arambol has become a bit weird. There is almost exclusively Israeli and Russian people here, and many of them with small kids. This is definitely not the place for kids. In the first two weeks of November alone 4 people died of drug abuse and 2 days ago a girl was raped on the beach next to sweet lake.
It is time to get out of here. Breakfast is waiting.

Touring India, Day 1

View Larger Map Highway 4 from Mumbai to Pune: 6 lanes, doing kilometers!!! Mumbai itself... pain in the ass... ferry not taking bikes across atm, had to drive all through 'town'... was hoping for a huge sign that said "THE FUCKING REST OF INDIA", but didn't see one. Just kept heading towards a feeling of north east and took the right turn I guess...

Highway 4 after Pune is still nice but lots of construction going on and a lot of traffic. Didn't want to take it actually. I wanted to go straight on highway 17 but somehow it seems I missed a turn. Then decided to go by Mahabaleshwar but didn't expect the mountains to be that high... The road via Panchgani is extremely beautiful leading through lush valleys, green fields and old trees next to the street! Well worth it. Then the mountains of course boasted majestic views!
That's my bike by the way! 2005 Honda Unicorn, 150ccm, 13bhp, 45km/l. It says 15000km on it but that can't be trusted.

But obviously the road up there (and especially the one down) was horrible and took forever, so it got dark and I stopped at some shitty restaurant/hotel along the way for too much money. The first thing I saw in the bathroom was a cockroach quite a bit bigger than my thumb, must have been at least 5-6cm and it even took 3 hits from my flipflop to die. But little did I know that the place was actually quite beautiful: The view from my balcony



river behind the building



That's it for today, heading off for the third day of driving soon, will post more and longer posts!