The Post-Virgin Leh Diaries - Part 1


What They Don’t Tell You
About Riding
On The Roof Of The World. I


 1.       You can do your planning & packing in half an hour.
Yes, a 6 day motorbike voyage to the Land of the Llamas can be packed for and flights booked in 30 minutes. But make sure your team consists of a very well traveled Captain and a few trusted & adventurous mates as well as a very excited boss & colleagues who will help you with your travel bookings.


2.       Those who have gone before you will give you the most apt advice.
They will tell you it will be cold, that you won’t be able to keep up with the other riders and among other gems - you can’t smoke at high altitudes. Choose not to listen to that. Instead get those essential tips from Bandra’s famous Valles Brothers (don’t bet against them in a game of beer pong you will lose!) and Charlie - the ever helpful car & bike expert.
These helpful fellows will tell you about how to interact with the locals, precautions for dealing with AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) and those crucial bits and pieces of biking gear that just have to be carried.


3.       Put the Helmet in your bag.
Carrying your helmet besides carting around your two heavy bags is definitely not convenient. But as a woman – who carries her helmet into the Bombay airport - you will be treated with surprising respect and kindness. (I found out later Indian Police Women Riding Corps. and/or airport employees are the only ones who frequently carry helmets apart from their luggage.) So that got me a personal airport-employee guide till the check-in counters and even got assistance for my unmanageable bags! It was all sunshine and rainbows for said helmet until I reached the Delhi airport.


4.       Know your Airports.
Cousin Dave informed me that the kind folks at the Bombay airport will graciously provide free wifi. Oh, bless you Bombay! Police officers will smile while giving you directions. Strangers will tell you how to get to the smoking room in the quickest way possible, and the airport bar will make lone women travelers feel safe and welcome. No gender bias here. After landing at Delhi, some of the friendly Bombay fliers even helped me get my unreachable helmet from the overhead compartment!
I may have inadvertently gotten lucky with my helmet, but the kindness and welcome I got at the Bombay airport was priceless.
But Delhi, oh Delhi, you desperately need some lessons in hospitality from Bombay! Since there were no illegal substances/objects on me, my helmet became the bone of contention. I was told to somehow shove it in a bag that was too small or leave it behind. So shove it I did, in my too-small bag and trekked to the far side of the airport where I was grudgingly informed of the smoking room – a shady back room, with broken down lighters affixed to the wall like a depressing afterthought, with no chairs and no ventilation. Delhi might allow you to smoke, albeit reluctantly, while making quite a punishing point. I did not see another woman in that smoking room for the entire time I was there. There were shifty characters following me at the Delhi airport, and they only stopped when I parked myself and bags next to a policeman. I couldn’t wait to get out of Delhi.

 .....................to be continued!

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