2011 Biking Rajasthan

From Jaisalmer we cycled south to Shiv (pronounced Shoe) (110km), to find they would not accommodate us in the Government Rest House I had read about on the internet. We were finally accommodated in someone's home, where I slept on a table (OK, OK ... a bed that looked and felt like a table). We were fed by the family, who later ate their own dinner on the kitchen floor in shifts delineated by gender. The following day we cycled a secondary road, getting only as far as Phalsoond (77km) (instead of the planned Shergarh) as much of the 77km was on a very slight incline into a very slight head wind – exhausting. We took several chai (tea) breaks in several small villages where most people had clearly never seen a tourist before. At each stop we were surrounded by locals, staring and commenting on our bicycles. In one village I was literally encircled by over 70 boys and men – I counted them. In another, the boys became so rowdy, our host chased them away by spattering them with hot oil from his sieve! By the time we reached Phalsoond, we were feeling pretty shattered and no longer found the excessive attention fun. Particularly as one of the onlookers was a little loony, took a dislike to the South African flag fluttering from the back of Charl's bike, ripped it from its rod and dashed it to the ground, resulting (almost) in an international incident! This was our second incident involving a loon. The first, in Jaipur on our very first day, grabbed the back of my bike and would not let it go. He was a holy man dressed in white with an orange mark on his forehead. I was reluctant to yell at him and was at a bit of a loss, when I was rescued by a local on a scooter who gave the man a severe talking to and apologised profusely to me. Charl, unaware, had cycled on ... when my scooter Samaritan reached Charl, he told him I had been delayed by a crazy man, but that I was on my way! So... in Phalsoond we called it a day (no accommodation there or in Shergarh) and arranged a lift to Jodhpur. In India, if you are willing to pay, all things are possible!