My transport ... a motorcycle ... and (un)sexy stockings ...

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where I work, is part of the Faculty of Animal Science, Veterinary Science, and Fisheries. This, in turn, is part of the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) situated just outside the small rural village of Rampur.

I live in a home-stay about 8 kilometres away in the outskirts of Bharatpur which has a population of about 280,000 people. There are also lots of buffalo, goats and cows around where I live ... but I don’t know how many.

I am fortunate to have found a comfortable home-stay to live ... but bus transport into work is slow and infrequent ... so I was grateful when the university purchased a new motorcycle for me to use while here!

This is the motorcycle shelter where I park my bike when I am at work.

Before you ask, it is a Yamaha FZN150 with a single cylinder 153cc air-cooled 4-stroke SOHC 2-valve engine and a 5-speed gearbox, 128Nm torque and 13.1PS power.

... and, it has telescopic front suspension, monocross rear suspension, disc front brakes and rear drum brakes.

... and, weighs 132kg ... (... plus 12kg when the petrol tank is full)!

Moreover ... it is light enough to manoeuvre through the chaotic urban traffic ... and powerful enough to take me comfortably into work.

You can see my office window behind my shoulder in this photo.

In fact, although the road surface into work is quite good, 60kph is the maximum safe speed to drive at ... coz you never know what could suddenly enter the road from apparently nowhere ... another driver ... or a goat, dog or pedestrian!

My bike has a red button on the handlebars that I’m not quite sure about. It is marked PASS in large bold lettering ... but I don’t know when to use it. If you press the button, the headlamp flashes. Is this supposed to invite oncoming traffic to overtake? ... or does it inform oncoming traffic that I am about to overtake? Given the uncertainty, I think I’ll not use it at all!

I brought my safety helmet with me from Australia ... coz the helmets here do not meet international standards ... and accident insurance does not cover riders without approved helmets.

What I did buy here though, is a pair of (un)sexy long sleeves to protect my arms from the sun. I think some creative entrepreneur modified a set of calf-length ladies stockings by cutting off the toes and sewing in a hole for the thumb, in order to make a pair of sleeves instead.

What do you think? 

... and I have no idea what the SPF u/v rating is!

This is me in front of my lodgings. 

Actually, the sleeves don’t look too bad in the photo.

Perhaps I will look for a black fishnet pair next time ... !