After the initial deposit of funds, the rest of the money was to be paid in person when I arrived. As the months progressed and I was forced to move the deposit to the new trip, there were a few back and forth emails with the tour organizer, but not much was communicated until April of 2022. At this point a request for 50% of the remaining balance was made to ensure a spot on the trip in June. A few extra details were communicated, but still not a huge amount of information, which caused some concerns and anxieties.
During the year delay, I had thankfully had the chance to put more funds back for the trip, so at this point I had enough to fully pay for all facets of the trip (tour costs, airfares, hotels and misc. expenses I expected). I had also done more riding and was pretty comfortable on the bike, so my only real concerns were how I would handle the rougher roads and off-road riding of some areas. I had also managed to lose a large amount of weight and strengthen my body over the year so felt better about my physical ability to handle and complete the trip.
I had managed to acquire most of the core gear for the ride like a new helmet, proper riding jacket and pants with the protective armor and such, good riding boots and gloves. I had set about in early 2022 acquiring shirts and pants and other base layer clothing which I would want for riding anywhere, but definitely needed for a trip of this type. Also grabbed some rain gear and other items to assist with keeping warm in colder climates and staying dry.
Another task was picking up several additional cameras and related gear to better record and document the trip. Sadly I did not really utilize it all in the way I had hoped as the pace of the tour made it difficult to do some of what I had wanted film wise and some of my ideas were not able to occur due to limitations of camera mounting options and some technical hiccups I had with some of the gear as well that made me choose not to utilize it.
There was also the basic sundry items that would be useful along the way along with hygiene and general health related things.
One of the bigger challenges was all the paper work to get ready for the trip. Other than booking airfare, the first nights hotel before the trip started and travel insurance, I also had to get an international driving permit, tourist visa for India, and fill out health declarations online and of course have copies of all that made. Much of it was not too difficult, and was not expensive, just took some time and was always the chance that something would go wrong and cause delays (thankfully nothing did).
My departure date was June 4th, 2022. I took the Friday, June 3rd off work to have a full day to organize gear, pack and verify I had everything I needed. [Though I did forget a few things as will be noted later].
I had also booked a car service to pick me up on Saturday to take me to the airport. I had hoped this would be less expensive than paying airport parking for 3 weeks, though in the end due to the very early pickup and late arrival when I came back, the costs were actually a bit higher, but still saved me the hassle of driving and having to worry about something happening to the vehicle while parked at the airport.
With everything ready to go by the end of the day on Friday, and a few last minute Facebook updates on the group setup for our tour and some well wishes from other riders who were either already in India, currently in route or leaving also on Saturday, I went to bed and prepared for my 4am alarm so I could be picked up at 5:30am.
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