Dec. 17 : Jaipur

Friday, December 16 :: Jaipur :: 182km / 482

I was up and on the road very early, before sunrise, with a tough day and aggressive goal ahead of me, 180km with a probable midday headwind. Immediately things were not looking good... a horrible road surface out of Bharatpur that marginally could be called "paved". At times the road was reduced to one lane, that's one lane to be shared by vehicles going in BOTH directions. The traffic was not light, the drivers continued to be idiots, so you can imagine the hell I went through. I spent much time on the gravel shoulder.

Four hours later I rolled into my first waypoint town, very beaten up. It had taken me 4 hours to cover 60km, almost half of my usual speed. Not good when I was hoping to make it 180km to Jaipur. The town was very dirty and unappealing, but I needed to eat. Towards one end of town I spotted a higher-end hotel/enclave and pulled in. One butter chicken and naan bread later (and $9CDN! ridiculous!), I was back on the road. The road surface was decent, but there was no paved shoulder, so again I was playing chicken with oncoming trucks as they passed vehicles in their lane. Now a mild headwind rose, to further keep my spirits up. This day was too much fun.

Dousa sat at the 125km mark, about 2/3 the way to Jaipur. Another dirty, poor, non-descript town; I rolled in at a very late 3pm, sore, tired, and a little grouchy. I checked with a couple of hotels on the main drag, they were asking stupid prices ("hey look who's coming - gora! he looks tired. lets see what we can get him to pay"). So I decided to push it through to Jaipur, damn the consequences.

As I left Dousa a paved shoulder emerged and I could have cried with joy, had I had the energy or spare bodily fluid. But slowly nausea began to emerge; since it wasn't that hot I knew it wasn't heatstroke; it meant I was on the verge of hitting the wall (when you exhaust your body's available carbohydrate stores, it switches over to lesser-energy-giving fat stores, making you feel terrible, vomit, get lightheaded, etc. You also can't eat or drink without throwing it up - a nasty downward spiral). I pulled over and sat for a while, watching the Sun inch down towards the horizon, waiting for my body to churn some energy from itself to avoid crashing out. Back on the bike, with 27km to go, I knew I had to ride steadily to make it before dark - its not easy to ride steadily after a hellish 160km and a sick feeling in your gut. Slowly the km's ticked down, in pace with the sun setting, I was loathe to ride Indian roads at night (early morning isn't so bad, because the traffic is very light).

Five km from town the road turned upwards. My first big hill of the trip, a 3km climb over a pass between two hills. Couldn't have come at a better time. Whoopie. Zombie-like I flicked into my lowest gear and somehow rode up the hill. On top was Jaipur, and nightfall, but the streetlights were functioning so all was good. By 8pm I was in bed, asleep. One of the hardest rides of my life, far harder than Delhi-Agra on Day 1.

Saturday, December 17 :: Jaipur :: 0km / 482

Wow, am I sore. The biggest problem with hitting the Wall, or being on the verge of, is that, without the proper energy to consume, your muscles start to create lactic acid bigtime. Lactic acid hurts. I'm feeling it today. Stiffly I rose at 5:30 a.m., well in advance of any other staff or guests, thats the schedule I'm on. After stretching, clothes-washing, showering, and breakfast I stepped out of the guesthouse to explore Jaipur. I hit the historical sights, nothing really remarkable but interesting enough for half a day. I almost didn't make it up the 50 metre high minaret at the centre of town - my quads are aching that badly.

Today was my first day of being set upon by the touts, and it was pretty bad. Single guy, no tour group, walking kinda slow and stiffly - perfect target. I said "no thank you" at least 400 times, probably more. It got a bit grating, my replies became more terse, but always in the back of my mind is the understanding that these people need the 1/10/100/1000 rupees in my wallet far more than I do. I'm not sure I would enjoy backpacking through India - to be harassed at bus/train stations, to be at the mercy of the rickshaw/taxi drivers - as well as at the tourist sites, like today - it would certainly dampen the experience. Because of the bike, I only really have to deal with touts in tourist areas.

I went to an Indian movie in the afternoon at, apparently, the pre-eminent movie theatre in all of India - and yes, the theatre was awesome. The movie, however... well, we all have our preferences. The night will be spent eating, and hopefully tomorrow I will set out for Ajmer & Pushkar.