Summer riding all over the world WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR
P
ICTURE IT: THE temperature
is 52 degrees in the shade, but we
aren’t riding in the shade. That
option unfortunately does not exist.
We ride in the sun, and we don’t know
what the temperature is in the sun. We
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we sleepwalk into the hotel – it feels
as if you’re moving through molasses,
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second behind when they’re supposed to
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There is no bottled water, and this is
India. We are not about to drink from the
tap. So we drink tea; at least we know the
water has been boiled before being infused.
I suspect that I have drunk my body weightLQWHDZKHQ,ÀQDOO\EHJLQWRIHHOK\GUDWHG
again. I even have a need to urinate, not
that much comes out. Of course all the
tea means that I do not sleep that night,
but I probably wouldn’t have slept anyway
because the temperature drops only
imperceptibly. I begin to understand the
point of the typical Indian bed, the charpoy
with its knotted ropes. It lets what little air
is moving, through to sort-of cool you.
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Summertime and the living is not easy.
Not in the Punjab.
It is better elsewhere. Let’s take a
look at some of your favourite
destinations (as determined by your
letters), starting with overseas.SOME