Daman and not much of Nashik

Another early start from Vadodara I navigated through the city onto the highway south. Pretty easy road out and then onto a six lane road for the rest of the day. Getting closer to Mumbai the traffic's getting heavier again though. Trucks everywhere, trucks overtaking trucks, cars speeding and using the horn to push away traffic with the power of sound waves (it doesn't work very well). And me! At high speed in the middle of all of this.

I skipped Surat, not much of interest except for a big jewel market. According to the Lonely Planet a majority of the worlds diamonds are cut in Surat. But I was headed to something better (tax free alcohol). Near Surat and south the highway goes through some large Industrial lands where they all seem to be making some sort of chemicals with a big ammonia or urine smell. Quite unpleasant to ride through.

Closer to Daman everything starts to look tropical. Greener trees, palm trees, clearer sky and humidity rather than plain old heat. I was going to see the ocean again too, but I'm not sure I expected much.

Daman is an ex-Portuguese settlement, along with Goa and Diu. And like the other two, it comes with little to no tax on Alcohol. For Daman this is the only selling point. I went to the beach as soon as I arrived...

Yep. That's what I expected.

Garbage everywhere. Some of it on fire.

Knowing I wouldn't be spending too much time sightseeing in Daman I found a hotel room and got to enjoying the cheap grog. A 600mL bottle of beer is only $1AU, so I gave Fosters a try. Don't like it, but it has that Australian beer taste to it. A 180mL bottle of Indian rum was only 75cents, and a 365mL bottle of Vodka (to put in my Limca) was about $1.80AU. There are customs checks on all the roads out, and also Daman is surrounded by the state of Gujurat where alcohol is banned (unless you have an easy to get license).

So I was set for a while... No need to go outside, it was hot out there anyway.

I did go down and see one of the old Portuguese forts however.

The way in.

From the top of the fort wall. Look at all that poo water floating past.

More of the fort.

Every one of those holes was filled with rubbish...

I think they're all bullet holes. Target practice I guess...

The curch inside the fort.

And that was is for the fort. I walked the loop back along the beach to get to the hotel, it was the same distance, perhaps I missed some of the trash I found yesterday.

Fishing fleet, in for repairs.

More boat repair.

Houses and garbage.

Ahh, brown sand, brown water.

Looks so inviting doesn't it.

No idea why this was on the beach.

And that was it for sights in Daman. I went back to focusing on drinking for a while.

After a slow morning start at 8am, I headed out of Daman towards Nashik. But on the way out I stopped at a beach just to the south of Daman.

Better... But not by much. I've been spoilt by wandering the beaches of Malaysia and Thailand (and Queensland)

All the rubbish that people leave on the beach ends up here. There was a LOT of it.

For the rest of the day I'd be riding along roads in very good condition with little traffic. The roads wind through the hills with a couple of villages along the way. There was one BIG market that I had to ride past, lots of people just in that spot. On the roads around it were 4wd's filled with people, and then another 10 people hanging on to the outside or sitting on the roof.

My bike!

The road winding down a hill.

Panorama time!

The other odd thing today is that with the lack of people everywhere I could actually stop on the road and not have people flock to me (well my bike, not me). People still stopped though. If I was still for about five minutes taking photos or looking for accommodation someone would have turned up to stare at the bike in awkward silence. There was one awkward scene getting petrol when after I filled up and pushed my bike out the way everyone was too busy staring at me and the bike to remember they were there to get petrol. Indians do like themselves some staring.

Once I got to Nashik I tried to find a hotel though the various one way crowded streets, locking up the rear brakes a lot as pedestrians or bikes decided they suddenly wanted to be in front of me. The GPS didn't have all the roads marked in this town, and a lot of them were one way streets. I eventually found a way into the spot where the Lonely Planet mentioned a largish hotel that may have somewhere to park, but I failed to find any sign of it. I got sick of riding through the middle of this city so I set the GPS for a hotel that was along the highway figuring there'd be more along the way somewhere. And there where, just very expensive. The hotel the GPS was navigating to was in the region of $80+/night (nothing compared to *.au). I consulted trip advisor and the number one hotel on their list was a budget hotel with rooms for about $20/night, and that's where I ended up.

In the morning on the way towards Auranubad I stopped of at Nashiks big attraction, the big bathing tanks in the path of the river called Ramkund.

Here you can swim in the ashes of your dead relatives. And/or garbage.

Futile efforts.

Ahmedabad and Champaner

After Udaipur it was a good run on fairly nondescript roads south to Ahmedabad. I was on the road by 7am, filled up with petrol, and then did a 200km stint without stopping! That beats my previous record of 160km in Thailand. I covered heaps of ground and it finally felt like nothing thanks to the big open and flat roads and minimal traffic. There were a lot of police on the roads as soon as you enter Gujarat (the state south of Rajasthan), but they were only checking on the trucks and none of them cared or even looked at me.

I stopped off in Gandhinagar which is where the capital was moved too from Ahmedabad in the 70s. Big open streets, lots of circular roads around the city center. Very much like Canberra. There's a big military area I went past and a big nuclear reactor too, first reactor I've seen. They're working on nuclear fusion here too so it says in the paper.

Just south of Gandhinagar is the Adalaj step well which was built in the 15th or 16th century. I was a little confused as to where to go here, all the signs are in Hindu and it just looked like a temple. On the way past I noticed someone had their camera out taking photos of me riding past so I gave a big wave from my bike. They came over and had a chat, they were university students from eastern Rajasthan who were on holidays down here. One of them wanted to sit on my bike.

There he is. And my rent-a-crowd gathered around watching me do everything.

 Then it was down into the step well to have a look. And a step well is just a series of steps down to a well... Pretty simple really. As I said I was a little confused where to go because there was no ticket booth, very odd for India...

This one had several floors too it. Each level gets smaller down to the well.

Crazy processed fisheye view of the well and the 5 floors.

Looking back out.

Elephant carvings on the wall.

Then it was into Ahmedabad. Traffic got a little crazy but I think I'm getting used to it to the point where it almost feels normal... The roadworks all through the city made it a bit more difficult though. I eventually ended up at Hotel Volga down a little alley way from the main road, at least my bike would be semi hidden again.

There's a few things to see in Ahmedabad but I didn't really get out much to look. The temperature was in the 40s again so moving about was hard work. And the other problem with this area was finding a shop that sold drinks. All I wanted was cheap non-room-serivce-ripoff water and a limca but I couldn't find any around a couple of blocks from the hotel. If I wanted shoes however, no problems (well maybe not in my size). There were some good restaurants in the area but I think my stomach is starting to reject all the Indian food I've been putting in it. So in the morning I went out to find McDonalds!

Crossing the bridge over to the new part of the city. Trash everywhere.

Guy taking his bananas out for a walk.

After McDonalds success I headed back to the hotel but by this time it had reached the mid 40s again. I didn't see anything else in Ahmedabad, there was nothing that I wanted to leave the air conditioning to see.

Next morning it was off again to head south 150km to Champaner. To get there I had to take the national highway 8 because the expressway is off limits to motorbikes. This road was filled with trucks though. Probably one of the more dangerous sections I've been on so far. But not because of the trucks, it's because cars are overtaking three wide down a two lane road.

There's not a lot of info about Champaner in the Lonely Planet or online or google maps about how to get there or what's there. I ended up in Halol which is the next closest town, but there is no real signage on how to get to this world heritage area. I eventually lucked my way through Halol making a few random turns and stumbled on the road out to Champaner.

Once I stumbled on the first site I took out my camera wanted to take a few pictures but it didn't want to turn on. Strange. The battery was still half charged last time I looked at it. I couldn't do much out there so these pictures are all courtesy of the phone camera.

Ek Minar Ki Masjid!  Well I know some of the words! Looks like 'One Minaret something Mosque'. Makes sense.

Ek Minar!

Then just down the road is the helical step well!

Spiraly. Built some time before the 16th century.

And a little bit further...

Sakar Khan's Dargah.

And then finally though the old city walls and into the bigger building.

Saher ki Masjid (Bohrani)

Inside.

More inside.

Outside.

Part of the fort wall you have to ride through to get to the mosque.

The city wall.

There's meant to be a place called the Champaner Hotel here, but I've got no idea where. There's no directions that I could find online. I could have asked someone but I thought it best to go the 50km back to Vadodara if I was having camera issues.

I ended up in Hotel Surya, quite expensive but secure parking and air conditioning! The first task was to try and charge the battery for the camera but the charger just didn't want to charge it. Then I set off to try and find camera shops. I was directed out to Saffron Tower where there was one shop there which sold some camera batteries and chargers. They didn't have the charger I needed in stock but they could get one in half and hour they said. So I waited for it to arrive. Once I got back to the hotel room I plugged it in and it looked like it was charging the battery, but after about 30 minutes of charging the camera still wouldn't turn on. Hoping it was a faulty battery I went out again to the camera shop and bought a new battery. I came back and put it in the camera and success! It finally turned on again! Phew.

I've learnt there's a safety circuit that disables the battery if you try and use it when it's too hot. However it's been cooler today and yesterday than in other places in India. No idea why the battery stopped working today though and not sure if it will recover itself. New batteries are cheap, but I have to remember not to turn on the camera in the 40+ degree heat.

Tomorrow it's off to Daman, where there's a very low alcohol tax (probably be there a while).

Pushkar and Udaipur

After Jaipur it was a quick run down to Pushkar in the heat. The roads got a LOT better. Mostly 6 lane highway all the way there. Maybe one or two sections of roadworks but you could actually keep the speed up to cover the distance and the traffic was very minimal (honestly officer, I was doing no more than the posted 40km/h limit on this wide open 6 lane highway).

Once I got to Pushkar I found one of the hotels listed in the Lonely Planet, they were off down an alley and my bike was parked outside, safer than directly on the main street. I took a room with air conditioning because it was still in the 40s here, but it had to be cleaned. I was the only guest there that night, and it's the low season, but the only room they showed me needed cleaning. While it was being cleaned I had an awkward chat with the owner, one of those chats where the other person is looking at you but they're actually staring off into space behind you and not listening. I waited out the chatting in my hot riding gear.

Bike parked in the alley. Brushed by wandering cows all day long

The owner informed me that because the family were all going out later that night to watch Rowdy Rathore (posters everywhere here with the tagline "DON'T ANGRY ME") that the restaurant would be closed. I said that was fine, the Lonely Planet listed a heap of places and trip advisor gave me a whole list of options to try.

However, this being low season... The first place on my list to try had staff in it, but they said they were closed and they were only there to clean all the items in the kitchen (noted: pots and utensils cleaned once a year). The second place I tried had a note up saying they were closed until July, which was odd, there were still local and foreign tourists around. I've been trying to avoid unreviewed places just as another tool to avoid food poisoning. I eventually found Rainbow Restaurant, so I was saved! Also note that because Pushkar is a holy Hindu town that alcohol and meat and eggs are banned.

Pushkar exists just because of this holy lake:

Pushkar Lake. 

The kids that watched me for a bit then came up to say hello.

There's not much else too Pushkar. A lot of shops (a lot of leather shops for a vegetarian town), the lake, and closed restaurants. It's not worth staying more than a night, and even that's pushing it. The biggest thing I noticed is how people left me alone. I wasn't the tout magnet I was in other places and no one wanted to come up and practice their English with me. I was just left alone to wander around freely and explore, such a nice change.

But then in the morning it was up at 6:30 and on the bike by 7:30 to try and escape some of the days heat.

View from the short road to Amjer.

The road cut through the hill to Ajmer.

Again, this was a very good day on the roads to Udaipur and I was able to cover a lot of distance quickly. There was just one incident where the 6 lane highway turned into a 2 lane road through the hills where a truck decided to overtake another truck around a corner and it narrowly missed me after I dove off the road. That really doesn't happen often in India. The trucks are often the better drivers, the bus drivers are the worst (followed by tuk tuks, motorbikes, cars, then goats, then cows).

Took a short look up one of the gravel roads to get a better view of the place.

Udaipur is in those mountains there.

About 30km out of Udaipur there are places along the highway which sell marble. This went on for 20km! 20km of places to buy marble and each one was only about 50meters wide! If you want marble this is the place to come. You could spend weeks visiting each one getting the exact right bit that you wanted. I'm surprised there's any of it still left in the ground.

The traffic in Udaipur was another refreshing change too. It was around midday when I got there but the streets weren't insane. It was somewhat normal (compared to the rest of India). 

Another thing I noticed was the temperature, the maximum here was in the mid 30s here and everywhere else has been in the 40s. So much more pleasant to move about in. It felt like winter.

It was also another eerie place where there were minimal touts and people/kids left me alone or didn't acknowledge me. One tuk tuk driver asked me every time I walked past if I wanted a tuk tuk. Surely he should have seen the pattern emerging.

I had picked one hotel out off Agoda that I was going to look at which was about half the price of all the other places, and with air conditioning thrown in too. However, once I got near it I found them pulling up the roads. There was no way for me to get down to the hotel along that road and there was no detour. So I consulted a lot more of trip advisor, lonely planet and agoda and eventually found Raj Palace which had a garage underneath to park my bike in. I had locked my bike though and they came up to my room to ask if I could move it so they could fit another car in, but then they asked me to leave it unlocked. Sure why not. However when it came time to leave they had moved my bike into another garage... A bit worrying, I keep it locked so I know where it is and if it's not there it's been stolen.

Anyway, onto the sites of Udaipur. First one is the City Palace!

The entrance gate.

The palace from inside the grounds. It's been added on to by several different rulers.

The emblem of Rajasthan.

This is actually called the "City Palace Museum", and you're allowed to take you're camera in with an additional 200Rs fee. The security here is just silly though. Once you get into the palace I had to show the camera ticket to a set of guards who search your bag and the they attached the ticket to the camera. However there was a guy there making a fuss of some sort over my camera strap, no idea why but the guards just said I had a ticket and it was ok. Then step two of the security process: get the ticket out to show the guard at the bottom of a set of stairs, he stamps it and you move up the stairs. Step three: at the top of the stairs, with no other way to get there from the bottom of the stairs, another guard asks to check your ticket... Well I guess they've got to put people in jobs here.

This was carved from a single block of marble.

The view out over Udaipur.

A marble fountain.

A garden area at the top of the palace, everythings made from marble.

Marble lattice work. It's like this stuff just comes out of the ground!

Well, at least they have a fire exit, I wonder who has the key.

Using an exhibit to adjust your hair.

The mirror room!

A view over the city side of the palace grounds

These things were put on top after India gained independance.

A spot at the top of the palace.

But I can't go up there :(

A chair is made for each of the Singhs, this is one of them.

This is a sign that you have too much money. This is a door made of Ivory. How many elephants and rhinos did it take to make that!

Bored guard.

Peacock.

Mirror room number two.

And that was it for the palace. There was another exhibit of crystal objects that you could see, but it was 500Rs ($10) and no cameras allowed. I went to get lunch instead.

Ultra wide panorama shot of the Lake. The wide building in the middle of the lake is one of the top ten hotels in the world.

But this one goes to 11.

This is the kind of Indian street you dream of! No traffic, no cows, nice surface!

Someone, somewhere has referred to Udaipur as "The Venice of India" so now that appears in all the guidebooks and wikitravel. But if Venice is this full of trash, urine odours, and cows, and noise then I'm crossing it off the list of places to go.