Royal Ride, Royal Region - ROYAL ENFIELD

Royal Ride, Royal Region

Piyush Sonsale traverses Rajasthan astride a motorcycle as Indian as ‘cutting chai’
A Royal Enfield motorcycle, 10 days and over 2,500 kilometres of riding across India’s largest state. Endless roads, remote villages, rides through a desert, waist-deep swamp and a dry lake bed. Roadside food, stinking socks, sunburnt skin, rattled limbs and a growing beard. Forts, palaces, temples, unbelievable customs, beautiful countryside and changing landscapes. Only one thing remained constant throughout: the engine’s distinct thump..thump..thump...

Piyush Sonsale traverses Rajasthan astride a motorcycle as Indian as ‘cutting chai’
A Royal Enfield motorcycle, 10 days and over 2,500 kilometres of riding across India’s largest state. Endless roads, remote villages, rides through a desert, waist-deep swamp and a dry lake bed. Roadside food, stinking socks, sunburnt skin, rattled limbs and a growing beard. Forts, palaces, temples, unbelievable customs, beautiful countryside and changing landscapes. Only one thing remained constant throughout: the engine’s distinct thump..thump..thump..

The second edition of Royal Enfield’s annual Tour of Rajasthan ride has satiated my mile-munching appetite for the time being, leaving my mind full of memories, experiences and a large album of mental images.
The ride was organised by Royal Enfield strictly for their customers. Each participant was charged Rs 15,000. This included organisation of the trip, lodging, breakfast and back-up facilities such as spare parts for the bike, spare fuel, technical support and a doctor. Roughly another Rs 15,000 was spent during the trip on fuel, food, water and beverages.

The state capital Jaipur was the rendezvous where I had my first glimpse of the days to come. Well-preserved structures, city walls, bazaars, spacious circular roundabouts, old administrative and royal buildings, all built with a reddish stone, give the city a rustic charm. Simple people, funny tuktuks, chaotic streets, cattle and, surprisingly, not too much litter and garbage by the roadside are also a few features common to all the towns in Rajasthan.

Day 1: On October 16, Jaipur woke up to a common morning alarm: the thump of our Royal Enfield bikes. Twenty strong, we thundered out of the city in a convoy, marking the beginning of our ride. A Royal Enfield motorcycle makes one feel special on the road. Its sheer size, unmistakable exhaust note and slow-revving engine give it a striking road presence. I was in the saddle of the Classic 500, a retro styled 500-cc, 27.5 PS, 41.3 Nm torque monster I had little foreknowledge of. Not for long, though. By the fifth gear, I was clinging onto the handlebar to stay put on the bike.
We rode north-west from Jaipur and, after brief halts en route for food and fuel, reached our destination for the day – Narayan Niwas palace hotel, a part of Fort Mahansar. The hotel rooms showed signs of minimal modifications to the fort’s original structure, giving its patrons an authentic sense of royal Rajput stay. By the end of the day, the bike’s vibrations had given me swollen palms and feet, I had a sore bum and the Classic’s upright position and sprung seat had tortured my back. But I couldn’t care less. I was already in love with it.

Day 2: We rode further west to the city of Bikaner. Our bikes entered the hotel parking at 3.00 pm, giving us ample time to explore the city. Fort Junagarh, street food and namkeen are the three things one shouldn’t miss in Bikaner.

                                                   

Day 3: Day 3: The plan for the day was to ride south-west and camp for the night in the desert near the town of Jamba. Our first halt was the temple of goddess Karnimata, where the Pied Piper has a lucrative job cut out for him. The temple is full of mice and rats,considered sacred for some reason. By afternoon we were off-road and even off our bikes frequently. A few much-needed tips later I was spending more time riding the bike than picking it up. The most important aid while riding off-road is self-confidence. Believe that you will not fall. Secondly, hold the bike’s handlebar like a woman’s waist. Gently. Let the handlebar vibrate. Do not use force to keep it straight.  A rigid handlebar passes vibrations to the chassis and the entire bike wobbles. Thirdly, do not brake abruptly – a fall is a cinch. Keep the throttle constant through the sand and always approach the off-road section on throttle. Reducing air pressure in the tyres also helps as it increases the contact area. To get the act right, most of us focused only on the course. Thankfully somebody realised that the farms we were riding through were full of musk melons. So under a blistering sun we sat, tucking into juicy, cold melons. Sheer bliss!

Day 4: We decided to make up for the falls and, mercifully, smooth tarmac allowed high-speed cruising all the way. We took a brief halt near
a town called Khichan, known for its lakes full of migratory birds this time of the year. By noon we reached Pokhran, the test field for India’s nuclear arsenal. We had lunch there and then rode for two hours until we reached Jaisalmer, a city known for its mammoth eponymous fort. Fort Jaisalmer, built atop a mountain, is the most striking landmark of the city and stands like a sentinel, a symbol of power.

Day 5:  I suffered three breakdowns. Burnt clutch plates, a waterlogged engine and a nasty spill, where my bike played the raging bull while an actual bull was the ill-fated matador. In the afternoon we visited the army’s check-posts at Longewala and Ghotaru near the border where the Indo-Pak war of 1971 was fought. We camped that night at a place called Sam, near Jaisalmer city.
Day 6 & 7: We rode eastwards from Sam to arrive in Jodhpur, where we spent the next day too. Jodhpur’s market is a good place for ethnic goods such as traditional garments, footwear, bags and a variety of bric-a-brac.  If you like street food, don’t forget to have samosa and kachori at the eateries in the market. In the afternoon we visited the Umaid Bhawan palace, originally the lavish home of Jodhpur’s royal family. Beauty delineated in structure. Then we  rode through the narrow streets of old Jodhpur and went up a hill where Fort Mehrangarh sits overlooking the city. An intact testimony to history, the fort takes you back in time.
Day 8: We rode down south to Kumbalgarh, a town located in the Aravali range of mountains. Our first stop was at the Sardar Samak palace, another property belonging to Jodhpur’s royal family. Further afield, we visited an unusual shrine, the Bullet Baba. This shrine, located on the Pali-Jodhpur highway, is a temple dedicated to a Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle! Equally unusual is the nature of offerings to this deity. Bullet beer (a local brew) is offered as prasad and obviously consumed too. Some hours later, we stopped again, this time at a conventional shrine, the famous Jain temple of Ranakpur. Carved in marble, the temple is another well-preserved example of our country’s rich heritage.

Day 9: We descended down the Aravali range and headed north-east for Ajmer. A Royal Enfield motorcycle is not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to cornering. However, we ignored the fact and put our bikes through quite a few zigzag paces. The twisting road out of Kumbalgarh offered one of the most enjoyable rides. We reached rather late due to frequent punctures and breakdowns en route. Though one of the most tiring, this ride was worth the trouble.
Day 10: The last day of our two-wheeled adventure. The Tour of Rajasthan ride was a closed loop, which meant Jaipur was to be our final destination. On the way we stopped over at Pushkar to visit the famous Brahma temple, a centuries old structure and one of the very few temples to Lord Brahma. By afternoon we reached the dry bed of the Sambhar salt water lake. A flat stretch of land with no visible obstacles until the very horizon. Now we were scattered about like a line of ants disturbed suddenly. It was as if 20 kids were playing in a sand pit at a kindergarten. After an hour of fun, we rode across the lake bed, rejoined the highway and rode non-stop to Jaipur with a heart heavier than the bike. My dream ride had come to an end as I parked my Classic 500 in exactly the same slot where I had first seen it 10 days ago in the parking lot of the same hotel. It was not the destination that mattered; it was the journey that did!