Farawayistan

Tag: india

  • COVID-19 UPDATE (how to keep a calm mind)

    COVID-19 UPDATE (how to keep a calm mind)

    We wanted to share how we are dealing with this whole crazy COVID-19 situation. We have fallen back on plan B, C, D, hell even plan Z. We tried to not let corona get the best of us. Here’s what happened and what we’ve learned from it. Spoiler, we’re not coming home (yet).

    We were cycling in India towards Myanmar when shit really hit the fan. Most countries including India had gotten their first cases, but up till then it all seemed quite controllable. When the outbreak in Italy got out of control, a lot of governments decided on taking harsh measurements.

    A lot can change, and it did

    Pretty soon India also closed its border with Myanmar. At this point we figured it would be a few days. It would still take us three weeks to ride to the border, so we just carried on. We created a WhatsApp group with other cyclists heading or already at the same border to keep each other up to speed.

    Our reasoning behind continuing? A lot can change in three weeks, no need to panic and drastically change our plan. And we had a back-up plan, which was to fly from a city not far from the border to the nearest international airport. 

    How to keep a calm mind

    (Which is very hard in these unsure times for everyone, including us)
    • Don’t look at your phone or the news first thing in the morning. Have breakfast first
    • Limit the time you spend on social media, news or WhatsApp
    • Try meditation, the Calm app works really well for us
    • Ride your bicycle (or try a different form of exercise indoors, if you’re not allowed to)
    • Ask your friends and family not to share rumors. Only look at official statements regarding the ever-changing situation
    • Try to live in the moment and appreciate what’s in front of you (reading tip: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle)

    As we were cycling we kept having a feeling of unease. Robin had already started to be a little fed-up by India. We had been in this and in its neighbouring countries since November, and it’s quite an intense place to cycle. We talked a lot with our friends, our family and of course with each other.

    Evacuate

    When we woke up to the news that the WHO had officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic and the US had closed it’s border we knew we had to take action. We did not want to get stuck in India so we had to evacuate.

    We were planning on flying to Bali from Myanmar, so we decided we would just do that now instead of two months later. We would rather be stuck in Bali than in India.

    Cooch Behar > Guwahati > Kolkata > Kuala Lumpur > Bali

    The nearest airport, Guwahati was 300 kilometres away, so we cycled to the train station, only to learn that they wouldn’t let us bring our bikes on the train. So instead we took a taxi that would take us there. There were still ten flights every day, so we decided we would buy our tickets as late as possible. We still didn’t have boxes for the bicycles and things were changing so rapidly now, we didn’t want to lose money on a cancelled or missed flight.

    Key in an emergency situation: make sure you are as flexible as possible. Don’t financially or emotionally tie yourself up to one solution. Be ready to change your plan but think it through first, if possible talk about it with someone who is neutral. (Chances are big your family is panicking the fuck out too, so maybe not only talk to them.)

    Flying with bicycles

    First thing the next morning we went to the nearest bicycle store (we had made sure our hotel was close to the shop) and luckily they had boxes for us. We packed our bikes in three boxes, they somehow never seem to fit in two. Then we were off looking for a taxi. This we should’ve done beforehand, because we couldn’t find one big enough. After two hours of negotiating, waiting, negotiating again, and a lot more waiting we were finally on our way to the airport.

    At the ticketing counter of IndiGo the nice lady assured us that we had to buy our tickets now and could add three pieces of sports equipment at the check-in counter for €30 a piece. The flight would leave in 50 minutes, but that was plenty of time according to her. Guess again. We were only allowed to take two pieces of sports equipment, and they wanted to charge us the excess baggage fee over the other box. This would sum up to €250 for the three boxes instead of the €90 that we had been promised.

    At first, we got mad. Then we realized the attendant was really trying to help us when we said we didn’t have that much money. Check-in had officially already closed so all the attendants were trying to figure out how they could help us without us paying an exorbitant fee. After a lot of calculating they came up to €95 which we gladly accepted. Another attendant rushed us to our gate, and we prayed our bicycles would get the same rapid guidance to the plane.

    Stay calm

    From Kolkata, we planned to fly to Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia) with a layover in Kuala Lumpur. We had waited with booking the flight until we had our bicycles with us again. Luckily they had made it too. We checked that Malaysia would still let us transit and Indonesia would still let us in and bought our tickets at the Air Asia counter.

    The nice young lady here assured us that we could add the boxes at the check in. After our previous mishap, she checked it twice and confirmed. It was cheaper to book the tickets online, and we couldn’t add three pieces of sports equipment on the website, so we had to do it at check in. 

    Of course the same problem occurred as in Guwahati. But this time they wanted to charge us €1400. We were both exhausted, stressed and really upset with the whole situation. Luckily Robin found it in himself to stay calm and talk to the people who were able to help us.

    Losing our cool

    The manager Robin was talking to was acting like a real jerk. Whenever someone with a suit and a tie walked past he would just abandon the conversation to shake hands and say hello. In the meantime we were losing our cool over there.

    A lot of meditation practice helped Robin keep his cool and in the end we found a loophole. The woman at ticketing had forgotten to mention some term that applied, but we believe that the true moments when things suddenly changed was when we mentioned we have a website with 30k views.

    The price tag of our evacuation

    Our next two flights went pretty smooth and Sabina’s father had arranged a pick-up and hotel in Bali. You have no idea how relieved we were when we had finally made it there.

    The price tag of our evacuation

    Taxi Cooch Behar – Guwahati     € 80
    Flight Guwahati – Kolkata € 80
    Fee for the bicycles €250 €95
    Flight Kolkata – Denpasar € 300
    Fee for the bicycles €1400 €150

    This is actually not too bad and probably a pretty good price considering all the last minute bookings.

    When life gives you lemons

    Meditation has helped us a lot in dealing with this. It has allowed us to stay calm, breathe, think and act. Our cycling experience also helped us cope. When you are cycling up a hill with an extreme headwind on a road that is literally falling apart, one might also panic. How am I ever going to do this, this is never going to end. But then the wind turns, or you reach the top and the road suddenly improves. And you realize, nothing is permanent. Everything changes, thus gets better in the end. Yes it might get worse before that, but knowing that it will always get better gets us through hard times.

    Our current plan

    Things are still changing extremely fast. Our plan was to do a border run to Singapore when our 30-day visa expires. We can still fly to Singapore, we only have to oblige to the 14 days stay home notice the Singaporean government has put in place. Getting back to Indonesia is a bit trickier now, since they have stopped issuing visas on arrival, and you now need a visa provided by an embassy together with a health declaration issued by your home country. These measurements are in effect at least until April 20th. There is talk of emergency visa permits, but we don’t know if we are eligible for this. We still have three weeks left on our visa, so we will just see what the situation is like by then.

    We realize that this pandemic is not to be taken lightly, and we follow as much of the social distancing safety advice as possible. But we are at a beautiful place, and we are going to enjoy every second of it. For all we know our trip might be over in three weeks. It would be a waste if we’d spend these days worrying about things we cannot change.

     

    Give us a ring or shoot a message

    Our minds are with our families and our friends back home. And also with all the amazing cyclists we have met along the way or have got to know on Instagram. If anyone needs someone to talk to, we are here. Ask us anything you want, we’d love to think things through with you or simply offer a listening ear.

    Follow all our adventures on Instagram.

  • Railing away from Mumbai to South India

    Railing away from Mumbai to South India

    After having faced the Himalayas’s we were ready for a holiday. Stuff had been stolen, Sabina’s bike fell of a bus (the wheel broke beyond repair) and we were both feeling really weak. The bikes had to do without us for a while. Time for some beaches and good food.

    We stored our bikes in Kathmandu and booked a flight to Mumbai. India isn’t typically known as a place to relax, but we had high hopes for the South, and we were definitely not disappointed. Mumbai is the second city of India but immediately when we arrived it felt a lot more relaxed than Delhi. 

    Where to eat in Mumbai

    The food the city had to offer was to die for. We pretty much spend most of our days eating. Our favourite places were all in or around Colaba, where we were also staying. 

    Olympia Coffee House, really good kheema.

    Sahakari Bhandar, a local eatery with an amazing (spicy!) chili idly dry. Also famous for their pav bhaji.

    K.Rustoms & co., best ice cream in town.

    A taste of Kerala, the thali is served on a banana leaf!

    Theobroma, imagine french toast made of a croissant served with melted butter. Heaven.

    Mumbai’s must see’s

    Colaba, but generally Mumbai, became one of our favourite destinations in India. Accommodation is notoriously expensive, but the food is cheap and most sights are free to visit. We walked around the city, watched people play cricket at the Maidans and got amazed by the hard work of the dabba-wallahs.

    There are about 5000 dabba-wallahs (literally ‘food container person’s) cycling around the city delivering hot lunches to office workers throughout the city. Tiffin boxes (food containers) are picked up each day from restaurants and homes and carried to a centralized sorting station. More than 200,000 meals are delivered, every single day.

    Worth a visit

    One of our favourite activities, which wasn’t that obvious, was a visit to the mega shopping mall High street Phoenix. A bit out of the centre but totally worth a visit. After Nepal, it was so good to be surrounded by some luxury. We escaped the city heat in the air conditioned stores and shopped ‘till we dropped.

    Taking the train to the beach

    It’s really cheap to fly in India, but who wants that when you can take the train! It was an experience we were looking forward to a lot. We had booked our tickets online (an extremely complicated process) and were put on the waitlist. The day before departure the tickets got confirmed as RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation). Meaning we were on the train, but possibly had to share a seat. This wasn’t too big of a problem, since it was a day train and there are usually empty seats anyway. We got lucky and got two seats after all.

    List of Indian Railway abbreviations you must know (CNF, RAC, PQWL, RLWL, CKWL, GNWL, RLGN)
    • AC: Air-conditioned
    • ACC: Air-conditioned coach or class
    • ACCC: Air-conditioned chair car
    • CC: Chair car
    • CKWL: Tatkal waiting list , see TQ (lower priority than GNWL)
    • CNF: CNF probability of confirmation is displayed in the form of a percentage
    • ETA: Estimated time of arrival
    • Exp.: Express
    • FC: First class (also financial commissioner, also freight corridor)
    • FT: Foreign tourist (annotation on reservation charts)
    • GNWL: General quota waiting list (the highest priority of all waiting lists)
    • Jn.: Junction (in station names)
    • LB: Lower Berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)
    • MB: Middle berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)
    • NV: Non-vegetarian (meal or restaurant)
    • PF: Platform (sometimes P/F)
    • PNR: Passenger name/number record (you need the PNR, a 10-digit number to check the status of your reservation)
    • PQWL: Pooled quota waiting list (lower priority than GNWL)
    • Rd.: Road (in station names)
    • RAC: Reservation against cancellation (half confirmed ticket, you might need to share your seat, but you are on the train)
    • RLGL: Remote location general wait list (higher priority than RLWL)
    • RLWL: Running line/remote location waiting list (lower priority than GNWL)
    • SLB: Side lower berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)
    • TQ: Tatkal quota (a set of last-minute seats/berths that opens at 10:00am the day before departure)
    • UB: Upper Berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)
    • V or VG: Vegetarian (meal or restaurant)
    • WL, W/L: Waiting list; Waitlisted (ticket issued without confirmed accommodations)
    • 2T: Two-tier (the number of beds above each other in a berth)
    • 3T: Three-tier (as in “AC-3T” = air conditioned three-tier coach)

    Our train took us to Madgoa, the capital of Goa. After six months of travel it was finally time for our first beach destination. We took a taxi to Palolem, a town in Goa that’s supposed to be a bit more laid-back than the crazy party beaches. The beach was lovely, but felt really touristy. Big beach clubs all playing loud music and serving cheap beer and cocktails. Not really our cup of tea (which we favour over alcohol anyway). The next beach Patnem, was a little more laid-back but still not our dream holiday destination.

    Gokarna’s Kudle beach

    Our friend Alexey (who you might remember from the yellow Lada on the cargo ship on the Caspian) had been in Gokarna a few weeks earlier and his Instagram stories of this beach looked like paradise. His tip to visit here was golden. After a two-hour local train ride and another thirty minutes on the bus, we arrived in the city Gokarna. This was not our final destination though. We were going to Kudle beach. Our home for the upcoming two weeks.

    Kudle beach is a little harder to reach (10 minutes by tuktuk followed by a steep stairwell to the beach) and therefore much less crowded. Plenty of people gather here every day and there are plenty of restaurants and accommodations, varying from bamboo huts, to cottages and one resort.

    Israeli’s, Dutchies and a Catalonian.

    When we were walking onto the beach we asked a couple walking in front of us if they had found nice accommodation. Adi and Roy were staying at Gundappa, and it seemed perfect for us too. A clean cottage with a bathroom and a comfortable bed. Soon enough we’d spend most of our time here hanging out at Gundappa, eating at Sunshine café and playing in the waves. Later we were joined by Carlos, also staying at Gundappa’s.

    Every year Carlos would come back here to Kudle, and he had befriended some young jewellery sellers on the beach. These kids have been working here for long hours in the blazing sun since an incredibly young age. Instead of just giving them money, he actually showed interest in them and treated them to a meal we all enjoyed together. He also brought [name] along on our boat ride we all took to a beach a bit further. The look on Prem’s face was priceless, he couldn’t stop taking photo’s. Thank you Carlos, for being such an inspiration.

    Walk the line

    Kudle was the perfect place for us to completely wind down. Not too many distractions, but enough to keep us entertained. We played frisbee, visited Gokarna town, practised slack line skills and all went on a boat ride together to a nearby beach. 

    Munroe Island

    After this time in paradise we did still want to experience some of what South India had to offer, Kerala was high on our bucket list, and someone had tipped us about Munroe Island. We booked a train again, that would take us there in about eighteen hours. A pretty long run, but trains in India are so entertaining. The sellers that constantly walk by yelling out whatever they are selling and the countryside just sweeping by.

    We always try to avoid the typical tourist destinations, so we chose Munroe Island over Allepey. Allepey is well known for the expensive houseboats that cruise along the backwaters of Kerala. The houseboats are not only extremely expensive, they’re also a big impact on the environment. The government of Kerala has now limited the release of new licences for these boats.

    Kayaking in Kerala

    We opted for an environmental friendly water vehicle, the kayak! Unfortunately our kayaking skills weren’t up to par. We argued away about whose fault it was that we kept going in circles. Nevertheless, we got to see a great deal of the life on and next to the water in this mesmerizing part of India. 

    Temple festival

    From November to March there are temple festivals somewhere in the region virtually every day. And as luck would have it, the Munroe temple festival coincided with our visit. There were ceremonies every day and there was food served for the whole community almost every afternoon.  We visited a Naga ceremony at the Naga temple. A young man was brought in trance with a long meditation and some help of the hallucinatory leaves of the beetle nut flower.

    When he finally became Naga (a mythical semi-divine being, half human and half cobra) he fell to the ground and started twisting and turning. He rolled around and the men surrounding him kept him from rolling into the spectators (young terrified girls) and into something that might hurt him. They poured coconut water onto his head when Naga seemed  to get the overhand. In the end the man fell to the floor. He just laid there, covered in the coloured sand. Then all of a sudden the spectacle was over. Naga had left his body and his friends took him away to clean and cool him off with water. It was one of the most intense ceremonies we’d ever witnessed. 

    Elephant parade

    The highlight of the festival is the elephant ceremony. Every year a big parade of elephants walk through the streets of Munroe, through the river and around the temple. The elephants are beautifully decorated with golden head pieces and the riders hold colourful shields and umbrella’s.

    We secured a good spot under the bridge to watch the elephants cross the water, But the police kept sending us and all the other spectators away. Of course everyone would go back as soon as the cops had left, and so did we. When the elephants finally came the police officers wanted to send us away again, but instead they started pictures of the majestic creatures. Together we took our photographs filled with excitement of watching these humongous but gorgeous creatures.

    The festivities continue

    As the parade continued, the elephants and their riders were accompanied by drum bands. And not one drum band as we would know it. But tons of drum bands, all playing as loud as they could and all playing a different beat. Add the lights, the special decorated spinning pieces carried by dancing men, women carrying oil lights and burning incense and all senses are running overtime.

    We were overwhelmed by the magnificence of this event. There was so much happening, and we were loving every second of it. Munroe Island took a special place in our hearts.

    Skip Allepey

    Before continuing our journey to Kochi we had a two night stopover in Allepey. We took the eight-hour ferry through the backwaters of Kerala. It was a fun slow way of travel, but these bigger canals weren’t anywhere near as beautiful as the small canals of Munroe.

    In Allepey we stayed at a really cool hostel, Art.packers Hostel and met some interesting people we hope to meet again someday. But besides that we didn’t really think much of Allepey. The hostel offered a ‘city-walk’ but with the highlight being a destroyed pier (only some poles were still standing) that should tell you enough about how uninteresting this place really was.

    Jesus’ secret life

    In Kochi we were pleasantly surprised. Kochi is a coastal city with a lot of English, Dutch and Portuguese influences. We drove around all the highlights with a tuktuk tour. The driver spoke good English and could tell us a lot about Christian history in Kochi. Even before the Dutch and the Portuguese had colonized India there were already Christians. There’s a whole theory that Jesus didn’t die at his crucification. Instead, he regained strength and travelled through Central Asia to Kashmir where he lived together with his mother and continued to preach. Apostle Thomas introduced Christianity to Kerala in the 1st century AD. Who knew…

    Kathakali in Kochi

    After so many European influences we were ready for some typical Keralan entertainment. A kathakali theater show. Kathakali is a traditional dance form, where the performers tell the story with only their dance, hand gestures and eye movements. A kathakali show typically takes eight hours, but we went to the tourist-friendly one hour show. It was the best drag show we have ever seen in our lives.

    We want more India

    We learned so much more on this visit to India than the last time, when we rode from Delhi to Nepal. We got to experience culture, eat all sort of different Southern Indian cuisines and talk to a lot of locals. One of them said to us ‘India is kind of similar to Europe, every state is like a different country.’ We couldn’t agree more. There is not ‘one’ India. But this side of India was one that we can absolutely recommend. For cycling but also for ‘normal’ travel.

    We are looking forward to our next visit to India in the Northeast, also known as the seven sisters.

    Follow all our adventures on Instagram.

  • India: Chaos and five bicycles stuck in the middle

    India: Chaos and five bicycles stuck in the middle

    India is not the first country that comes to mind on a bicycle tour around the world. But we were drawn to the culture, the cuisine and the warm climate. We were looking forward to all the chaos, which somehow always seems to work out exactly how it was supposed to. We’re just not sure if our ears were ready for all that honking.

    There are two logical options to continue travel overland after the Pamir Highway. Either one involves a difficult Chinese visa application, and then either East trough Xinjiang or Southwards over the Karakorum Highway to Pakistan. For the first option you can be sure to have constant police surveillance, guarding you from seeing the labor camps meant to ‘reeducate’ the Uyghurs, a muslim minority in China. 

    Hotels will often not allow foreigners and from what we’ve seen from others everything seems complicated. Pakistan was very high on our wishlist. This option was however also off the table. The Karakorum had long been closed this time of the year. Too much snow and subzero temperatures.

    Let’s go to India

    Sabina was drawn to India and convinced Robin with the prospect of a culinary Indian feast. Something he could really use, after losing his fair share of pounds on the Pamir. The e-visa was relatively cheap and the flight was too. We could fly direct from Almaty, so less handling meaning less risk of breaking or losing the bicycles on the flight. It also borders Nepal, a country where we also have a mission to accomplish (but we’ll tell you about that later).

    Eating our way into Hauz Khas Village

    Full of excitement we hoisted the two boxes containing our bicycles on top of a small taxi minivan. We had just touched down in Delhi and besides from it being a lot warmer and busier, the culture shock we had been warned for didn’t hit us just yet. We had booked a hostel in Hauz Khas Village. A hip urban neighborhood, home to trendy bars, cafes and restaurants. The center bans cars, making it a safe haven in otherwise loud and hectic Delhi.

    The real culture shock was reserved for our taste buds. We hadn’t eaten anything remotely spicy in over five months and our mouths were not ready for the spicy Indian cuisine. Without question, this was something we had to get used to quickly, because even when it hurt, the taste was miraculous. Our friend Josh, whom we had met first on the cargo ship to Kazakhstan joined us for dinner and introduced us to the glorious tali’s and other Indian dishes.

    Delhi’s splendor

    We spend a few days immersing ourselves in the intense city. We pushed our way trough the crowd at the bazar in Old Delhi, coughing at the spice market. We got countless of selfie requests at the Red Fort and payed fifteen times the price locals pay to get in. Sabina got surrounded by a horde of men wanting to take her picture at the Big mosque, when Robin left her for a second to take some photo’s. We rode around the city on the metro, shopped till we dropped. But mostly we ate and we ate, and then we ate some more.

    Two Ugly Armadillo’s

    Ross and Paxton had also reached out to us, as they were in Delhi too. They had been cycling the world for over two years and had just returned from a family visit in their hometown in the States. We agreed to meet and talked about our plans in India.

    Actually, we mostly talked about the lacking of our plan. Our initial idea was to leave the bikes for a while and travel India by train. But we hadn’t cycled for a few weeks and we were itching to start again. Ross and Paxton were planning to cycle to Nepal and from there on to Darjeeling and then Myanmar. We too wanted to cycle to Nepal, since a blog from Gone Bikepacking about cycling the Annapurna region had sparked our interest. We also wanted to hike the Manaslu Circuit and we realized we had to get there in time because winter was coming rapidly.

    India had to wait. We enjoyed hanging out with Ross and Pax and spent a few days with them at the loveliest and most interesting Warmshowers host Shivani. She was so kind to open up her beautiful apartment which also happened to be in Hauz Khas Village. We guessed it would take us about one or two weeks to get from Delhi to Pokhara, the base for all Himalayan adventures.

    The Odd-Even scheme

    There is no country but India, where Robin’s former occupation would be thought of as being funny. But try telling you’re an air quality engineer in Delhi and you will definitely get some giggles. Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world. We were here right after Diwali, a festival with a lot of fireworks. This time of year farmers also burn their crops. Increasing the levels of fine dust and smog even more.

    IMG_1721

     

     

    According to aqicn.org, a real-time air quality index, fine dust (PM10) was at 999 micrograms/m3. We believe the values might have even been higher since there was only room for three digits on the website. For comparison, the value limit in the European Union is 40 micrograms/m3 and the safety limit according to the World Health Organization is 20 micrograms/m3.

    The government was taking some precautions. One of them was the Odd-Even scheme. Under this, vehicles starting with odd number license plates will not be allowed one day and even numbers will not be allowed on the road the next. This meant that there was only (supposed to be) half the traffic on the busy roads. It gave us extra courage that cycling out of Delhi wasn’t a complete mental suicide mission.

    Horn if you watch porn

    Navigating the city’s winding roads was a challenge and Komoot wasn’t on our side, sending us over stairs and briefly onto the highway of which we were immediately send away. Here-fore we had to cross about eight lanes of speeding traffic with four loaded touring bikes and a raised road divider, but at least the traffic officer lead us trough the first half. After these mishaps Paxton decisively took the lead in navigating. She is the cartographer after all.

    At a rather speedy pace she lead us to a highway better suited for us cyclists. It had a shoulder big enough for us to safely cycle on. The road was also being used by scooters, so here we actually felt fine. If you put your music on loud enough you could kind of block the constant horning, of which Josh told us he tried to discourage it by strapping a sign on his bike saying ‘Horn if you masturbate’. Of course it didn’t work, it only got worse. Maybe a little to be expected, since India is the 3rd-largest porn watcher according to Pornhub. 

    Through Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand

    Immediately on the first day Paxton’s bike was starting to show massive failures. At one point the entire pedal even fell off. A quick fix with a steel pin and a bolt got us to our first overnight, where she miraculously enough found a decent new crank.

    After approximately 350 kilometers in four days, of which two we were joined by colorful French-Dutch cyclist Kevin we reached border town Banbassa. We had crossed two states, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Along the way we feasted on Indian treats as Jalebi’s, lassi’s, sugar cane juice, but also savory snacks such as pani puri and samosa’s, always accompanied by a nice masala chai. 

    The Indian head wobble

    When we first crossed the Ganges, out of nowhere came this big guy on a bicycle beautifully decorated with hand painted flowers, named Kevin. He too was cycling from Delhi to Nepal, on his way to a Vipassana course. He had been in India for a while now and had mastered the Indian head wobble completely. It had confused us many times before, even when we knew shaking your head directing the ear from one shoulder to another means yes. It looks like a cross between a nod and shake, but does it mean ‘yes’? Or, does it mean ‘no’? Or, even ‘maybe’?

    Camping in the living

    On the same day as we met Kevin we had already cycled a hundred kilometers when we wanted to find a hotel before dark. The only place we could find, was a five star resort and it was way out of our budget. Setting up camp in this crowded area was impossible. There was no way four people could go by unnoticed and we definitely didn’t want to sleep with a big group of Indians staring at us.

    A man in a car pulled over, and he instructed us to cycle into his city. After going in the wrong direction he told us to follow him and stay at his house for the night. It took quite a while to finally reach it. Which was a bit scary since it was dark by now, but extremely busy and we were quite exhausted.

    But we were happy we had found a place to sleep, especially given the fact he was taking in five people and their five bicycles! It wasn’t a very big house, but we could sleep on the couch and on our sleeping mats on the floor, covering the entire living room. His mother made us kebabs and dahl (lentils) and the next day we fought our way out trough the busy streets of this small congested city. 

    Cycling in India

    The roads in India were surprisingly good. Yes it was busy and very loud. And yes we saw some bus, car and motor wrecks from what seem to had been terrible crashes. But as long as you follow the rule that busses and trucks alway have the right of way and they don’t need to look in their mirror, you are fine. Big beats small.

    It isn’t the most interesting scenery however. The fields and shops are the only roadshow you get in this part of India. There are enough interesting figures on these roads and in these shops that cause for some amusement. Our favorite was a monkey stealing a bag of potato chips from a small shop, as we cycled by, and the angry shopkeepers face. Just priceless.

    Cheeky monkeys

    At the border crossing we had our own little dispute with a pack of cheeky macaques. Ross had a bag of peanuts on his bike, which he sadly have to forfeit. Macaques have a scary set of canines and when they his at you, you’ll gladly hand over whatever they are demanding. Our other goods we could secure, squirting the monkeys with our water bottles whenever they came to close again.

    Otherwise the whole border process went quite smooth. We were happy to enter a new country, hopefully one that was a little less loud.

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