The Enfield

Ever since I heard about the Enfield Bullet, I've wanted one. They look good, sound good, feel good and the idea of being able to jump on one and head to the hills over the weekend without worrying about bus departure times etc certainly had its appeal. So since arriving in KTM I've had my eyes out for one. It's harder than you think though to find the right bull! There is a lot of information out there from fanatics recommending all sorts of things but in the end you have to go with your heart. Enfields are notoriously a pain in the arse. They demand alot of attention and if you neglect them just once then you are likely to pay the price whilst out in the backwaters of Nepal. There is also alot of discussion about buying an Indian plated bike or a Nepali plated bike. As foreigners we can purchase both but there are some major differences. For one, an Indian plated Enfield will cost about half the price. That's because there are HUGE import taxes on imported vehicles into Nepal. Luckily India and Nepal have come to a deal for Indian made vehicles which decreases the tax to about 140% of the original. But if you are in Nepal and import a vehicle originating from outside India, then that tax can be as high as 200% of the original price. Incredible hey. So it can be assumed that any Nepali who owns a car is loaded. If you choose the cheaper option and buy the Indian plated bike then you will have to pay a monthly road tax of about $50. So over a year that will add up but you are still probably going to be better off. The downside of an Indian plated bike however is that you can not take it outside of India or Nepal, which means any proper road trips are out of the question. I have plans to either take this sucker to France or Australia at the end of my time here so it was important for me to keep that option open. There is also a certain amount of respect in buying an Nepali plated bike and working inside the system. Nepali's are not allowed to own an Indian plated bike so I would feel rather sheepish if I abused my title as foreigner whilst undertaking aid work in Nepal. And afterall, coming from a developed country I am one of the few guys who can actually afford to pay the exuberant taxes. So with all that in mind I decided to go the Nepali plated Enfield.

I found Him (He is still nameless - a work in progress which I figure will come to me one night in a dream), on hamrobazaar.com which is Nepal's equivalent of gumtree.com.au. It was well priced, looked alright from the blurry pics, so I figured I'd take it for a spin. I had already ridden a few other Enfields which were either outside my price range or not quite what i was after. However, in this case, it was love at first site. I had practically made up my mind to buy it before I even rode it. The black/green paint glistened and the Royal Enfield gold emblem winked at me as my jaw dropped. When I did take Him for a ride however, boy o boy did it make trying to negotiate a price difficult. I was totally sold. Some minor negotiation did occur however and after mechanics check the day later I shook hands with Razeel - the previous owner.

The hardest task was still to come however which was registering the bike in my name and converting formal ownership of the bike from Razeel to myself. In Australia this process couldn't be easier, but here it takes about two days of your time. First of all you need all the correct documentation:

- Passport and passport photocopy's
- Visa and visa photocopy's
- Licence and international licence with photocopy's
- A 'No Objection' letter from the Australian Embassy outlining that they are happy for me to own a motorbike in Nepal
- About 4 passport photo's
- 2500nrs cash

With all that done I was set to go. You wouldn't believe my luck though as on the day of getting all this paper work done, I parked my bicycle (note: push bike) outside of the passport-photo shop, went in to get the pics done, then came out 10 minutes later to an empty parking space - my bike had been stolen! They say it always happens here but I guess I never thought it would happen to me considering I had locked it up. I felt a little rough but then remembered that I was in the process I owning an Enfield - so needless-to-say I got over it quite quickly.

The next day I went to the registration office - the motorbike registration office which is different from the car registration office. It is a chaotic place with tons of people hanging around undertaking the same process. There is no chance you can do it on your own - with any pleasure anyhow - so it is much easier to pay one of the bai's (young guys about 20 years old) to do all the leg work for you. They organise insurance paperwork, ownership documentation, finger printing (I must have given about 10 different finger prints), bike inspections and so forth. With so much running around and a vaguely placed trust in the system, the only thing to do then is grab a masala tea and watch on. An eye does need to be kept on proceedings however just to make sure you are not ripped off and I am so glad that Razeel was with me to help reassure me that everything that happened was meant to happen. So after about two hours, Razeel officially passed me the blue book (literally a blue book which contains all the bikes info, previous owners photos, etc) and it was mine. All mine!