I spend about 6 months in India. It's another one of those country that you either hate it or love it. I belong to the first group. And while I was in India, I've met lots and lots of people that really love this country. By you must have a certain attitudes though. You must be a person that likes to talk to everyone. You must have a lot of patience and a good sense of humour. My biggest problem was I stood up like a sore thumb when I bike through all the villages. I am a small man in western standard, 5'7" and about 150lbs. But I guess I was big in India, plus the fact that I am an oriental with hair almost down to his butt. I could be easy and outgoing if I want to and I could be solitaire if I choose to also. In India, the second option isn't available. I've gotten people that hit me while I was riding because they wanted to talk to me. I've gotten people that tried to run me off the road with the bikes because they wanted to talk to me. Same thing happen with truck drivers. And this happens almost everyday that I ride.
My original plan was to ride up to the Indian Himalayas at the right time of the year. But after 6 months, I couldn't take it anymore.
When I was in Nepal and India. For that matter, anywhere in the world. I ate and drank just about at every place imaginable. As a result of that, I was sick for almost a year when I got back to Canada. I had chronic diarrhea. Took me a long time to find the right doctor to cure the problem.
I also suffered a major breakdown on my bike. My bike broke down in some small town and I couldn't fixed the problem. So I put the bike on the train to Calcutta. Being the 3rd biggest city in India with a population of over 15 millions. You would've thought I can get the right parts for my bike. But after 10 days, I gave up. it just wasn't meant to be. But return flights to Bangkok was quite cheap. So that's what I did. I flew to Bangkok with the sole prupose to fix my bike. While I was in Bangkok, I contemplate at buying a new bike. Instead I just bought the parts that I thought I needed and flew back to Calcutta.
At this point I was feeling pretty good, with new parts and ready to go. It was time to leave Calcutta. 1 day after Calcutta, everything broke down. Man I was pissed off, if I had just bought another bike in Bangkok, this would've never happened. So, I put the bike on the train again. This time to Puri, which is a seaside resort. Got on the phone to my friend in Canada. He had to send me all the parts while I waited here. My friend paid for 5 day express service. The parcel finally came after 2 weeks. On top of that, they wanted to charge me more than 200% for duties and tax and some other bullshits. Even though I wasn't selling any of these parts. So I told the courier that I wasn't paying. So he phoned head office in another city. The supervisor came by the train. When he arrived at my hotel, he brought some muscles. My guess was that they were going to rough me up if I wasn't going to pay. I was just completely mad at this time. I would've been happy to go at it with them. But we ended up going to the police station. As soon as I walked in, the superintendent started screaming at me and wouldn't let up. I knew then it was pointless to make my case. I just shut up and paid and get the hell out of there. Not too much bike problem after this fisco.