India part 2
from May 6th 2007 until July 31th 2007

and

from September 12th 2007 until October 18th 2007

Back in India: diarrhoea, heat, mosquitoes and vomiting
The passage is blocked and the traffic has come to a standstill. From a safe distance we observe how the Indians solve this self-made problem: shouting, honking, shouting back and another round of honking. We don't await the end of the conflict, our visa is only valid
for six months.... READ ON>>

The honest Indian
Two monkeys are sitting on our balcony; they tastily consume a pack of toast and don't even consider leaving this food paradise. I scream and shout even louder, but the cheeky macaques bare their teeth and scream back.... READ ON>>

Wanted: two kidneys, two cyclists and two beds
Alongside the new Tehri dam we descend to Zero-point where we cross the river and start the long climb to New Tehri and Chamba. The ascent is incredible, with percentages of over 20%. After an hour I rename New Tehri in a very similar Dutch swearword, T.... The new dam, which.... READ ON>>

Strange twists and a family of thieves and vandals
...has visited and changed the room into a storage room where a bomb has exploded. The bed, the floor and the chairs are covered in banana skins, empty biscuit wrappings and puddles of water that turn out to be urine at close inspection.... READ ON>>

A new record for a birthday present
The rain increases and it gets colder and colder. We fight up in this fairy tale forest of thick, old pine trees, cobra plants, irises, forest-strawberries and beard-moss. There is no traffic; the only sound disturbing the silence is the soft rustling of rain-water and the crunching of rubber on the gravel. It takes us two hours to cover the last seven kilometres.... READ ON>>

A nice bite of Karin
Thanks to the leisurely cadence of the climb we regularly see birds of varying plumage flying by and sitting in trees. A Himalayan vulture perches in a tree some fifteen metres from where I'm toiling up the mountain. He figures me to be a juicy and tasty bite with which he can reinforce his body that became strongly emaciated during the harsh winter.... READ ON>>

Gifts from heaven
Together Javier and Peter descend to Pang, a descent he will never forget for the rest of his life. Nearly every two hundred metres he stops to take the camera: floating ice on the river, frozen water falls, weathered river banks with capricious shapes, snow mountains, coloured mountains, heavenly.... READ ON>>

The highest pass in the world?
It gets colder, the wind is increasing and the road becomes worse and worse. The last nine kilometres are unpaved. Peter passes a frozen waterfall that seems to stand still in time, and a little later he arrive at the ugly top of the pass. Softly small snowflakes fall around him.... READ ON>>

Cycling to the cannibal
A hungry resident of Bodhkharbu seduced passers-by with a cosy and hospitable stay in his simple home, in order to cut them in peaces afterwards for a good barbecue. A free meal and not even a challenge for a cheap supermarket like the Aldi.... READ ON>>

Peter wants to go home
We still haven't reached the top and Peter really gets fed up. His weak intestines steal the energy he needs so badly for his legs, and now this. "What kind of fucking pass is this," he yells to me. "It's going on and on, we should have been there a long time ago!" "Yeah, you're right, but we can only go on isn't it? Or do you have a better idea?" "Well, sit down and do nothing any more, that seems better to me.".... READ ON>>

Moving is our business
In between banks of clouds the sky is completely grey. Puddles of mud water form where it was dry only ten minutes ago, and carefully we descend and cycle from cloud to cloud. They swallow us and spit us out again. The Zoji La is a frightening, spine-chilling mountain pass and.... READ ON>>

A mud fight on the bike
This time there are no stones, but an avalanche of mud, which has covered the road for hundreds of metres. It will at least take a day or two before the thirty centimetres thick layer of mud will be removed and we can't.... READ ON>>

How to survive twenty-four murder attacks
In the second sharp turn we're confronted with an overtaking Indian car driver, who is speeding straightly in our direction. We dive into the side of the road and can hardly
manage to.... READ ON>>

Blind faith
Peter starts cycling like a madman on the kilometres-long fly-over, afraid that we really lost each other now, and he constantly asks himself how on earth we could not have seen one another. The second time on one single day! At this time I'm.... READ ON>>

A nice and cheap bicycle
"How much Rupees?"
If Peter would tell him the true amount, he'd without doubt fall of his bike, which would bring us in the dangerous situation of not being able to avoid it and crash too. For the good of the motorcyclist, Peter.... READ ON>>

Love at first sight
Radju is just as naughty as his eyes made us suspect and like a careless youngster he drives loudly honking without any fear and consideration through the streets of Agra. He nearly misses hitting children, cows and some old, frayed.... READ ON>>

Cleansing of the soul; the intestines follow
Groups of men with clean-shaven heads, with only a tiny ponytail on the back, walk to the water, dressed in white, yellow and orange garments. They lower themselves in the brown cold fluid in extatic devotion. Freshly painted saddhu's in.... READ ON>>

Varanasi; lifting a hot leg in the oldest city in the world
One and a half million. That's three thousand times exceeding the official standard. It's a miracle that the Indians aren't extinct yet.... READ ON>>

This is England not, this is India!
Cars and motorbikes position themselves from left to right; when the barriers open, everybody drives straightforward to their opponents and subsequently everything and everyone is stuck.
In the middle of the railroad.
The inevitable pushing, shouting and.... READ ON>>