10 Things I Now Know After Learning to Ride a Motorcycle in India

1. Riding for 30 minutes around the neighborhood 3 or 4 times is all the instruction you really need (thanks Imran!). The rest you pick up quickly on the road. Oddly enough I feel more comfortable riding here since it’s impossible to go really fast and there are already so many motorcycles and bikes that drivers are more aware of them.

2. Stalling in the middle of a busy road really sucks with a temperamental kick-starter.

3. A 20km “shortcut” through a village dirt road can take over 2.5 hours. Definitely need to remember the water next time too.




4. Tipping over twice on such above mentioned “shortcut” from sliding out on loose sand can result in you having to make a visit here…

… and leaving you looking like the mummy.


5. I really have to watch out for goats on the road, they like to be directly in my pathway for some strange reason (as do camels, carts, cats, chickens, geese, dogs, pigs, cows, buffalos, people, bicycles, other motorcycles, scooters, flat bed trucks, tractors overstuffed with cotton, cars, buses…).


6. Nimbooz, a lemonade drink, and all its variants is close as it gets to Gatorade in India. Perfect for 100 degree weather!


7. Riding in rush hour traffic isn’t a good idea (but you get to use your horn a lot).

8. Riding in rush hour traffic on a highway really isn’t a good idea.

9. Riding in rush hour traffic on a highway at nighttime after already spending 20+ exhausting hours in a blowdryer-like climate really really isn’t a good idea (no photos of this, was too busy praying).

10. It’s damn fun and is the BEST way to see beautiful parts in this country. Next tour- Himalayas!



Glad to be back-