Motorcycle road trip through the India Himalayas part one.

As part of my recent motorcycle trip through India I'd like to share some imagery of the incredible culture that India has to offer.

This was one of many trips I have taken through India by motorcycle, more specifically by Royal Enfield.

One this particular trip I wanted to visit the Spiti Valley which is located in the Northern part of the country, next to Tibet. This part of India actually used to be part of Tibet and the culture still apparent today.

I had a month and the idea was to fly from the UK to Delhi, then to head to Rishikesh to hire the motorcycle and start the trip from there. The logistics of doing so wasn't as easy as it sounds. This is India we are talking about.

Getting a train organised from Delhi to Rishikesh was out of the question as the waiting list for getting a train to Rishikesh for the next day was 100+ people. I was left with the only option of taking a bus for 800 Rupees. A quoted bus ride of 5.5 hours took 9 hours to travel a distance of 242 kilometres.

What some people will say is a good bike and the reality are sometimes two different things. It certainly was in this case.

I organised the motorcycle rental through my hotel and the guy turns up with a 500cc Royal Enfield bullet. "Very good bike this one". It wasn't.

Fortunately the guy renting the bike allowed me to take it to the official Royal Enfield garage and let the mechanics fix whatever needed fixing. I was allowed in the workshop to work with them to try and get it ready for the next day. It was a good seven hours of work. Two new wheels, swingarm, tyres, clutch, brakes, oil change and other bits and pieces were needed to get it in a state to actually ride on the mental Indian roads.

The trip had begun....

The very colourful Ram Jhula in Rishikesh.