4th April - Ahmedabad to Palanpur

Morning spent trying to get my bike from the train station. Afternoon shopping and siesta. Bus to Palanpur to meet Alan.

I woke up at 8 so that I could get ready and get to the station to pick up my bike in plenty of time. I felt terrible as I had not slept very well at all. The room was really hot and I was woken up several times by people trying to call me on my phone really early in the morning. I got a rickshaw to the station across the city. I left all of my belongings at the hotel as I decided that I would have to come back for some sleep before I continued by journey to Palanpur.

The city was absolutely heaving. It is the 7th largest city in India. It was a bit of a shock to the system having been in rural areas and small towns for the last month or so. The first thing that I noticed was that the Auto-Rickshaws are the wrong colour. Rather than black on the bottom half and yellow on top they are green and yellow. There are thousands and thousands of them milling round and the traffic was mental.

At the train station I did all of the paper work at the parcel station (takes about 1 hour) and checked out whether it would be possible to book my bike on another train to go to Palanpur later on today. It seemed to be a big problem and again it would have to go on a different train from the train I would be traveling on. The people at the station suggested that I got a bus instead. Argggg - a 3 hour bus journey on local buses did not excite me very much having had very little sleep and feeling all grotty. No real choice though so I left the station with my bike.

I had a real problem trying to find a Rickshaw that could carry me and by bike back to my hotel. In Southern India both sides of the passenger area in a Rickshaw are open to get in and out of. In Gujarat they seem to have a law that there is a metal bar on the right hand side of the Rickshaw presumably so that people do not get out into on coming traffic (could this be health and safety gone mad in India?). Eventually I found one with out the bar and went back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere close to the hotel for brunch and so I walked for about 20mins to find somewhere. As I was already out I then did the shopping that I needed to do. Some things like suncream, dental floss, perfume and a nail brush had not been available in rural areas I had passed though (sometimes I just have to be a proper girl). I was shattered by the time I got back to the hotel and went for a nap.

I really was not sure when I went to sleep whether I would feel like going to meet with Alan today or tomorrow morning but when I woke up at 3 ish I just left like pushing on and getting out of the city.

I did not manage to find a Rickshaw that could fit both my panniers and by bike inside in order to get to the bus station and so I decided just to bike it. The journey was 5km from where I was staying. It is amazing what you get used too when traveling. The idea of cycling in this type of traffic when I first arrived in India would have terrified me. In fact, when I first arrived I had walked with my bike through areas of Kochi because of the traffic and Kochi was nowhere near as busy as Ahmadabad. I understand the traffic flow much better now. I use my bell and brakes a lot and just go slowly. I am not sure whether bike is actually that much more dangerous than riding in a Rickshaw. There are so many bikes on the roads that drivers are used to them. Indians on bikes don't even seem to look whether any traffic is coming or not. They just go and expect the motor vehicles to work round them.

I put my bike on the roof of a local bus to go from Ahmadabad to Palanpur. It was a very crowded bus but the people were again friendly and the guys wanted to chat. It took ages to do the 135km and I did not get to Palunpur until about 9.30pm. It was nice to arrive in a town and know that I was meeting someone and that I did not have to find a place to stay in the dark and on my own. Alan had checked us into the only lodge in town.

It was nice to go out in the evening with Alan for a chi and a bit of cake. I would not have gone out on my own in this town late at night - for safety. Alan seems like an really fun guy and I think that we will enjoy travelling together for the next few weeks. It was good to share cycling stories especially as we have both travelled through similar areas of India and had similar experiences. He "gets it"!

Palanpur is not exactly on the tourist map. Alan said that while he was waiting for me a local came up to him and said "What are you doing here? Why would you come to Palanpur? I have never seen a foreigner here before".

Even though it is not the most attractive town around it was much less hectic than Ahmadabad and I did not feel unsafe. We nattered till late and made a plan for the next few days. We will use the Internet first thing in the morning tomorrow and then get on the road. We aim to bike to Agra and be there for the 17th April. We have about 900km to do in 2 weeks.

I could not quite unwind even though I was sleep deprived. I think the adrenaline had just kicked in :-)