Practical information

I travelled between the 21st of December and the 9th of January, in northern India. Cold and fog! Below zero more than once. It seems to be a constant at that time of year — setting off in mid-November is probably a much better idea.

Either way, it's worth flying into Delhi. There are direct flights from several European hubs, and Delhi has everything you need (motorcycles included). Airfares run around 800 euros.

Petrol costs around 90 cents and filling stations are very frequent (except in the mountains). A Bullet 500 with a full tank plus a 5-litre spare can will do around 350–400 km.

Average speed: 60 km/h on the plains, 30 km/h in the mountains.

Highways are toll-free for motorcycles — at the tollbooths, all the way to the left, there's a dedicated lane.

Watch out for the triple speed bumps.
They don't just slow you down — they kill.

Mountain roads are the worst — potholes, mud, fords, dirt tracks. In Rajasthan things go much better, but… For the motorcycle I strongly recommend Mukesh Motors (mukeshmotors.com). J.P., the boss, is reliable, and renting a 500 costs around 15 euros a day. You can probably get a discount.

For any further information, don't hesitate to contact me at santucci@diag.uniroma1.it, with “India trip” in the subject line :-).

No vaccinations are needed — what you do need is a visa and an international driving licence (I strongly recommend the American website patenteinternazionale.com — it costs only a little more than doing it in Italy, but the whole process is done online in a matter of days).