Jan. 9 : Bhatkal, India

Monday, January 9 :: Bhatkal, India :: 60km today / 2046km total

A late start again, that I paid for quite dearly. The forecast for nearby Mangalore was for a daytime high of 35C, and by 11 a.m. it was incredibly hot on the road. After stopping off to see a temple with a giant, 40m-high Shiva, I was having a very rough time turning the pedals over... the heat was kicking the crap out of me. There was only really one thing to do, and that was to stop early, so I did. From here to Sri Lanka I will have to shift my day/night patterns into pre-dawn wakeup times, furious and desparately fast riding from 6-10 a.m., easing up after, and stopping around noon or 1 p.m. Its ironic that Delhi had its coldest day in 70 years, yesterday... but Delhi is half a Subcontinent away, now, and South India is very different.

Another of the many ironies in India is that many to most shop signs are written in English, as well are many posters inside the shops... yet the vendors often speak little to no English, and very likely can read even less of it. Today in particular I walked into a travel agency to find Internet, and they had posters in English blanketing the place, many with extensive English verbage. When I asked (in English) where I could find Internet (in those exact words), their heads wobbled sideways and they said "Hindi! Hindi only!". I waved my hand across the many posters on their walls and said "English?", but to no avail.