Feb. 4 - Kashipur, India
Saturday, February 4 :: Kashipur, India :: 128km today / 3485km total
Last night was surprisingly uneventful. I loitered around the lobby of the hotel, waiting for the attention I usually draw, for the sole purpose of getting invited into the wedding reception... no dice. Sigh. The ONE TIME I WANT attention, I don't get it, and I get far too much at other times. You can't win. Fortunately I had a great sleep.
In the morning the wedding guests were all over me (too late! why not last night?) and the annoyance was back, sporadic knocks on the door as I was packing, conversations never more deep than "Where are you from?" "Where are you going?" etc. etc. I enjoy talking with the Indians, when there is a conversation to be had, but this repetitive type of rote-question-asking is really trying on my nerves.
Out on the road it was a very heavy fog, visibility 10 metres, and within 20 minutes I was drenched with condensed moisture. I felt strong, the legs wanted to go, the first time in a while I can say that... the gorging in Kathmandu starting to pay off. A headwind sprung up early, blowing away the fog, but it didn't matter, as I forced my way into the wind in a gear higher than I normally use, even for neutral conditions. I was hammering! I was even thinking of a possible 200km day, a "headwind-200". At the 100km mark, though, the efforts of forcing the headwind started to catch up to me, and I could feel my energy start to sap away. Ah well, no need to kill myself, I told my legs (they still wanted to go for 200). The map showed a large town (Kashipur) at 128km, then nothing significant for 70-80km afterwards, so Kashipur it was. A quiet, peaceful day, much needed.
Accomodation in non-tourist towns is always a dicey proposition, but usually I get something decent enough. Generally in Asia (this goes for SE Asia, Middle East, and here, South Asia) anything less than $5CDN/night is pretty hurting... marginal to dirty sheets, horrible bathroom, and likely mosquitos/bed bugs or both. When I'm forced to stay at places like this its always better to get a room with shared bathroom, rather than attached bathroom... believe me, you want your room to be as far away from the bathroom as possible, not connected to it. In the $6-$10 range the rooms are usually good enough for me, and this is what I aim for - sometimes T.V. (encourages stretching), clean sheets, clean bathroom, sometimes dirty walls and floor, but I don't "touch" the walls or floor so I can live with it. Toilets in this range are about a 50/50 mix between sit-down and squat, I don't mind squatting as long as the environment is clean. Showers are almost always cold, which is fine for me in most cases, since I shower immediately after booking the room, usually hot and sweaty from riding, and the air temp is usually 20C+ at these times. They'll bring bucket hot water if you ask, but I almost never do. From $10-$15 the rooms approach what you would consider to be "Western standard", with clean everything, but still fairly basic. I don't think I've ever paid more than $15 for a room in Asia (except for Singapore, but Singapore is atypical for the places in Asia I've been), but I imagine they're pretty full-on Western-style.
Last night was surprisingly uneventful. I loitered around the lobby of the hotel, waiting for the attention I usually draw, for the sole purpose of getting invited into the wedding reception... no dice. Sigh. The ONE TIME I WANT attention, I don't get it, and I get far too much at other times. You can't win. Fortunately I had a great sleep.
In the morning the wedding guests were all over me (too late! why not last night?) and the annoyance was back, sporadic knocks on the door as I was packing, conversations never more deep than "Where are you from?" "Where are you going?" etc. etc. I enjoy talking with the Indians, when there is a conversation to be had, but this repetitive type of rote-question-asking is really trying on my nerves.
Out on the road it was a very heavy fog, visibility 10 metres, and within 20 minutes I was drenched with condensed moisture. I felt strong, the legs wanted to go, the first time in a while I can say that... the gorging in Kathmandu starting to pay off. A headwind sprung up early, blowing away the fog, but it didn't matter, as I forced my way into the wind in a gear higher than I normally use, even for neutral conditions. I was hammering! I was even thinking of a possible 200km day, a "headwind-200". At the 100km mark, though, the efforts of forcing the headwind started to catch up to me, and I could feel my energy start to sap away. Ah well, no need to kill myself, I told my legs (they still wanted to go for 200). The map showed a large town (Kashipur) at 128km, then nothing significant for 70-80km afterwards, so Kashipur it was. A quiet, peaceful day, much needed.
Accomodation in non-tourist towns is always a dicey proposition, but usually I get something decent enough. Generally in Asia (this goes for SE Asia, Middle East, and here, South Asia) anything less than $5CDN/night is pretty hurting... marginal to dirty sheets, horrible bathroom, and likely mosquitos/bed bugs or both. When I'm forced to stay at places like this its always better to get a room with shared bathroom, rather than attached bathroom... believe me, you want your room to be as far away from the bathroom as possible, not connected to it. In the $6-$10 range the rooms are usually good enough for me, and this is what I aim for - sometimes T.V. (encourages stretching), clean sheets, clean bathroom, sometimes dirty walls and floor, but I don't "touch" the walls or floor so I can live with it. Toilets in this range are about a 50/50 mix between sit-down and squat, I don't mind squatting as long as the environment is clean. Showers are almost always cold, which is fine for me in most cases, since I shower immediately after booking the room, usually hot and sweaty from riding, and the air temp is usually 20C+ at these times. They'll bring bucket hot water if you ask, but I almost never do. From $10-$15 the rooms approach what you would consider to be "Western standard", with clean everything, but still fairly basic. I don't think I've ever paid more than $15 for a room in Asia (except for Singapore, but Singapore is atypical for the places in Asia I've been), but I imagine they're pretty full-on Western-style.
posted by Graham Durrant at 5:04 AM
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