March 2, 2016
Week 49: To Mandu: Baobab trees!
"Namaste" We are hearing this greeting for the first time. "Good morning" greetings continue along with motorcyclists staying close to Patrick and asking "hello, where are you going?" What we haven't heard since leaving Africa are children shouting hello, hello. At the end of today, up the escarpment on the outskirts of Mandu, the children shout "bye, bye" skipping the hello part.
As we are going through villages off the beaten track another change when we stop, more and more people politely stare at us. We've noticed that with all the honking and chaos of traffic, there is not noise from people. The people are calm not aggressive. At Khalghat, another first is seeing Agra on a roadsign, we still have a ways to go.
After Dhamnod and briefly on a 4 lane road NH3, we turn off onto a white road for a shortcut back to Route 38. We are pleasantly surprised that it is sealed until around Mandav there is about 5kms dirt and then the climb up the escarpment begins. After 75kms riding, and 40C heat, it's tough going up the hill. We can see the fort up on the hill where the road crests. Whew!
At the top, around the corner we see the first baobab tree in India! We make our way through Mandu, past the mosque to Rupmati Hotel. There is a room for tonight only and we plan a rest day tomorrow. The hotel next door only had the higher priced air conditioned rooms available. We take the room at Rupmati which was decent but higher priced than warrants, but we are in a tourist area. Laundry done, later we go for dinner at the hotel restaurant only unable to get any service, so we walk next door to the Mandu Retreat to eat.
We will decide about tomorrow whether to move to another hotel or continue on to Dhar.
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Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 13,814 km (8,578 miles)
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