Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Location: Cochin, Kerela, India
Duration: Undetermined
Next Destination: Probably Singapore

17) Kasaragod > Nileswar 48.2km
Mar. 04, 2007 - Mar. 05, 2007
Nalanda Resort
N.H. 17 Jn., Nileswar
Kasargod Dt., Kerela, India

Great place for its price. It's along a river, but there doesn't seem much to do, and there aren’t any shops around it, but the rooms were very nice and the food was great. You can even get a bungalow along the river.

18) Nileswar >Tellichery 71.4km
Tellichery
Mar. 05, 2007 - Mar. 07, 2007

Hotel room had two fans, restaurant didn't have a/c or fans, better order room service. Is across the street from the City Center which looks impressive for a small town.

19) Tellichery > Calicut 68.9km
Mar. 07, 2007 - Mar. 08, 2007

20) Calicut > Kottakkal 63km
Mar. 08, 2007 - Mar. 09, 2007
Lots of hills shortened my ride.

21) Kottakkal > Manalur 64.3km

Stayed in a 200 rupee/night room which was above a restaurant/ ice cream parlour. After my ride, I had fresh pineapple juice, fresh "something" juice, fruit salad with ice cream, and a milk shake with ice cream, all of which were fantastic. It's common to put kellogg's cornflakes near the top of ice cream so that it's crunchy when you reach it. Plenty of pistachio nuts instead of peanuts, and the fruit salad had peaches (my favorite) among many other fruit. All totaled 79 rupees, very cheap.

22) Manalur > Cherrai Beach 34.2km
Cherrai Beach
Mar. 10, 2007 - Mar. 12, 2007

A nice coco-hut resort along a lake and 100 meters from the beach. Too many mosquitos; ants got into my food and thousands made a home in my computer

23) Cherrai Beach > Cochin 40.8km
Mar. 12, 2007 - Mar. 15, 2007
Mareena Regency
On my third day, they gave me toilet paper.

24) Cochin > Cochin airport 37.7km
Mar. 15, 2007 - Mar. 21, 2007
Abad Airport Hotel

Across from airport, one of the few places with Wifi Internet access. Very good food, superior service.

Total bicycle in India = 1,149km (714 miles)

American Pancakes

What I miss the most are pancakes. The rare times I've found pancakes on a menu, it's been wimpy European crepes, nice, but not hearty American pancakes. I had french toast, but they gave me ketchup with it. I wasn't expecting maple syrup, but ketchup? ICK!!! I would've made a mango syrup for it.

I have yet to have a good orange juice or pineapple juice in a restaurant, and I order those everywhere I go. It's usually whipped, with little flavor, and a lot of food coloring. Coincidentally, Tang makes an orange flavor and a pineapple flavor. I can only hope I'm drinking tang because it's sure not fruit juice. On the other hand, the watermelon juice and Musambi juice are very good, until tang can replicate those flavors.

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India can be frustrating at times, nothing works right and Indian hotels never fix anything they don't absolutely have to fix (even the good hotels). It's a good thing they're service oriented, even the Indian people laugh at their own products. A plastic bag broke and the Indian cashier said, "that bag was made in India".

The Indian people have been very helpful, and not expecting money for it. The only time I've experienced help for profit was in Mumbai, the rest of the time people have gone out of their way just to be helpful. One hotel porter was insulted that I tried to give him a tip for bringing up the luggage. Most resorts discourage tipping, and it's not common anywhere else. In Mumbai, people would fight over my bags, sometimes two people would carry one bag just for a tip. It's kinda funny.

I've met a Brit cyclist, two Germans, and a German who had the best british accent I've ever heard. I think he was a spy. Yesterday I had lunch with a french cyclist who was just heading north and wanted information. 80KM of up/down hills north of Cochin, followed by 50km of flat, tree shaded roads, followed by 80km of up/down hills was what he could expect, then relative flatness until Northern Goa (except for one steep hill south of Gokima Beach). The two germans cycled from Thailand through Malaysia, then to Cochin. The opposite of what I expect to do, and their only complaint was the up/down hills north of Cochin. I missed a lone California woman cycling north from Cochin to Goa. She was staying in Gokima (I think I'm spelling it correctly), but I missed the turn-off. She's a professional bicycle tour guide.

For the past few weeks, while riding my bicycle and being greeted by Indian children and some adults with hello, I've been responding with the Tigger "HELLLLLOO". So when you call for tech. support, and are greeted with, "HELLLLLOO", you know that I've corrupted a whole generation of Indian children.