Dec. 19 : Jodhpur... and Achilles Tendonitis

Monday, December 19 :: Jodhpur, India :: 54km today / 673km total

Well, it wouldn't be a bike trip without a little creaking and groaning...

Up early as always, I had to nudge the groggy staff to unlock the sliding gateway so that I could get riding. Out on the road I realized immediately that my saddlesoreness does not seem to be subsiding. Ouch. I could live with it, though. Halfway to Beawar my right Achilles tendon started creaking. Not a good sign. I've had Achilles Tendonitis before, in my racing days, and I know exactly what it feels like, how to treat it, and how long it takes to get better. Fortunately its a "quick-fixer", relative to other injuries, but I would have to be off the bike for a few days and not walk too much. So it turns out that my Achilles Heel is my Achilles Heel, after all. Rolling into Beawar, 53km from where I started, I really had no choice but to stop riding, that is if I didn't want to dig a huge hole for myself and be off the bike for weeks.

Beawar was a less-than-exciting, dirty-as-ever town, and the prospect of a $1.50, 160km bus ride to Jodhpur, a big tourist town with all the promising amenities (including massage), was too enticing. I rolled over to the bus station, changed, and chatted with the locals - Indians are fascinated by the gears on my bike. I grabbed a ticket for the local bus and bungee'd my bike to the roof. After the bus left the station the conductor tried to play hardball with me to get 37 rupees for the bike, but I knew it was a sham (had it been a legitimate charge I would have been told when I bought my ticket - the entire station knew that an English had shown up with a bike). I played hardball back, asking for a receipt with his name written on it, after which he immediately lost interest and wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the trip.

Jodhpur has turned out to be an almost completely vegetarian town, not good for protein-starved me. On top of that there is no massage here (how different than Thailand). Apparently there is expensive massage to be found in the big five-star hotels but I got the feeling they were talking about "massage", not massage. I'm really surprised by the lack of tourists, but then again, India can be hell at times and I wouldn't recommend it to most people, so I shouldn't be surprised at all. I'm loving it, though. Mostly. Overlooking the city is a massive, stunning fortress that I will (gingerly) explore tomorrow. Tonight its lots of stretching, Ibuprofen (how do I love thee), self-ankle-massage, and sleep.