Calicut - Bangladesh + India x 2 - CycleBlaze

December 27, 2010

Calicut

The Beach Hotel

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It's gone 7:30 when I wake, feeling groggy, with my runny nose having been a source of irritation all night. Once packed and downstairs, I pedal slowly back down the main road, which is now quiet, and take a few photos of the old buildings lining the route. 

It's hard to say how old they actually are - maybe they're relatively new - but my guess is 100 years. Very few have been well maintained and wooden shutters are hanging off many upper-floor windows.

Ponnani
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At the west end is the Port and a few men are working and as I take a photo of the small fleet of rustic fishing boats they gather round to see the foreigner. It's times like these when some language skills would come in handy, but they are good-humoured and I take a couple of their portraits - surprisingly, maybe for personal reasons that are known only to them, a couple decline the chance.

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The Internet places are still locked up, but as I pedal along one's owner has just arrived, so I lock up the bike and it's noon before I'm riding a bit further and finding a hotel (cafe) that looks okay, where my breakfast-cum-lunch is a simple bite to eat with a cup of sweet tea.

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I know there's a long bridge to cross to continue north, but before reaching it I spot one of those familiar flat-deck ferries down a lane on my left and reckon that it'll be more enjoyable, so catch it and then ride along a dirt trail that leads to a rickety bridge constructed from rough timber that crosses a wide expanse of shallow water, where men are dredging sand from the bed and filling canoes which they push to the bank for unloading. It's all manual. 

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A fellow passenger reckons this way is a kilometer or two saved and yet the whole excursion must have added at least 30 minutes to the trip. Like I said, it's a lot more enjoyable.

With my immune system not being what is should I decide to get some extra nutrition and stop to buy oranges and notice the small shop has a blender, so ask for a fresh orange drink. After I get a melon-milk one. That's followed by a banana and grape. Each one great and I'm tempted to have more, but don't as they likely already consider me a big glutton.

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This is the main road to Tirur, but the traffic isn't too bad. Once through the town I decide to explore a different route and make a left, which leads me to the ocean shore. 

The road is deserted and once I get about 3 km down it the reason why becomes clear  it's a cul-de-sac. It's just a thin peninsular that ends at a beach head where the sand is totally covered by fish just the size of your finger, right to the distance where I can see a half a dozen people bent over sorting them out. You couldn't count the number of fish.

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Four boys on bikes who've tagged along become increasingly irritating and start asking for money, which really pisses me off, so I ride back the way I came all three kilometers of it and return to the road heading north thinking the detour has been mixed experience.

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As I ride along a load of coconuts by the kerb grab my attention and I stop to take a snap and decide to get a drink while here as there's a shop across the way and as well as drinking a litre of water I get the owner to blend oranges and lemons into a drink and have two glasses. Not long after I stop for two glasses of sugarcane juice. Re-hydrating was never this yummy.

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The sun is getting low and it's become apparent from asking various people that the best place to find a bed will be in Calicut - renamed Kozhikode - so that's my goal now. It's just more than I really want to ride today.

There is one long bridge where I stop to take a picture and before I reach the second bridge a man says I can save a couple of kilometres by making a left and that's what I do and find the bumpy trail leads to a busy ferry. 

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Cycling Plus
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On board I flick through the Lonely Planet and circle a place that's 750 a night, which sounds really nice, then ride the 10 km into Calicut as dusk falls and veer through the town's traffic, find Beach Road and the Beach Hotel.

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Ferry
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Once there is when it becomes apparent that it isn't 750 rupees a night, but 1,750 and then hear the receptionist say it's actually now 2,500 rupees a night, but I figure I've had enough today and just bite the bullet and use my plastic.

Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 2,463 km (1,530 miles)

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