Choosing Love – Thank you Mother India/ Part 8

And the Wonder-Bike Adventure Begins

Day 14 – 3rd May 2018

It is 6 am and we are ready, excited and peaceful.

We are about to embark on the improbable adventure of going for a bike tour with not much of a plan, no pre-booked accommodation, no guides and above all an absolutely open heart 😊

I will be carrying our rucksack, alleviating its weight on the small back-rest and Pedro will boldly drive us through chaotic Bangalore early morning traffic, out on to the highway and heading towards Kabini Dam, further down South-West in the Karnataka State.

We know it’s going to be hot, but not as hot as it would be in the north of India and the advantage of riding on a bike is that it has a natural air-con system 😉

We are travelling as light as possible, leaving our other smaller rucksack at Anu’s house with some extra clothes we will not be needing since we intend to wash clothes as we go, whenever necessary – with this heat anything dries in a jiffy.

Today we will be riding for about 250 km, a bit more than we intend to do on a daily basis, but to begin with it still seems easy enough.

Once we actually get ourselves on the bike all set to seize the day, it’s around 7 am. With a wide smile, off we go as our friends wave goodbye and wish us the best.

I don’t know whether you are acquainted with traffic in India but it is a very interesting phenomenon to observe. If you happen to be a by-stander, just watching, you will probably think it is senseless, insane and scary.

When you’re in it, the feeling is entirely different. It is like a river that flows no matter what. Everyone knows the inexistent rules and accidents are a rare occurrence. Nevertheless it is not devoid of danger, though if you are fearless, it definitely helps. Once you’re in the midst of the hooting cacaphony of trucks, cars, buses, tucs, motorbikes and bicycles you have no option but to cooperate with the mob. It’s literally like being immersed in a video game and being on a two-wheeled vehicle makes it way easier to fit into the improbable spaces that are invisible any other time than the exact moment we are in them. It is an intense experience of NOW, where total focus is fundamental, and though I am not the one leading the way, my focus is as necessary as Pedro’s because we travel as One body through the traffic jungle.

The bond between rider and passenger creates a safe space that makes this an amazing experience of surrender to nothing else but here and now. And this is possible only because we choose to travel in the compassionate embrace of our Essences, discerning through feeling rather than judging from the Mind’s fear.

As Love says: the difference between the Mind's judgement and the Essence's discerning wisdom is that the first is exclusive and the second inclusive, therefore containing no negativity.

So there need be no effort to think positive because the fear mode is not active in the first place anyway.

Breath by breath we cross enormous Bangalore. On each side we pass by a mixture of modern, urbane western-like areas and run-down, rickety constructions, heaps of rubbish and cleaner streets, cows – everywhere and anywhere – and people, thousands and thousands of them.

Once we hit the highway, which we would not generally call a highway except for its wideness, we start riding at a steady pace, as traffic dwindles the further away from town we go.

Being almost new and of course, being a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500, the bike is not only potent and smooth, but also very comfortable, which is quite fortunate for my back because every so often we come across such humungous road humps that I have to hold onto the bike not to bounce like a loose spring - let alone the potholes and gravel roads we also encounter. 

After about 70 km it is time for a stop on the side of the road for a drink of water, a bit of a leg stretch and a map check. It is one of Pedro’s favourite occupations – map checking 😉 the great thing is that he never gets lost, with or without a map.

Some more of our Royal Ride and then we stop at Coffee Day, one of the most iconic café chains in India. Ahhhhhh! The freshness of air-conditioning! And the coffee and tea choices are many, as well as the sandwich and cake display. But it is much more expensive than any other regular café. Well, the staff are very kind – mostly youngsters on their way to university. May is school holiday season so it’s time to earn a buck or two for School time necessities.

The cleaning lady is ever so kind, but very shy and she doesn’t know one word of English. We tentatively call her when we’re out by the bike, before leaving, to ask her to take a photo of both of us. Apparently the lady has never taken a photo of someone and has no idea how to do it.  But we easily show her and manage to get our picture taken with much gratitude. You can’t imagine the lady’s broad smile of achievement. She is clearly not used to be treated as an equal. It makes us realize how even the seemingly simplest things to us can be a hurdle to others, and vice versa - and overcoming them can be an extremely significant moment of growth for all of us. Just like the traffic seems initially insurmountable to us, and pretty straightforward for locals.

Ah! Forgot to mention! There is a beautiful ritual here in South India, of women and girls wearing fresh jasmin flowers in their hair every morning and the reason is that they not only enhance a woman's beauty, but most importantly, they symbolise love, good luck, happiness and prosperity, thus bringing a good omen to the household. It is called God's own flower and therefore sacred and pure. Hummm and the sweet fragrance these flowers spread is sure to warm anyone's heart. What a beautiful practice! The lady who has taken our photos has a string of jasmin in her hair and a permanent smile on her face so she surely is a reason for great joy in her household.

With some more miles under our belt, we eventually stop under the shade of some coconut trees and have the pleasure of watching how lythely a young man climbs up one of them to throw down a few coconuts and then is helped by an eldrely man who has a knife to make a hole in order to drink the fresh liquid inside. People here do not usually break the coconut and eat the fruit, but rather just drink the liquid and discard the rest, which I imagine will go to factories for the oil to be extracted. We will definitely try this natural drink on another occasion.

After Mysore, we enter route 33 - the Master's number.

As any city here, Mysore is a bit chaotic, but we drive through and back into the wild again, where open horizons reach as far as sight can grasp.

The closer we get to the Kabini area, the land becomes greener, with extensive banana and sugar cane fields, rice paddies and other cultures foreign to us. There is a lot of space around here and with such rich land no one needs to lack food.

Ah and Temples. There are Temples everywhere in India, just like churches everywhere in Europe. The difference here is that the Temples, which also include Churches, are of different creeds, but all have the same majestic importance.

We mistakenly enter a Tiger Reserve and National Park where wild animals roam free, but we enjoy its exhuberance and aborb the fresh contrasting colours and scents, though we unfortunately - or not - come across no tigers.

As we are on the road, all of a sudden we come across a huge flock of eagles! I had never seen so many eagles at once in my life! They are feeding on the rubbish by the river.

It is time to start looking for accommodation. We ask around for Home-Stays but either people don’t understand us or there are none. We keep on getting sent to expensive game reserves which is not exactly what we intend to choose because we will be moving on in the morning and are not what one would call regular tourists.

So we go here, and there and elsewhere and eventually come back to a road sign we had seen at the beginning pointing to a Farm-Stay.

This is our last surprise of the day. A terribly broken road, where potholes are hard to avoid and which seems to never end. It is almost night-time, I am exhausted, our 250 km have turned into 300 km and it seems like rain is approaching.

When we get to the place there is a roudy men’s party – possibly a bachelor party – but we are sure enough not going to look for another place. We negotiate the price and are finally taken to our abode for the night – a safari tent with a bathroom and two large double beds.

I wash my dusty clothes and have a cold shower – there is hot water though – and lie on the bed! Phew! What a full day! Full of colours, sensations, impressions, feelings – India is intense, no matter where one goes. I am flamboyantly grateful.

We are soon called for dinner, which is brought to our tent porch, as the men are partying louder and louder down at the restaurant shed. Were it not for the loud music and banter, this would be a peaceful haven in the midst of a tropical Paradise. But alas, the constant contrast between absolute peace and deafening noise is a permanent one, reminding us of the contrast between the Mind and the Soul.

Acceptance. The eternal practice of life on earth which is here exponentially intensified. So we breathe into the noise and accept it, but when sleep becomes a pending necessity we ask the farm’s staff to please request the gentlemen to quieten down, which they respectfully do… for a while….

Eventually the volume of their music gets louder again, yet so does the rain that starts pounding down, in a majestic thunderstorm that lasts for hours and we drift in and out of sleep, amazed at the intensity of this natural phenomenon that floods part of our tent but fortunately not our beds. This of course, leads to power cuts and the loud music finds its way out of our reality as the earth brings in some of its own orchestral symphony.

These thunderstorms have been quite timely so far. There was one back in Delhi when we were at the Taj Dwarka Hotel, then again when we were at Anu and Krishna's in Bangalore and now once more. But providentially, we are never caught out in the midst of it. Always, safe, always taken care of, always soundly where we are supposed to be. 

Intense by day. Intense by night. Thus is our adventure 😊

Read Post 1 of this series here, post 2 here, post 3 here, post 4 here, post 5 here, post 6 here, post 7 here