January 27, 2016
Week 44: to Hubli: great day for interacting with people
We stop at a roadside stall for a break. "Was there a celebration yesterday?" Rachel asks the man at the roadside stall while waiting for coffee. "Yes, Independence Day" the man answers. Patrick has gone across the street to take pictures of the decorated tractors. This might explain what we saw yesterday with all the people walking to Koppal, no buses on the road and the twenty-five plus ice cream trucks.
Finished with our coffee and breakfast of puri, an Indian fried bread served with two accompaniments to dip the bread into, we go to the bikes and are surrounded by schoolkids. "This is my country's flower, please come to my school" one of the girls in a group says. Patrick relents to the pleas and goes with the kids, Rachel watches the bikes.
We are still cycling through agricultural area, with corn and sorghum fields, cotton fields and peppers plants. The coconut trees have disappeared, but we saw orchards we think are orange trees. Cycling into Hubli is again chaos of bus, truck, motorcycles, bikes, pedestrians and cows along with streets that merge into a round-abouts from all angles. We check into the Ayodhya Hotel and surprised by how modern the room is, and have one of the better showers since being in India. We have TV with CNN and movie channel. The hotel is a "CNN partner hotel". There is a strong anti smoking campaign with announcements before movies and during if a character is smoking, that smoking is hazardous to health. Lunch in the hotel restaurant that also has lots of bus travels, since the station is across the street. Then we walk the streets to find a vodaphone shop to buy more data for the sim card.
Another beautiful day on the road.
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Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 12,063 km (7,491 miles)
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