This morning, Emma showed me the steepest road of New Zealand? The world? Don’t remember. It was pretty steep, though. Then she dropped me of at the airport, I had a flight back to Auckland today.
Back in Auckland I checked into the hostel where I’d stored my bike and some of my luggage 4 weeks ago. Nothing was missing.
Unspectatcular flight.
Cycled to Coogee Beach for it was recommended by Seonie, and checked into a hostel there.
I spent the past days in Sydney, waiting for my Indian visa application to come through, doing lots of sports (cycling, running, some swimming), some (but really not much) sightseeing. Stayed in a hostel in Coogee Beach.
Arrived in Mumbai in the early afternoon. Took a cab from the airport to a hotel I’d picked online a couple of days before. Was a prepaid taxi (you pay in the airport and take the receipt to the driver). Should save some time negotiating. Should. The driver then started telling me that what I had paid was only the booking fee. Lol. Then he said he didn’t know the hotel and that it would be impossible to find it given the traffic conditions. Wanted to drop me off elsewhere. Told me the hotel that he didn’t even know would be booked out. Was quite funny to see him try all the obvious tricks. Made him ask for directions and drop me off at the correct hotel. Turned out we’d been driving in circels very close to the hotel all the time. Gave him a little extra for the entertainment, but clearly told him it was a tip.
Have only seen two obvious tourists outside the hotel so far. Haven’t been in richer areas yet, though. Every move attracts curious looks.
Rubbish everywhere. Traffic is chaotic. I’m surprised I haven’t seen any accidents yet. 3-wheeled auto rikshas everywhere, as well as taxis that make you feel like you’re in 1950’s Eastern Europe.
Almost nobody wears shorts. Busses are huge (high) and old, and usually packed. Trains are packed even more.
Hindi everywhere. People’s English is not very good. ‘xerox’ or ‘zerox’ is ‘to (photo)copy’ as well as the actual ‘copy’. 55% of mumbai’s population live in slums. Have seen some from the plane when landing.
Hot day again. Put the bike together and started cycling at noon. First around the airport, then eastwards towards Ghatkopar, then to the north to Thane. Around the airport folks live in slum-like conditions. I haven’t seen the ‘real’ slums yet, though, which I saw from the plane when landing.
Traffic was chaotic at best. Everyone seems to drive how they see fit. I haven’t seen any accidents however. Just like in Madagascar, the chaos seems to regulate itself to some degree. I don’t doubt that accidents happen, but they don’t happen as often as one would think. Drivers certainly ‘threaten’ to run you over, but threatening doesn’t work with me and everybody stopped in time. Best recipe for surviving and making some progress: (self-)confident and pro-active riding. Also interesting, people don’t seem to speed, even if the road is empty enough.
Got lost in Thane (my map is crap) and even in hindsight I can’t find the way I rode on the map. After 30km I left the metropolitan area of Mumbai (which, from what I can see, includes Thane).
Outside Thane traffic was ok but got worse again in a suburb of Bhiwandi called Anjur Phata. The amount of bicycles, autorickshas, motorbikes, cars, busses, and trucks that occupied the road was unbelievable. The only way through was a mix of riding off the road, between everybody, and on the other lane (which was as cramped as my own one). Ripped one of my coles bags open when manoeuvering around a truck. Fortunately, a hotel came to the rescue and I happily got off the bike.
Walked around the place at daylight and then again after nightfall. I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, neither on streets with lighting nor on those without, and all I received were curious looks.
At dinner a guy sat down at my table for a tea and started asking me about my plans, family, job, etc. He had a red mark on the forehead but said he was not married. I thought the red dot on a (woman’s) forehead was a sign that she was married. Apparently women wear the dot for fashion reasons, too. Of course I missed the opportunity to ask the guy why he was wearing it…
For breakfast, I went to the same place I had dinner at yesterday. Was joined by a guy who soon started asking questions, too. At the end (after 5 minutes when he had finished his tea), he gave me his phone number and wanted to know mine. He offered me that I could call him whenever I had a problem or needed some info about India.
A hot and dry but successful cycling day followed. Successful because I managed to find my way out of chaotic Bhiwandi, as well as find a hotel in Wada. The ride through dry and inhospitable looking land was painless if a little exhausting. It seems the Australian sun creme doesn’t cope too well with the Indian sun.
Everyone passing by looks curiously at me. Every now and then someone on their motorbike would slow down next to me and start asking questions: Where are you going? Why? Why are you cycling? One of these guys apparently had a break after talking to me and passed by again a bit later, exactly at the time when I had a break myself. He stopped and asked concerned: What happened? I had to convince him that I just wanted to drink some water.
Then there was the odd shout: ‘nice body’ or ‘handsome’, from boys! I might have misunderstood them, though (but I doubt it). I don’t think they were gay (homosexuality is illegal in India). I saw quite some guys walking the street holding hands or one having an arm over the other’s shoulder. Again, I don’t think they were gay. I guess it is just a sign of friendship.
According to the map there should have been some mountains on the way to Wada, but fortunately it was at most hilly terrain and it would have been an easy ride at milder temperatures.
One thing I learned today: when you’re lost or need an english speaker for some other reason, just stop near some people and look confused. Folks will gather around you and eventually someone with a fairly good command of the English language will come forward and ask how they can help. If that doesn’t work, the next best thing is to look for someone who looks important. Police dudes are a good bet for directions, but business people are good, too. Asking a random guy usually doesn’t yield any results.
First bucket shower today. Important lesson learned: be done ‘showering’ before the bucket is empty. Quite a few times I was standing in front of the bucket shower in Madagascar, but never really figured out how that was supposed to work. Only after leaving Madagascar I read about it. Easy enough now, even for me.
After the shower I had some food (veg. Pulao) and a chai, and then went for a stroll around the town of Wada. Only walked along the main road, but was the main attraction nonetheless. Need to explore smaller streets as well next time. I noticed that there were much more silk-wrapped chocolates (read: girls, thanks Seonie) out and about than in Mumbai. Quite a pleasant sight in their saris (traditional dresses).
When eating in a restaurant, the waiter fills my plate with the first portion, and even insists in doing so, and will also re-fill the plate as soon as it is empty. For some reason they don’t seem to do that for the other guests. First I thought that was just something they did in the somewhat posh hotel in Mumbai. But it happened in every place so far. Needs a bit of getting used to.
Tried to organise some breakfast but the restaurant was still closed. Managed to get 2 chai and 2 portions of veg. Pakoda (fried and battered veggie slices). I’ll see tomorrow if eating that was a good idea. Still felt hungry afterwards and had the feeling that I might not make it to Vapi unless I find more food.
Electricity comes from a generator here in the hotel that is switched off during the day.
Started cycling around 10.45am, hungry. Ride was ok. However, soon I realized that Jawhar would be a better target for the day. Traffic was considerably less. After about 24km I arrived in Kudan and bought a cola and biscuits. Turned out that wasn’t a good meal. 2km further I cracked, much to the amusement of the local youth that checked in on me at least every 30 minutes for the following 4 hours.
After some puking I finally managed to hitch a ride to Jawhar on a truck. Sat in the back with my bike and got shaken quite a bit. But it was definitely better than spending more time standing next to the bike puking and waiting for I-don’t-know-what. Vomited a bit from the truck, though, and had to be careful not to hit innocent people on the road. Hilarious.
Jawhar turned out to have more than one hotel. I just grabbed the first one I came across and checked in. A cold shower and a short nap fixed me to some degree. Had a chai and a lemon tea, and went for some food. Will stay here one more night to get loads more food down me and to sort out my future diet.
Ordered veg. Pulao again, but that was a bit too spicy for my already upset stomach. Went for plain rice instead. I didn’t expect the concept of ‘take-away’ food would be known here, but to my surprise the waiter offered a ‘parcel’ for the Pulao. Et voila, they even put it into an aluminium box you would expect to find in a ‘pro’ take-away shop.
Did I mention that I always had mobile reception and GPRS, even though the places here feel quite remote?
Having a relaxed day in Jawhar. Managed to get my laptop online through the phone. Can now update the blog wherever I am, given network coverage. The ultimate goal, though, is to blog directly from the phone.
Most people here (that is, in India in general) are way shorter than me (well, that’s not too unusual) and extremely skinny.
Electricity appears to be precious. The room I’m staying in has two circuits, one connecting the fan and a light bulb (one of the newer, energy saving ones) to the mains, and one connecting the TV and another light. They can be switched on and off separately, and as soon as I come back into the hotel, the guy at reception switches the fan circuit on. The TV stays off during the day, it seems.
There are two brands that seem to be ubiquitous world-wide: Coca-Cola-botteled soft-drinks and Colgate toothpaste. I’ve seen both in the remotest places in Madagascar and New Caledonia as well as in tiny villages here in India. Convenient, sure. But also a bit scary.
Had breakfast/lunch and left Jawhar around 12:30pm. The road now certainly was one of the narrower variety. Asked an older fellow on a motorbike for directions and he offered to show me a shortcut through his village. Dunno if it really was shorter, but seeing his village and riding the even smaller, even less travelled road was worth it.
Passed by a quarry, or so it seemed. Working there were old women and children. A girl crossed the street in front of me, maybe 8 or 10 or 12 years old, walking to the stone pit, staring at me. I’ve seen the same shit in Madagascar. Those people lived next to their ‘workplace’ in tents. Turned my stomach upside down. Asked myself what the f*ck am I doing here? Cycling through their land and life, watching them working and staring. F*cking sh*t.
Made it to Silvassa and decided to call it a day. Found an ATM to stock up on cash. Inside the ATM area was an old dude, the guard, who wanted to help me, even though there was no need. Anyway, he didn’t leave and watched me pull out 15.000 Rupees. Quite a pile if the biggest note is 500 Rs. Poor fella couldn’t get his eyes off the money. I tried to behave as if that amount could feed me for a life-time, too, but I don’t think it worked nor that he cared.
Check in at hotels is ridiculous. Not only do folks write down all sorts of personal details in huge registers, some of them even make a ‘xerox’ of my passport, and once I had to pay for the copy.
The guy that wanted my phone number a couple of days ago in Anjur Phata called when I was having dinner to check how I was doing. Funny.
Two relaxed days in Silvassa. The original plan was to leave today, but last night I read about a lion sanctuary not far from here (actually I must have driven past it when I arrived in Silvassa 2 days ago). I wasn’t even aware that there were lions in India! Have to see them!
Another problem: I’m running out of batteries for the camera. Bought a pair yesterday and could take exactly 1 picture before they were flat. Again something I know from Madagascar. One option is to get the bike charger fixed, either doing it myself or have someone do it. Meanwhile I bought an AA charger, with Europlug so I can use it at home, too.
Will have to stay another night here until the first set of batteries is charged.
Back in Mumbai I chose to buy an Airtel SIM card for my phone. Buying a SIM card involves handing over your passport to the dealer, who will then make a ‘xerox’, as well as an extra passport-sized photo and proof of some local address. The latter could be a hotel invoice, of which a ‘xerox’ would be made, too. An application form needs to be filled in and all the paperwork then must be sent to the network provider. Apparently this procedure is required by the government, so there’s no way around it.
Now, yesterday I received a message from Airtel, saying they would discontinue service for me because the paperwork hadn’t been sent to them. Today I can’t make any phone calls anymore, nor send SMSs. Great. GPRS still works, though. I have no idea how to contact the store I bought the SIM card at in the first place. I guess I have to buy a new one here and hope these guys are more honest.
SSH is now working on the phone! That means I can blog from the phone!
I finally got around to visiting the lions. I was the only visitor at the time, and, judging from the amount of change the cashier had, I was the first one today.
I was a bit disappointed, as I only got to see a single lioness. And she was just lazily dozing in the shade of a tree. I have no clue where the others were, or even if there actually are others. The driver insisted there’s only this one.
The lion(s?) is an Asiatic Lion. They are native to Southwest Asia and once were even found in the Balkans. There are only about 250-350 individuals left in the wild, living in Gir Forest National Park further northwestish in Gujarat on the Kathiawar peninsula.
After about 4 hours of sleep I started dreaming of some nerve-wrecking noise coming from the floor above. I went upstairs to find a kid hopping through the room on a chair. Then I woke up – but the noise didn’t disappear. Turned out they were doing some construction work on the roof. After two phone calls to reception (yeah, it’s a poshy hotel) the noise stopped.
Went to the Tribal Museum after lunch. It displays various items from the tribes that live in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, of which Silvassa is the capital.
Went for a last stroll around the city. Going to leave tomorrow.
The construction work on the roof had gone on for a couple of days already, but in a different part of the building and it never bothered me much. I’d frequently seen people in the hotel who looked like they were those doing the work. Today I sneaked up there to see what they were building or fixing. I didn’t find out exactly, but I found these people. They live there, next to … no, at their work place.
