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Motorcycle Touring
v. toured, tour?ing, tours
v. intr.
1. To travel from place to place, especially for pleasure.
2. To travel among various places while fulfilling engagements.
Are paagal ho gaye ho kya? (Are you mad?)
Jana hai toh car main yaan bus se jao! Motorcycle pe risk bahut hai. (if you have to go, then go by car or bus! Motorcycle is too risky.)
These are just few of the replies that you get when you mention that want to tour on a motorcycle.
After all a car/bus/train is much more comfortable, you are protected from the elements and at the end of journey you are less tired than you would have been if you had done the same on a motorcycle. These are much safer and at the same time you need not be on a constant state of alert if you are taking a taxi/bus/train.
Then why would any one want to go on a motorcycle, only to reach the destination dirty and tired?
In motorcycle touring, not only the destination matters but also the time spent traveling. Your vacation starts the moment you sit on your bike and start the engine.
It might not be as comfortable or fast as other tools of travel, but then again it?s not a tool! It?s not just a mean to reach your destination; your bike is your constant companion. A cup of tea/coffee will never taste better than the one you will have on small road side tea stall on a cold foggy morning. Even a simple parantha at a road side Dhaba will seem more delicious than an extravagant buffet at a five star hotel, after hours of riding in hills.
You will only need one tour on a motorcycle to get addicted to it for the rest of your life. A day?s journey on a motorcycle will teach more about the world than a month long journey in train. You won?t be locked up in a cage with a small window to look at the wonders of nature. In the morning sun will come out to greet you, while the constant wind will give you a hug reminding you that you are one with the nature. The whole world is your play ground, with new things to discover, new challenges to meet, places to go where very few have gone before.
When you come back from a trip like this and talk to your friends about the things you have seen, places you have visited, there will be a sense of amazement in their eyes. Even though they would have been to the same destination as you, they would have never felt that you were able to feel. They can only dream of doing the same in a metal cage with a view from the window as their outlook to the world.
This, my friend, is the wonderful world of motorcycle touring.
A world where destination is just an excuse for the trip.
A world where less used village roads are preferred to super smooth national highways.
A world where strangers greet you as a long lost friend because both of you choose to tour on motorcycle.
A world where when you get off from your motorcycle suffering from acute mountain sickness and then one look back at the highest road in the world and you instantly make a promise to yourself to do the same road again.
A world where you choose the direction to travel rather than a destination!
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