|
David & his bike go to India
TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2005Ahmedabad (Amdavad) Day 9 cycling:
Baroda to Ahmedabad
Overall, today's road was pretty good, and more scenic than it's been to
date, although there were a few rough bits and was not a divided road for
most of it. I was able to cycle at 19 or 20km/hr for most of the way, but
was slowed down at either end as I negotiated my way through both cities.
Had a few near misses - a woman & child ran across the highway without
looking (!), and an autorickshaw swerved in front of me & slammed its
brakes on hard, for no reason apparent to me. Luckily I couldn't recall
the Gujarati
swearword that Bhanu told me (she subsequently emailed & told me not to
use it as I'd probably get a punch in the face if I did. I think the word
involved
one's sister ...). So I had to resort to one of the Australian ones I
occasionally use. It does seem extraordinary to me how often motorists
just pull out or stop suddenly without seeming to look in the mirror or to
the side. This behaviour is of course reflected in traffic accident
statistics which show India to be about the worst in the world. This, and
the fact that so many vehicles are in such bad repair. One day, when I was
cycling in South India (in 2000) I was cycling along when a truck came
around the corner - the passenger suddenly opened the door and jumped out,
then the driver, and the guy in the middle also tried to. The truck kept
going in a straight line, into a power pole pulling the power lines down
for quite some way in both directions. Presumably its brakes or steering
failed, and I expect this is not all that uncommon. It's always in the
back of my mind as I cycle along. This, and the memory of a dead
motorcyclist jammed underneath a four wheel drive in South India, also
encountered on the same trip. As I left Baroda yesterday, the road sign said Ahmedabad 100km, and then a little further on a sign said 106km. After I'd cycled 40km (and I know my bike computer is accurate), the sign told me it was 76km to Ahmedabad - my day's goal just seemed to keep getting further away. Similarly, at one stage there 3 successive road signs saying 50, then 51 then 52km to go (was I going in the right direction?). Yesterday at Baroda I had a thali with Robert from Brisbane. He's taken the past year off from work and has been cycling for the past 8 months in Europe. He'd had enough, had shipped his bike back home, and was travelling India by bus. He was a nice bloke and it was good to chat about our respective travels and compare notes re cycling. One of the things that Ahmedabad, which is otherwise a rather noisy, dusty, industrial city, has going for it is its restaurants. Last night I ate at a place called "Agashiye", a delightfully atmospheric open-aired terrace on top of a mansion (The House of MG). The service & environment were impeccable, and the food was very tasty. You had to pay in advance which was a little odd, and the manager mumbled something about needing to know in advance for catering purposes, which of course made no sense at all. I suspect some past guests must have run off without paying. Now, I'm sitting in the "biggest & chippest cybercafe" in town, having had a rather miserable breakfast of idli - which unusually came in a big tub of soup, and looked as if it had been nibbled at by a previous diner or something even more worrying to contemplate, and 'toast, butter jam' - which was like a toasted jam sandwich. The coffee wasn't bad. Had lunch in another restaurant in the same building - the Green House - and it too was excellent. I'm staying at a place called Hotel Serena - not the flashest of hotels, but satisfactory. Their motto is "the proud of your service" and also "for the ecma of comforts". I'm not sure what ecma means, or that I really want to find out.
Ahmedabad II Well, I think I may have experienced the "ecma" that Hotel Serena boasts of. I ordered boiled eggs for breakfast via room service, after having had the ghastly idlis that the Nutan Restaurant dished me up yesterday. The 2 eggs arrived - soft-boiled & helpfully cut up for me into 8 pieces, arranged sunnyside up on a plate, and doused in ground pepper. After the none-too-clean looking room-service guy put his hands all over the tines of the fork before giving it to me, my appetite seemed to evaporate and - I feel embarrassed to admit this - I flushed them down the loo. This was planned to be a very early breakfast so I could get to the rendezvous point for the "Heritage Walk of Ahmedabad" by 8am. I duly arrived, as did a couple from South Africa (Mo & Acacia). Unfortunately for us the guide didn't - we were told he'd gone away for the day. What a drag. However, the 3 of us managed to get a copy of the map of the walk & decided to do a self-guided tour. Mo was a whiz with the map & at asking locals where things were, and the resulting tour was a fascinating look at the side of Ahmedabad that had thus far eluded me. We walked through numerous 'pols' - local micro-neighbourhoods - and saw Jain & Hindu temples, Muslim tombs, striking architecture. The walk left me feeling that Ahmedabad was a pretty interesting town. After that, we paid a visit to the Calico Museum of Textiles - an absolute mecca for those interested in textiles & weaving, I'd reckon - and I later cycled out to Ghandi's Ashram, about 5km out of town. It was an exhausting day, and it took some self-control to not flip-out on finding that my pants had been replaced by a pair of green socks when my laundry was returned to me. Luckily, they were found. (It is amusing to see all the numbers appearing on my clothes so laundries can identify them - so far, my white shirt has 133, 406 and 303 written on the inside collar.) Acacia, Mo & I caught up again that evening for a meal. They were a nice couple & it was good to spend time with them looking at stuff & chatting.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2005Ahmedabad to Lothal/Utelia Day 10 cycling: Ahmedabad to Lothal/Utelia Distance cycled: 94.72km Ridetime: 4:49hrs Average Speed: 19.96 km/hr Maximum speed: 32.4 Total odometer reading: 973km It's always difficult cycling out of a big city - "am I going the right way?" - and very cheering when you discover you are. Ahmedabad was surprisingly easy to get out of. It's also mentally taxing - can't let your attention waver for much more than 2 or 3 seconds. The times I have, I've invariably & suddenly spotted something e.g. a tractor, goat or motorcycle on the wrong side of the road, heading straight toward me. Today's road was very good (mostly Highway 8A) - dual-lane divided highway, flat, excellent surface, light traffic. Scenery was mainly fields & factories (petrochemical, pharmaceutical). There were few refreshment stops. Ahmedabad to Utelia is actually about 81km but I cycled an extra 14km to Lothal and back. While asking directions, people obviously thought that I was asking "Lothal?" when in fact I was asking "Hotel? ... Utelia". Utelia, where I expected to find Hotel Palace Utelia, was unsigned and doesn't appear on maps, even the local Gujarati one I bought in Ahmedabad. I eventually found it - a large mansion or palace in the middle of the small village of Utelia - seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I was prepared for a difficult time as the Lonely Planet describes it as being "ridiculously overpriced" (but "unusual") and a website by two cyclists ("Bike Brats") was quite negative about it. It was expensive - the tariff was Rp 2400 which I easily negotiated down to Rp 2000, dinner Rp400 an breakfast Rp200. Nevertheless, I had some sympathy for the manager's (Yuvaraj Bhagirath Sinhji) point that it was expensive to run, given its isolation, that tourists only arrived there sporadically, and that it had been damaged by the earthquake that hit Gujarat some years ago. I enjoyed my stay, and the host struck me as quite a pleasant fellow. The palace has 20 rooms, only 10 of them useable at this stage for tourists, with fantastic views in both directions of the surrounding village and beyond, from the room I stayed in on the top floor. Hot water, soap, towels, toilet paper were all supplied & the food was pretty good - certainly much more than I or the other guest, a Frenchman, could possibly eat. It was also very quiet at night, which is a rarity in India. I'd recommend the place, despite its cost.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2005Lothal/Utelia to Bhavnagar Day 11 cycling: Lothal/Utelia to Bhavnagar Distance cycled: 111.73km Ride time: 6:32 hrs Average Speed: 17.35 Maximum speed: 25 Grand total: 1108km Total between towns: 976km Well, I've hit the 1000km milestone on my travels (if I just count city-to-city travel, then I've cycled 976km). Yesterday was really hard - the road surface was quite good, but I just felt buggered, and the wind at times seemed quite strong as it blew into my face for much of the trip. It was also very arid country, with mudflats, a few shrubs and not much else. I'll rest up for maybe 5 days when I get to Diu, on the southern bit of Gujarat where it juts out into the ocean. Bhavnagar's not such a bad town to wander around, despite the Lonely Planet guide saying there wasn't much to see. I also went & checked out the local museum & took some photographs which apparently I was not meant to do. The exhibits were just great - many of them looked like something a Grade 5 pupil would bang out for a school project. I particularly liked the stuffed lion & the skeleton. India feels quite a safe place to travel in (the roads, and what you read in the newspapers notwithstanding) - probably the scariest moment occurred today when a cow tried to eat my guidebook as I stopped to check something out in it.
Palitana Day 12 cycling: Bhavnagar to Palitana Distance: 65.22km Ride time: 3:42 Average speed: 17.85 km/hr Max: 37.3 Total distance: 1173 Distance between towns: 1042 The road to Palitana was generally good, although became fair in parts, and there were several hilly bits. The traffic was challenging at times as the road was quite narrow. I stayed at a place called Hotel Sumeru, run by Gujarat Tourism. It was adequate, as was the attached restaurant, where I had vegetable makhanwala, aloo mutter, dal fried, vegetable pulao and roti. Many of these hotels & guest houses amaze me by their utter obliviousness to the fact that people staying there might want to sleep at times. From 6.30 am onwards, doors slam, staff roam the corridors singing and shouting to one another, and it often continues late into the night. It's also interesting to ponder the obvious cultural differences in concepts of hygiene & grubbiness. Many rooms will appear pretty bloody awful to me eg muck all over the bathroom but this has clearly not registered with staff who've cleaned it. Kitchen and waiting staff will often have uniforms so grubby that you'd look askance at your local car mechanic if their overalls were as messy. Still, I notice my own sensibilities drifting - I typically don't react to things as I did earlier on e.g. strange black items in my yoghurt drink, dried crap on the toilet seat, etc. My Western sensibilities are also put to the test when I occasionally read the newspapers. One example: a woman became pregnant after being raped by the son of her boss. Her family were demanding that he marry her or else they would have him charged. There's a strange phenomenon I've noticed a few times: other westerners often seem to studiously avoid making eye contact when you pass them in the street or see them in shops & cafes. I even had this with an entire bus load of American tourists who arrived at Hotel Sumeru. What's this about? People's protective mechanism in managing India? (I don't think it's me) Today, from Palitana, I climbed Shatrunjaya mountain, one of the Jain religion's holiest pilgrimage sites - it contains over 800 temples. The view in all directions was fabulous. It's a 600 metre ascent, comprising over 3000 steps, and took several hours up & back. Tuesday, February 08, 2005RAJULA Day 13 cycling:
Palitana to Rajula
My original plan had been to cycle to the port town of Mahuva, stay
overnight there and then cycle on to Diu. However a worker in the Hotel
Sumeru persuaded me to go via Jesar (not in the Lonely Planet atlas - it
might have been the town labelled Dunghapur) to Rajula, which I did. I
don't think he was aware of what an awful road it would be to cycle. The
turnoff to Jesar was about 12km from Palitana. The road was slightly
hilly, but it was quite scenic compared to many other roads I've cycled on
the journey. Mt Shatrunjaya remained visible for at least the first 20km,
and then another mountain with a huge temple on top took its place for
some while. It was a laborious ride - the road seemed to really drag, and
the wind was a hindrance. The road between Jesar and Rajula was bloody
awful - full of craters and attempts at remediation i.e big clumps of tar.
The average speed above contains a lot of variation - a few sections were
reasonably speedy. Overall, the scenery varied quite a bit also - brown &
dry in some parts; green, lush, fertile in others. Onions, cotton & other
crops (corn? wheat?) were being grown, and the gentle sound of irrigation
pumps was a nice accompaniment to the ride. Other motorists & their
passengers were exceedingly friendly, and my face & arm became sore at all
the waving & smiling I found myself doing. Many of the men were dressed
head-to-toe in white - with white turbans, stove-pipe trousers that
billowed out above the knee (jodhpurs I guess), and usually a big
moustache. In fact, I had the uneasy feeling that it was the same damn
bloke popping up in all these villages I cycled through. India is such a vast & fascinating place. So often I find myself exclaiming "what the ...!" or "how the ...?" or just "wow!". And I think I might generate this for a few Indians, who often struggle to comprehend why a Westerner would want to cycle through India. They'll often stick their hand out, moving their upturned palm up or down or sideways with a quizzical raising of the eyebrows Rajula itself did not seem all that captivating, but admittedly this was based on a short walk of one or two kilometres into the town. Wednesday, February 09, 2005DIU Day 14 cycling:
Rajula to Diu I was feeling a little queasy in the morning & thought that I'd ordered toast with jam. The jam sandwich that arrived wasn't quite what I'd expected. The ride itself started off delightfully; the road to Una was excellent & it was easy to maintain a pace of 22 km/hr or more. Most of the way from Una onwards was ghastly - either very rocky or else potholed & bumpy. It was nice to arrive at the Hotel Apana in Diu & freshen up after 2 days cycling. My room at the hotel is tiled from floor to ceiling (and including floor & ceiling). Theoretically, I guess it would make cleaning easy. I suspect the tiling also enhances rather than dampens any ambient noise, as the first morning here would have to be one of the noisiest starts to the day I've had in India - the usual banging, bellowing & dogs barking, with the addition of some of the loudest clearing of nasal & other passages I've ever heard. It sounded as if someone was being murdered down the corridor. I'm sure it could not be good to do whatever it was he was doing. The other sound that floated into my subconscious mind was the repetitive 'ding' of a bell being rung - which I slowly realised was my bike's, which was locked up out the front of the hotel, below my window. I don't think my yelling out the window at the perpetrators did much for the morning's harmony. In fact, at every single hotel I've stayed at, with the exception of Hotel Palace Utelia, my bike's gears have been changed from those I've left it in. This can be especially annoying when you start cycling in the morning & find your gears all out of whack, and slipping. The big question after "what is your country?" or "from where are you coming?" is to ask how much the bike cost. I'm usually pretty coy about this, and if pressed give a value of a fraction of what it cost
India! You have to love it (otherwise you'd go mad here....).
Mr Felix said...
david w said...
Nothing doing, I don't think it looks anything like yours, except that it
has two wheels, a seat & handlebars.
Diu II
Diu really is a laid-back & relaxed place, and it's very quiet at night
(although the silence is punctuated at times (eg 4 am) by sudden outbursts
of frenzied barking by the packs of dogs that inhabit the place, and last
night a bunch of Indian blokes were partying in the adjacent room until
very late. There were also some tremendous bangs at 1am last night - they
sounded like cannons, and the whole hotel seemed to shake with each blast
(turned out they were large fireworks - part of a wedding celebration
somewhere nearby)... other than all this, it's quiet at night!) One of the workers in the restaurant attached to Hotel Apana told me he earned Rp 2500 a month [about $75 AUD] (he takes the orders, which is one up from being a waiter, and hence gets paid a little more, but doesn't get tips as do the waiters). For this, he worked a six day week, and a ten hour day - from 11am to 4pm & then 7pm to 12 midnight. He also explained that his wife & child lived in Rajasthan - several hundred kilometres away, and hence he only sees them a few times a year. He said he liked the job & was thus prepared to live with this. Another waiter said his family lived in Nepal ... I spent some time cycling around Diu - I passed through an area that was purportedly an Industrial Zone, but not much seemed to be happening. Along the northern stretch of road were a few bars, and it wasn't all that clean & tidy compared with the tourist area. I discovered that there are actually two bridges that connect the island to the mainland - this is not at all clear from the various maps of Diu. The western part of the island was curious - Vanakbara, a fishing village, which stank of fish & shit. I've never seen such a concentration of children - you get the impression that all the folk do there is fish & fuck. Nearly every kid wanted to do a sort of sideways "high-five" as I cycled past, and I've never heard so many requests for "pen" as here. It was a very friendly town, and one of the few places in India where even the women would greet you as you cycled past. Gomptimaka Beach, on the southern coast, was a delightfully secluded stretch of golden sand - quite idyllic & not a shred of tourist development there
INDEX: 1. Melbourne, Mumbai, Shahapur, Igatpuri, Nasik 2. Nasik, Kaparda, Daman, Surat, Bharuch, Baroda - this page - 4. Veraval (via Somnath), Sasan Gir, Junagadh, Rajkot 6. Udaipur, Ranakpur, Kumbhalgarh
|
|