Sept 19 - 22:  Various random notes:

The internet availability is getting rare and very rough, so I expect I’ll be posting less.  We cross into Nepal tomorrow, so not sure what that will bring.

Another problem:  the very nice resort we were in last night, did not have a very nice electrical system (something about phase balance problems) - end result was that the charger for my laptop was fried.  Not sure when I’ll be able to replace.  I can borrow a charge but only sometimes… 

As I mentioned, Rishikesh is a “pure” city, only vegetarian food, no beer or other booze.  I was reminded that if one wants to find something maybe illegal in a town/city, the answer is really simple - hop in a taxi (Tuktuk in our case) and simply say take me to where I can buy beer, wait for me and bring me back to my hotel.  It was about a 7 minute tuktuk ride.

In the countryside (and cities) all the women are beautifully dressed, even if they are working in the fields or carrying a bundle of sticks or hay on their heads.

The resort we are staying in tonight is high on a hill overlooking the surrounding countryside complete with very nice individual lodges and swimming pool.  But, we have noticed a pattern here, every day involves a huge climb to a very nice lodge on the top of a hill.  These climbs are usually in the 1,000-1,500M range (think 3 times the height of the Malahat).

The countryside around us has been high pine forest, everywhere it is hills, if anything more of the population lives on the top of these hills not in the valleys.

This has been a very hard ride, with many people either getting sick or having small injuries.  I have been really impressed with the Tda folks.  The overall organization of the event is really good, we’ve always had fantastic food, the logistics support during the days is first class and they are always really upbeat.  My best complements.

Unfortunately, I’ve now completed my experience in India, the local name is Dehli Belly, or in my case it was Rishikesh Belly.  I knew something was not right when I started riding yesterday morning, I got about 25km into the ride (about 15km up a 35km climb) when I knew I was in trouble.  Diarrhea and vomiting quickly followed (luckily not at the same time) and I was absolutely exhausted.  No way I was going to make the 1,350M of climbing for the day.  So, end of EFI, I was picked up by the sweep truck.  Since I was completely empty, effectively having tossed out all the food I had eaten over the last day and a half, I had absolutely no energy,  so I also decided to ride the truck the next day.  So, I rode in the truck one full day, then rode two half days and today (Sept 22) back to full days riding.

I’ve noticed that there is fibre optic cables being laid everywhere, to the smallest remote village, in the remotest valley (we saw cable being laid all the way up the Spiti Valley).  The project looks well on the way to completion.  I expect within a year, every household in India will be fibre connected.  This is a serious powerhouse in the making.

I’ve been told that not all of the rock splitting I referred to earlier, is simply to make smaller rocks, there are a lot of semi-precious stones embedded in the rocks.  So, when the boss is looking the focus is on simply splitting rocks, but when the boss is away the focus is on finding semi-precious stones.

Last night, we stayed in the famous luxury Corbett Canyon Resort, known for its Elephants and Tigers.  Seeing an Elephant is not too difficult, but seeing a Tiger is all but impossible.

Tonight is our last night in India, it has been an amazing time, the cycling has been fantastic, awful, incredibly hard, terrifyingly scary and everything in between.  The people, like every other country have been very warm and welcoming, many special memories.

I'm fighting with the WiFi, so sorry, no pics this post.  If I can get better access I'll post.