www.london-motorcycle-museum.org
Udaipur.
Puri and Bhubaneswar had not been a pleasant
experience. The best bit about it was seeing a Royal Enfield motorcycle club
parade down the sea front, with a police escort. The thunder of the exhaust
from about fifty bikes was a thrill to hear. They all came back again after a
couple of hours and I could hear them come and go as I lay in bed. Delhi was
still cold. I was getting used to the traffic and after the manic atmosphere of
Puri the manic driving in Delhi seemed almost sane. We spent only a few days in
the Delhi cold to fly out again to Udaipur. The flight was delayed and it
turned out to be a very expensive delay as there was little else to do while we
waited. Udaipur is in Rajasthan in the west of India and renowned for being a
progressive state. We could see this as soon as we landed. A pleasant drive
from the airport with reasonably sensible driving into a clean city. Udaipur is
so different surrounded by hills it seems cut off from the rest of India. We
did the touristy stuff and visited the palace and had a boat trip around the
hotel in the lake.
We were hoping to have tea within its splendour but now you can only do that if you are a resident. The main reason for me visiting this city was to be able to get to Chotila some 250km away. Other ways to get there were proving difficult with the distances from Jodhpur and Jaipur even greater and with limited time available this seemed the best option. After a day in the city we had an early start to travel by car to Chotila. The route included some very smooth dual carriageway, narrow roads through villages and over the hills. We even saw a group riders on Enfields obviously doing a tour. They did not look like locals as they were well kitted out. I have many photos of the route through the hills and even a short video taken from the rear passenger seat of the car. This is on YouTube the link is http://youtu.be/VRz8G1WHAz0 . I can understand why the tours use this area as the roads are well paved and mostly smooth tarmac. I will need to do this another time as having driven over them it would be great to do it on a bike (between nice hotels of course). It took all morning to get there and I wondered if it would be worth the effort. I was not disappointed. What is at Chotila is the Royal Enfield shrine. It is the place where Om Bana was tragically killed in a collision with a truck. I learned more of the story from the car driver who took us there and we were the first visitors he had to visit this shrine.
Entrance to the shrine.
I will relay the story in the next instalment but this is about my visit and not the story. As with all temples and shrines you take your shoes off as a sign of respect then if you wish to raise the spirits to listen to you must ring the bell. I proceed on to the next stage you get a mark on your forehead called a bindi to show you are receiving a blessing for which you are required to donate something. I moved on solemnly to see the Shrine of the Enfield. The motorcycle has been encased in a glass cover to protect it from the weather but you are still able to reach in and touch it at the front.
I spent some time looking at it walking around it and taking photos. There was a kind of reverence about what was represented here. I took more photos of the front of the shrine which was raised by about a metre where incense was burning along with an eternal flame and there were photos of Om Bana in his wedding attire. The sign of respect is to pass your hand over the flame and incense smoke and run your hand over your face and hair. At this point I passed over more money for this privilege and took more photos. As I left this dais I felt quite emotional. It was like paying your respects not only to the man who died but all the other lost bikers everywhere. I received for my gift some confection that I am bringing home as a memory of this reverend place. The story of the accident comes next.
We were hoping to have tea within its splendour but now you can only do that if you are a resident. The main reason for me visiting this city was to be able to get to Chotila some 250km away. Other ways to get there were proving difficult with the distances from Jodhpur and Jaipur even greater and with limited time available this seemed the best option. After a day in the city we had an early start to travel by car to Chotila. The route included some very smooth dual carriageway, narrow roads through villages and over the hills. We even saw a group riders on Enfields obviously doing a tour. They did not look like locals as they were well kitted out. I have many photos of the route through the hills and even a short video taken from the rear passenger seat of the car. This is on YouTube the link is http://youtu.be/VRz8G1WHAz0 . I can understand why the tours use this area as the roads are well paved and mostly smooth tarmac. I will need to do this another time as having driven over them it would be great to do it on a bike (between nice hotels of course). It took all morning to get there and I wondered if it would be worth the effort. I was not disappointed. What is at Chotila is the Royal Enfield shrine. It is the place where Om Bana was tragically killed in a collision with a truck. I learned more of the story from the car driver who took us there and we were the first visitors he had to visit this shrine.
I will relay the story in the next instalment but this is about my visit and not the story. As with all temples and shrines you take your shoes off as a sign of respect then if you wish to raise the spirits to listen to you must ring the bell. I proceed on to the next stage you get a mark on your forehead called a bindi to show you are receiving a blessing for which you are required to donate something. I moved on solemnly to see the Shrine of the Enfield. The motorcycle has been encased in a glass cover to protect it from the weather but you are still able to reach in and touch it at the front.
I spent some time looking at it walking around it and taking photos. There was a kind of reverence about what was represented here. I took more photos of the front of the shrine which was raised by about a metre where incense was burning along with an eternal flame and there were photos of Om Bana in his wedding attire. The sign of respect is to pass your hand over the flame and incense smoke and run your hand over your face and hair. At this point I passed over more money for this privilege and took more photos. As I left this dais I felt quite emotional. It was like paying your respects not only to the man who died but all the other lost bikers everywhere. I received for my gift some confection that I am bringing home as a memory of this reverend place. The story of the accident comes next.
No comments:
Post a Comment