India Day 9: we are going to be YouTube celebrities!

Today was one of those days that you dream about when you think about cycle touring the world. Everything went perfectly, and we have a story that we will remember and tell for the rest of our lives.

We left before 9, and the hotel manager heard we were going to Malvan and said that we must visit the state-run scuba diving school just south of Malvan. It’s got the deepest swimming pool in India and one of the best scuba instructors in the country. So we said we’d be sure to stop by. I’ve always wanted to do scuba diving, but I’ve been afraid because I’ve got sinus and ear issues.

The ride was fairly short (45km) and the roads good overall with not as much climbing as recently. Before we knew it, we were entering Malvan. Before we passed a schoolyard full of kids, we saw a whole bunch of them with their bicycles riding to school or parked in the yard, and when we passed the school, a big cheer went out from a large group of them as they waved at us. We waved back… India is going to give us big heads with all this attention!

It was then that I saw the first white person I’ve seen since Mumbai. It took me by surprise for a minute! We are getting closer to the toruisty hotspots. But that couple was the only ones we were to see all day, even.

I looked on our map and we decided to try to find a beach hotel in Tarkali Beach, south of the city. We went past dozens that looked pretty good, but we were hungry, so we found a restaurant for lunch and had an incredible veg thali and discussed our options.

We were close to the dive school, so we decided to stop by and check it out. On the way in, a man asked us if he could take some photos of our bicycles after we finished speaking with the dive school. Sure, no problem!

The dive school, the Indian Institute of Scuba Diving and Aquatic Sports, was quite impressive. Great large classrooms, extensive certifications offered, lodging for students, immediate beach access, and a crazy deep swimming pool. And it’s all state run, by the same tourism organization that runs the hotel we stayed in. This is the place to go to get certified for sure. We aren’t going to do it right now, though I’m tempted.

The fellow outside turned out to also work for the MTDC, and he’s working on filming some promotional videos for the state to encourage tourism, aimed towards certain audiences. Currently in the works: adventure tourism. He showed us some great footage recently shot with motorcycling through the region, and a cool drone shot of someone cliff jumping in Maharashtra. He’s at the dive school to shoot footage of scuba divers as well. He’s been wanting to get some cycling footage too, and he asked if we’d be willing to let him film us doing our thing. Absolutely, why not? We would love to help out and maybe see more cyclists ride through here.

So he filmed us putting our helmets on, cycling down the streets (from the back of a motorcycle, Tour de France sports photographer style!), and then walking towards the beach with the bikes, and then we did some high fives, which may have been a little goofy. We did a few takes; we are not great actors. I hope he got some usable footage, and it will be great to see the results!!

Not having Internet for days, we wanted to find a hotel in an area with cell signal or WiFi, so the photographer suggested we head to Chiwla Beach back in Malvan, where there should be a cell signal close to the city.

We found a small hotel right across from the beach and they even have WiFi, which is faster than our cell signal. Taking advantage of the Internet to plan our routes, book some hotels and plan some activities in Goa, blog, and download some movies to watch and books to read when we are offline again. As much as we are enjoying the offline world, it’s nice to be connected again!

I also took the opportunity to do a little work on my bike. My seat has been a bit to low causing some hip pain, and my handlebars too high causing hand pain. So those should be better tomorrow.

We went for a sunset walk on the beach and encountered a really fascinating event. A crew of a dozen or more fisherman were lined up on the beach pulling a long rope onto the beach, literally pulling in their catch for the day from the nets they’d laid earlier. I’ve never seen this before, and it was mesmerizing. We watched for almost an hour until it was too dark to see anymore. Not sure how they keep going; the edge of the net was just barely on the beach. A guy at our hotel said they do this every day, three or four times.

Our hotelier generously offered to pick me up a beer, so I enjoyed a refreshing Kingfisher, and we walked to a Malvani restaurant for our last taste of seafood in Maharashtra, a spicy shrimp curry. It was phenomenal, one of the best dishes we’ve had in India. The place was called Atithi Bamboo, and every local we asked for a restaurant recommendation pointed there. It’s even listed in Lonely Planet. Tomorrow we will be in Goa.