u/SlowLow_Rider

Hint: North East. One of the border areas.

Sorry about your loss Carl. Hopefully Russell comes knocking and you meet Kevin soon. Good luck.

No overtaking even if the road is empty on the other side. Scooter and motorcycle riders can go past. Awesome work Meghalaya

So much Drama past few days 😂

To go to Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, I need a permit. Online permit is hard to submit as I dont know which hotels I will be staying at. So I want to visit the physical office. I go to a physical office in Guwahati but that address was closed 3 years ago 😂. Lot of places in Assam are not updated on Google maps. Anyways, So I call a number of their office I found on Google. They advise me to contact another number of an agent. But on the first call to the government department they kept on hanging up on me. Already makes things look fishy here. The agent they gave the number to me is a tour agent whose business shows closed on Google.

Permits take 15 days to arrive but this agent says he can do it in 3 days. ₹4650 for the permit and ₹1000 his service fees. I can transfer him the money but I am not sure if this is legit or not. India doesn't have a good reputation when it comes to trusting strangers 😂. Most business is conducted via WhatsApp in this country and it's really wierd how they do it. Almost sounds like you are going to get scammed. They also talk like the scammers we get calls to remove that virus from our PC. May be I have trust issues Idk.

He sends me all the requirements via WhatsApp. I now go to a mall in Guwahati and sit in a Foodcourt submit the form to him. He tells me 3 days to get the permit. Not sure how he is going to go around the hotel requirement details but I guess that's what I paid ₹1000 for lol 😂

I start riding to Udalguri in the dark. Some more drama with locals wanting to have tea with me but they say this is a dangerous area on the way to Udalguri. So I ride fast to avoid them. They can't keep up with 400 cc.

Then comes yesterday. I am hanging around the Balemu checkpoint for my permit. The agent wants money before sending me the permit. I don't send the money before I get the permit. After a bit of argument between me and him, I get the permit just before 5 PM. I walk to the checkpost and the officer advises me that the permit is from 9th May to 23rd May. 😛 I can't enter on 7th May. I have to wait couple of days. I can enter anytime after 9th May through 3 checkposts into AP but I have to get out of AP on 23rd May or before. One of the checkpoints is in the center-east. I can't go to the eastern most part of AP. For now, atleast I know the permit is legit. I transfer the money to the agent at this point.

My options are to wait around Assam for 2 days or continue with my journey but with few changes. I was planning to ride orth-East India clockwise. That way I spend hot summer up in the mountains and then come to Meghalaya closer to the monsoon to experience world's highest rainfall area. So travel to AP, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam before I go to the north belt of India. But now I am changing the whole thing to anti-clockwise. Last night I rode from AP-Assam border in Balemu to Guwahati down to Shilong in Meghalaya. Lot of night riding. Got to Shilong at 1030 PM.

I now have a deadline to get out of AP by 23rd May. So need to rush a bit to make sure I get out by 23rd May. Now I wish to complete atleast UP and Bihar by the end of this May. I will be speed running through some of the places. Also, hope that the those 7 to 8 hours a day of riding can be done quickly.

PS: I am most likely not going to be allowed in Manipur. The map is AI generated. Might have some inaccuracies

If you see me and Goofy in the streets, come and say hello. Happy to take some suggestions for places to visit.

Currently in Tezpur. Going to Tawang and 2 other districts in AP. I can't go into many places due to PAP restrictions. I won't be allowed in Manipur sadly. But I will be praying for Manipur.

Started from Gujarat on 2nd March, I have travelled 11 states ( not counting Gujarat and Sikkim) and 2.66 Uniton Territories. Triumph Scrambler 400 xc. Currently in Sikkim. My fav places so far are Kalsubai Peak, Goa, Kerela, Yercaud, Hyderabad for Biryani, Mainpat, Chattisgarh, Sikkim. 16000 KMs. One service. No accidents, no drops by me. Only one idiot in Kolkata dropped my motorcycle on the day I was not travelling. Travelled 4 days into Nepal due to visa restriction. Now have 90 more days to go to complete 17 states and rest of the union territories on mainland India. Petrol and other expenses are still under budget. Hotels are currently overspent. Hopefully that changes in next few states inam travelling.

Drone shot just before I send it.

And my hotel view from the top.

Look what I got.

Today I spent time in Darjeeling buying stuff for friends. I wanted to get bungie cords for the rest of the travel. So I walked over to Braap store

I met Karma who didn't have the cords currently but he suggested another store and they had cords in stock.

However, while I was leaving the store, I saw some custom made keychains. Karma told me that his brother has recently started 3D printing these. So I ordered one for my motorcycle in India and one for Tiger 900 in Australia. Karma delivered it to my hotel too this evening.

They look very cool. They were 300 rs each. My Instagram have their IDs of you wish to buy them when you are in Darjeeling