Day 26: Amritsar - Delhi (19th Sept 2014)

Woke up at 5:30 am and before the ride towards Delhi started, I tied the scarf from the Golden temple on Chitti (that's what Linda calls my Royal Enfield. Inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors - RAJNIKANT !!! ). Both happy, the ride to Delhi started at 7 am.

It was an extremely hot day and it was just not possible to ride with my leather jacket on. I removed the jacket but not the protective gears.

By 10 am I was hungry, so I was looking for a decent place to stop for a brunch. It was at that point I saw something that can happen only in Punjab. Parked in front of one dhaba was a classic 4X4 and right beside it stood an Enfield. When I spotted them, I was cruising at around 80kms/hr so I could not spot immediately. I continued riding, but after a minute or so I thought that I would miss out on a great story there. I took a U-turn and headed back to the Dhaba. ‘Sher Gill’ was the name of the dhaba and to my surprise, the MUV and the bullet belonged to the proud owner of the dhaba. It was not hard to guess, the number plate of the bullet and MUV had ‘Sher Gill’ inscribed on them. The owner had entrusted one of the staff with an additional duty of keeping that two possession of his in spick and span condition. I met the owner and had a short chat with him.

After I had drooled enough looking at the MUV, I ordered for whatever best they had. The waiter got me misri rotis and dal makhani.

After that heart-filling meal, the ride towards Delhi resumed at 11:30 am.

 I wanted to have all my documents ready before I entered Delhi. I was not carrying the pollution clearance certificate as Chitti was just one year old. Actually, any vehicle which is a year old doesn't need a pollution certificate, but I didn't want to take a chance with the traffic cops because I had Karnataka registration. I finally found one pollution checking booth and lined up Chitti to get the pollution clearance certificate. The lady who was in charge just took the photo of Chtti and gave me the pollution clearance certificate without even checking. Later I learned that she had a ready-made template for the pollution certificate and just had to take the picture of the vehicle and paste it on the certificate. Easy money.

I reached Delhi at around 5 pm. As I entered the outskirts of Delhi, this time again (read 7th Day) I was pushed around by the bad road discipline of few of the Delhi drivers. Delhi was really letting me down. Then at one red signal stop, one lady stopped her car beside Chitti and gave me a warm smile, thumbs up and a wave of a hand. I am sure she must have been a traveller herself. With this act of hers, I had made peace with Delhi again.

I went straight to Loch’s place. Ashwin, who stays with Lochan in the same flat received me. Lochan was at work and was scheduled to come the following morning. The first thing I did once I reached there was look for my phone. I was so relieved to know that the phone was working fine. The best part of using an android phone is that it automatically backs up the photos in the phone to the Google drive. It was a triumphant feeling to know that all of my photos that I had clicked on the phone before it got waterlogged had been safely backed up and ready for me to use, especially the ones that I had clicked during this trip. Also, I could now navigate with the help of GPS.

The scorching sun had made me sweat profusely so I immediately headed for a shower. After the shower, I realized that the sun had literally baked me. It had imprinted me with a tattoo of a tribal design.

Kissed by the Sun

I called Linda and home to inform that I had reached Delhi.

Beer was a necessity for the evening. I got some chicken items from Rajinder dhaba and let the chilled beer relax the dehydrated and tired muscles in my body. Meanwhile, Ashwin made some
simple, much-needed dinner for us.

At the end of the 26th day, I had covered a distance of 500 km.

Do read the other days chronicle listed on the same page)

#Royalenfield  #trip #leh #bikeride #adventure #ladakh #travel