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Cycling in Central Asia, Cycling the Himalayas, Cycling in North India, Cycling in Nepal
Cycling the North Indian Plains to Nepal
The mercifully flat North Indian plains - the challenge is navigating the traffic, people and animals! It may not offer the awe of Kashmir or Ladakh but it did vary our journey after endless mountains and gave us a different perspective of India, especially as, after Haridwar, we were the only foreigners around.
Day 1 - Rishikesh - Haridwar (35k)
From our hotel we cycled past the bell temple and Siva statue, cycling through the main drag of shops and resturant of Lakshman Jhula, we then took a left turn at the first proper road junction to ostensibly cycle around the back of Rishikesh on a quiet pretty road. You could also follow the road as far as Ram Jhula bridge and carry on past the ashrams and eventually you'll join the quiet back road that goes the whole way to Haridwar. This is a great ride: It's mostly flat, follows a Ganga tributary and half of it goes through stunning Rajaji National Park where we saw some amazing creatures. For the first few km just outside Rishikesh the road undulates. After approx 20km the road goes left and splits three ways: You can go left above the tributary or left taking a lower road alongside the tributary or over the bridge and then left alongside the other side of the tributary - it's the lower road or better, over the bridge and left to go onto Haridwar. We cycled past Cheela Dam and shortly after, at about 28km, we became aware that we were cycling through a national park. We saw some amazing exotic birds, flocks of sparkling peacocks and wild boars. After 32km there is a right turn which goes to the northern part of Haridwar but we chose to continue onward soon reaching another major right turn which is basically the main bridge over the Ganga into Haridwar. After the bridge is a roundabout, straight over takes you into a residential area with many hotels or you can go right at the roundabout taking you into hectic Haridwar. We stayed in the residential part with it's ubiquitous rooms fetching 300-500Rps, were perplexed that even at Diwali the hotels were mostly empty. It was the 1st of November and Diwali was on the 3rd, so we decided to stop a few days to take in the noisy celebration. Haridwar is a fascinating, hectic and blindingly
colourful place which is home to some huge tasty Thalis, but it was badly affected by the June 2013 rains. We wandered to the main ghats and it was a disturbing sight: The rains had caused the Ganga to rise and it had flooded and badly damaged many river side buildings, some had been cleared but some were still totally mangled by the river side. The Ganga had been dammed, presumably to do the restoration work, and so the ocean of spirituality which is the Ganga was reduced to a few lifeless puddles. Statues of the gods that had previously stood proudly along the Ganga had been smashed and tossed about and finally deposited on the now dry Ganga bed - in fact you could walk up and down the Ganga! All of this devestation and the overwhelming poverty and begging really gave the place an apocalyptic feel. Ian took some great pictures of the smashed up gods peering through the sands of the river - frightening symbolism: Big floods cause untold damage to buildings. many people die and the gods images are left peering through the bed of the holiest river!
Day 2 - Haridwar - Dhampur (104.5km - it's probably about 90km directly but our attempt to go through Rajiji park added extra distance)
We had high hopes of cycling through Rajaji national park eastwards, so from Haridwar we took the same road back towards Rishikesh with the Ganga on our left...just 3 or 4 km outside Haridwar on this peaceful pretty road we were astounded to see a youngish elephant about 20/25m from the road munching on the bush (bootom left pic). It's the closest either of us have even been to a wild elephant and was totally unexpected. We could see it's ears making this forward/backwards movement as it ate. Not wanting to disturb it, after a minute we pedalled on full of smiles at this chance encounter. Later we learnt that when elephants make this movement with their ears its a warning, they are pissed off and are likely to charge!!! After roughly 7km we reached the forest check point just before the village of Chila...but the track through the park was gated and the wardens said we wouldn't be able to cycle through to Laldhang and beyond. So, we had to back track back towards Haridwar but of course we didn't cross the bridge back into the City, we carried straight on with the Ganga on our right. The road, peaceful before Haridwar, is quite busy after. Exactly 7km after Haridwar's main bridge we noticed a small tarmac path which was parallel to the main road. We had seen this path on google maps and noticed that it criss crosses the main road all the way to (awkwardly named) Nagina which was our preferred destination for the day. This small path was also visible from the main Haridwar Bridge but we couldn't see how to get down to it. So, we joined it here, 7km from the Haridwar Bridge, and it was a good decision, keeping us off the busy road. The path is as flat as you could wish for, it's mostly good asphalt and is mostly lined with green trees, shrubs and weeds (bottom right pic) and sometimes reeds and bull-rushes. Sometimes when the path meets the main road we had to cycle 20 or 30m left or right to rejoin the path on the other side of the main road. The road is good going as far as Nagibabad, but just before you reach there, the path goes under what was an unfinished new bridge and then hits the main road. Here, we took the road right, it's 2km to the outskirts of Nagibabad, at which point we crossed a railway track and then there were a few wooden and iron shacks where we had a drink, then having crossed a second railway track we took the first major asphalt left to Nagina - a decent and pretty quiet road. We assumed there would be a hotel in Nagina and as we neared the town we asked a couple of Policemen who assured us there wasn't a hotel, the nearest was in Dhampur, about 18km away. Just before we entered Nagina we had a quick fried rice at the grand looking dream restaurant on the right of the road. Dhampur is madness. As you head into the town you eventually reach the main crossroads - the locus of chaos. We managed somehow to go right without being flattened and then at the end of the next road we went left and found on the left side: Goyal Galaxy Resthouse, with rooms varying wildly from 300-2000Rps, all of them overpriced, but clean enough, we took a room right at the back that opened onto the rear car park, but it was good for the bikes. We did venture into Dhampur to have a Choley Samosa, there was little electricity, it was mostly very dark and it was a slightly weird atmosphere. Two young guys with terribly trendy bollywood hair cuts and clothes followed us back to our hotel, desperate to hang out with us, one of them bitterly disappointed and perplexed that we couldn't issue them a visa to travel to the UK!?
Day 3 - Dhampur - Kashipur (54km - it should be about 45km but we went, er, 'around the houses' as they say)
From Dhampur the plan was to head to Sherkot and turn from there towards Jaspur, but we ended up heading for Afzalagarh by mistake, and so trying to make amends for our error, with the advice of the guy with the crazy coloured pasta (in the pic below), we took a short cut to Jaspur on a bit of a rough, but quiet road which reached scruffy Jaspur - with it's narrow and chaotic labryrinthine bazaar; with little space for tour cyclists let alone cars, it was an intense, sense assaulting ride. Eventually we cycled our way out of the Jaspur maze, relieved not to have taken a wrong turn to the minotaur's lair, and found our way onto the main road to Kashipur. Kashipur is a big place and a contrast to the tiny winding maze of Jaspur - here the roads are more highway like going through the town. We reached the main cross roads and went straight over, about 100m on the right side of the highway is a sign for Golden Look Hotel (the hotel is just down an alleyway), 550Rps for a basic room but with good parking for the bikes. There's a reasonable supermarket if you go back over the cross roads and it's on your right. For eating, from the hotel, go right and then take the first left and within 30m or so on the right is 'Littel America' restuarant whose owner worked in America for years but thankfully he returned to make one of the best Uttapams (the special) and Dosa's we'd ever eaten...a special gourmet moment.
Day 4 - Kashipur - Rudrapur (54km)
This is a dusty day's ride. Back out to the cross roads, and there we took a left heading to Bazapur. It's pretty much straight on the whole way and also at the big junction in Bazapur. It may have been on this road where the total idiocy of the road mentality (or is it the Indian men's mentality) that reared it's hilarious head: We managed to edge our way to the front of a railway crossing. Vehicles on both sides were piling up. The barriers were down on both sides waiting for the train to pass. Cyclists and motorcyclists worked their way to the front with larger vehicles behind. The few cyclists and many motorcyclists couldn't wait and with tremendous difficulty they dragged their bikes under the barrier, across the tracks and again struggled immensely to get their bikes under the next barrier. This in itself was stupid, but we knew it was going to get worse...as more bikes and vehicles all edged to the front, you could see there was no concept of staying to one side of the road, so as soon as the barriers were up, it was going to be like two armies charging across the tracks to battle...it was obvious every vehicle would just drive forward and all get stuck facing each other on the tracks...and it's exactly what happened...the stoooooooopidity of this is overwhelming and perhaps this microcosmic event is a symbol of why India will always struggle to progress. Anyway, we foretold this stand off on the tracks and so had got ourselves in a position on the far left so we could avoid it, and we did, and looked back at the melee behind us...words fail.
Anyway. thankfully the road is a little quieter after Bazapur, but a few km from Rudrapur we hit a major bottleneck (above right pic)...we couldn't see what the obstruction was, but the road was choking with stationary traffic on both sides. We could've got stuck here, the trick was not to stop, and so when I (Toby) saw a few motorbikes weaving across the road to the opposite side, I followed...carried on up the opposite verge, eventually weaving back over the road to the correct verge and got free of the bottleneck...it seemed this was a normal bit of highway in which the traffic had just got congested and eventually because no one would give way it reached another 'war over the rail tracks' kind of scenario. Ian didn't move quite so fast and got caught up in the stubborn mahem. As we entered Rudrapur, about 1km before the main market there's a whole collection of once glitzy looking hotels - we stayed at Hotel Gangej, they were happy for the bikes to be stowed inside the hotel which was great. There's a restaurant annexed to the hotel which served a reasonable Dosa and Uttapam. The room however, was a bit tatty and for some reason, as soon as we turned the lights out we could hear the tiny engines of mosquitos everywhere. By this point, Ian had become a precision hunter when it comes to mossies or flies...to the extent that it must be an innate skill handed down through generations.
Day 5 - Rudrapur - Khatima (73km)
From the hotel it's left, heading straight through the dust bowl that is Rudrapur...10km on is Kichha, it's a nicer place than Rudrapur and would make a better stop off. At the cross roads in Kichha we turned right, this road heads to Sitarganj and is also home to a few hotels and restaurants. It's another 26km on to Sitarganj, and entering the town we took the right turn at the big cross roads and when the road forked we took the left road. We spotted two Hotels in Sitarganj but perhaps there's more? A further 10km and we could see the holy temple town of Nanak Matta set about 1km back from the road on the left, it doesn't take a genius to work out it's probably holy to Sikhs, such is the name...but we continued on and another 18km and we found ourselves in the very congested and not particularly helpful or friendly Khatima. Entering Khatima, the road then curves to the right and then hits a big 3-way junction. Left takes you to Banbassa but the road right has two hotels about 1/1.5km along. We did ask for a room at two hotels, one on the Banbassa road, where they were keen to have their picture with us but as for us staying there, er, it was full...and there was a very very cheap looking hotel very close to the big junction but alas they were full too...full to foreigners anyway. So, we found these two hotels further along: Holiday Hotel offered a basic small room for a shocking 1000ps!!! A little further down the road is S&R Hotel & Restaurant on the right side. Again the room was a stupid 1000Rps but what a contrast, they led us to two rooms out the back which were basically large clean and tidy......studio flats!! The restuarant is okay too, doing pretty good onion pakora.
Day 6 - Khatima - Mahandra Nagar, Border crossing to Nepal (28km)
So, it's right from the hotel and straight across the big junction onto the Banbassa road...and then it's an easy and pretty peaceful cycle for 10km to Banbassa. Banbassa is a reasonably shanti place, didn't see anywhere to stay but there are very rudimentary dhaba's doing average pakora etc. Leaving Banbassa there's a check point at which point we weren't checked and it wasn't pointy...then the road follows alongside a large dry river bed before turning to the right over a bridge and then a right over a dam which has railway tracks over it - which both caught our wheels very nearly throwing us off. After the dam the road goes to the right down a small hill and just here on the right is the 'blink and you'll miss it' (as Ian did) Banbassa Immigration - an old crumbling white brick shed with one guy and the essential stamp. About 15 minutes of paperwork and no screening or concern with our luggage, we carried onwards to the Nepalese side of Immigration. It's left over a little bridge, left after the bridge around a corner and then it's 'blink and you'll miss it' (as Toby did) Nepalese Immigration. It's a white slightly larger building set down a slope 15m from the road on the left, you could just cycle past and they probably wouldn't care! Again, about 15 minutes of paperwork and we had to pay $32 each for a month's visa, no other currency is accepted. We changed our Indian rupees here too. Then it's about 5km on a long flat road to the busy but expansive Mahendra Nagar - it's easy to navigate as the roads are grid like. On the main drag into town there's lots of buses alongside the road and dhabas and it turns out most of these dhabas also have basic accommodation. We reached the first junction and took the right turn which is another main drag with many cheap, but really good quality: Clothes, trainers and bag shops, and also more dhaba hotels and two decent hotels, the cheaper but considerably nicer (than the many dhaba rooms): Kailash, 500Nrps, on the right side, but further down and a left turn takes you to the top hotel of the lot; the huge Hotel Opera; in really well kept verdant surroundings and impeccable employees, and much to our surprise we could afford a room - we bartered from the cheapest 1200Rps to 1000Nrps...spotless and very confortable room, you could even drink from the toilet if you really wanted too - a notion you couldn't entertain of the toilets on the North Indian Plains!? The hotel also had good room service and the potato sedeko was delicious! The hotel has an adjoining casino which we could see advertised Texas Hold Em...so we thought we'd have a go! We'd purchased some really decent cheap clothes from the town, so we had something to wear that didn't stink of dusty sweaty cyclists...however, the casino wasn't quite what we expected...everything was machine operated...there was a poker table but everything was done on computer?! Old computers. Anyway, we got chatting to some young cocky Indian guys that had crossed the border to indulge in a bit of gambling...they were a good laugh, although they treated the casino workers with disdain...but they couldn't handle their booze, and were repeatedly asked to calm/quieten down until finally we were all asked to leave...so Ian and I left to be followed by one of them and sat and had a drink in the hotel restaurant...we didn't hear anything from the others until about 40 minutes later when a hotel employee asked us if we were with the three guys that got arrested...we dashed out of the hotel to check and the heavily armed Police who looked like heavily armed military, were gathered confirming they would be spending the night in prison...so the remaining guy stayed on our floor...a bit more sheepish in the morning as he left with a hangover to go find his friends.