Day 116. Bilaspur - Sema Kui

A big day for us today. Around 280km which included about a 15km detour due to a navigation error. We set off about 8:30 and arrived at the hotel at about 5:45. It probably sounds like I’m riding like a nana but I don’t think I could go any faster without increasing the already substantial risk factor exponentially.

Met this big bugger on one of our unplanned detours. No one was messing with him! 

Today I gave up any hope of fine tuning the suspension and have wound out both the compression and rebound dampers on the rear shock, we bounce along a bit but it is easier on both the bike and the bum. 

I’m not going to drone on about the roads and the traffic just take it as read.

We think Alf was letting us know he was keeping an eye on us.

A real mixture of road conditions and temperatures today, from comfortably warm to bloody hot and humid. Our faces by contrast to yesterday (mud and dust) look like we’ve just completed a shift down the Denniston mine.

One town we passed through today was having a street parade, there must have been over a km of floats, all decorated up and loaded with people many dressed for the occasion, the road was closed on one side so we passed them very slowly, when we stopped I thought my kidneys were being rearranged, the size and volume of the speakers was unbelievable.

We didn’t have a destination in mind today and we probably rode longer than we should have, but we have ended up in fairly nondescript but very busy town called Sema Kui. 

The area we have noticed has taken on a Muslim tone, with many mosques and men wearing Topi caps.  

We rocked up to a hotel but it didn’t look flash, Robyn went to check it out and in the meantime a young guy pulled up next to me on what looked like a fairly new Royal Enfield, we started chatting and he said he knew of a nicer hotel and would guide us there. So thanks to Parvan we are now comfortably ensconced in the Spice hotel.

Speaking of spice, we are really enjoying the food here, breakfast is typically freshly made curd (yoghurt), a masala omelate usually with onion and sliced chilli and whatever the local masala consists of. Then we have Prantha (round flat bread) which can be ordered Aloo (potato) or onion, or chilii.

Sometimes there is toast and jam and all washed down with black, green or Indian tea. 

So we get to start the day right.

We are trying out a few different dishes for dinners and we are enjoying the variety of dishes available, the vegetarian dishes are a favourite. One thing that has surprised me is on many menus is butter chicken, I always thought this was a western invention and I’m not usually a huge fan, but I tried it first in the Punjab and it was delicious, much more masala and much less cream than we get at home. 

Tonight’s dinner - delivered to the room as the restaurant wasn’t open.