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Diënne & Coen, 13 Apr 2008 18:43 hours
 India, Delhi India part 3: Ajanta - Delhi Travelreport Bangalore – Delhi, India
11-02-2008 t/m 7-04-2008
2745 km, totaal 33.000 km
Dag 822 t/m 878
India part 3 from Ajanta till Delhi.
Hello everybody!
As promised, here’s part 3 of our cyclingtrip through India.
Our last report ended on a nice campspot, 80 km from Ajanta, where Diënne visited the Ajanta caves. Coen had seen them before and stayed with the bicycles at the entrance.
03-03-08: Nargaon – Kumathi, 99km
After a good night sleep we have an early breakfast. The bread is so fresh and sweet, for us it’s like cake!
In Khandwa, the first town for today, is a big Hindu celebration going on. Hundreds of peoples are on the streets, dressed in orange.
Coen notices a puncure in his front tyre, so as quick as possible we go out of town for reparation. Our campspot was perfect, just now the thorns are annoying us...
After 30 km we are leaving Maharashtra State and arrive in Madhya Pradesh, a cleaner state in central India. We are cycling through fields full with grain, from green to yellow. At the end of the day we eat some rice and dal at a dhaba and find again a very quiet spot for camping.
Around 20.30 o’clock we go to bed. Just when we zip the tent we see torches coming! Oh no!! But yes, within minutes there a small crowd around the tent. We send them away, but a few minutes later is the nxt group coming, and the next...
There’s no other possibility than to pack and move somewhere else. In pitchdark we find the way back to the mainroad and we start cycling. Trucks, most with light fortunately, hardly see us on the road. It’s a very dangerous situation, but after 2 km we find another small farm, where we can pitch our tent.
Still it’s hard to sleep, because the farmers don’t understand that we want to sleep in the dark. Indians sleep in the light because they’re afraid for the dark... With their torches beside the tent the keep us awake. At 1 o’clock we fall asleep...
04-03-08: Kumathi – Mandi, 118 km
After a few glasses of milktea and bread, we feel good enough again to go. Cycling is going wonderful and the whole day we see nice campspots everywhere. It’s always when you don’t need them. And... what looks good in daylight, might change in moonlight...
It seems better to stay in a village and try to find a place there. In a small shed we can sleep. We eat our noodles accompinied by local staring people.
05-03-08: Mandi – Budni, 120 km
Today we give an interviewin Harda to a Hindi newspaper. Lately we do that often, but we never see an article or hear any reactions, so we are not so motivated anymore. After 80 km cycling we come through a place where a crazy villager pulls Coen from his bike! The man is so stupid that he doesn’t even understand that he did something rude and dangerous!
In the evening we meet a very nice Indian man, who invites us into his familyhome. There are 25 member living there and they speak good english. It’s very nice to be there.
After a meal of Maggi noodles we climb in our tent, our musquitonet...
The fam8ily sleeps with 5 persons in 1 bed, and the lights full on, something we will never understand.
06-03-08 Budni – Bhopal +10 days, 80 km
After a breakfast of milktea and biscuits we leave the family. Diënne feels miserable, suffers from a cold for weeks now and today some stomach problems.
Despite we visit the Bimbethka carvings. There are some old paintings beside some new hearts with arrows. It’s a pity that the Indians don’t respect their cultural heritage. They touch everything, they scream and write on the old sites... They pay 20 times less entrancemoney then foreigners...
Bhopal is famous for it’s poison disaster in 1984. Now it’s a big city booming with modernities and a manmade lake. There are not so many sights to see so we can have a good rest, until Diënne is fully recovered. That’ll take 10 days!
We try to celebrate Diënne’s and her moms birthday, but everytime we feel worse after eating chocolatecake.
16-03-08: Bhopal – Sanchi +1 day, 48 km
From Bhopal it’s only a short ride to India’s buddhist attraction: The Buddhist Stupa’s in Sanchi. They are very well preserved and what we mostly enjoy is the green park surrounding it. We take our time and enjoy the small village.
18 to 20 -03-08: Sanchi – Sagar – Gulganj – Khajuraho+3 dagen, 336 km
From Sanchi we go, with a night in a hotel in Sagar and a night behind the policestation in Gulganj, to Khajuraho. On the way we see hilly landscapes and grainfields. The roads are quiet and sometimes the dhaba owners give us tea and icecreams. The sun is shining and it is 35 degrees Celsius, good for cycling.
In Khajuraho are the famous kamasutratempels. First we have to find a hotel. There are hundreds of hotels and choosing is not an easy job.... They are all empty and they all want to have some bussiness, so the youmg boys are following us everywhere giving more and more discount. In the end we find a new place with spotless rooms, hot water for a very good price. This will be our home for the next days.
Next day we visit the temples and because the Holi festival is one of these days, we are careful with going onto the street. Everybody is throwing with paint!
The Kamasutra temples are beautiful and there are many tourists from India and all over the world.
In a Jaintemple we even see a naked man running around with in one hand a broom and in the other hand a teapot kind of thing. Incredible India!
24-03-08: Khajuraho – Orchha – Gwalior – Agra – Delhi, 641 km
When we wat to leave Khajuraho, the receptionist tells us that we are in the local newspaper. Frontpage news! It’s hard to get a copy for ourselves, but in a bigger hotel they also recognise us and there we get a paper and a cup of coffee.
At 9:30 we leave. On the way we get invited by several people who have seen us in the newspaper.
We hoped to find a place to sleep in Mauranipur but, as the manager of the hotel already told us, nothing suits us.
We go on, eat rice and spinach in a dhaba and find, just before dusk a nice place to camp. Still afraid that somebody will come, we await. At 21 o’clock nobody came and we fall asleep.
Early morning we wake up from thunder and just before it starts raining we find shelter in a nearby shed. Coen repaires his puncture.
Today we stop in Orchha. Massive buildings like a fort, a palace and temples rise up. From closeby they’re a bit rundown but it’s nice to stroll around the buildings and the village.
Coen has been in Gwalior before, We find a bed in the dependance of the hotel where he stayed then with his parents, because of the lowseason they give us a 50%discount. Diënne goes to the fort alone.
We stay one day longer in Gwalior because Coen’s stomach has some troubles... It’s going up and down with our health. One moment we feel good, the other we have to run to the toilet. We don’t worry because we can still cycle, but...
From now the touristic attractions follow up quickly. Agra is one day from Gwalior (122km). In Agra we visit the worldfamous Taj Mahal and the Fort. By train we go to Fatehpur Sikri. The other day we spend our time in the garden of the hotel, just reading and eating
On Highway 3 we continue to Delhi. The road is still nice and quiet and at night we sleep in a motel. In Faridabad the traffic comes! It’s craziness in the traffic! Thousands of cyclists on the road and the cars just go through there...
Without any problems we find the house of the Dutch family where we can stay for a couple of days. In 2 weeks we fly to Holland for 1 month.
Again, we both get sick! First Diënne, after Coen. Dirk takes us to a doctor who prescribes pills. After a week we feel better. Two days we explore Delhi and the metro, beautiful! Now it’s just waiting for the flight....
There’s a very big garden around the house, so here we don’t even notice that we are in India!
On ay 20th we’ll be back in India! |
11:01
