With a metro population of roughly 33 million people… (pause for dramatic affect)… Delhi is the largest city in the largest country on earth. In the overall world rankings, it is 2nd only to Tokyo, but it’s gaining ground fast! In the average Delhi day, there are ~837 births and ~360 deaths, which gives us a natural increase of ~477 people per day. On top of that, there are an additional 200–275 migrants that arrive here per day, mostly from neighboring countries, or rural parts of India. Meanwhile, Tokyo is actually shrinking.
I would be so racist against Indian people by now if I hadn’t taken so many trains. In a place like India, my white skin makes me a huge target because of my perceived level of wealth. As such, most of the interactions I have with locals are about money, and the unfortunate majority of them are not positive. Traveling through this kind of environment, it's easy to get cynical. My saving grace throughout my whole time in India was my time on the trains.
I was disappointed when the original plan for the trip (which was motorbike island hopping from Bali to Flores and back) fell through, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still get some riding in while I was still on Bali. I had been told that I needed to check out a little town called Lovina in the North of Bali. Standing between us and Lovina were some pretty formidable mountains that surrounded Bali’s volcanoes, so it was going to be a fun trip.
