Mar. 5 - Lucknow, India

Sunday, March 5 :: Lucknow, India :: 3km today / 5733km total

In the morning I went over to the Bara Imambara, a complex containing a mosque, tomb, and labyrinth. Really it was the labyrinth I was after, and had brought along pen and paper in case it was as tough as rumoured to be. I've been fascinated by mazes and labyrinths since I was young, so was terribly excited about this. I made a beeline through the complex for the labyrinth, ascended the stairs, and began my way through it. Unfortunately I had the 4-level complex figured out in about 10 minutes, what a disappointment! There were 3 big factors that made the labyrinth too easy to nagivate:

i) the labyrinth was very narrow and long, not squarish
ii) along the long sides, at extremely frequent intervals, were windows overlooking either the outer grounds (on one side) or the large inner hall of the complex - this gave far too frequent points of reference - you couldn't get lost
iii) easiest of all, there were long central corridors running down most levels, from one end to the other.

So, pen did not touch paper and I left feeling a bit cheated - the descriptions I had read "tourists without guides will get lost", "built to confound enemy soldiers", etc., had greatly overdramatized it. All they had to do was block up some parts of the long inner corridors and outer windows, and the labyrinth would become a... labyrinth... oh well. My cat Twiggy would have had no problem figuring her way out (she's a smart kitty, but still...).

I left Bara Imambara at 10 a.m. and had a quick decision to make... to bike or not to bike today. It was already quite hot, and Lucknow is a decent city... I'll start the 2-day, 275km ride to Varanasi very early tomorrow morning. I wasn't overly fond of my hotel, though (mosquitos), so packed and moved over to the train station district. There was a nice midrange hotel that I had my eye on, but they had raised their prices... my pretend-I'm-a-Lonely-Planet-guide-author tactic worked this time (success rate around 40%), and they bent over backwards for me (reduced rate, etc). I don't try this tactic often, maybe 3-4 times this trip, only at more pricey places as a quick means to get near to the "local" rate.

After booking my final train ticket from Varanasi to Delhi (3 nights from tonight), I ate ate ate, internet'd, and will focus on eating again, tonight. I'm still feeling very low on energy, and I think my body needs a longish vacation from cycling to recover from the beating it's taken over the past 3 months. Well, a break from the bike won't be hard to accomplish in late-winter Canada. Starting tomorrow, my final week in the Subcontinent should consist of 2 full cycling days, 1 sightseeing day in Varanasi, and 4 days in Delhi to pack/bike box/shop/sightsee.