October 27th, 2012 I slept reasonably and woke just after six; it was light outside and the big windows were only partially covered by curtains. Front tyre still hard: good! I loaded the bike up in the room, did a little Internet stuff, had a shower just to start off feeling a little more presentable and …
October 21: Underway at 9:30 am, well breakfasted. Felt like Sunday traffic on NH60 – a few more private vehicles and fewer aggressive trucks. Two lanes and untwinned, so I still had to keep my eyes open for behemoths overtaking directly at me, but it was relatively stress-free. And the road surface was most un-NH-like: …
I left Dhulian with neither regrets nor breakfast and rode back out to the highway at around 8:30. The road was as expected – lumpy, bumpy and pot-holed – and difficult to make any speed on. There were a few sections that had been resurfaced in anticipation of twinning the highway and they were much …
I checked out of the hotel for the second time in two days, hoping that I wouldn’t be back again tonight (which would prompt a name change – from Hotel Kalinga to Hotel California), and joined the traffic heading out of Malda on NH34. At the Gour turnoff, I decided to have another go at …
The first response to my request for a carrier was a categorical “No.” A standard Indian rack wouldn’t fit. I didn’t take this as the final answer, though, pointing at carriers that I thought could be modified. There was one that I thought would do the trick but, being mainly a cycle retailer, they weren’t …
I spent a couple of days at the Golden Park Hotel and Resort. On the first day, I got a lift into town and bought a new data plan for my modem since my old one had almost run out. The staff at the Airtel office wanted me to come back when I had about …
Added some photo galleries recently: Pictures in and around Mirik Pictures from the ride down from Mirik to Siliguri Pictures of the first three days of riding on the West Bengal plain, from Siliguri to Islampur, Islampur to Raiganj and Raiganj to Malda Pictures in and around Malda
10th October: It was good that I didn’t pass the first lodge in search of something more comfortable; I didn’t see any other signs of lodging as I left Islampur. Maybe the Monalisa is the only one. In fact, I was pretty quickly out of Islampur and back on the NH31. I hadn’t even found …
I woke to rain at 7:30 and riding today began to look doubtful. The weather forecast showed rain in the morning, afternoon and evening. But there wasn’t much that made me want to spend the day in Siliguri (although I could have spent the day trying to sort out why my 3G account with Reliance …
I felt much more enthusiastic and energetic this morning so the day of procrastination was worthwhile. Hardly a crack of dawn start but after breakfast and checking out of Hotel Mhelung (700 Rs for a double room). I was on the road by 10:30. I walked out of town, up the hill and was ready …
I had planned to spend one or two days in Mirik, but on the morning of the third I didn’t feel ready to leave. Not that there was anything special I wanted to do, just relax and enjoy the quietness of this small hill resort. I’m not in Mirik proper, but in a place called …
Today’s the day – time to get riding. 7:00 am. Hi Bev, Getting going. Will text during the day. Up at a fairly leisurely 7:00 for the final packing of the panniers. Then loaded the bike and pushed it through the pedestrian-only streets to Sonam’s Kitchen for a good-bye breakfast. Too much stuff – the …