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The Great India Adventure

April - Mei 2023
  • Staci Adman
  • Eric Adman
Petualangan 35-sehari oleh Staci & Eric Baca selengkapnya
  • Staci Adman
  • Eric Adman

Daftar negara

  • Jepang Jepang
  • India India
  • Singapura Singapura
  • Amerika Serikat Amerika Serikat
Kategori
Budaya, Tur
  • 23,4rbmil yang ditempuh
Sarana transportasi
  • Penerbangan19,1rbkilometer
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  • 93footprint
  • 35hari
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  • The Great India Adventure
    Mostly dry huge river bedThe seller of truck decorations62We saw a bunch of watermelon stands along one ateetch of highway. Note the painted red circle!We see this kind of bamboo scafolding/holding up of floors/ceilings all over.The humidity!Our new friend KarthikOur peek-a-boo view of the Bay of Bengal from our hotel window1The courtyard of our hotel in Chandipur Sea BeachOur room was in that added-on top floor2Datura!Beach near our hotel in Chandipore Sea Beach6That is a bag of cement she is carrying on her head!

    Hottest day yet ends with a lovely hotel

    17 April 2023, India ⋅ ⛅ 88 °F

    It was a serious scorcher today. From around noon or 1pm to about 4 or so it was just brutal on the road. Even “Spicy” our rickshaw was complaining a bit and needed a break in the shade to cool down for a bit mid-afternoon.

    Riding in the open-sided rickshaw means that we always have a breeze that at least dries us off even if the air is hot. But when we stop, yikes! We ended our day at our last beach stop. And it was SO hot and SO humid my shirt was soon soaked. Our hotel room has stellar AC. What a relief.

    We finally passed by a stand that sold the decorative pompom and tinsel tassels that I’ve been dying for that we see on trucks. So we blinged up Spicy a bit. The pompoms are put on trucks to ward off the evil eye and protect from harm. That works for me!

    We ended our day with a fantastic dinner that included local crab with marsala sauce. We had the crab dish and prawns and our bill totally about $10. Unbelievable! We met a friendly young electrical engineer who is staying here for work. He sat with us at dinner and we asked him all sorts of questions.

    I’ll add photos of the hotel and beach to this post in the morning when it’s light out.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
    12

    Lunch at Salbon Dhaba in Sundara

    18 April 2023, India ⋅ ☀️ 108 °F

    Day 10!! Can you believe it?! Look at how far we’ve come! Today we entered the state of West Bengal, the fifth out of six that we will drive through (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Sikkim)

    We had another AMAZING lunch stop. It’s interesting to experience the differences in food and drink as we have come further north. Food has become spicier. Naan has appeared on the menus and porotta, my favorite bread offering, has disappeared. At least where we’ve been eating.

    We ordered basmati veg thali, which was a platter with rice and small bowls of various dishes and accompaniments. And paneer masala and a stuffed flat bread called Masala Kulcha. And the owner suggested that we try the signature drink of the area, Burhani, which is good for digestion. It seems to be a type of lassi or at least related, with yogurt, mint, chilis, salt and other spices. It was like nothing I’ve tasted before!

    And the bill totaled about $5 US.

    I forgot to mention last night - when we visited the hotel’s bar/lounge last night for a beer (Kingfisher Strong, maybe the best beer I’ve ever had because we were SO hot and tired), we were quickly shuffled into a little side room to have our beers. We thought that was a little weird, and I wondered if they don’t allow women to mix with strange men when drinking. Sure enough, soon another group of three with one woman were led into the room with us. We asked them if we were there because we were women and they confirmed my suspicion.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
    222Janet H-B, this photo is for you!The round green fruits the size of oranges are called Mosambi or sweet limes. Yummy juice!2

    Durgapur and a neat older hotel

    19 April 2023, India ⋅ ☀️ 91 °F

    Last night we stayed in Durgapur, a city on the Damodar river, a quite large river. Our hotel was called The Damodar Retreat. I would guess that it might have been built in the 30s - some details really reminded me of the Bastyr University building back home. We had room service dinner for the first time on this trip. We thought we were the only ones staying here, but we saw a cup of coffee being taken to another room this morning so we guessed there was one other person. We were thinking of “The Shining” last night for sure!

    We skipped the pool because it didn’t appear to have any sort of circulation system working, though the water was clear…

    Durgapur has the dirtiest air that we’ve experienced so far. Dusty and smoky. Despite the floor looking clean, when we walked barefoot in our room our feet got filthy. Durgapur is called “The steel capital of East India”, and heading out of town we saw black smoke coming out of stacks. And for the first time we saw cooling towers for nuclear plants! Three of them.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
    Cab driver who pushed us to town
    1Pushing us with his foot!Pushing us with his foot!Fried dough like a crisy donutDoughnut with ground nutsSpicy cooling down outside the bakeryWhere we waited for the mechanicSo many people came to check us outHuge dry riverbed heading out of townOur new police officer friend!

    Unplanned Breakie/Spicy rest in Panuria

    19 April 2023, India ⋅ ☀️ 104 °F

    The only running issues that we’ve had with Spicy (knock wood) is what seems like a vapor lock/air bubble in the fuel line situation every once in a while in the heat of the day. After a short slow down or a bit of a rest to cool down she is good to go.

    Today we experienced it earlier than normal, and luckily it happened on a country road where we could wait in the shade. I’ll tell you why I’m not worried about being stuck for long if we have a breakdown - we stand out like a sore thumb and it doesn’t take long at all before someone turns around and comes back to check us out.

    In this case a taxi driver came back, lined up his tuk tuk behind ours and drove pushing us with his foot!! He pushed us 1km to a petrol station, but we explained that we had half a tank still, so he pushed us another 1km to the town where there was a mechanic. We were told that the mechanic would come to us in 10 minutes, and luckily we were stopped in front of a little bakery where we had samosas and a sweet baked good for breakfast. Our chai tea came in a tiny unglazed clay cup with a volume of maybe 2-3 tablespoons, and they throw out the cups when you are done!

    When the mechanic finally arrived, of course Spicy started right up and ran like a champ. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fuel filter issue, but by the time we did a short test drive and came back, the mechanic was gone again. Oh well!

    As we headed out of town there were a couple of police at a busy traffic bottleneck, and we’d just read that if police want you to stop, it’s easier to pretend you didn’t hear and keep going than go through potential hassles. The police officer pulled aside a gate so we could drive through, but then a second and apparently higher ranking officer said “Stop! Stop!” and motioned us to pull over. We felt pretty obligated at that point, so we stopped. Lucky for us he was just super curious about where we were from and where we are going! I gave him one of our stickers, and he gave us his phone number and said to call him if we have any troubles!! How lucky are we?!    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure

    Protest blocking the road! Kindness wins

    19 April 2023, India ⋅ ☀️ 108 °F

    Oh my gosh! We came to an area where trucks were stopped dead for a full kilometer leading up to an interchange where we needed to go under a highway and then get onto it. We were able to drive on the wrong side to get up to the interchange. After a few minutes the bus we were behind started slowly moving forward so we stuck to it. Meanwhile we were starting to chat a bit with all the guys hanging around. The bus was was let through and then large bamboo poles were pulled across the road to block the road after it!! A car next to us drove into/over the bamboo, and luckily our new-found friends told them to let us pass also.

    On the other side of the roadblock trucks were backed up for at least a kilometer again. We thought we were good to go on a highway with no traffic, but then we came upon ANOTHER road block on the highway at the town of Barapalasi. We got off onto the side frontage road but it was blocked too, and a man told us we can’t go through until 6pm. Luckily we chatted and negotiated selfies in exchange for letting us through! Hahaha! Plus I explained that we can’t wait until 6 because we have to drive when the sun is up. The young son of one of the leaders spoke very good English, so he was a great help. They gave us ice cream cones, I gave them a sticker, we took a million selfies, and we stuffed the two leaders of this protest plus a few little boys into Spicy with us and we were accompanied through the barrier and on our way. Isn’t that incredible?!!    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
    22I wonder if there is a picture book of Indian truck art!2Large dry riverbedMile markers!! I love them!Large bamboo poles

    Bhagalpur for the night- whew what a day

    19 April 2023, India ⋅ 🌙 91 °F

    The traffic in Bhagalpur this evening was crazy, and Eric handled it like a champ. What a relief it was to pull up to the hotel we picked off of Google maps and be greeted by the owner holding open the door. And we were expecting to pay 4500-5000 rupees, but he bargained us DOWN to 3500 for a lovely suite room!! Let’s call that $43. Crazy!

    I was wrong yesterday about the states that we would travel through. Today we passed through the state of Jharkhand (where the protest was) and now we are in the state of Bihar (a dry state!). Tomorrow we will travel back into West Bengal as we aim for Darjeeling probably on Friday. Darjeeling is at ~6700 feet! Looking forward to relief from the heat!

    It was SO hot once again today, and the humidity is much lower inland. Our phones are just hammered by the heat. It’s nearly impossible to charge them back up when they are so hot, and we don’t have a cooler to cool them off. But I figured out a trick of wrapping them in a wet bandana to get an evaporative cooling effect. In no time one would cool down and charge up quickly. Hurray!

    Speaking of phones - I am using an eSIM from Airalo on my phone with a data plan for India that I can easily top up as needed. I set it up before we left home. 10GB/30days for $27. I just ran out today and topped it off with another 10GB. The only catch is it doesn’t warn you when you are running low, it just stops connecting to the internet. Eric bought a reconditioned older iPhone and purchased a physical SIM card with a good data plan for $7 for 30 days. He did this in Fort Cochi after we got here. $7?!! It’s been handy to have that Indian phone/number.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
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    Another amazing Bajaj service stop

    20 April 2023, India ⋅ ☀️ 97 °F

    We used up our spare 500ml of motor oil we had from our stop at the Bajaj service center early on in our trip so we were on the lookout for another service center this morning to top up the oil and get some extra for our climb into the mountains.

    Lucky for us we spotted the perfect place on the outskirts of the city of Purnia. They had us drive right around and up into the shop where they sat us down on chairs and set up a fan for us. They let Spicy cool down a bit and then checked and topped off the oil, blew out the air filter, checked the gear oil, and checked all of the tires. That along with a little extra oil to go was about $6 US!    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
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    Kids watching us.

    Fresh sugar cane juice!

    20 April 2023, India ⋅ ☀️ 97 °F

    We have been seeing these stands on the side of the roads and highways for practically this whole trip and didn’t understand what they were. We thought they were doing something with sugar cane but couldn’t tell.

    This morning an employee of the hotel accompanied us to an ATM to get cash for our bill, and on the way back he stopped at one of these stands and bought us glasses of —- sugar cane juice!! Yummm!

    We just stopped at one of the stands on the side of the highway and got to see the whole process. These machines wring a lot of juice out of one length of cane. And he slips some lime in during the pressing, too.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
    The Ganges River!
    The Ganges!1Drying corn along the side of the road. We've seen this a LOT4Lunch was like cornbread crumbled with chili poured over. So good! 70¢ for both of us, WITH 2 chaisBeautiful produce stalls everywhere3We saw a lot of seemingly manmade ponds with large lily pads for a while today3Spicy at our hotel for the night1446A feline friend!

    Siliguri. Cooler day and lovely lodging

    20 April 2023, India ⋅ 🌙 81 °F

    Who knew that 97° would feel so much cooler than 107°!! Today was a little shorter of a driving day for us since Darjeeling was too far to reach in daylight. We reached our hotel in Siliguri by 4:30, which was a nice change of pace.

    We did an amazing thing today - we crossed the Ganges River. To even just drive over this sacred river was an amazing experience I never imagined that I would do.

    Where we are staying tonight is a peaceful resort tucked into the edge of an urban area. After a lovely dinner and drinks on site, we are taking advantage of a little table and chairs on the patio in front of our room. A breeze is blowing a wind chime in the garden and we can hear the call to prayer from a few nearby mosques. What an unbelievable, peaceful experience!    Baca selengkapnya

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  • The Great India Adventure
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    2Narrow guage railroad track next to the road3A shrine on the side of the roadA shrine on the side of the road1This is how the 2-stroke rickshaws have to fuel up - mix oil into the petrolFuel station perched on the hillside126

    Drive to Darjeeling

    21 April 2023, India ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    Wow, what a lovely, chilly, steep drive in and out of fog today as we climbed the foothills up to Darjeeling. We are now at 6,986 feet! Unfortunately everything was socked in this afternoon, so we have had no view of the mountains yet. It looks like we are floating in the clouds. I’ll post photos here of our trip. I have a couple more locations to post about separately.Baca selengkapnya

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