Lumbini - Gorakhpur
Not much to report over the next three days. I was trying to get to Varanasi as fast as I could. I like India but dealing with Indian traffic wasn’t one of my favorite things about the country. The overpopulated plains of Uttar Pradesh didn’t help it either. So, I just put my head down and kept cycling, trying very, very hard to ignore the almost deafening and uninterrupted noise of the traffic.On my way to Varanasi I stayed in Hotel Bobina in Gorakhpur, a decent place but a bit too over-praised by the LP’s guidebook. To their credit, in-house restaurant had good food and they had some reconstruction work going on. The second place where I spent a night was the town of Mau (or Maunath Bhanjan) in Hotel Madhav, with very friendly service but its rooms were long overdue for a thorough overhaul… In Varanasi, I booked into Hotel Buddha. (My first choice, Hotel Surya, was booked out.) Sofar, based on my first impressions, the place looks good: quiet, friendly, with a good restaurant and ‘real’ broadband internet access (very important for me;). Actually, I was lucky to get the last room for today. Just a simple one, not usually given to visitors, but it was cheap, I slept in lot worse places, and tomorrow I will get a better one;) It seems like Varanasi is booming with travelers and Indian businessmen, too.
Otherwise, on the road, it was cycling, stopping only here and there for quick refreshments. I don’t think that I took any pictures in the three days from Lumbini to Varanasi. The monotone and hazy look of the flat plains didn’t inspire me much. More importantly, I really needed to keep my eyes on busy roads if I didn’t want to end up as a roadkill. I saw plenty of that, mostly dogs. Every day I encountered one or two ‘just killed’ animals, besides the many rotting carcasses. Not very picturesque…
So, no photos here and no commentary for the next two days. I hope you can live with that;)
Start: Lumbini, Nepal
End: Gorakhpur, India
Distance: 124.38 km
Elevation: 230/-225 m
Time: 5′03″
Avg: 24.7 km/h
Total: 6,142.2 km
Riding/Total days: 78/145
