New delhi - Agra - New Delhi

  Agra, India
Saturday, October 27, 2007

Itinary : New Delhi - Agra - New Delhi
Dates : 26th October to 27th October 2007
mileage in India : 800 km
mileage so far : 7700 km

After doing the Banbaasa - New Delhi road, this Agra road is an Autobahn! Well there are still cows...But instead of having to avoid one every 200 meters, we only had to face one every 500 meters...Luxury!

I arrived in Agra a bit before 6 pm, just minutes after Kevin arrived. Kevin looked like shit...
He did the same road as I did and decided to do it in 2 days as well...For your information, it's almost 1200 km in two days including a border crossing and no highway...For those of you that know the roads in Nepal and India, it's not an easy task!

So we had a quick dinner before heading to our "shitty" room which brought me back to reality and made me remember that I was on an adventure trip...I had to switch on the generator in the toilet on the floor if I wanted to turn on the TV in the room. And I didn't sleep alone as I was surrounded with mosquitos...Didn't sleep much.

Like I said in my previous entry, and on my father's advice, it was important to see the Taj Mahal during the best time which is in the early morning, during the sunrise. So I decided to organize a tutuk for 6 am the next morning...After all, I almost died a couple of times on the road to Agra, so it was important to make the most out of this short visit.

The Taj Mahal is a fascinating piece of architecture...You can really feel this sort of presence that you dont feel when seeing other historical buildings...And it felt nice to walk in there as there was no cows, no trash and not so much people! it was like a breath of fresh air...Apparently the Taj mahal was built by one of the kings after the death of his wife while giving birth to her 14th child! Weird...I would have thought that after all those children, the 14th would have been a "piece of cake"...No wonder there's so many kids and birth control problems in India...Maybe the ladies think that their husbands will build a huge house after the 14th child...

Entrance gate to the Taj Mahal...

   

The entrance to the house of luuuve...

    

The road to the Taj Mahal....

Proof I was there at 6 am! could be 5 pm aswell...

 









So after a quick visit, a few pictures, and shuving away a few guides with wisely prepared scams, we hit the road back to New Delhi where we decided to have a good rest before starting the interesting part which is the Manali - Leh - Srinagar - daramshala loop in the kashmnir region, in the north of India. Can't wait! Hopefully we'll manage to make the complete the 2000 km loop and reach the 6000 meter mark without having to manage altitude sickness...Fingers crossed...

On my way back to New Delhi, had a little misfortune where my pivot screw holding the center stand snapped. Didn't think that would happen! Surprised that BMW would miscalculate the diameter of the bolt to use...It's rather an easy formula and calculation to do...We know there are 2 pivot points, maximum weight applied during lift (with extra safety margin) and the contact surface of the pivots...See dad, your money was well invested...

a mini taj mahal on the way back to Delhi...

Al Quaieda demonstration on the highway...

So the afternoon rest in New Delhi became a workshop afternoon where I had the 2 bolts on each side replaced and 2 nails taken out of my rear tyre! And finally when everything was done, I decided to do an oil change in the hotel's carpark. So now the bike is all set to do this loop...Tyres checked, oil checked, brake checked so hopefully no problems or servicing to do before Pakistan...

Repairing on the side of the road in Delhi...

BMW miscalculated the diameter of the screw?

  

I'm not changing my tyres here...

Tomorrow, heading first to Chandigarh, where we will spend a night there before reaching the apparently nice mountain town of Manali. Really can't wait to get up in the north where it should be more quiet and less people! Normally I should be able to update there...