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Published: August 27th 2006
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A Fine Balance
At Anjuna's 'famous' but disappointing market 2001………..6wks-2nd CYCLING TRIP-2,200kms IN SOUTHERN INDIA
15.9.01 Kovalem (116Km 445Km total by bike)
I feel like I've been to hell and back. The ride yesterday got gradually worse with the amount of traffic, fumes and heat. I had to wash my clothes twice. I hate to think what I had to breathe in. I resorted to the mask in the end. I over shot the turnoff and so added an extra 15-20kms. I hope its not going to be like this in all of Kerala. At least with the bike riding, people in buses, trucks, cars and pedestrians cheer me on as I go- just saying hello, smiling.
Because it’s off-season, even though the weather is great, I was able to get a room for 3 days for about $10/day. I have a double room with fridge, large bathroom with shower, wonderful green marble floors and a good-sized balcony overlooking the sea. It is right on the beach and I can see the waves breaking from bed. I've decided to rest up here for three days to feel like I'm on holidays.
It's a change to see some tourists promenading the beach and to have a more diverse selection in
the menu. The music here is mostly 70's- Marley, Cat Stevens, America etc. Some things never change.
18.9.01 Varkala (76.5 km cycled)
The ride through Trivandrum was much easier than I expected. I was shortly off onto a more minor road along the coast through fishing villages shaded by coconut palms each side and the occasional butterfly brushing my cheek.
19.9.01 Varkala- Alappuzha (Alleppey)
Today was an easy day of covering a fair distance without much effort. With fishing villages, views of the Arabian Sea or the Keralan backwaters and with the occasional picturesque mosque with their weathered paint of greens, yellows and pinks- it was a pleasant ride. The sort of ride I expected from coming here. I eventually found myself back on the main road with the busyness of its buses and trucks, occasionally going through larger towns. One really has to let go of what you would consider appropriate & fair road rules or etiquette. One car at one stage was on the wrong side of the road, going backwards and tooting the people who were standing in the road talking! It would be easier if people would stick to the side of the road.
There are times that I'm being pushed off by some impending bus or truck with nowhere really to go. But generally I'm in no rush and so at times actually stop and let them go past. I do this when I see the road in front blocked with a car/bus/truck overtaking another vehicle. It's like I don't exist in their thinking. I particularly get out of the way if I can see this happening and there is a vehicle behind me as well. Things generally sort themselves out, although I have seen the result of two severe head on collisions in the short time I have been in the subcontinent.
I was easily in time for the backwater cruise from Kollam to Alleppey. It was a pleasant somewhat drowsy trip as we put-putted along the waterway that at times was like a lake and others narrowed down and completely covered with flowering plants. As the sun lit up the sky and set through the coconut palms, fruit bats occasionally flittered their way across the expanse.
21.9.01 Kottayam (60km 620.5km Total cycling)
I did a round trip of 35km to the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary today. It really was a very
pleasant ride going along quiet shady roads past canals and lakes with lotus, water lilies and water hyacinth in flower and past picturesque churches and mosques with their brightly painted but aged wall. The bird sanctuary was a delight. The place is teeming with bird sounds-I spotted 7 different types and several different butterflies. Tropical butterflies are wonderful-they are that bit more bright, that bit bigger, or that bit more soft and lush looking. I was the only person there.
22.9.01 Kumily (Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary)
I decided last night that to save time and effort, I would catch the bus to Kumily as it would have taken me 2 days and been a repeat of the effort necessary to get to Kodaikanal. It couldn't have been easier. I got down to the bus station just down the same street I was in by 6.30am and by the time I had lugged the bike up the ladder at the back of the bus to strap it down to the roof, it was time to go. I'm not sure which is more stressful- hearing the bus airhorns when I'm on the bike or hearing it repeatedly from inside the bus where
it seems to sound just as loud. I decided to sit up front- I figured if we were going to have a head-on, I would be there to see it. I put on my taped music nearly full blast which diminished the air horn somewhat. The views were spectacular with tea plantations, as we got higher.
I am writing this sitting in a thatched observation tower in 'Coffee Inn'. It overlooks the Wildlife Park. It is raining quite solidly but not heavy monsoonal drops. It has obscured the hills that were forming a backdrop to the rainforest. I have been watching a couple of deer feeding and earlier heard an elephant calling from the forest not far away, but it didn't poke its trunk out.
26.9.01Cochin (794 total kms)
I was looking forward to the ride from Kumily as I thought it would be pretty well mostly downhill but it was up and down, but felt mostly up, for 95 km until 2.30 pm ie: it was only after 8 hrs of strenuous riding with only two 10 min stops that I had the final relief of knowing I was heading for sea level when I saw the road
Spices in Cochin
The smell in the street was amazing signs saying to give priority to uphill vehicles. When I did finally get to freewheel it, my maximum speed got up to 46.7km.
Fort Cochin is Kerala's main tourist destination but as it's off season there is a nice smattering of light coloured people from Europe, the Americas and Japan. Cochin is alive and well as a trading city. It is a colourful place that resonates with living history. The Jewish quarter is like stepping back in time with a mixture of warehouses, agents and dealers in spices, perfumes, choir etc. The smell is wonderful on a bike, as your nose doesn't get desensitised before the next waft of something exotic fills the nostrils.
Arab & Jewish spice traders had settled here in the 1st Century AD. The Portuguese lost their domination of the spice trade & Kochi to the Dutch in 1663 but just over a century later the British were in control. This history is very evident in the varied architectural styles depicting the different countries in control at different times.
27.9.01 Cochin (Kochi) - Cannanore (Kannur) by train
Well my expertise in cycling in India has reached new heights! Riding down a busy Indian street one
handed, the other hand holding an umbrella. If you don't ride too fast it's amazing how effective it is in not getting wet with the rain falling straight down. It's not cold rain anyway. Besides missing pedestrians, oncoming buses and auto-rickshaws, I discovered it necessary to miss the puddles because you can't judge how deep they are until it's too late!
I've decided to make some ground by moving quickly up north to Mysore to give more time cycling to the towns of interest surrounding it. And so here I am on another train, which is a nice way to spend a day watching the Indian countryside and life go by. A reminder of the vulnerability of life was brought home when we passed the wreckage of an earlier train crash/ derailment. By the looks there couldn't have been too many survivors.
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Tot: 0.344s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 22; qc: 115; dbt: 0.1035s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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