Month: October 2017

Mumbai is not subtle, that’s for sure. Everything is right in your face. We are enjoying the experience, but we will have had enough soon. We spent the day walking around on our own, followed by a street food tour that took us all around the city to try lots of things.

The train station

Lots of shops are decorated for the Diwali holiday.

Yes, cows really do wander the streets here.

We found a hidden sanctuary for cows and other animals in the middle of the city, with baby calves, milk cows, and bulls. Some kids appeared out of the woodwork and gave us a quick tour. We gave them a little pocket change after.

Stopped by the Gandhi museum, where Gandhi lived while in Mumbai.

Important message from Gandhi.

Good Luck driving! You’ll need it.

An Indian family stopped us at the beach and asked to take a picture. Not to take a photo of them. They wanted a photo of us with them! Okay, this is going to be fun, India! Wait until we’re on our bicycles…

Our delicious veg masala dosa (mine was Mysuru style) for lunch. $1.50US with a Coca Cola.

The rest of the photos are from the food tour. I don’t know the names of all of it.

A guy dishing out little fried balls with different sauces in them. He’s been doing this for 20 years. Tasty little snack, but messy if they break.

One type of the fried balls. It comes with a number of different fillings and toppings.

Steve trying them!

Water buffalo balls. They call it “beef”. It’s illegal to eat cow meat in much of India.

Spicy chicken sandwich!

Chicken rolls, really good!

I usually stress out about traveling. All the millions of details and timelines and unknowns get my mind going, and I can’t shut it up. But this time, I made a conscious effort to not stress. And so I didn’t think about our bikes or the various things that could get damaged or lost. I didn’t worry about missing our connection. And I didn’t worry about there being some unknown problem with our visa. Those things crossed my mind, but I quickly switched gears and thought about something else.

So I enjoyed the flight and was completely unsurprised when everything went perfectly. Even better than planned, in fact.

We twiddled our thumbs in the room in Athens for a while before deciding that it would be better to twiddle our thumbs at the airport, where at least we could get check-in and security over with and relax with a book and a beer.

We asked our hotel to call a van taxi for us, and they looked concerned and said you have to book those far in advance. But he made a quick call, and there was one free in 20 minutes! A bit pricey at 55€ but the other option was two taxis for 70€.

The driver was great and even took our photo!

We still had an hour before we could check in, so I wandered around and changed our Euros to Rupees (one less thing to worry about in India at 4am when we arrived). And I found a pharmacy, and low and behold, they had two boxes of Malarone! Now we each have a 24 day supply, which should be plenty for when we go through areas where malaria is prevalent (just the jungle areas).

The check in lady asked where our return ticket was, as the check-in system was telling her we needed proof of onward travel to go to India. I told her we have a 10-year visa with 180 days allowed per trip, and we couldn’t possibly know the exact date we’d be leaving yet, and she seemed fine with that, and then asked if we’d like to be upgraded to a exit row. Sure!

We found a place in Istanbul for one final su börek, which we’d both been craving since leaving Turkey, and then boarded our connection to Mumbai.

Not an exit row this time, but no one else next to us, so we stretched out in 3 seats. I was able to sleep for a few hours, but Steve was awake all night.

Everything at the Mumbai airport went super smoothly! We expected much more trouble. The line at immigration was only about 10 minutes, and he didn’t ask us any questions except the address of our hotel. Our bike boxes were ready 10 minutes after we arrived and looked mostly undamaged, and Mumbai has free trolley carts so it was easy to move them. Just outside customs was the “pre-paid taxi” desk, where we asked for a large van taxi and they said no problem. 1700 Rupees ($26) to the Fort area. A porter appeared and took our cart and showed us how to get to the taxi line; we tipped him 100R after. Traffic was really light, probably because of the Diwali holiday. It’s going to take a while to get used to all the honking though!

We showed up at our hotel around 7am and sheepishly asked if a room might be available. Without missing a beat, the super friendly staff showed us to a room bigger than what we’d reserved (but without windows) and said we could use it for two days, maybe longer, and then go back to our reserved room (which wasn’t ready until the afternoon).

A perfect excuse to catch up on sleep and shower, so we napped until noon.

We had lunch at a nearby Keralan restaurant (Taste of Kerala) that was listed in Lonely Planet and had our first veg thali, probably the first of many! The other Indians were eating with their hands, but our waiter somehow knew we’d like silverware and brought us some. It was really tasty! I’m going to love the food here, though it’s taking a while to get used to the spice…

We asked our hotelier about a SIM card and he said don’t go to the Vodafone shop, follow me, I know a guy! Okay, sounds sketchy, but I’d read that the cell phone shops are notoriously inefficient and unhelpful and more expensive, so we follewed him to a small street stall, and the vendor said he could get us a 3 month SIM from Airtel with 1GB 4G data per day for 1200R. That’s like $6/mo for what would cost you $100/mon in the US.

The catch is the paperwork. We had to have two passport photos each, copies of our passport, Indian visa, letter from the hotel where we are staying, proof of our home address, and then we had to sign a form in triplicate in 3 places. One of the signatures had to be written halfway over our passport photo. Phew! We brought a handful of passport photos with us, knowing we’d need them for visas, so we offered just one, not wanting to waste them, and he said he could make do with that.

15 minutes later (and now there was a queue of 4 others waiting for his services), we had our SIM card. But it’s not over. Activation is normally 24 hours, but since it’s a holiday, it won’t activate until Monday night at 8pm. At that time, we have to call a number and confirm our passport number, address, and a bunch of other info. But we have to pay now. At least we know where he works.

We did some of the touristy things and walked around a bit and then came back to nap and put the bikes together.

And that’s where we are at. It’s a really interesting city! Not as busy or dirty as I thought, though it’s not clean by US or European standards, but it’s a holiday, so let’s see how things change in a few days. Some areas are jam packed with people, but we walked by the water on Marine Drive and it was quite peaceful. Lots of vendors along the street selling everything on the ground and tables, which I love because I have a few hard to find things I’d like to buy. If you ask one vendor, they’ll gladly run around to their friends to help you look.

We’ve been enjoying street art in various cities around Europe, and we have to say that Athens has the most prolific street art that we’ve seen. Probably a result of the economic crisis, but it’s interesting to see, nonetheless. Here are a few of my favorites…

Note: None of this is medical advice, just a story of what we learned today.

Today was medical day in Athens. We found what we thought was a clinic near our hotel and walked over to it in the morning. Turns out it was just a place to have lab tests done, and the doctor there told us that we had to go to The National School of Public Health for vaccines and malaria pills for India.

When we arrived there, we couldn’t find the entrance, but we walked into a few doors at random (all the signs were in Greek, no English anywhere). The security guards and people we met were all extremely patient with us and friendly, but their directions weren’t always clear. Finally, we found a door and walked in to a hallway with people sitting waiting, followed by another hallway, etc. We awkwardly barged to the front and asked someone if this is the place for vaccines, and he said yes, but you have to wait in line to talk to the doctor. Oops.

The doctor was awesome, very patient and asked about all the countries we would visit, looking them up in her book on vaccines. It turned out that we had all the vaccines recommended (typhoid, tetanus, and Hepatitis A), except she also recommended Japanese Encephalitis. Unfortunately, that vaccine is not available in Greece, but she said we should be able to get it easily in any major city in India. Okay…

Next up, malaria. We told her we might be in Asia for up to a year, and she said, “then you can’t take malaria medication”. Apparently it’s not good to take for more than a month at a time. And, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, although they have malaria, are considered “low risk”, especially outside of monsoon season. A better bet for long-term visits is deet sprays and creams plus mosquito netting for sleep. However, she said we could get a one-month supply of Malarone if we wanted and use it just when we visit “the jungle”. She gave us a small slip with the info and dosage and said we could find it at any pharmacy in Athens.

Yeah, right… Seven pharmacies later in both Piraeus and downtown Athens, and no one has it, and they all said it’s just not available here. We finally insisted at a pharmacy near our hotel that they try to get some please, and he called up the supplier and they only had the children’s formula, 1/10 the dose that we need. But, he said he would put the word out and we should come back tomorrow to see if he was able to get it.

We also stopped by Kassimatis Cycling, the main Specialized dealer in town, and I decided to purchase an entire new bike packing bag. I was able to find the one part I needed back in the US, but with shipping, it was cheaper to simply buy the whole bag in Europe. Sigh, now I have an unbroken seat post, but what do I do with two perfectly good bags? One with all of my country stickers on it…

We also picked up some really loud horns to put on our bikes somewhere (goes well with the clown noses our friend Darin sent us in a care package we received in France!). Another cycle tourist we met in Bulgaria had a nice one on her bike and said it was invaluable in India, and the kids had great fun honking it as well.

and some cheap duffle bags to carry everything to/from the airport. We’ll have to leave these in India when we start cycling, so I really wish we’d been able to find the super-light collapsible duffle bags we started the trip with but left in Portugal. Oh well, we will find a nice new home for them in Mumbai.

Some fun photos from exploring Athens…

Evergreen!

Lots of street vendors selling stuff like these balloons for the kiddos.

I love that there are still lots of books for sale everywhere, and this kitty appreciates them, too.

When we left San Diego, our friend Josemar promised to meet us in Greece, and we are so thankful and happy to see him here!!!

So many silly bathroom signs.

The downtown area has these tiny churches sunken into the ground surrounded (sometimes encased by!) multi-story commercial buildings.

Supposed to be the oldest bar in Athens. We had the best ouzo that we’ve tried in Greece, so far.

Bike art. The street art scene here is one of the best we’ve seen anywhere. We love walking down alleys and finding some cool works.

Like this one.

And this one.

Quite a few buildings with “character”

A beautiful olive tree with some maybe-famous building in the background? I dunno.

Tomorrow, the bikes should be ready to be boxed up, so we expect to spend a few hours at the bike shop getting that done! Shit’s getting real!

CGOAB Link and map

Date: 2017-10-12/13 cycling days
Start: Chania
End: Athens
Distance (km): 32
Climbing (m): 350
Route description: back roads to the Chania port and back roads to Tsirikos Bikes
Road condition & traffic: on Crete, roads were fine, but traffic was moderate to heavy. In Athens, roads were sketchy, and morning rush hour traffic was very heavy, though some of the back roads we found were fairly quiet.
Weather: cool, mostly sunny
Notes:

“The map says there’s supposed to be a road here.” I think Steve is getting tired of me saying this, as our quiet rural street quickly deteriorates into a rough boulder-strewed walking trail for 200 meters.

Overall, OpenStreetMaps (and the corresponding OsmAnd app on my phone) have had excellent data about streets throughout Europe, but there are some random errors, such as this street segment that was marked as “paved” on the map but is nowhere near.

We had a whole day to kill in Chania; our hotel let us check out late around 2pm, so we took our time packing our bikes, did some shopping, and hopped between some cafes and restaurants, waiting for our 11:45pm overnight ferry to Athens.

I picked up a new athletic jersey for under 10€ that looks more like a normal shirt than my red cycling jersey but is made of wicking material to keep me dry and cool. This combined with some lightweight hiking shorts that we picked up in Istanbul, and we stand out a little less, though I think this will end up being futile in India, as we are going to stand out like sore thumbs regardless of what we do.

The ferry was delayed 3 hours, but we were allowed to board when the ship came in; we got on around 11pm. Every dark corner was strewn with sleeping bags and pads, so we were thankful that we had been able to get a private inside cabin. They even gave us a whole 4-bed bunk room to ourselves, even though we’d only reserved a 2-bed room.

Neither of us will ever get used to sleeping during travel, so we both slept fitfully and woke up feeling like we hadn’t slept at all. Still, the cold fresh air, hectic traffic, and 200 meter urban climb through busy Athens side streets kept us alert on the 20km ride from the port to Tsirikos Bikes.

The guys are the bike shop have been amazing. They respond to emails promptly, and they told us they’d be happy to service our bikes and would have bike boxes for us ready to go. We pulled all the bags off our bikes, and did a little shopping. We both added some padded underwear to our clothing, which now allows us to ride comfortably wearing normal street clothes.

It was weird to see the bikes with nothing on them, so naked! They hosed them down (they were filthy) and took them in the back, and we bid our farewells, carrying all of our assorted bags and bike gear in two huge heavy-duty plastic bags meant for holding wheelsets. It was strange (and nice) to check into a hotel and not have to explain or find a place for the bicycles.

One of the bolts on my handlebar bag is threatening to become stripped after being tightened and loosened many times, so I asked the guys at the bike shop if they might have a matching bolt. They sent us to a street in downtown Athens, right around here: https://goo.gl/maps/t2JmgxvqwQn They said there are shops that sell nothing but bolts!

The next day, we did a city tour and then went hunting for this bolt. Amazingly, even though the bolt is an odd shape with an odd head that has to fit into a recessed hole, I found a shop that had the exact one I needed! It’s just 2-3mm longer than what I have, but it’s correctly threaded and even has the same 3mm head.

I spent a frustrating 2-3 hours on the phone with DHL. My replacement Project Fi phone is stuck in customs in Athens, and there is all sorts of paperwork to fill out to authorize DHL to release it from customs for me (plus a hefty fee). The DHL rep insisted that she hadn’t received the form, even though it showed as sent in my email program. I sent it again 4 times, and still nothing. Finally, after I broke down emotionally a bit on the phone and found someone who spoke Greek to talk with her, the attachment magically appeared, and she said that it might be delivered before our flight to India, but she can’t guarantee it. I’m getting by just fine with a replacement phone and a local SIM card, but it would be much easier to have the Project Fi phone that “just works” in any country. So I really hope it arrives in time.

So the next few days we have lots of errands, including finding a replacement stabilizer post for me (that broke in Turkey), finding a disposable duffle bag to carry all our stuff onto the plane, getting some malaria medication, etc.

We are wrapping up our Crete mini-vacation, waiting for our ferry to Athens tonight, so I wanted to post a few photos from the past week.

The center of the island is full of olive fields and other farmland.

There are small lagoons scattered all along the coast, including this famous one at Agios Nikolaus.

Our amazing hotelier Niko in Tsoutsorous took very good care of us for two nights and told us about his fond memories of serving in the Navy in San Diego.

We spent some time at Ride Cycle Culture Cafe in Chania, a cool cycle shop/Cafe.

There are many small shrines like this scattered along the roads.

Minoan ruins against an incredible backdrop.

Dramatic cliffs popular for sunset photos and swimming.

Kitty cats everywhere.

Can we take them with us?

Our private beach view for dinner.

Cool doors in Rethymno.

Tourists flock to take sunset photos.

And here’s mine! LOL

Famous fountain in Rethymno.

We climbed a few switchbacks…

We’ve been leaving our mark in random places.

Here too…

Bike stomach!

We still have bike stomach, but actually now we are actually gaining some weight. Here’s why:

Loukomades, delicious fried dough balls drowned in honey.

“Cretan breakfast”. I can’t imagine any Cretans eat this on a regular basis, but it’s got a lot of local ingredients. The pork (apakia) with the eggs is really delicious, and the dakos (crusty break with tomatoes, olive oil, and feta) is tasty.

Tirokafteri, a spicy mix of feta and chilis. This is one of the better ones; often it has been made with too much mayonnaise.

Snails are popular here and very tasty.

Greek coffee made the traditional way in hot sand.

Raki is a liquor made from the remainder of the grapes after wine is made. Very similar to grappa in Italy but very many families distill their own, and there home made ones are the best.

CGOAB link and map

Date: 2017-10-09
Start: Rethymno
End: Chania
Distance (km): 68
Climbing (m): 600
Route description: mostly on A90 and E090 (except cut through Vamos), beach access roads when possible
Road condition & traffic: traffic on A90 was moderate to heavy. There was a shoulder most of the way, but it was often overgrown. Traffic was generally courteous though. Traffic on beach access roads and on the ride through Vamos was very light. Near Chania, traffic was very heavy.
Weather: sunny 21-28C, light tail wind
Stops: lunch at a beach restaurant in Kalyves, sightseeing in Chania old town
Accomodation: Hotel near Chania
Notes:
It’s hard to believe, but this was our last full-day ride in Europe!! We will have a little more riding to get back to the Chania ferry port and then to the bike shop in Athens, but otherwise, we have no other cycling planned. It’s 3 full rest days, followed by an overnight ferry to Athens, and then we drop off the bikes for servicing (mostly routine maintenance).

So our tour of Europe is over! I was thinking back to the many fond memories we’ve had from our first day riding out of Lisbon with a tailwind to our mountainous trek through Spain to weeks of coastal riding in France and Italy to amazing adventures in the Balkans and Turkey.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time going over our India plan and filling in the details, figuring out specifically what things we will try to see and updating our route plan. Of course, this all could change, but I feel a lot better having a better idea of our ride than what we had before, which was basically, “yup, follow the coast from Mumbai to Kolkata”. Now we have some specific sights and activities we’d like to do along the way, and reading about them is making us excited and easing our anxiety about India.

I also spent a lot of time on the bike today thinking about destinations, just as I did on the first day of our European tour. I said then that we’d already reached our destination, being out there on the road. Every day we are where we want to be on our bicycles, and it’s not at all about what city we are planning to stop in that night or how much further we have to go. I’ll admit that sometimes that has been a difficult mental shift. It’s so easy to think in your head, “I’m riding to Zagreb today”. When I did that, I’d spend my time looking at my mileage and upcoming hills and how much time until we got there. But I began to stop myself when I was thinking that and instead say, “I’m exploring Croatia.” With just that simple mental shift, I suddenly ignored my bike computer (except for directions!), looked around more, rode more slowly, looked at passing landscapes and houses, took more photos, and said hello to more people we passed.

There are so many times in our lives where we focus some kind of destination, whether it be a job promotion, the end of the work day, saving enough money to buy a new car, getting off a plane after a flight. If you let these things consume you, then suddenly all time disappears and you lose what’s happening in the present. (Just ask Adam Sandler in the bad movie Click! LOL!)

It was a pleasant ride, nice and cool to begin, but not too cold. Stunning ocean and mountain views, and quaint little towns like Vamos. Chania was very busy by the port, and the downtown area was full of tourists and restaurant pushers and expensive hotels, so we headed west, where several beaches stretch out for miles and there are lots of options for hotels. Most hotels are giving off-season rates, so we got a great deal on a room with an ocean view and decent wifi, where I can relax and do some work, route planning, and maybe swim at the beach!

CGOAB link (with map)

Date: 2017-10-07
Start: Kalamaki
End: Rethymno
Distance (km): 73
Climbing (m): 1200
Road condition & traffic: very good, paved the whole way. shoulder in some spots but very small or none in others. light traffic for the most part, but got a little heavier towards Rethymno.
Weather: 22-34C, varied with elevation. mostly sunny, side/tail winds for the most part, not as strong as the past few days
Stops: cookies/water stop near turnoff to Agia Galini (gas station). lunch at To Sideradiko, excellent! details below
Accomodation: AirBNB in Rethymno Old Town using a coupon we’d been saving
Notes: After my last post, we went for pre-dinner drinks at a beach bar just steps from our hotel and watched the sunset while we played some backgammon. Met two women from Germany who had taken a spontaneous 10-day trip to Kalamaki and were on day 2, chatted with them for a bit.

We asked around about moussaka, and heard good things about the restaurant next to the beach bar, Aristidis Taverna, so we gave them a try, and it was indeed quite good.

Slept well despite a few mosquitoes (our room had a mosquito net, but we chose not to use it!). Had a yummy breakfast at the bakery next door and a Greek coffee back at the beach bar.

The sun was back out along with the heat, though as we climbed over the hills from south Crete to north Crete, it got a bit chilly in spots. The traffic was light and the scenery was beautiful, more barren than I expected in this area, but it was a difficult ride with all the climbing. Starting to regret being lazy in Greece the previous two weeks, as our legs have lost some fitness!

We came across a small taverna and decided to try it out. We were the only guests at 2pm for lunch, though soon after a French couple sat down next to us. When we arrived, the chef (owner?) Niko called for someone to help us, and a woman came out and said to come inside to see the dishes. Fresh on the stove, she showed us 6 different pots with different kinds of stewed meats and vegetables, plus several pans of baked items. We chose the chicken with egg noodles and pork with leeks, plus a piece of spinach pie.

A sign on the restaurant explained (in English, so I guess this is somewhat of a tourist place) that Niko cooks all the food fresh daily and much of it is from local farms. We were both very impressed by the meal; the spinach pie was the best we’ve had in Greece so far, by a mile. And the chicken and pork were excellent. They gave us raki after the meal, and I tried just a sip because we had another hill coming up, and it was also one of the best I’ve had in Greece.

The bill was a bit more than we expected, but I suppose that’s because the sign is in English. I wish that, like we did in Croatia and Turkey, we had learned how to find the truly local places. But in Greece we have been lazy, and Greek tourism makes it very easy to be lazy, so we have mostly been to the places that target tourists. Still, it was one of the best.

We continued on to Rethymno and really enjoyed the thrilling descent into the town. We passed a few other cyclists on the road today; one guy was coming up the hill on a racing bike faster than we were descending. It seems Crete has a few local cyclists.

After checking into our AirBNB, we explored the city. It’s more touristy than we expected, but nothing at all like Santorini, so we are enjoying it. We had a dinner of mezes at several different places and enjoyed walking around randomly after dark, stumbling on a basketball court with kids playing and riding bikes as well as an alley with art galleries and a photo exhibit.

We will take another rest day tomorrow, as we only have about 70km more to Chania, where our ferry leaves on Thursday. I expect we will spend the day exploring the town, and I may spend some time looking for work and/or brushing up on my skills.

Here is what I was thinking as I climbed the 400+ meters up a huge steep hill this morning, looking at the radio towers on the even-taller hills…

Picture this… Dystopian future, date: circa 4000 AD. Our modern democratic society of 2017 has collapsed and entered another dark ages, but it’s gradually recovering, and people are discovering our artifacts.

Exhibit at the top of a mountain: “Humans of the Ancient Democratic Civilization were very superstitious and religious. It was commonplace for a chosen few to climb to the highest peaks in their region to plant this odd-looking totem. It was expected that such a tribute to the heavens would grant their community supernatural abilities to commune with friends and relatives anywhere in the world instantly.”

Just how many historical artifacts have we misunderstood or lost the ability to understand today?

Or maybe I just drank too much raki last night.

CGOAB link

Date: 2017-10-06
Start: Tsoutsouros
End: Kalamaki
Distance (km): 71
Climbing (m): 900
Route description: country roads through the hills
Road condition & traffic: Road was in excellent condition, though no shoulders almost the whole way, but traffic was almost nonexistent, so it didn’t matter. One small section was dirt road through an olive farm, fairly hard packed dirt/gravel, just a little bumpy.
Weather: 23-32C, mixed sun, clouds, and some sprinkles
Stops: gas station near Sternes for refreshments and to put on rain gear, horrible taverna for lunch, should have known by the English signs and pictures
Accomodation: Hotel Kostas 30€
Notes: Except for the beach at the beginning and end of the ride, you could have thought you were riding through inland Greece or even Portugal on this ride, with the rolling hills, endless olive orchards, and small quaint rural villages.

On checkout, we thanked Niko (at San Gregorio Hotel) for his amazing hospitality and his wife’s excellent cooking, and took a photo with him. He really made us feel at home, and it was great to meet someone who used to live in San Diego half-way around the world. I enjoyed his home made raki the night before, so he gave me a bottle to carry with me!

The first climb was killer, up to 13% grades, sustained for 6km (average 8%!). One of the most difficult climbs since Albania. At the top I celebrated with a sip of raki (thanks Niko!).

The rest of the ride was really pleasant, rolling hills through olive orchards and small farming villages. We got a little wet, but just some sprinkles. The place we stopped for lunch was very poor quality food, and a little pricey, but there weren’t a lot of other options on the rural route we’d planned. But there were some adorable kittens that had to be less than a month old.

We made it to Kalamaki and asked about a room at Hotel Kostas. They said they had a double available, but they wanted us to put the bikes in a storage room. With our bikepacking bags, it takes a while to deal with the bags, so we asked nicely to bring them into the room, and she shrugged and said okay.

The weather’s not nice enough to go swimming, so we will go for a drink at a beach bar and do some computer work (I’m brushing up on the latest Google Firebase updates) and reading.

Steve is on the lookout for the best moussaka in town, will update on that later! The last one we had was in Chios and was amazing but too filling!