The story so far:

Bike route 674512 - powered by Bikemap 

Day 24:

Day 21:
STILL waiting on my tyres
apparently there are some 700 x 38
not 700x35 as promised and not at the local branch,
so M is picking them up on his way back from work
(he's commuting 25+km each way through Delhi for 4 weeks until his company relocates to Gurgaon from the centre of the city)
i stayed home to work
tried to buy Ladakh-Delhi-Mumbai tickets online
failed
so bought them for Rs2,500 more at a local travel agent
(so now i'm committed to getting to Leh, hopefully by bike)
shopped for food
and cooked it for M&M's dinner
1. gobi (cauliflower), egg & paneer (cottage cheese)
2. aloo jeera (potato with cumin and spices)
3. aubergine, tomato, onion, garlic, mushroom and more spices
4. curd with cucumber

restaurants don't have aubergine on the menu
which is a shame
and strange, since they are in the shops
(in fact, i think they are indigenous to India--though some sources say Africa--as are cucumbers)

Day 20:
Saturday and Sunday the warehouse was closed, Monday the bike shop was closed, so Tuesday (today) my new tyres will "100%" be in the store
Michael and I cycled the 25km each way to be told "the warehouse is closed today, come back tomorrow"
and while M tried everything he could to persuade them to take a set of tyres off a model in the shop, my question was "and you didn't telephone us because?"
over these 50km I got 3 punctures (2 inch-long nails and a cracked valve cap)
and M had one


on the way back we bumped into a major N-S route with a BICYLCE-ONLY PATH
with, naturally, not only motorbikes, autorickshaws
but even cars using it.

Day 19: Rest day in Delhi
still waiting on my tyres
in the meantime working on an article (advertorial);
ironically, it is about cycling in Taiwan



later I went to the Ambiance Mall in Delhi's Gurgaon district
which has a Marks&Spencer, Debenhams, Next etc.,
but is a pretty dreadful place
I bought some peanut butter and a pair of shorts
(from Big Bazar, a local brand in the basement)

Day 15: Barathpur to Agra to Mathura

India's No.1 tourist attraction

but i didn't go inside, dealing with my bike and luggage ... the potential disappointment (again) ... the rush to get to Delhi to spend time with Michael who has free time on the weekends

Day 14: Barathpur

today was supposed to start with a visit to the local nature reserve to look at birds, snakes ...
and then a cycle to Agra to see the Taj Mahal
but i had bad diarrhea, and couldn't even leave my room
hence the view;

Day 13: Jaipur to Barathpur

early start (in fact, earlier than many of the rickshaw cyclists, who were still in 'bed')

stereotype confirmed: it seems Indians do ride 'on' their trains

entrance to B.'s walled city (with bright green moat)

peacock in upper balcony of ruined mansion

Day 12: Jaipur
day started with rain, again
It was supposed to be a rest day, a tourism day; I did almost no sightseeing but got exhausted. I just cycled around the old city, taking pictures (so forgive today’s breaking of the ‘couple per day’ limit) and eating snacks.
cycle repair district

I got as far as the ticket booth for the City Palace, Jaipur’s No.1 tourist attraction, but a combination of worry about leaving my bike unattended for several hours, not being in the mood, and not wanting to shell out Rs.300 meant the booth was as far as I got. I chatted with some tourists about cycling (whenever anyone asks if I recommend cycling around India I hesitate for … well, for ever, really, don’t commit to an answer either way).
Jaipur is full of great (pink) buildings; Hawa Mahal is one of the best

So I spent my money on a kulfi ice cream and the permission to photograph some snake charmers.
kulfi sellers (and eaters)


feeding cows and birds is another (local) tourist attraction

The whole day now makes me wonder if the 200+km detour to Agra will be worth it if I’ll just hang around outside taking photos.

One thing nice about Jaipur is the large number of Indian tourists (probably because it is only 230km from Delhi and therefore possible as a day trip by bus): makes it feel ok to be a tourist.tourists eating kulfi

Day 11: Bundi to Jaipur

a long long slog along a road with little interest but with agressive truck drivers running me off the road
i would have loved to join these boys swimming in the river but had to press on

Day 10: Chittorgarh to Bundi

taking a shortcut to Bundi, I passsed this caravan of almost 100 camels and families of nomadic "tribals" moving home

brahmin house


BJP electioneering in Bundi

Day 9: Udaipur to Chittorgarh

despite the rain, Chittorgarh Fort was well worth a visit

Jain temple at Chittorgarh

Day 8: rest/tourism/repairs day

my rest day starts back at the lake, where women wash their saris


i stood on this street corner for almost an hour waiting for interesting subjects to come round corner


Udaipur palace (one of few places i can recommend paying the entrance fee)




holy man begging (and posing for photos) at Udaipur's main temple

Day 7: somewhere ... to Udaipur

i don't know why, but i expected Rajasthan to be hilly
it isn't, but some bits are pretty


R's main attractions are its cities, however, and Udaipur's palaces around the lake give it the deserved nickname of India's Venice.




i arrived shortly before sunset, just in time for a wander round, few pics, and then an Indian beer as tomorrow is a rest/tourism/bike fixing day

Bike route 674542 - powered by Bikemap 

Day 6: After A'bad to somewhere further up the NH8

i haven't mentioned it so far
but WTF!
you buy a nice bike, fairly expensive, looks nice on the outside
and the dealer SKIMPS ON THE BITS YOU CANNOT SEE
like the tubes
although Specialized sells its own brand of tubes
it fits the cheapest local brand to its bikes
so ...
you're in the middle of nowhere and not only do you get a puncture,
it's a hole right on the valve so you cannot hope to fix it
i used my spare tube on Day 1
and ended Day 5 with exactly the same problem on the valve of the other Specialized-provided-non-Specialized tube
so i spent the first few hours of the morning trying to patch the unpatchable
and the hotel manager and his former chef (who know works in and Indian restaurant in Singapore -- all this I learned in the hours i spent with them) commiserated,
told me i was wasting my time
and offered to take me to the the local bike store where the man could "fix anything"

HE DID
he cut out the valves, patched the holes, cut new holes, inserted rusty old Indian-style valves from disused tubes, and told me that would take me "as far as i wanted to go"
(which turned out to be about 70km till the first one blew, but the second got me another 130km, and i'll continue the tube tale in Udaipur - Day 8)

having left around 1:30pm, i put a half day in, and was lucky to get local information about a govt-run guesthouse about 70km up the NH8
unmarked, and according to a local teacher i met, a secure haven in a dangerous tribal area -- "lock your door and don't come out till dawn"


this is not the government guesthouse but a typical Gujarati GH on the highway,
looks good enough to eat

Bike route 674522 - powered by Bikemap 

Day 5:
The saddest thing about the last two days' fiasco is that i am now much further up the road than i wanted to be,
and my tourism day
a 100km round trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Champaner would be more like 200km
so i didn't get to see that, my first real day's tourism


instead i just pressed on northwards
passed this Tropic of Cancer sign where a fellow cyclist appeared just as i was posing for a self portrait


i visited Ahmedabad,
bought a map and book of short stories and used the Internet
then carried on out of town toward the Rajasthan border


this was the first camel i passed
and the driver tried to engage me in conversation

Bike route 668026 - powered by Bikemap 

Day 4:
so the hotel owner tipped off a friend
who banged my door at 2am
saying he was a policeman and ...
well, the usual shakedown stuff
anyway, i fainted in the middle of it
banged my head and ribs
and came to with the guy anxiously peering at me
he left
and i spent the next 30 hours in bed with head ache, rib ache, and awful diarrhea




meanwhile, outside, the rain continued to pour down

Day 3: Surat - Vadodara (and beyond)


greener again after i got past the industry
and i had planned to stay in the historic/student town of Vadodara
that everyone calls Baroda
and the rain was incessant, evidently beyond the drains' ability,
I really wanted to stay downtown
but the cheap-end hotels don't let foreigners stay
WELL DONE Lonely Planet and the rest of you for NOT mentioning this
(it sometimes happens in non-tourist towns; something to do with
police paperwork or bribes, and of course they don't put a sign
outside saying no foreigners ...)
so after 2 hours of trying, i headed back to the highway and eventually,
when the rain slowed a bit
about another 50km up the road,
found the worst fleabag hotel
and of course the boss saw how tired i was and overcharged ridiculously

oh well, one bad day out of 3 isn't too awful

Bike route 667998 - powered by Bikemap 

Day 2: Daman - Surat

I spent the morning in Daman, looking around the old fort, where there were lots of lizards enjoying the sunshine


and checking out the art on boats, mostly fish, but also this picture of Ganesh the elephant deity



then leisurely headed north toward Surat, which is a heavily industrial district
with very polluted air, not to mention this pond/rubbish tip





so i stayed guest house on the highway
with vegetarian restaurant even though the boss is clearly muslim not hindu

Bike route 667779 - powered by Bikemap 

Day 1: Mumbai (Bombay) - Daman in Gujarat State
nice seaside town, used to be a Portuguese colony
stayed in old hotel
wandered on beach at dusk


This is a temple in northern Maharashtra, about 30km before the Gujarat border
everything is a lot greener, and a lot more agricultural than i remember from further south last year


children collecting rubbish on the beach at Daman (to recylce for money presumably)

Bike route 667773 - powered by Bikemap