Day 2 started in the city of Mayiladuthurai after a "stainy" type of day at the Million Day hotel. The room was anything less than "clean". The walls and blankets had a number of stains in all of the rooms. The chai was good and the location was good, and they let us bring our bikes in to our rooms, but that was about it.
This was the first day we started before sunrise and got to use our cycle lights. We cycled through the town and towards our first day of no major highways. It was amazing. Tree lined roads, barely any cars, miles and miles of rice paddys, no flat tires and a cool breeze for most of the day.
After zig zagging through the streets of the town we end up on tree lined roads. It is about 65f or less [ ill have to check the weather ], but it was even a bit chilly. People on the street are wearing earmuffs and full light blankets it seems. Like the first day so many people are saying hello, high fiving, wanting to know where we are going, taking selfies, you name it. We've noticed over the days and as I write this after day 3, people after about 8am are much friendlier before 8am. I don thtink they like to speak before they have their morning cup of chai. :)
Next we go through what seems like an eternity of super green rice paddys on both sides of the road. Miles and miles of tropical beauty on all sides. I managed to take a good 20mins of videos as we road. I am getting very skilled at one handed cycling while avoiding buses and scootys and saying good morning. :)
We passed by a home for orphaned children and as we said hello they were signalling to come in and giggling so we decided to take a break and say hello to them. We went over introduced ourselves and took some pix. One of the gals was working on her engineering and all of them spoke really great English which made it good for me since my Tamil is limited to one about 4 words. :)
We made it to quite a large temple, ill have to check which one it is, There were two little girls and an old woman sitting in front selling some fruits and were smiling and waving and we asked if we could roll our bikes in and they obliged. There was also a non-Indian there. He was blonde and had some indian tattoos and was dressed in traditional Indian attire, and i said hello to him and he barely acknowledged it. Then we saw him saying hello to someone who it seemed he didnt know, but was meeting. After the man "namaste'd" with the priest looking guy, Shruti turned to me and said "you should have namaste'd ... seems that works" :)
We rolled in to Ideal hotel after 54+ miles feeling pretty good, and i felt even better because there were no flats on day 2!!
The evening was the same as the first, we peeled off socks, our feet thanked us, we ate, sat by the pool, took up the drone at night and trimmed the next days route because it was going to be another 60miler!
It is so hard to pick just one piece of the second day that was the best. There were definitely highlights for me:
1. I think it would be stopping at the orphanage and spending some time with those kids, answering questions and snapping some pix with them.
2. Chatting with the little girls and giving them a cake that i had saved for myself [ and prevented Matt from gobbling up :P ]
3. Having our first day of exceptional views
4. did i mention no flats?? :)
Let's go day 3!!!
Ride Stats
Strava Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/835966895
Miles: 54.2
Total Time: 6:16:05
Total Ride Time: 4:57:38
Pace per Mile: 10.9
Temperature: to be filled in
Start: Mayiladuthurai, IN
End: Thanjavur, IN
This was the first day we started before sunrise and got to use our cycle lights. We cycled through the town and towards our first day of no major highways. It was amazing. Tree lined roads, barely any cars, miles and miles of rice paddys, no flat tires and a cool breeze for most of the day.
After zig zagging through the streets of the town we end up on tree lined roads. It is about 65f or less [ ill have to check the weather ], but it was even a bit chilly. People on the street are wearing earmuffs and full light blankets it seems. Like the first day so many people are saying hello, high fiving, wanting to know where we are going, taking selfies, you name it. We've noticed over the days and as I write this after day 3, people after about 8am are much friendlier before 8am. I don thtink they like to speak before they have their morning cup of chai. :)
We passed by a home for orphaned children and as we said hello they were signalling to come in and giggling so we decided to take a break and say hello to them. We went over introduced ourselves and took some pix. One of the gals was working on her engineering and all of them spoke really great English which made it good for me since my Tamil is limited to one about 4 words. :)
We made it to quite a large temple, ill have to check which one it is, There were two little girls and an old woman sitting in front selling some fruits and were smiling and waving and we asked if we could roll our bikes in and they obliged. There was also a non-Indian there. He was blonde and had some indian tattoos and was dressed in traditional Indian attire, and i said hello to him and he barely acknowledged it. Then we saw him saying hello to someone who it seemed he didnt know, but was meeting. After the man "namaste'd" with the priest looking guy, Shruti turned to me and said "you should have namaste'd ... seems that works" :)
We rolled in to Ideal hotel after 54+ miles feeling pretty good, and i felt even better because there were no flats on day 2!!
The evening was the same as the first, we peeled off socks, our feet thanked us, we ate, sat by the pool, took up the drone at night and trimmed the next days route because it was going to be another 60miler!
It is so hard to pick just one piece of the second day that was the best. There were definitely highlights for me:
1. I think it would be stopping at the orphanage and spending some time with those kids, answering questions and snapping some pix with them.
2. Chatting with the little girls and giving them a cake that i had saved for myself [ and prevented Matt from gobbling up :P ]
3. Having our first day of exceptional views
4. did i mention no flats?? :)
Let's go day 3!!!
Ride Stats
Strava Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/835966895
Miles: 54.2
Total Time: 6:16:05
Total Ride Time: 4:57:38
Pace per Mile: 10.9
Temperature: to be filled in
Start: Mayiladuthurai, IN
End: Thanjavur, IN
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| Cleaned and ready to roll |
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| Self time on a road which was empty. And a photobomb of "rugman" |
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| I was a bit ahead and took a selfie |
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| Shruti's new BF |
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| We stopped at a home for girls and took selfies and answered a boat load of questions |
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| Matty is horrified at what he sees |
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| Dry river bed, long view |
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| bike shot in a dry river bed. We had to climb down to get in there |
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| drums of heaven ... im not kidding, that is what they were called. |
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| The first thali...she cldnt wait |
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| The last thing a gulab jamun sees before it dies |
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| sandy river bed 360 fun |
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| droninggggg |
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| i bought a country flag for each of us :) i couldnt wait to get mine out |
Today is super awesome pics! The girls orphanage is so sad! Enjoy and be careful!
ReplyDeleteShruti Congrats on your new BF :p
ReplyDeleteLOL ... his opening line was "I have a doubt" ... 40mins later they are engaged, skipping shaadi.com all together :P
DeleteThe last thing a gulab jamun sees before it dies...LOL
ReplyDeleteLOL ... so funny :)
Deleteit's a very yummy sweet
ReplyDelete