Day 110: Jawhar to Vapi

We stayed in strange hotel last night. The bed had red lighting underneath, the shower and toilet were behind a large glass wall and the touch sensitive light switches actually worked. One premium suite (we negotiated the price down!)

The strangest thing was the restaurant though. In fact, it wasn’t quite clear whether it was a restaurant. There were no other customers, and they turned the lights on as we arrived. They seemed to be offering us breakfast initially, which was confusing. They then seemed very unsure whether they could deliver some of the dishes on their menu, but we came to an agreement on some suitable food.

As is often the case though, first impressions were not born out. We had a lovely meal of bhendhi fry and paneer marsala, although the chapatis were not their best work.

Evening meal in a barn

Day two of our new “get up early, see how far we can go” strategy to cope with the 40˚C temperatures, and it seems to be going pretty well. We cracked of 77kms by midday, in time to have lunch in an air conditioned restaurant and then make a short ride to our hotel.

The morning was through idyllic countryside again - land that would obviously be lush and green after the rains, but are painted brown at present. The paddy fields are dry, many trees just twigs, but you can see how beautiful these green valleys must be in a few months time. I quite like them in brown too.

So many people walking long distances here - it’s a striking change from other regions

Winding, picturesque roads.

Breakfast was in a market that was just setting up, we were so early this morning. We had samosas and a sticky pastry to follow - both delicious. Unfortunately the fruit sellers didn’t match the same quality. It must be a long way to the banana plantations from here.
As usual we attracted a bit of a crowd - with a fair few school children on their way to school.

We crossed into a new region today - Dadar and Nagar Haveli. It’s not a state, it’s a “union territory”, and it was a complete surprise to us. We were expecting to cross the border from Maharashtra into Gujarat, but were surprised to see a new name crop up. It turns out there’s a few little territories around here, nestled between the states. We’ll be in Gujarat tomorrow instead.

The bikes are out in the street tonight. We’ve been assured there’s a security guard all night. Fingers crossed.