Cycling Around the World by Tim & Steve

Kochi has been quite an experience for us, and our homestay host Linda has had a lot to do with that.

She runs a 9-room place a 10-mimute walk from the tourist zone where she lives with her husband. She’s got a ton of local connections for all the things we wanted to see in this part of Kerala: houseboats, cooking classes, kathakali (local performing arts), and drivers. It was hard to keep her from filling up our days with expensive activities, so we had to push back a little bit arrived at a really enjoyable itinerary for our stay!

Our first day was to explore Fort Kochi, and we had a great time checking out churches, Jewish synagogues, and some bars and restaurants.

The liquor laws are tough here, just having repealed prohibition, but we found a few places to get some beer.

We mailed a ton of post cards home as Christmas cards. If you didn’t get yours, you can blame the Indian postal service. It has nothing to do with us forgetting about you, we promise!

Linda hooked us up with a great performance of kathakali, theyyam, and the local martial arts that we really enjoyed. It was a bit touristy but also quite nice.

Linda offered to give us a cooking demonstration while she prepared “beef” (water buffalo) briyani for 30+ guests, giving us step-by-step instructions that we hope to repeat when we return home. It was quite tasty!

Now it was my turn to get sick, but with no fever and responding to Tylenol and decongestant, I don’t think it’s anything serious. So we took a relaxing day, went to the mall to get new clothes (the Merino wool is too hot in this humidity, so we are switching to some much cooler synthetic clothes from Adidas and Clumbia). And then we booked a houseboat tour through the backwaters.

This is “the experience” of Kerala, so we had to do it. And Linda got us a driver and booked everything. It was quite a cool experience to sleep on the backwaters for a night.

On the way there, we saw some local fisherman pulling in their catch, thanks to our awesome driver who pointed out lots of interesting sights along the way.

Our houseboat was comfortable enough even if it was riddled with termites. We were constantly dusting termite poop from our feet and bedding. The front deck was nice with the best views, though the upper deck was also pleasant. We had a sizeable bedroom with ensuite full bathroom and a small dining room. It was nicer than I thought, but it’s not exactly luxury. Still, the food was amazing.

They stopped by a fish market and asked if we wanted to buy anything to add to our menu, and the tiger prawns are a local specialty and looked amazingly fresh, so we picked out a bunch. We will have to live on masala dosa for a week to make up for our extravagance (honestly, compared to prices back home, it was peanuts), but the onboard chef fried them up in some spices and they were incredible. But first we had to walk a ways to find a woman with scissors who cleaned and shelled the prawns for 40 rupees while her parakeet made fun of us in Malayalam. Good times.

The most comfy spot where we watched the world go by.

Cozy bedroom with air conditioning!

Steve’s spot…

Cool spiral staircase on the water tower.

Boat traffic on the backwaters.

Some of the houses along the coast.

Our sunset; we parked overnight and went for a short walk through rice paddies.

These plants were everywhere, clogging up the backwaters. Their roots seem to just float in the water, and don’t go all the way down to the ground.

We awoke to thousands of ducks quacking happily by us. Later we saw duck on the menu and wondered where it came from.

One more day in Kochi and then we are back on the bikes heading south towards Varkala! In the meantime, in a moment of weakness, I bought a drum! The idea of doing some drumming at some of our less interesting stops sounded good at the time, and it was a good price and has a good sound, but I have no idea how I’ll carry this on my bike…

We’ve been over a week in Kerala now, and it’s time for a blog!

We ended up staying an extra night in Mananthavady, a small town in Wayanad with a little charm but nothing to do. We had some decent meals with many curious onlookers, and I found a guy with a sewing machine to fix my shirt that was coming unhemed for 20 rupees (30¢). We also did a lot of reading, relaxing, and route planning, and Christmas shopping (no bike-mountable Christmas lights to be found) until the drizzle passed.

Finally, we got on the bikes again for a roundabout tour of Wayanad through coffee and tea plantations. Steve vetoed us climbing up another 1000m towards the famous hill station of Ooty, so we decided to get one last ride in the hill country before descending to the coast. Sunday was the perfect day to do it! We were stopped for probably a dozen selfies, and two mosques forced us to stop, all smiles, and offered as much sweet rice pudding and coffee as we’d like to drink. We happily accepted and chatted with the folks there, telling them about our trip and posing for selfies. We tried to ask about if there was a festival or something going on to explain this generosity, but it seemed like maybe it was a regular thing. Kerala is known for its festivals this time of year. Lots of other cars and motorbikes stopped and enjoyed the offerings as well. None of the Muslims looked put off when we said we are Americans, though I made the mistake of reading the news that morning and knew that our government is up to no good again in this regard. Nevertheless, we were totally safe and well cared for by these friendly guys, like these young men who stopped and asked for selfies.

Wayanad is known for its amazing homestays with gorgeous views, so before we left, we were intent to find one that didn’t break the bank, and we found an amazing place in Kalpetta, just a short walk from the busy city, but feeling like it’s in the middle of nowhere, the Wayanad Hillview AirBNB homestay lived up to its name. We had the well-landscaped place all to ourselves most of the overnight stay, and the caretaker Bishnu made us an amazing dinner and breakfast, cared for our bicycles, and made us feel at home.

For lunch on the road, we often stop at small roadside restaurants like the one below. Many of them have pictures and English translations even if the staff only speak Malayalam, and this sign was particularly useful as it taught me the plural of “meal” in Malayalam, which Google Translate doesn’t seem to know.

Keralites are proud of their communism, and there are hammer and sickle signs and flags everywhere, even painted on the street.

Known for its festivals, we’ve randomly passed through many Kerala towns all decked out. This below seems to be an Islamic event, based on the crescent moon flag, and indeed one restaurant owner commented in his limited English on our crescent-moon Turkey flag on our bicycles, “Turkey? Muslim?” To which we said yes, then pointed to ourselves and said, “Catholic”, and he nodded. It’s a bit of a lie, but easier to translate than “agnostic”. His briyani was excellent, though the chicken was a bit tough.

Wayanad is known for its picturesque tea plantations, but we only saw a few on our way out of Kalpetta. If we had continued upwards towards Ooty, I think we would have seen more.

Next up, we enjoyed a huge descent down the Wayanad Churam, a steep 7% road with 9 hairpins, no shoulder, and populated mostly by wild monkeys. Luckily there was almost no traffic going in our direction, but the road was rough in some parts.

We had big plans to explore Khozikode (Calicut), but suddenly Steve was feeling quite ill, so we thought it best to find a place with air conditioning so he could rest. He’d been having hot flashes, and he’s too young to be having menopause. We found a delightful 5-star resort near a Red Crescent hospital, but they refused to match the affordable price we saw online, and the online we site refused to accept my international credit card. Steve was in no shape to continue onward, so we had to pay a stupid price for him to sleep comfortably in air conditioning, but at least it was a nice place. Unfortunately, though, he suddenly switched from being too hot to too cold, and even with the A/C off and the door open, he shivered miserably all night long.

I meanwhile was Googling what could be wrong, and of course my mind went right to malaria, which has as its identifying symptom, alternating shivering for a few days, then profuse sweating. Although Kerala is quite low risk for malaria, we’d been in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Mangalore, which are known to have some incidence of malaria.

So we told the hotel we needed to stay another day and go to the hospital. Bad news was they had no vacancy the next day, but they said the hospital would see us quickly, so we could still check out before noon. They even arranged for a driver to the hospital and didn’t charge us. After paying 50 rupees, the doctor saw us immediately and took his temperature, which was normal. He said normally he’d be concerned for malaria based on the symptoms but because there’s no fever, it’s just a cold. He sent us back with a digital thermometer for $3 and some pills to help with nausea and muscle pain to treat his symptoms. Total cost $4.50. We have travel insurance for emergency medicine, but I guess we don’t really need it for this…

We had to leave the hotel, so even though Steve was sick, we cycled 50km to the next place we could find some more affordable hotels. Unfortunately we missed out on visiting a local performing arts school, and had to cancel on another charming beachside AirBNB, but Steve’s health was more important.

After we arrived and showered, Steve took his temperature and we were surprised it was 101. This isn’t good! We asked the front desk, and they pointed us to a hospital. 30 rupees for an auto-rickshaw, and 100 rupees for a doctor, and we told him what was going on. He agreed to do a malaria test for 200 rupees, and we waited for the results. It was negative, so he sent Steve home with some decongestant, PMS medications, and a mild painkiller, all of which we tossed after we googled what it was; perhaps people here get upset if they are sent home from the doctor with no pills? These were totally irrelevant.

Calling Steve’s doctor back home, he recommended a better treatment for a possible infection using one of the antibiotics that we had purchased before the trip began. We had enough in our bags to compete a full course, so Steve started them right away. The next day, he was already feeling better, and is fully recovered several days later.

Eastern Medicine: 0, Western Medicine: 1

We split up the rest of the ride to Kochi as best we could and enjoyed cycling by the coast, even though a tall rock wall blocked our view of the ocean. It’s so flat here that they need to shore up the coast to protect from floods. But the backwaters are stunning. Just check out my future private island in the photo above!

Near Kochi, we started seeing some more tourists again, and we stumbled on a European cafe run by a Portuguese-French chef and his Indian wife. They had hamburgers on the menu, and we couldn’t resist! Not bad for a hamburger in India, I must say. We enjoyed something new after weeks of Indian food only.

Our ride into Kochi was only marred by finding that the local ferry refused to take bicycles. This was surprising because I was following the GPS route of another cyclist who had taken the ferry, but no matter what we said, they just shook their heads. Finally, a customer came up to us and pointed to another ferry terminal across the water and said we could ride there and they took bikes.

It was another 10km, and Steve was cooked, still a bit sick I think, so it was slow going with lots of traffic. When we arrived at where Google says the ferry is, there was nothing there except some guys hanging out. We asked where the ferry to Fort Kochi is and they said it’s 2km that way! Shit.

Luckily, halfway there, a fellow approached and asked if we were headed to Fort Kochi. We said yes and he said he would take us for 300 rupees each. The public ferry is 10 or 20 rupees, but it was still another km or more, and probably had a wait and would be busy, so we said yes, as long as you are leaving now. He said sure but then looked at the bikes and said, “actually it’s 1000 rupees with the bikes.” Damn capitalist! We said no way, and went to head to the public ferry, and he quickly realized we had a clue and came around and said fine, 600.

30 minutes later, we’d reached Fort Kochi and collapsed at our wonderful homestay.

Next up: Fort Kochi and houseboats!

You walk out the door of your hotel to go to dinner or find a snack or explore the town, and it smacks you in the face. No, not the heat or humdity, though that’s also a thing. I’m talking about the cacaphony of honking sounds.

Everywhere around you are the beeps, toots, whistles, and mighty roars of horns on every vehicle. The motor cycles and auto-rickshaws are the most mild, an often-feeble meeeep sound. The cars have a bit louder blurts. And the trucks and busses have a crazy loud hahhhhhhhnk air horn. Many of the trucks have installed custom horns that are either extra loud, extra annoying, or extra elaborate, culminating in deafoning polyphonic symphonies. And probably 5% of the vehicles have used up their horns life too soon due to overuse and let out pathetic, wavering, impotent soft wails that sound like some kind of weird off-tune electronic instrument in the hands of an amateur DJ.

But despite the crazy range of sounds, after nearly 7 weeks of being in India and cycling on the roads, I think I’ve figured out the rules of when and why to honk. And it’s quite a solid pattern, based on what I’ve observed. And it also explains why, with such scary traffic behavior, there are fewer accidents than you’d expect. (Not that it’s an acceptable number, I will add.)

I’d love to hear feedback from any others who live in or have visited India to see if I’m on the right track or maybe off my rocker.

Meaning #1: asking or answering a question

The most common time you honk is when you want to ask a question of fellow drivers nearby. The question is, “I’m about to do something kind of risky; is there anyone in the way that I can’t see?” This risky thing could be overtaking on a blind corner, entering an intersection where someone might be coming from either side, passing a pedestrian or vehicle who doesn’t seem to see you, or even just going around a low-visibility corner in a larger vehicle.

If there is no honk answer, then it’s generally safe to do your dangerous thing. If you get a honk answer, then you have to gauge, based on where you think they are, whether your action might be dangerous. So if you are overtaking on a blind corner, and you honk, and the responding honk sounds really close, then it’s a good bet that you might hit someone if you start to overtake, so you’d better wait.

Meaning #2: insisting yes or no

If you are really in a rush, you can insist on your action by laying on the horn for a few seconds. This seems to mean, “I really want to do something dangerous, so get out of my way.” This isn’t used super often in my experience, but sometimes is, especially by big trucks and busses.

You can also do the same thing in response, which means, “I can’t get out of your way! You’d better stop.” At this point, it’s up to a game of chicken that’s won by the guy with the bigger horn and bigger vehicle.

Note that I never claimed these rules of honking were particularly safe, but just that I’d figured them out!

Meaning #3: saying hi

This one is kind of familiar. A quick toot-toot usually means, “hi!” We get a fair number of these ourselves.

Other meanings

Sometimes the honks have other meanings that I’m still figuring out. A quick honk can mean, “ok gotcha” sometimes, for example, rather than a negative response.

What this means for us as bicycles with electric horns

Since our horns sound very similar to motorcycle horns, we can give a toot in response to Meaning #1 honks to stop them from endangering us. So if we are approaching a corner and hear a toot, we can assume someone is about to overtake on the blind corner, or a big truck is coming around. So we can give a toot in response, and this almost always makes them slow down or stop trying to overtake. So far, it works great!

In fact, maybe too good. Sometimes there would have been plenty of room for them to continue, but hearing our horn, they stop. So maybe it wasn’t necessary, but hey, better safe than sorry, I say!

What this says to me about culture

As I was putting my theory to the test today, I got to thinking about what this says about the difference in cultures. In the US especially and in the west in general, it’s “every man for himself”. If you want to keep yourself safe, then you rely only on what you see and hear. You don’t overtake on blind corners because you can’t see whether anyone is there, and you don’t trust them to make themselves known. Even if you honk, you would never trust that someone coming the other way would tell you he’s there.

In Asia, I think there’s more of a sense of interdependence, with people here being more used to conforming to norms and relying on people around them. So it’s more comfortable to trust your fellow drivers to let you know they are there to keep both of you safe.

Maybe this is hogwash and I’m completely wrong, but that idea did occur to me. What do you think?

India is divided into states just like the United States, and we’ve successfully pedaled in 4 of them already in our first six weeks here.  With over 1.3 billion people, India is the most populous democracy in the world. It is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 29 states and 7 union territories.  This country is such an amazingly vibrant and interesting place, from the food, to the people, the landscapes, and the richness of colors.  We feel like celebrities as we pedal through the remote villages stopping for water and snacks and a local will approach us to ask where we’re from and sometimes ask if they can take a selfie with us, smiling and then wishing us a “Happy Journey” as we continue on.  We also love when the children yell “Hello” from the side of the road in small or big villages or sometimes from the schoolyard they’re playing in.

Here is some general history and my highlights thus far of the 3 states we’ve spent most  of our time in this beautiful country we will call home for three months total.

Maharashtra was the state where we began the Asia portion of our cyclying tour in Mumbai, formally known as Bombay.  It’s the third largest state in the country that’s characterised by 720 km of coastline where we first began pedaling after we took a ferry from Mumbia acculmating for five days after arriving from Greece.  In Mumbai, we enjoyed a food tour and slum tour hosted by Reality Gives (realitygives.org), and did our own walking tour one day and enjoyed seeing the Gandhi Museum & Reasearch center known as Mani Bhavan where Gandhi spent approximately 17 years of his life.  Various religious communities have created a unique multicultural ecosystem in Maharashtra.  Ancient mosques, dargahs (shrines), agyaris (temples), guruwaras, and churches dot the landscape, testifying to the religious harmony that exists within the state.  We took 6-7 different ferries to cross rivers throughout this state, and rode some of the bumpiest and pot hole filled roads imaginable (even worse than Albania), and hoped all of India wouldn’t be like this.  We heard from a local that the condition of the roads are caused from the monsoon season they expierience every year. 

Goa is a state in western India with coastlines stretching along the Arabian Sea. Its long history as a Portuguese colony prior to 1961 is evident in its preserved 17th-century churches and the area’s tropical spice plantations. Goa is also known for its beaches, that we relaxed and found some amazing “built for the season” huts to stay in just steps from the beach.  One of my favorite things we did in Goa, besides relax at the beaches was taking a cooking class at Rita’s Gourmet Cooking School.  We toured a local market before the class started, and then learned how to make different curries for our chicken and fish dishes, prawn puffs, Aloo Mutter Gobi (a vegetarian favorite gravy dish of ours consisting of potato, cauliflower, & green peas), and a dessert called Bolo Mimosa similar to a tart.  As some of you might know, I come from the Midwest where we are famous for making anything into a casserole, so my extent and lack of love for cooking has changed after taking this FUN class.  We hope to continue this tradition of taking more cooking classes in future countries that we visit. 

Karnataka is a state in southwest India with more Arabian Sea coastlines, stunning mountain towns, with coffee & spice plantations,  and where we spent our Thanksgiving holiday feasting on vegetarian dishes for all three of our meals that day.  It was the first Thanksgiving that we both weren’t stuffed from turkey and carb loaded dishes and we think we could get used to that…LOL.  While we missed our family and friends for this “thankful” holiday, it was refreshing to expierience a different culture nonetheless.  After Thanksgiving we climbed and we climbed, and we climbed over 1300 meters in just 56 kilometers (4500 feet in just 35 miles that’s the equivalent of climbing Torrey Pines 9 times) to the heavenly mountains of Madekeri where we spent two days in a remote coffee/spice plantation enjoying the  cooler temperatures and no sounds of horns honking.  We then went to Mysuru, that’s home to lavish temples including Mysore Palace where we spent another two relaxing days and enjoyed another walking food tour in the cleanist city we’ve been in so far in India….and they claim fame to that title.  After Mysuru, we woke up at 5am to make it to our next destination by noon for our first safari of two in Nagarhole National Park that is a Tiger Rescue area.  On our first venture out into the park in our classic safari jeep, we saw spotted deer (over 6000 in this park), the tail of a big lizard deep in a hole grabbing his dinner, several species of birds, and gray langur (monkey’s).  We awoke again at 5am the next day to try again to see some more endangered animals and we’re very successful in seeing a gaur (Indian Bison), an old female elephant, and a tiger (1500 in this park).  This was the first time either of us had expierenced a safari, and it was quite honestly breathtaking to see all these animals living freely and enjoying life in this picturesque setting.  Last but not least, Karnataka (Mangalore) is where I found new cyclying shorts of a brand called Castelli that’s popular with Team Sky and made in Italy….so my taint is very happy now just in case you were wondering?

We are now in the state of Kerala heading back to the coast where Tim has told me it’s mostly flat, so you know I’ll hold him to that.  In my next blog I’ll give you more details on this state that we have some fun things planned such as a house boat backwater tour and to see a local dance performance in Kochi. 

I continue to post more on Instagram as I’ve stated before and you can follow both of us on there if you want to join another social media app that I love because it’s all about pictures (no politics), and hashtags formally know as a number/pound sign.  Our screen names are Steve @scubastevecyclist and Tim @timo4242.

Here are a couple of lists to hopefully make you chuckle and as always, Thank YOU all for your love & support on this incredible journey we’re on and taking the time to read and/or comment on the blog. 

Things I’m used to in India…
-wearing the same clothes everyday
-‎cold showers or not showering for 48 hours
-‎not knowing what I’m eating 1/2 the time
-riding on the left side of the road
-‎sleeping with 1 pillow or a hard mattress
-‎talking in Celcius & Kilometers
-‎the bum gun (Google it 🤭)
-‎afternoon naps

Things I’m not used to in India
-eating with my hands & not using my left hand
-‎the honking of horns constantly in bigger cities
-‎the 60% plus humidity/40-45 degrees of Celcius
-‎the 10.5 to 13.5 time difference between family and friends back home
-‎washing my clothes by hand in a bucket or sink

Update: as of August 8, 2018, the border crossing from India to Myanmar at Tamu/Moreh is again open for foreigners. I’ve heard from one cycle tourist (who hosted us in Thailand) that he was able to cross.

As of November, 2017, the rules have changed somewhat…

As folks following our blog know, we are planning to cycle all (or most) of the way from Mumbai, India to Singapore. Mostly this is straightforward except for lots of red tape here and there. The most uncertain border crossing is from India to Myanmar at Moreh, India to Tamu, Myanmar.

There are two companies who I’ve heard can issue border crossing permits for this. Exotic Myanmar Travels and Seven Diamonds. I have been in touch with Exotic, but Seven Diamonds has never responded to my emails.

EMT had suspended issuing border permits for a few months this year due to misbehaving tourists who flaunted the requirements to get a bus and instead hitchhiked from the border. Exotic said they would resume issuing permits again in early November, but they then told me in mid-November that they could no longer issue them. At first, they told me we would need to take a bus from Tamu to Mandalay. This makes a lot of sense because there are few registered guesthouses for foreigners in this region, so we’d need to either cycle over 100 miles a day or camp illegally, which we would not do. We don’t have camping gear, and we have no desire to violate local strictly-enforced laws merely to save a few bucks. I have read and heard stories of illegal campers being awoken at night and forced to move to a registered guest house, or of night time police escorts and disquieting interrogations.

I’ve read many blogs where cyclists wild camped, tried to stay in monasteries or unregistered accommodations, etc. While I respect the resourcefulness of these cyclists, and while I think the guesthouse requirement is silly in Myanmar, I’m very concerned about the underlying reasons for these rules, related to the political situation there. So, I have mixed feelings about those cyclists who have flaunted the rules for their own benefit, as that appears to be the reason for the tightening of the restrictions that we now have to comply with.

So, for us this means we can’t cross the whole way to Singapore by bicycle. We never had a goal of 100% bicycle travel anyway and have been considering trains etc to skip some areas. But there is no train on this section so we have to fly. But, taking a flight is a huge hassle with the bikes, finding bike boxes (really rare in Asia!), disassembling the bikes, worrying about damage, etc. Yuck.

Our two options now are:

1. Continue our ride to Dhaka, Bangladesh. We’ve been in touch with two WarmShowers hosts, and they strongly encourage us to cycle in their country, and they assure us it will be easy to find boxes. Apparently, Bangladesh has an up and coming bike culture. We are interested to see Bangladesh as well, especially exploring the Sunderbans by boat. From Dhaka, there is a direct flight to Myanmar. The benefit is we get to see Kolkata and Bangladesh.
2. Cut our India section short in Chennai in early January and fly direct to Bangkok (there are no direct flights to Myanmar; they mostly connect in Bangkok). I’m still trying to find where to get bike boxes in Chennai but am hopeful we can find some. I found a bike shop that sells Bianchi and other Western brand bicycles, so they should have some. From Bangkok, we can ride back to Myanmar; the Thai/Burmese border is much easier to cross. The benefit of this is that it fast forwards our time line, getting us back on track to be able to see more of Southeast Asia before rainy season and maybe seeing Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang before burning season (March/April). And I’m really eager to visit Thailand again after my amazing experience two years ago.

We are leaning towards option two but still considering…

Mysore

Mysore, what a horrible name… It sounds like I need to see the doctor. It’s a good thing they’ve recently switched back to their original name Mysuru, but everyone still seems to say Mysore. Blech.

The ride into the city was really pleasant. It’s the cleanest big city in India that we’ve seen, and indeed we heard it was voted the cleanest in India recently. Also, being a planned city, the blocks of residential housing that we cycled through were comfortable and relaxed with many well-cared-for and colorful houses.

We stayed at Parklane Hotel, which is popular with Western and Indian tourists alike. It was nice to interact with some fellow travelers, and we met an Australian and British couple. The hotel had a good place we could lock up the bikes with 24/7 security.

Our “back to the future” style clock in the room.

The hotel was very well-signed with informative signs on every lightswitch, door, and even the bum gum was labeled.

No mention of, perhaps, limiting your intake. I like this place!

Sound advice, I guess…

We signed up for a food and walking tour with Royal Mysore Walks and had a really fantastic time with our guide Abhilash, who showed us the clock tower, outside of the palace, walked us through the market, and gave us lots of tasty food to try, including the best masala dosa I’ve tasted in my life. Yum!

Clock tower.

One of the oldest buildings in Mysore, about 100 years old.

Our amazing guide and another fun couple who joined the tour.

Colored powders used for rangoli, an art form where people draw designs on streets and in front of their houses during festivals.

Mysuru Palace

We took a few hours to check out the palace and take some photos. We were lucky there was almost no one there, so we took our time.

Palace through one of the archways.

Courtyard.

There were several rooms filled with ornate pillars like these.

Temple outside the palace.

Another pillar room.

Beautifully carved wooden, silver, and metal doors.

Palace with another arch.

Here we are…

Colorful tile work.

Some elephants outside the palace.

And a painting of elephants!

Cool murals opposite the palace.

We enjoyed the super-comfortable city, good hotel restaurant and bar, so we stayed two full days and relaxed, reading books and lounging by the small pool before heading on back towards the coast in Kerala. Abhilash is finishing up his computer science degree, so we also met up for lunch, and I tried to give him some advice; hope I was able to give him some ideas.

Safari

We decided to book an all-inclusive hotel near the Nagarhole National Park, that includes two safaris, a boat ride, and all meals. It was a bit expensive, but it looked like one of the best safaris around.

We left really early to get a head start on traffic and arrive before the activities started at 12:00. We had an amazing easy ride through rolling hills on excellently paved roads with a cool tailwind.

The afternoon safari was a bit of a bust, but we had fun chatting with two couples on our Jeep, one from Paris, and the other from Texas (a Greek man from Crete and an Indian woman from Mysuru on vacation). We did see lots of deer, a lizard digging for eggs or something, some birds, and a few other animals.

Some kind of fungus.

Entrance to the park.

Thousands of beautiful spotted deer.

This lizard was really eager to get whatever was in this hole. He didn’t come out the whole time we waited, nearly 10 minutes, just kept shoving himself in deeper.

We saw quite a few monkeys, besides ourselves.

Huge termite mounds everywhere.

Here’s the peacock I promised.

Cool tree trunk.

But the next morning, we hit the jackpot on our safari, seeing several gaur (Indian bison), an elephant, and a tiger!!! It’s rare to see a tiger, and I knew that, so my idea was to keep doing safaris until we spotted one. We were super lucky and saw him chasing down some deer before ducking into the brush.

Gaur chewing his cud.

More spotted deer…

More gaur.

Tiger! It was really exciting; our guide heard about a potential for a tiger, and he told us to hold on tight and we sped down bumpy dirt roads before getting to this area. We saw some deer racing away, and a minute later, a tiger came out of the brush and ran for a few seconds before jumping back out of sight. (And if you’re still trying to find the tiger in the photo, bless your heart! I don’t see it either; I must have aimed the camera at the wrong spot. Ah well.)

This geriatric grandma elephant completely ignored us as she rubbed against the tree and cleaned herself. After a few minutes, she let out a trumpet and sauntered off.

Kerala

And with that, we were off to Kerala. Since we had the safari and breakfast in the morning, we didn’t get started until almost 11. It was drizzling, and the forecast was calling for heavy rain by 1pm. So we found a small town across the border in Kerala with some hotels and aimed for that.

We didn’t realize we’d be going back through the national park on the bicycles, so this sign was a little concerning! We went from hoping to see wildlife in the Jeeps to fearfully checking our surroundings hoping they stayed away. Fortunately we saw nothing but deer and monkeys. At first the guards said no we couldn’t go through the park, but when I explained we had to get to Kerala and showed him the town on Google Maps, he agreed we could go. And then asked if he could take a selfie with us. LOL, sure!

The rain picked up a little, but then finally cleared up as we entered Kerala, so we didn’t get too wet. Crossing the state borders in India is almost as dramatic as crossing country borders in the EU. There’s maybe a police checkpoint but no border control, but suddenly the language, roads, and culture changes.

In Kerala, we quickly noticed the roads were much worse with tons of potholes everywhere and much steeper gradients and more traffic. The signs for restaurants (“hotels”) and shops are much more colorful and prevalent, and the hammer-and-sickle Communist flag is waving everywhere. Also, we seem to get many more stares in Kerala than we have in any other state so far. People also wave and smile to us on our bikes, but off the bikes, we feel like we’re back in Eastern Europe with the side glances and even in-your-face stares. While the middle age and older folks tend to stare grumpily, the younger generation puts us at ease with smiles and waves.

I also don’t think that Indians realize that their word for “foreigner” is borrowed from English and sounds identical. Either that, or they enjoy talking about people in front of their faces. We had lunch at a local place across from our hotel and everyone around us was having a conversation about “foreigners”, it seemed.

I’ve grown fed up with not knowing much of the local language, so even though we’ll only be in Kerala for a few weeks, I decided to jump in and try to learn some Malayalam. It’s a tricky language with over a dozen vowels and 30+ consonants based on Sanskrit. But I’m practicing a few words and numbers so hope that will help out a bit. It was nice in the Balkans learning enough Serbo-Croatian and the Cyrillic alphabet to get by, so I hope to approach that basic level of understanding.

After almost walking away, our hotel finally agreed we could keep our bikes in a locked storage closet near our room, so we are staying two nights, waiting out the rain. For $16/night and $1 meals, it’s cheap enough to stay, though there’s not much to do in this city. The rain comes and goes, and the locals all tell us there’s no way it will rain this time of year, but it clearly is. We may try to find a car tour guide so we can see the area a little and get out of the hotel but stay dry.

And with that… വിട. ഉടൻ കാണാം

The climb up to the Kodagu (Coorg) region was pretty epic. Fairly steady 6-8% gradients, but with temperatures around 30°C and 95% humidity, we were drenched. Truck traffic is forbidden going uphill on the road we were on, so traffic was comfortable, and the scenery was stunning, as we followed a gurgling river through mountain palm groves and jungle.

We stopped in Madikeri, one of the “hill station” towns of India, where the Brits would move during the summer to escape the heat, back in the colonial days. We wanted to try the famous Coorg cuisine, and in Madikeri is a well-known place called (conveniently enough) “Coorg Cuisine”. The ancient Coorgs were known as warriors so preferred a meat-heavy diet. We tried the pandhi masala (pork curry), and it blew me away with a very rich and spicy flavor. The rice-based akki roti is also very good; in fact, I prefer it over the other roti (chapati) that we most often get. (Sorry, no photos; Indian food is tough to photograph. I’ll keep trying.)

Two gentleman stopped us on the way out of the restaurant and asked us if we enjoyed the food; they said it was their favorite restaurant and they’d just driven quite a ways to eat there. They were really interested in our bikes and asked about our trip, our mirrors, and wished us a safe journey.

The thing to do in Kodagu is to stay at one of the many plantation homestays and enjoy the peace, quiet, and local food. So we decided to find a nice one to take a rest day.

The last few kilometres to the homestay was steeply graded dirt roads, so we had to walk. But it was worth it.

Steve walking through coffee fields towards the homestay.

Our gorgeous home for two nights.

The plantation has an observation deck where you can relax and listen to the birds and other sounds.

They have 30 acres of coffee plants here.

I have to admit this is not the first image that came to mind when I think of India. It’s like a whole other country up here, cool temperatures (we wore long pants!), misty mornings, and so quiet and peaceful. People in this area are also super friendly, and we got lots of waves and smiles on the road.

We took a plantation tour, and the women guiding our tour found some sapota (fruit) growing and gave us some.

Jackfruit growing nearby.

Our next day of riding took us through a Tibetan refugee camp in Bylakuppe. Here, the Mysore government has set aside some land for Tibetans living in exile since 1961 and built schools and housing.

The entrance to the Golden Temple. We couldn’t go in because there was nowhere safe to leave the bikes.

The nunnery.

Chicken mockthuk, a Tibetan dumpling soup that was delicious.

Being a Sunday, there were tons of kids and other folks hanging out, playing cricket and other games, attending services, and in a generally excellent mood. Many kids tried to get us to stop, a few pointed slingshots at us and giggled, and one super strong young man raced us on a single speed local bike and we couldn’t keep up. I gave him a thumbs up and he looked proud of himself. It was a really enjoyable day, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face most of it, with all the smiles and waves we got. We don’t see any kids with their face in their mobile phone or sitting watching TV; it’s so refreshing to see people enjoying the simple pleasures.

We couldn’t make it all the way to Mysore today without overdoing it, but there aren’t any decent hotels along the way. So we found one that looks okay from the outside and is pretty cheap; it’s definitely not one of the nicest ones, but not the worst either. The western shower head was clogged up with only one pinhole of water coming out, and the bucket provided for the Indian shower had a thick layer of mold growing on the bottom and a horrible stench, so I had to unscrew the Western shower head and stand under the stream of water to get clean. But the bed is comfortable, the sheets and towels clean, and (after some back and forth when he refused to let us bring the bikes to our room) our bikes are locked up in an empty room that seems to be under renovation or something.

So tomorrow we should be in Mysore, and hopefully will see some other foreigners. We’ve seen exactly 8 other foreigners since we left Gokarna a week and a half ago, two in Kundapura at the temple festival, 4 in Mangalore at the mall, and 2 in Udupi at the really good vegetarian restaurant. We see tons of Indian tourists and tour busses, but no foreigners. Although we enjoy being off the (Western) beaten track, it will be nice to maybe meet some other international travelers. Mysore is famous for its month-long or longer yoga retreats, so lots of people come there for that. Perhaps we will find a drop-in class for beginners.

Home sickness

I’m still continuing to feel a bit homesick, a feeling that started up in Turkey and has come and gone since then. India has provided me with plenty of distractions from this feeling, but it is still there under the surface, and in quiet times pops up again, especially now that the holidays are in full swing.

We get a lot of down time in India where this feeling gets stronger because we end up stuck in hotels in these tiny transitional towns. It’s not like Europe where even the smallest towns will have a cafe, bar, or park where you can go hang out and people watch. There are no parks, very few bars, and no cafes, and walking around in the streets is not pleasant with all the traffic, open sewers, and trash. Come to think of it, it’s kind of like staying at a hotel in the US in a small town without a car. Unless we’re on the beach, there’s nothing scenic to see outside the hotel anyway, and all the shops are the same everywhere. So we just hole up in the hotel and do some planning and maybe write a blog. But I’m an outdoor person, and this just makes me stir crazy and start missing home more, with San Diego’s outdoor culture, my patio, and friends.

It’s also getting lonely not being able to keep connections. Even when we meet someone, we only have a day or two, and then it’s done. After 9 months of one night stands, I’m ready for long term relationships (just friends lol).

Finally, the daily challenge of finding a bike-friendly hotel is really starting to get to both of us. Some of the hotels just seem to have a weird problem with us bringing the bikes to the room, and no one can give us a reason why. The best reason we’ve ever gotten is, “it’s just not allowed.” So every day, it’s 50/50; they either say, “sure no problem”, or we have to have an argument. But, in India, showing anger will get you nowhere and will probably make things worse, so we have to do this every single day with as much patience as we can muster, at the end of a long day’s ride. Usually we will finally convince them, or they will give us a safe place to lock them (instead of their default answer of just park them outside). But it’s often enough to knock our moods down a notch. It’s like Groundhog Day; every day the same thing. And it’s enough that I fantasize about stopping somewhere long-term just so I don’t have to worry about having this daily argument anymore. Maybe it sounds crazy, but this fantasy feels so freeing!

That said, this is still the experience of a lifetime, and every day (especially in India) has been so unique and interesting and has taught us so much about the world and ourselves. I look forward to every single one of the upcoming countries, cities, beaches, natural parks, etc. And although the homesickness and daily frustrations will stick around, I can’t see us stopping anytime soon; we are here in the midst of India with so much wonder and excitement all around us. How can we leave this behind without at least glimpsing it all first?

So, I’ll repeat what we’ve said many times to all of our friends and family: we really, really miss each of you and are thankful for your continued support and friendship and encouragement. And, where are you going to come and meet us? 😁 Seriously, Asia is awesome; you should come!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends and family!

While we haven’t found anywhere for a turkey dinner, we’ve found some dishes approximating some side dishes, like bread stuffing. It’s not really anything like it, but it’s all we got!

We left Mangalore late, after finishing up with our bicycle repairs in Mangalore. They rebuilt my wheel with new brass nipples, but unfortunately it seems the tension on the wheel was too low, and I’ve had to re-tension and re-true the wheel after a spoke came loose after 80km or so. Sigh… I’m learning a lot about cycle maintenance though.

One awesome find at the bike shop, though. As I was having them help me find some longer screws to attach a huge heavy Indian bike bell, Steve noticed this sucker hanging from their shelves. It claims to be the loudest bicycle horn you can get. 140dB! And it’s freaking awesome for India. I get a few surprised looks from others because it is as loud as some car and motorcycle horns! With India roadways being as much about sound as sight, it will come in handy. I think we will need some extra batteries though!

When we arrived in Puttur, we were surprised to see a circus in town. We asked around and learned that it opened today and the next show was 7pm, so we had an early dinner and headed to the show! Why not? It was an old school circus with acrobats, fire eaters, water spitters, a motorcycle sphere, and some unfortunate animals that they really ought to give a nice retirement.

As always, it’s been lots of fun and games on the road. Tons of people waving, giving thumbs up, kids looking at our bikes, etc, but as we get away from the coast and really into areas that never see tourists, it’s getting even more intense. When we stop anywhere for food or water or bike repairs, we draw a small crowd of locals and kids who check out the bicycles, honk our old squeaky horn, squeeze our tires, and ask us the same questions, “Where are you from?” “Where are you going?” “How much cost the bicycles?” “Do you like India?” “Can we take a selfie?” It’s fun for us and gives us a chance to ask questions back like good places to eat, but it’s challenging to eat a meal with every bite being watched carefully. We’re getting used to it though and just learning not to be self conscious about our inept one-handed eating techniques.

We had a huge “small world” moment when we texted a cycle tourist Jeremy, whom we’d met on our last day in Croatia many months ago. We knew he was doing some work with an organization called Engineers without Borders in Bangalore, so we reached out to say we were in Mangalore. He responded that he was heading to a work trip to Puttur the next morning, apologizing that it was 50km from Mangalore. We received the text message as we were checking into our hotel in none other than Puttur! So the next morning, we shared coffee and breakfast at the hotel (where he was also booked!) and caught up on our travels!

He gave us some advice to pick up a “lungi”, simple pants the locals wear, so we’re going to keep an eye out and give it a shot…

Tomorrow is our big climbing day up into the Coorg area, known as “the Scotland of India” for its similarity to the Scottish Highlands. We’ll be thinking of everyone back home stuffing themselves on turkey as we psuh ourselves up a 3600ft climb to our homestay on a coffee plantation, where we are taking our next rest day. May not be Internet, so we’ll update when we can.

We spent the night in Kundapura, a lively town that seems to have one major claim to fame: the popular dish called chicken ghee roast was invented at a restaurant called Shetty Lunch Home here. So of course we had to try it out. It was amazing, spicy, buttery, and tender; unfortunately the dining area was too dark to take a photo; we couldn’t even read the menu.

On our way to dinner, the streets were packed with people and vendors, and we saw a stage setting up for a performance. We asked our server, and apparently we managed to arrive on the once-a-year festival for the temple in town. Sweet! After dinner, we really enjoyed mingling with the crowds, checking out the temple, watching a parade and street performers, fireworks, a live band, and the hundreds of young kids making duck calls with the toys that one of the vendors was selling. These are the kinds of random events that are so much fun to take part in, completely unplanned.

After Kundapura, the highway 66 became complete, and is now a proper 4-lane divided highway with wide shoulders. Well paved, and sometimes busy, but often not. Still, motorbikes tend not to pay attention to the direction of travel, so you still have a fair bit of unexpected oncoming traffic to worry about.

However, we’ve kept almost exclusively to quieter coastal and inland roads to get a break from the highway noise and commotion.

We even went as far as to ignore Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps and followed a seaside road to the end, hoping there would be a ferry to keep us off the highway. And guess what? There was! I guess we are starting to figure out some small things about India. For just ₹5 each (bicycles free), we got a seat on this bad boy, along with a dozen other pedestrians and 3 motorbikes. The other passengers took turns squeezing our tires and checking out our bikes.

We even got a numbered and stamped receipt, because India loves paper, and you never know if the captain will forget whether you’ve paid after the 5 minute trip is complete…

The other side of the ferry was an adorable peninsular fishing village with folks drying shrimp and fish on the pavement and small colorful cottages scattered through the strip of land, ocean on either side.

We spent the night in an overpriced “homestay” in Malpe, a small fishing village filled with kids and families enjoying the beach. It was a comfortable enough place, but we wanted to find a less expensive place to rest and also try out some of the famous Udupi food, so the next day we made a short 8km ride to Udupi.

Beforehand, I called up a few hotels to see if they had availability. All were booked online except for some crazy expensive ones. After calling a few, one said they had a room for a decent price, so I left my name.

When we showed up, however, they wanted us to leave our bicycles outside in front with nowhere to lock them. We tried to explain that we at least need something to lock it to if we’re going to leave them outside, and they insisted that their security guard and cameras would keep it safe. Maybe they are right, but it seems silly to take a chance when there’s no good reason not to lock them inside somewhere. So we left and checked with another hotel nearby, and they said no problem we can bring the bikes in the room. The eager luggage boys even insisted on taking them up for us and somehow crammed them into an elevator the size of a shoe box.

We had an amazing unlimited thali lunch at Woodlands, a well known place for Udupi vegetarian food. You have to eat here if you’re in the area. The server was awesome and explained each dish to us and when to eat it and which ones to eat with the puri and which to eat with rice.

I’m finally starting to get the hang of eating with my hand. I ordered a masala dosa and it arrived with no silverware, but I mopped up every bit using my hand and some techniques I’ve learned from watching others eat as well as some YouTube videos.

We re-routed our ride from Udupi to Mangalore towards inland roads and had one of the best rides of our trip in India so far. Quiet country roads, interesting temples, curious friendly people, and mostly good pavement. The last few km near Mangalore got a little crazy but that’s to be expected from a city of 1/2 million.

We stopped at Taj Cycle Co, a bike shop that someone on a bike touring Facebook group recommended. Had a great chat with the fellow there, and he showed us a video of a local bike race from Pune to Goa that’s a qualifier for RAAM (Race Across America). Looks like there’s an up and coming cycling culture in this part of India!

They’re going to order me some brass nipples to rebuild my wheel, and once that’s done we’ll set off. One of the guys at the shop asked about our route and said that if we’re headed to Madikeri, we should just skip the rest of the Karnataka coast and northern Kerala coast and head inland straight from Mangalore. So with that suggestion, I’ve redone our cycling plan and we will head inland up into the Coorg region of Karnataka once the wheel is rebuilt.

In the meantime, we are exploring the city and trying the food. There’s not a huge amount to see here, but they have a lot of nice malls, restaurants, and shops, so we’re doing some shopping and wandering.

I wonder if they serve hamburgers…

Someone told us they are shooting a film, and these guys are local celebrities.

Can’t believe it’s been so long since the last blog! We’ve been enjoying our time overall and are now halfway from Mumbai to the southern most tip of India!

I will try to summarize the highlights and lowlights of the past few days.

Beach huts

OMG, we love the beach huts! There are lots of them in Goa and a few in Gokarna (northern Karnataka coast). Every season, they build and then take down these (usually) simple huts on the beach, with palm landscaping, restaurants attached, plumbing, electricity, and internet. Often they are quite affordable, and some without plumbing or electricity go for just a few dollars a night. We stuck to the ones that were a little more posh and still only paid under $15 a night. We ended up doing two rest days, one in the hidden little beach, Benaulim Beach, and one in the more well-known Patnem beach. Palolem is one of the more popular places for beach huts, but we preferred the less busy ones. Benaulim Beach is a hidden gem.

Our first beach hut in Benaulim.

Our next one in Patnem.

Cows chilling on Patnem Beach.

Some kids come out and entertain with tight rope walking in exchange for tips.

If you’re not into bugs, you should probably stick to the more deluxe accommodations.

Goodbye Goa, hello Karnataka

Entering our third state, we left the nice quiet roads and tourists behind in Goa and ventured forth into the unknowns of Karnataka. It seems to be more religious than other regions, as we see many temples, mosques, and churches, and we hear the call to prayer and see people worshipping more often than elsewhere. It’s also much cheaper, and we’ve been able to find some inexpensive accommodations and excellent food.

Catholic Church in Goa.

The bed covering at one of our cheapest hotels. Maybe it was on sale?

Temple towns of Karnataka

There are lots of temples and temple towns along the coast of Karnataka. Gokarna and Murdeshwar are the two we stopped in. It’s interesting to see the devotees going to temple and wearing traditional dress. We asked around to see if there was a guide who could explain what’s happening to us, but we couldn’t find one. We’ve done a little Googling and lots of observing, but it would be awesome to try to learn first hand.

Om Beach in Gokarna.

Gokarna

Murdeshwar town entrance. They’ve spent a lot of money on this gateway and the first 1/2km of road, where there are no shops or anything, but past that, where the real city, shops, and hotels are, it’s quite filthy with trash everywhere. It’s too bad for such a popular pilgrimage place that they don’t take more care.

The largest statue of Lord Shiva in the world. The building next to it houses an elevator so you can get a good look at the statue. We arrived late so weren’t able to go up.

Pilgrims bathing in the ocean. This is the first time we’ve seen the men strip down to their skivvies. Everywhere else, they just walk in, fully clothed, as the women are doing in this photo. Western beach wear is not considered respectful, or at least that’s what we understand.

A hotel is not what you think

If you ask for a hotel in India, you’ll be given excellent recommendations for places to eat. In fact, they will all have signs saying “Hotel So and So”. But if you ask for a room there, they will look at you funny, and say, no, just food, no rooms. Say what?!

So apparently, a hotel is where you get food. Every once in a while, they will also have a room or two, and sometimes it’ll be a proper hotel. But usually just food.

So this brings up a delimma. If a hotel is really a restaurant, then what do you call a hotel? The best we’ve come up with is to ask for “rooms” and that sometimes is understood…

Food

The food has been good, but since we were in places where international food was available, we’ve been eating Indian food from different regions including many tandoori dishes, Indo-Chinese food, as well as Continental food like pasta and pizza. We know it will be hard to find this as we get away from the touristy hotspots, so it’s nice to indulge.

Lunch on our cycling days is usual where we get the more local stuff. We almost always get vegetarian stuff for lunch, so we look for “hotels” with signs that say “pure veg” or “veg/non-veg”. We stopped one day and had an excellent paneer fried rice, and today we stopped at a place with no menu and just ordered a “mix plate”, and we ended up with a bunch of vegetable fritters with some sambar (spicy soup / dipping sauce) and coconut chutney. There was a sweet bread and a potato cake that we really liked.

One of the tandoori vegetable dishes we really liked.

Highway 66

Since entering Karnataka, we’ve been almost exclusively riding on Highway 66, since there are almost no other roads to take towards Kerala. It’s in the process of being upgraded to a really nice 4 lane divided highway, but at the present time, it is a complete disaster. Seriously, a horrible place to drive, never mind ride bicycles. After over 12,000km in 16 countries, this road is the worst we’ve been on. The road surface is usually okay, but the traffic is insane.

If you are thinking of cycle touring this section, don’t. Wait until it’s complete or take the train. Other blogs have said the train allows bikes aboard at some stations, and it seems many tourists skip this area.

On the sections of road that are completed, one side of the highway is not open but it’s freshly paved. Bicycles and motor bikes can sneak past the “diversion” signs and ride traffic free on these perfect roads, and we take every opportunity we get.

But in between these sections, the road is too narrow for two cars to pass, paved over multiple times with temporary asphalt, and twists through hills and over decaying bridges. The road is full of heavy truck traffic, motorbikes, and some cars. The trucks don’t hesitate to overtake on blind corners or too-narrow bridges, and believe that their horn will magically remove all obstacles. We even observed a school bus full of kids over take on a narrow bridge and stare us down until we had to veer into the gravel shoulder and stop.

Rest assured, family and friends, I am re-routing the rest of our ride to avoid this highway and stick to quieter coastal and inland roads, even though it will mean bumpier roads and more hills. I’ve heard the completed national highways are actually quite nice (though boring) to ride on with wide shoulders, but this road is just impossible right now. If we continue to encounter these conditions, I promise that we will not be cycling anymore in India and will figure out a way to use trains and busses to get to where we want to go.

A good example of what we encountered on Highway 66.