Rural India

Its been a while since the last update and a lot has happened, so here goes. Keolodeo was sweet, a whole day of biking without a single horn blaring or numerous people crowding around us whenever we got off our bikes, such a relief. Not to mention all of the birds and the resident 12ft python in the park.

After Keolodeo we took a bit of a detour on the recommendation of some people we met in Bharatpur and headed east to stay with some of their friends in a small town in Uttar Pradesh called Mainpuri. The ride out there was largely uneventful with the exception of riding through Agra. Nothing says vacation like riding a bicycle through city traffic in India. Pick a line and keep your head on a swivel because vehicles come at you from every direction.

We broke the 170km ride into two days, with the first stop at Firozabad about 100km from Bharatpur. The only entertaining part of Firozabad was killing time in the Jain Temple snacking and rehydrating, and getting the full foreigner treatment from a gaggle of little kids. It will perhaps be the only time in my life that anybody will be clamoring for me to autograph their palm.

Our stay in Mainpuri was amazing, I could go on for pages and still not cover everything. The people were unbelievably friendly and gracious, my stomach is still full from all of the food they plied us with. We received the star treatment for most of the week we were there because I don't think tourists ever make it out that way.

We had a chance to take part in the opening festivities of the district cricket tournament. I threw out the ceremonial first pitch to the district Senator and Paris presented the trophy to the man of the match at the end of the game. They even let us try our hand at the in game commentary, although I found it difficult to commentate on a game where I don't really know the rules. Apparently we were such a big hit at the game we even managed to make it into the newspaper the next day, although since I can't read Hindi I have to take our friends word for it. One week there and we felt like part of the family, I really can't even begin to describe how great everybody was there. It was an amazing way to spend a week in India, off the beaten track taking in rural Indian culture.