That's
me Dave Bannister & a mate Ian Forbes from Worcester. We've done thousands
of kms of European biking and been doing Sri Lanka & different parts of India
for the last few years, so Cochin Fort is our base, an island just off the coast,
bit like the Isle of Wight really, we know the people well now at the Homestay
(part of a global network of private homes offering accommodation) we always use,
they as usual lay on a cab from airport to Cochin Fort. 2 or 3 days to get over
flight and adjust to the heat and off we go, back to the mainland "4 rupees
single passenger for half hour boat trip about 4p in our money" Wightlink
please note.
Been fending for ourselves in India every winter for the last
6 years . Pictures of us with helmets on quite rare as normally to hot for that.
Tee shirt & jeans and an old pair of hiking boots, oh and a scarf across the
face to keep out the fumes from the Tata trucks
& the interstate buses on the bikes.
The
kings of the road are any bus, local or express interstate, they come directly
at you at speed, they will not deviate from their line, you will / must get out
of there way, they will run you down. Tata trucks do the same but fortunately
they are nearly always overloaded, so easy to overtake, Motorbikes everywhere.
Tuk Tuk rickshaws are the wilder beasts and are always overtaken, but they do
have a tendency to do unusual tricks in the road, so must be watched, police hotter
on crashhelmets now compulsory for a rider to wear one or a 2000 rupee fine, if
not wearing one.
On the car ferry pictured its 17 rupees, 17 p one way
bike / rider. The guy who rents us our bikes is English and both are Enfields
500s
straight out the factory at Chennai in India, mine had 137 kms on the clock and
was not run in yet. The following day after the motorbike scrum for the car ferry
(no booking here) we headed north to Vypeen Beach for some R&R. It's about
105 km so a lovely ride through the palm trees, just jeans & tea shirt I'm
afraid but I would pass out if I had to wear m/c jacket & trousers. No crash
helmet although compulsory for the driver of the bike in India, the pillion doesn't
have to haveone, nor do the other 4 people on the bike. Including babes cradled
in the riders arms. Few pictures of the bikes, I have since changed for a while
to a Motorcycle sidecar 1972 just been rebuilt, with what looks like a Watsonian
on the side, made in the slums of Mumbai but terrific build quality bit of a beast
but what fun, more another day regards to all Dave
This
is getting to be a habit for the last 4 years. "Strictly" finished on
tele, Christmas drags by and I start thinking India & Enfield's.
Duly
arrived at Cochin India 23rd January 2014.
David
Banister
Ian
Forbes
Our
2 Bikes
Francis
Church Fort Cochin
Vypeen
Beach
Tuk-Tuk-Rickshaw
Bike
full of Pots
Kawasaki-750
Kovolum-1
The
gents I think, no, the grog shop
An
actual road, alas no fuel
Dead
Water Buffalo
Broken
Bike
Kovolum-2
Recovery
Truck
With
a sidecar
Back
on the 350cc
Am
I ok
Table
on Shanklin front?
Watsonian-Sidecars-100-yrs
- special version
Instalment
dated 12th February 2014
Ho hum. Well going up a mountain near Pormodi
just outside Thiruvananthapuram when everything seized up , free wheeled to a
holiday complex, had a look at the engine, called bike rental man, truck comes
to pick you up 4 hrs after midnight, um 3 in the morning, maybe midday, truck
arrived 2300 following day. Local police & mechanics lift bike onto truck,
I climb into side car, best seat in the house, take us back to Kovolum.
Solo
bike replacement arrives next day for us to continue our journey south, will return
in 4 days time. The breakdown was the crank shaft bearing was put in wrongly when
the engine was rebuilt a few weeks ago, this caused the piston to wobble and imbed
itself into the cylinder. Big job but they have some great engineers in India
hard to leave Kovolum but nice to be on the solo and be able to nip through the
traffic.
Making
our way South:-
Here's the bike. modelled by a French lady who rides a Kawasaki
750 at home in France & can kick start it better than me, stayed at a coastal
resort called Varkala. Gotta watch it as the days go by you just chill out, swim
in the warm ocean, eat fish / lobster meals, drink, what's not to like but you
end up not using the bikes, so south again to Kovolum, it's a bit like Shanklin
, with hot sun. Rooms 2000 rupees a night ( £20 ) meals eat well for £8
buys meal for two, with cold kingfisher beer, (it's called special tea, served
in a tea pot, drunk from a mug or cup) the Indians have some really strange licensing
laws, so this is how they get round it, more another time:- Dave
Instalment
dated 20th February
Hi Paul. Left the m/c sidecar in Kovolum, pick
up an old classic Enfield 350 to play on whilst it's having crank sorted and re-bore
( 4 days) went down to the tip of India to the temple away the end of the world,
fantastic scenery, back to Kovolum pick up m/c sidecar all ready £50, on
the to east coast and Pondicherry, photos prove not all India's roads are chockablock,
poor old water buffalo must have been hit by a truck or an express bus, bits over
150 metres down the road poor thing, I had run out of petrol, Ian emptied our
one litre water bottle and rode of to the petrol station (they will fill up a
bottle with petrol) I was sat with my bike by the roadside, when this little girl
got out of her grandfathers van and asked me if I was in trouble, really nice
like that, she spoke perfect English. No I'm ok thank you, the picture you took
for toilets is in fact the local grog shop, where Indians buy their alcohol, we
buy whiskey, rum, brandy & kingfisher beer there, it's a really filthy place,
they placed the metal front on it and you go through like a sheep in a sheep dip,
this stops fights breaking out because of pushing in (Indians don't do queuing)
all for now. Another breakdown story next time, all the best dave, ps 31 degrees
here today,
Instalment
dated 21st February
Well I don't know. Bike going like a dream for
an oldun (1972), rode all day through mile upon mile of salt flats. Where the
locals evaporate sea water to make seasalt. Huge mounds of it everywhere, then
mile upon mile of flat wheat fields, then, complete loss of power and the old
bike staggers to a halt. Doesn't take long to realise that now the head gasket
is blown. Bugger, push bike into someone's yard and rode pillion back 12 km to
last town we went through. Mechanic in town says he services Hondas Heros, not
Enfields but he knows a man who does 65 kms away in the next city. He will do
head gasket, if we can get bike to him, bought as bit of rope and Ian towed it,
found new mechanic, who had the tank / head off before you could say jack Robinson,
he sent one of the boys working at the shop to buy a new gasket (£2) replaced
it, tank back on. Bit of a test, 1 hrs work, £2.50 labour and back on the
road to find hotel for the night. The following day bike going like a dream onwards
to Chennai and golden beach for a few days R &R.
Hope this bike
is not jinxed ??? Dave