Friday, October 24, 2008
Bent forks bent head
The search for a bike in Dharamasala has taken me tripping this way and that all over the countryside, to most if not all of the scuffy 
back yard Enfield workshops and garages in and around Dharamsala. Its hard work, and a real exercise in keeping your cool when dealing with people and their attitude to the money they think youre hiding in your pockets. It seems to me theres just too much disposable tourist money up here coupled with people with little to no idea about motorcycles .This equates roughly to people trying to sell me any old rat bag at hugely inflated prices with a sales patter better placed in a Rolls Royce dealership. At first I was sympathetic to this kind of foolishness, but after seeing at least 10 bikes all of similar scrapyard, side of a riverbank quality, being punted with the same sugar coated honey slickness Ive became totally blase and upfront about my opinions.The nicely nicely gently does it approach falls on deaf ears here.
Yesterday I spoke to a mechanic, telling him how utterly fed up I was with being punted bikes that would be better seen as part of a gocart slash submarine on an episode of Scrapheap Challenge and that if he had anything that was worth me looking at that wasnt going to waste my time I'd be more t
han happy to see it. "Oh yes" he say "I have a lovely 2002 model in perfect condition, beautiful nothing wrong with it, lovely paint, perfect". Great! I thought to myself as he totted off to find it and I waited patiently by the side of his tiny garage optimistic that someone might come up with the goods. When he comes back, even before he's thought about lifting his leg off the bike I take one look and see the forks have decided to emulate a set of holy cows horns and are neatly bent under the frame. I smile to myself and say, "The fork are bent under the frame my friend". He looks at me like Ive just walked out of the local asylum and rapped him round the face with a smelly wet trout and says "Theyre not!". Honestly, its desperate, this sort of nonsense seems to be par for the course, and I tell him the forks look like bananas and walk away before he has time to look at me like Ive called him mother something awful.
This seems to be a common theme, Im sure somewhere theres a big warehouse full with banana forked, buckled wheeled, banging, clanging, rattly, broken down bikes with a big flashing yellow and purple sign saying "only for use as submarine slash gocart or for sale to stupid senseless foreigners who happened to leave there brains behind on the plane". It seems to b-791470.jpg)
e some kind of sport of a sort, like a game, but for me its just a really disheartening, slap in the face introduction to the intricacies of motorcycle purchase in India. So as it stands I still have no bike, and being mechanically minded I think its going to take me some time before I find anything that resembles quality motorised transport of a reliable, safe and resaleable nature thats not going to implode or explode,or send me floating into the skies with little wings or scurrying down to his redness below.
So to a change of subject and to the more serious nature of anti malarial medication. I started taking my larium medication for malaria aproximately 2 weeks ago as recommended by the doctor and the instructions on the packet. I really thought nothing of it, I'd taken it in Africa with no problems so there would be no problems here I thought. Wrong! Just for those that dont know, Larium is an anti malairial thats renouned for sending the perfectly sane members of society totally screaming lock me up in a padded cell 
with tranquilisers, bonkers. Well, after my second dose of the stuff I started to feel very odd indeed, like someone had given me a mild to moderate dose of amphetamine and LSD, couple with terrible vivid and realistic nightmares, sweating palms, and a pounding heartrate. I was seeing things in the corners of my eyes that I couldnt quite decide whether I'd seen and feeling very, anxious, paranoid, angry and aggressive towards anyone and everyone. The crunch came on the bus coming up the mountain side to Mcleod Ganj after a day looking for bikes, I simply wanted to attack the person sat next to me for absolutley no reason and jump off the bus while travelling at high speed. The impulse to do this was so very real and strong it was difficult to control it and I knew immediately that something was really very very wrong with me. When I got back I immediately enquired about seeing a doctor. I also did a whole load of research on the web and found numerous reports of people doing all sorts of attrocious t
hings under the influence of this drug. Soldiers murdering their wives, travellers committing suicide, many many things. Whoever markets this drug should be taken to court as its extremely dangerous. After a bit of dredging around I found that the company smudged the research reports to some degree. In these reports they suggest that something like 1 in 10000 people suffer some sort of serious psychosis from taking larium, however an independent report was ordered and found the figure to be actually more like 1 in 150! people affected. What upsets me is how a drug can be allowed on the market that has a non compliance rate like that. One of the problems is also that it has a half life of 2 weeks, which essentially means Im stuck with this for a while. Im just glad I was aware of the possible problems and that I hadnt taken more doses. I just wonder if others are made aware by doctors of exactly what could happen to them? Anyway suffice to say Ive switched my anti malarials and am just allowing this effect to slowly subside, Im ok now in case anyone who knows me is worried but Im pretty upset and dissolutioned by the obvious and transparent link between pharmaceutical profit and general medical care. I mean why give someone this medication when you can give him or her as simple antibiotic alternative with fewer side effects and the same effectiveness at 10% of the price tag! Just doesnt make any sense. In case youre interested heres one of many artciles written on the subject.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/27/60II/main538144.shtml
So for now Im just taking it easy and recovering. If I dont find a bike here soon Im heading to Delhi and the worlds largest motorcycle market, called Karol Bagh where apparently you have the largest selection of second hand mortorcycles in the world. Should be fun if nothing else. I dont really want to go to Delhi but Im starting to think that I really dont have much choice. So until next time, Namaste, and blessings to you all. Jonny
back yard Enfield workshops and garages in and around Dharamsala. Its hard work, and a real exercise in keeping your cool when dealing with people and their attitude to the money they think youre hiding in your pockets. It seems to me theres just too much disposable tourist money up here coupled with people with little to no idea about motorcycles .This equates roughly to people trying to sell me any old rat bag at hugely inflated prices with a sales patter better placed in a Rolls Royce dealership. At first I was sympathetic to this kind of foolishness, but after seeing at least 10 bikes all of similar scrapyard, side of a riverbank quality, being punted with the same sugar coated honey slickness Ive became totally blase and upfront about my opinions.The nicely nicely gently does it approach falls on deaf ears here. Yesterday I spoke to a mechanic, telling him how utterly fed up I was with being punted bikes that would be better seen as part of a gocart slash submarine on an episode of Scrapheap Challenge and that if he had anything that was worth me looking at that wasnt going to waste my time I'd be more t
han happy to see it. "Oh yes" he say "I have a lovely 2002 model in perfect condition, beautiful nothing wrong with it, lovely paint, perfect". Great! I thought to myself as he totted off to find it and I waited patiently by the side of his tiny garage optimistic that someone might come up with the goods. When he comes back, even before he's thought about lifting his leg off the bike I take one look and see the forks have decided to emulate a set of holy cows horns and are neatly bent under the frame. I smile to myself and say, "The fork are bent under the frame my friend". He looks at me like Ive just walked out of the local asylum and rapped him round the face with a smelly wet trout and says "Theyre not!". Honestly, its desperate, this sort of nonsense seems to be par for the course, and I tell him the forks look like bananas and walk away before he has time to look at me like Ive called him mother something awful.This seems to be a common theme, Im sure somewhere theres a big warehouse full with banana forked, buckled wheeled, banging, clanging, rattly, broken down bikes with a big flashing yellow and purple sign saying "only for use as submarine slash gocart or for sale to stupid senseless foreigners who happened to leave there brains behind on the plane". It seems to b
-791683.jpg)
e some kind of sport of a sort, like a game, but for me its just a really disheartening, slap in the face introduction to the intricacies of motorcycle purchase in India. So as it stands I still have no bike, and being mechanically minded I think its going to take me some time before I find anything that resembles quality motorised transport of a reliable, safe and resaleable nature thats not going to implode or explode,or send me floating into the skies with little wings or scurrying down to his redness below.So to a change of subject and to the more serious nature of anti malarial medication. I started taking my larium medication for malaria aproximately 2 weeks ago as recommended by the doctor and the instructions on the packet. I really thought nothing of it, I'd taken it in Africa with no problems so there would be no problems here I thought. Wrong! Just for those that dont know, Larium is an anti malairial thats renouned for sending the perfectly sane members of society totally screaming lock me up in a padded cell
with tranquilisers, bonkers. Well, after my second dose of the stuff I started to feel very odd indeed, like someone had given me a mild to moderate dose of amphetamine and LSD, couple with terrible vivid and realistic nightmares, sweating palms, and a pounding heartrate. I was seeing things in the corners of my eyes that I couldnt quite decide whether I'd seen and feeling very, anxious, paranoid, angry and aggressive towards anyone and everyone. The crunch came on the bus coming up the mountain side to Mcleod Ganj after a day looking for bikes, I simply wanted to attack the person sat next to me for absolutley no reason and jump off the bus while travelling at high speed. The impulse to do this was so very real and strong it was difficult to control it and I knew immediately that something was really very very wrong with me. When I got back I immediately enquired about seeing a doctor. I also did a whole load of research on the web and found numerous reports of people doing all sorts of attrocious t
hings under the influence of this drug. Soldiers murdering their wives, travellers committing suicide, many many things. Whoever markets this drug should be taken to court as its extremely dangerous. After a bit of dredging around I found that the company smudged the research reports to some degree. In these reports they suggest that something like 1 in 10000 people suffer some sort of serious psychosis from taking larium, however an independent report was ordered and found the figure to be actually more like 1 in 150! people affected. What upsets me is how a drug can be allowed on the market that has a non compliance rate like that. One of the problems is also that it has a half life of 2 weeks, which essentially means Im stuck with this for a while. Im just glad I was aware of the possible problems and that I hadnt taken more doses. I just wonder if others are made aware by doctors of exactly what could happen to them? Anyway suffice to say Ive switched my anti malarials and am just allowing this effect to slowly subside, Im ok now in case anyone who knows me is worried but Im pretty upset and dissolutioned by the obvious and transparent link between pharmaceutical profit and general medical care. I mean why give someone this medication when you can give him or her as simple antibiotic alternative with fewer side effects and the same effectiveness at 10% of the price tag! Just doesnt make any sense. In case youre interested heres one of many artciles written on the subject.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/27/60II/main538144.shtml
So for now Im just taking it easy and recovering. If I dont find a bike here soon Im heading to Delhi and the worlds largest motorcycle market, called Karol Bagh where apparently you have the largest selection of second hand mortorcycles in the world. Should be fun if nothing else. I dont really want to go to Delhi but Im starting to think that I really dont have much choice. So until next time, Namaste, and blessings to you all. Jonny
★ 0 Comments. | Jonny, Friday, October 24, 2008 2:54 AM
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