November 17, 2010
Dharmanagar
an easy day
They say time is money and in this case it's 50 rupees an hour to use the Internet and so eager are they to get it they open this place at 7:30 Am. Guess who there first customer is.
Kumarghat is just waking up and the sun is out as I update my journal and email Debbie, who's been wondering what's happened to me.
After a tasty breakfast across the dusty main road that consists of a mini nan-type bread (three of) and a dhal sort of curry, it's time to head north, but as it's only around 50 km to the next bed, time is on my side.
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It's now gone ten as my wheels roll out of Kumarghat and there's less traffic with me and it feels like a Sunday and there a relaxed vibe. A big climb presents itself first off, but after that it's far easier than yesterday with the landscape gradually smoothing itself out, thankfully, as my energy levels aren't that great for some reason or other.
I stop a few times: a cold bottle of pop here, an orange there, an occasional photo, too (but not so many today). Any excuse. At one little deserted hut at the top of a hill my bike gets placed against a post and I plop down on a wooden bench to then find a family appear from nowhere to see what I'm up to - watching me peel an orange - and soon one young boy of around 8 comes over dressed in just shorts carrying a small metal container filled with fresh water for me to drink, or maybe wash my hands with - I don't no which - before returning with a plastic chair for more comfort. Such thoughtfulness. They get my last orange, possibly a relative luxury for them.
The double room I have here in Dharmanagar is basic as you would expect for 500 rupees (should be cheaper, must learn to bargain down) and this keyboard in a nearby Internet place feels like it's made of wood and is driving me crazy. What do you expect for 30 rupees an hour?
It was just three o'clock when I arrived in town and it's now around 5:00 and is time to eat.
A place across the road offers rice and I have that with mutton and veg with some pieces of poppadom, the first so far on this trip, and they taste divine - slightly burnt with a hint of curry flavor to them. One hundred rupees is the bill in case you're wondering.
Walking around with my camera in search of snap opportunities and to find some mosquito spray as mine is almost empty, people beckon me and ask where I'm from and are expressionless when I say England, so I'll start to say the USA and see what happens.
The word 'cycle' can be heard as I wander about and no doubt word spreads quickly and plenty of the townsfolk know I'm the foreign tourist who's riding to Shillong and I get the impression that not many overseas people venture here to this out-of-the-way place - Dharmanagar - in northern Tripura, as interesting and wonderful as it is.
The town has a large pond with a fountain that's illuminated now at night and also a large market area that I visit and where one of the stallholders invites me in to see his small roadside room and it turns out he and another man are gold-siversmiths who are working over small bowls of hot coals that they heat via blowing down a small piece of tubing and then work the metal with square-head hammers on dinky anvils.
The finished products they show me - a gold bracelet decoration and some silver pendents with stones inset - are wonderful and it's surprising how things so delicate can originate from such a Dickensian workshop, which I get the impression is where they both sleep on the floor once they've done working.
Tomorrow is a hundred-plus-kilometre one it seems as the next sizable place is Karimganj, up close to Bangladesh's northeastern corner, and so it's about time for me to call it a day so I can get an early start.
Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 694 km (431 miles)
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