This guest post was written by Spider Rider Danielle Murdoch. She is currently in India, on a trip riding from her homeland in Australia to Africa. She is riding over land through South East Asia, India, the Middle East then on to Egypt where she will start her circumnavigation of Africa. 

Beeeepppppp, doadooooloooo, honk honk, beeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeeeep, Beeeepppppp, doadooooloooo, honk honk, doadooooloooo, beeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeeeep, Beeeepppppp, doadooooloooo, honk honk, beeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp.

It gets annoying reading it doesn’t it? Let alone listening to it all day every day. Indians love all sounds and the louder the better. Girls walk down the street with bells ging-a-linging around their ankles, children have them attached to their shoes. Teenagers love to walk around with the latest pop music crackling from their mobile phones. Cricket is blaring from fuzzy tv’s through out the city, overlaid with the constant honking from the traffic.

 When riding my Suzuki DR350 on the open road, you would think the honking would vanish and everyone would travel along together as one happy family, but its not as simple as that. With a population of 1.2 billion, everyone in India has to prove their worth by being greater. The easiest way to prove this is to have the loudest horn and drive incredibly fast. Not only do you tackle the roads with fast and loud traffic, but you have to share it with cows, camels, tuk tuks and horse and carts. Not to mention the traffic that has somehow made its way onto your side of the road and is heading straight for you!

With my faith only in simple local maps, I find navigating through a ‘small’ two million population village is a lot harder than finding the centre the night before. You find yourself becoming extremely clever in reading simple signs hidden amongst the squiggly foreign handwriting and completely comfortable at asking for directions, even though they might also be completely wrong.

I might be travelling alone, but I certainly don’t feel alone as I haven’t found an empty spot in India. After a chai break, I have to have the side stand down when I climb aboard my Suzuki DR350, giving it a good strong kick, to bring it to life. Within a few minutes I am surrounded by a large growing crowd, all of them have come to see a 5’2 girl completely wrapped up in motorcross gear get on her monstrous motorcycle. I cannot image what they must be thinking about me while they all simultaneously wobble their heads, as I wave goodbye.

Follow Danielle’s adventures on her website and blog here:http://www.motomonkeyadventures.com/index.htm