Video Vednesday: The stories with David Kretz and Rupert Gardner

https://youtu.be/EtDbdoBL7Rk

What you saw above was but a small fraction of the experience we had with David and Rupert while they stayed at The Farmhouse in the beginning of February, 2016.

David Kretz from Switzerland and Rupert Gardner from the UK had been traveling on their own, and had decided to ride together to get through Myanmar, along with a bunch of others. With the aim of chilling out for a few days, and exploring his new-found love that came into his life by chance, David stayed back while Rupert decided to venture further out and make best use of the time he had in India.

While on the way to Lonar, he had an accident, which you can read about in detail here. The Police let him go after a while primarily because of Karthik Shanmukha‘s contacts through the HVK forum, but not before he had broken both the Internet and WhatsApp with help pouring out of every orifice that my phone had.

Back at The Farmhouse, Anoop and Nikhil along with Alex and Utkarsh helped him fix up his bike, while the friendly neighborhood doctor fixed up his ankle for no cost. While David was there, we thought it’d be a good idea to show him what bikers do in Hyderabad, which was to simply ride out till the road ended and then keep riding.

On the second of these rides, we were honored with the esteemed presence of David’s future ex-wife, and we left no stone unturned to annoy her with the worst off-road trails that we could find. In the end, she had the last laugh though, and that evening saw Dhanush going to the same friendly neighborhood doctor with the same twisted ankle on the same right foot.

Once they were all done and ready, it was time to move on.

Now they are somewhere in Cambodia, and onwards to new places. I have stayed with other travelers, and hosted other travelers at my place, but it was kinda special to help out people so far out from your home. It was not surprising though to hear the same stories, share the same interests, and understand each other at a higher level than most people are used to.

After watching David and Rupert I realized that I would never go on such a trip, not because I can’t, but because I don’t want to. I would love to see the world, but not on just one bike, not with the paperwork and the border crossings and the shit. I’m sure it’d be a different feeling to take one bike all around the globe, and I certainly see the attraction in that, but it makes no sense to do that, neither logically nor economically.

Any motorcycle traveler passing through Hyderabad is welcome to stay with me.