Lucknow- Faizabad - Gorakhpur - Kathmandu

lucknow

Lucknow is an interesting city. The architecture is a mix of European and Indianstyle. There are a lot of parks and ”gardens” in the city. So even the city is I metropolitan and bustling and at this time of the year extremely incredibly hot the air is from a nice quality. The people here for me appear as two kind of.first there are the more modern, young and outgoing ones. They are very friendly, helpful and try to make friend with you. Sometimes I sat down somewhere and they just come and start talking to you, practicing their English (which is anyhow better than mine) and asking lots of questions about western culture. On the other hand there are the older ones which seem to be very conservative. Maybe people may comment on this as a prejudice, but my experience is that this is shown mainly on men. Those men have typically a face with the eyes being very narrow and a mustache. The mustache seems to be very heavy because it doesn’t allow any smile. The minds seem to follow the eyes and those people are very narrow minded. Anyhow I focus on the first type of people and enjoy a few nice days in Lucknow. Blacky gets a new clutch and she drives in best condition now.

Bareilly to Lucknow

blacky
street

buffalo market

little accident
It is a nice sunny day today. At 9 Blacky and I start to Lucknow. This is not a good time to start. It seems that all buses and trucks are on the road and they all are in a big hurry. Maybe the drivers have still some sleep in the eyes. At least they don’t see or don’t want to see motorbikes. Until 11 we were forced 2 times already to stop in order to give way to a bus overtaking a truck. I start counting the dead dogs which lay on the road. After some time I give up on this but I think it must have been around 10 over the whole day. We arrive at an animal market. I manage to do a few pictures until one of the men discovered that there is a foreign woman. Now I am the main attraction of the market and about 30 men approach me to do pictures of them. Quickly I leave because my former experience with similar situations wasn't too well.
Today I see 3 public buses which had accident. Maybe it is more safe driving on a motorbike than in a public bus. The third accident happens just in front of me. It is not too heavy. A jeep-taxi is involved. Quickly I stop Blacky and rush for first aid. There is one guy at the backside of the jeep. His feet are locked in the jeep and his body is hanging head side down over the backdoor. People are just walking around and watch. Only one old man tries to help this young boy. I give him a hand and order another guy to help us. We manage to lay the guy on the floor. He is unconscious. Eyes are half open. Automatically I do what I have learned in first aid courses. Nobody else tries to help this boy. Nobody is calling a doctor until I shout to one man. He calls the police. Then I look for the others. Nobody else is seriously injured as far as I can see. People ask me to drive the motorbike away to make more space for passing traffic. Since I can’t do anymore for the boy I continue with Blacky on our way. Now it comes over me. I am totally shocked that people don’t care about others even when they are unconscious. I am totally shocked also about the missing knowledge of first aid even from the bus driver. I worry about that boy. His pulse was very low and I just hope he will survive. ..and again it was a crazy busdriver who risked the life of so many people!
Slowly slowly Blacky and I continue. Without any more problems we arrive in Lucknow. From the first view it seems to be a nice city. Quickly I find a hotel, have a shower, go for something to eat and then have rest for today. Tomorrow it will be time to explore the city…