Day after day I couldn't take that idea off my mind, not even after meeting the absolute anarchy that rules the Indian roads. At this point there were only two options: 1) Jump on the first bike at a local rental or 2) Look for some wise assistance to avoid the catastrophic consequences of 1).
Luckily, my current supplies of common sense run high so I added two tea spoons to design a reasonably sane plan. The idea was to befriend some mid-aged honest-looking owner of a motorcycle once I arrived to Udaipur. This man should appreciate my life more than my pocket and only after a few days I'd bring the motorcyling tour onto the table.
Bearing this in mind I arrived to Udaipur, checked in the hotel and went for a walk. Didn't take long, barely 30 min after I left the hotel I found myself playing the (spinning) top with some local kids when I saw The Man. For those wondering how I knew that it was him, here some clue: apparently he was teaching a young German fellow how to ride his motorcycle; easy, hugh?I approached the two men and started chit-chatting with the tourist first. His name was Alex and he -along with his girlfriend Johanna- was staying at Jaky's place as paying guest. Jaky (The Man) invited me to meet his family and offered some tea. In less than 45 min I had successfully completed the first phase of my master plan.
Next morning I moved in with the family. What I didn't know by then is that sometimes even the best plans don't develop as initially programmed. Cheers to that!. The next five days I shared so many things with the Sheikh family that I almost forgot about the motorcycle trip. In the morning I went to the market with Shabana (the mum), in the afternoon I visited some palace or temple with Jaky or went for a cycling tour with Niklaas (Swedish, 22); later, in the evening Shabana and me shared some cooking lessons and finally, at night I taught some games to the children -Farhat and Mohdkaif-, who freaked out with my old playground tricks.
And this is how we arrived to day 5, the D Day. Early in the morning Jaky and me took off for what was to become the milestone of the month. 8 hours of exciting motorcycling through an endless maze of nodes and snaky roads featuring two main stops: Ranakpur & Kumbhalgarh. The former is -as stated in India's LP- the most beautiful (Jain) temple of the subcontinent whereas the latter is the world's second largest wall (36km) after China's.What an unforgettable day! I cannot find the words to describe the salad of sights and people passing by magically dressed with Dire Straits' Alchemy, outstanding! Here and now I promise that one day I'll be back in Rajasthan, riding one of these steel horses to the sunset, but that time I hope to have someone special laying on my back!
En el avion a Delhi tuve una charla con Chris, un fontanero afincado en Londres que viajaba a la India para hacer un tour de 3 semanas en moto por el norte del pais. Desde aquella charla no pude quitarme la idea de hacer algo parecido de la cabeza. No obstante, mi sentido comun me decia que una cosa asi hay que hacerla solo si se conoce bien el pais o teniendo a alguien que lo conozca en el equipo. Y asi es como trace un plan para quitarme la espinita. La idea era conocer a algun hombre de mediana edad, de apariencia honesta y responsable al cual habria de convencer que mi vida era mas valiosa que mi bolsillo para el. Y asi es como conoci a Jaky en Udaipur. Este hombre me llevo a su casa y me presento a su familia. Durante 5 dias convivi con ellos y con una pareja de turistas alemanes (de mi edad). Por la mañana iba al mercado con la madre, por la tarde iba a ver algo con los alemanes o otro chico sueco que conoci. Por la noche intercambiaba clases de cocina con la madre y luego jugabamos con los niños (que eran supermajos). Y asi es como llegamos al quinto dia, el dia D. Jaky y yo salimos pronto por la mañana para cubrir un total de 250 km por la region. Me llevo a Ranakpur y Kumbalgarh, dos sitios impresionantes. No obstante, lo realmente memorable del dia fue el atardecer en moto escuchando musica de fondo, simpemente inolvidable.
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