![]() Her observations of the country and it's people are so accurate. A laugh a minute, very scary a lot of the time. Her version of India is so different from mine. ![]() I was so intrigued to find out how a woman on her own would even attempt to travel around India and it's neighbouring countries.Ī novice on the Enfield Bullet with very little riding experience very few lessons and having to make do and mend relying on her basic skills and especially relying on the help of very kind strangers and avialble mechanics to come to the rescue when breaking down, she braves it through the unruly traffic, congestion on the roads by every conceivable form of traffic, people and the sacred cows with very few scrapes. Having being born and spent eleven years in India and five in Nepal with a very Colonial and privileged upbringing and having no insight in to how the other half lived except for glimpses of it in Nepal. At the centre of all this is Michele and her motorcycle ("Big Thumper"), which is the perfect vehicle for the human interaction that is the cornerstone of all great travel stories, including this one. Instead you variously get crashes, dynamite, harrassment and hospitality, charity and larceny, disease, enlightenment and a side-trip into the Himalayas. It's not all Pirsig-style mysticism either. As a result, she makes Homeric road trips like this sound accessible and achievable to mere mortals, when so many others give the impression that lack of expertise is a barrier to entry. Unlike many of her "moto-travel-lit" peers, Michele uses the best policy of all, which is to adopt the value system of her host nation and leave everything to fate a policy which eventually has a lasting impact on the rest of her life (in a good way - but I won't give it away!). On the other hand, Michele Harrison inverts the phrase here to illustrate her refreshingly honest and upfront admission of her inexperience in relation to the magnitude of her undertaking - a massive road trip round India, all by herself, on a locally-procured Royal Enfield, with no backup or support of any kind. BOOK REVIEW by Stuart Jewkes, Editor of The Rider's Digest "All the gear and no idea" is usually meant as a pejorative term aimed at chequebook bikers. ![]() And for that you don't even need to be a biker. This story shows how a can-do attitude can compensate for inexperience and will appeal to those with a « just do it » attitude to life. Humorous and well-written, this refreshingly honest book recounts her numerous mishaps, both on and off the bike. Follow her on her travels discovering an unknown world of motorbiking, wanderlust and Indian life. She wants adventures, and as a solo traveller, has plenty of them. The author quits her high-flying job in London, orders a classic Indian Enfield Bullet motorbike and goes off for a year on a 17,000 mile circuit of India.
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