Hello sportsfans :)

Wow, have I been watching a lot of sports on television - Tour of Langkawi (cycling), 6 Nations rugby, England and India cricket....we have had a bit of downtime.

It was a beautiful morning and we were all ready to leave Ahmedabad and head in to deepest darkest Gujarat when A tried to pull her bootlaces tight and triggered a severe muscle spasm in her back. We got her loosened up and moving, but she couln't ride. We were going stir crazy and wanted to get moving so we decided to pack a weekend bag and just take one bike to see a few sights and then come back for the other bike. I have had tons of problems with my back, so A was in good hands, it was just going to take a couple of days for it to settle down.

We headed south for Lothal, about 90kms from Amhedabad. Lothal is a Harrapan site - active 4000-6000 years ago! We somehow navigated our way there...losing the piece of paper with all the Gujarati names written on it by one of the very nice guys at our hotel :) The museum had some amazing stuff in it - I am very thankful to The Archelogical Society of India! This was a bead manufacturing town and it used to be on the ocean - it's well inland now. The beads were traded to Iran and Sumeria. Lots more info to be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothal There are some ruins, not many, but then it was ages ago!!! There is one kiln they found and a huge dock where the ships came in. Lothal was a highlight of our day. We then hopped on the bike and followed another white Indigo tourist taxi(with his permission), just like Carl and Kate's ride :), all the way to Palitana.

Palitana is a Jain pilgrimage town - the hill in the town has 800+ Jain temples built on the top and 3500+ steps up the hill to go see them :) We arrived in town and tried to find some accomodation...not easy if you aren't a Jain pilgrim (there are tons of options for them! :) There are 2 choices for regular tourists and luckily we found the better of the two :) Dinner was not very exciting and we came back and gave A's back some well deserved attention and then hunkered under the mosi net and tried to get some sleep. The next morning was good...but my allergies (I think I am allergic to Gujurat, or maybe I got something from the sick folks on that early train) and A's back meant that neither of us were up for a climb of 3500 steps without really burning ourselves out...that was ok, we wanted to see Alang :)

So we took a spin through town and found there was much more to it than what we saw when we arrived the night before (which is a good thing :) and I ate my bananas surronded by a mass of interested spectators :) and then made a donation of my banana skins to the local cows - they love them :) Then it was off on the backroads to Alang. Wow, cool backroads! We have seen some pretty scary industry in Gujarat and now we were riding through some highly agricultural parts and it was beautiful. Such rich, black soil. We found Alang (hard not to with all the signage welcoming you :) and made our way to the port...where we were duly stopped... and told to read this piece of paper!:) It said we could only get permission to enter from Ghandinagar and it would cost $25 for each foreigner....we didn't want to see it that bad! The road in was lined with all the castoffs and was quite entertaining in it's own right (a massive crankshaft 3 meters long??? that's cool :) so we turned around and took tons of photos on the way out :) Then it was to Bhavnagar for the night before heading back to Amhedabad.

Hmmm, what to say about Bhavanagar....it's a worn city. The old city was pretty cool. Lots of the listings in Lonely Planet were no longer in business. Our hotel was ok, certainly nothing special and we couldn't find a decent place to eat. We had a nice walk around and finally found a sweet shop, though :) The place we did find for dinner may be the reason that A has been unwell these past few days. It was the only restaurant that we did see that was open, so it wasn't like we made a bad choice :) It was a busy place and it looked decently clean. We were looking for a thali and we ordered a mixed plate and a special mixed plate (me being special and all :) and we got 2 plates....heaped with a "mix"....it was the strangest thing we have ever been served, but everyone else was eating it, so we dove in. It tasted good, too. Basically it was a samosa mushed on the plate covered with some channa masala (not very wet) and some dry crunchy snack stuff. The special plate (20 rupees vs 12 for the regular :) also had yogurt and raisins and grapes and a marischino cherry on top (which we pushed aside). We swapped plates halfway through. We headed back to the hotel and unwisely didn't put the mosi net up...until A woke up in the night covered in bites and we got some sense! The next morning A was not feeling great but we decided to get moving back to Amhedabad anyway.

The ride back was slow...the roads were lumpy, which is not great if you have a dodgy tummy, but beautiful so we took it easy and stopped a few times. It was also quite hot and this part of Gujarat has some nasty black flies - they got into my jacket and ate me, the little beasts! When we rolled back in to our hotel we were as glad to see the guys as they were to see us - A and I both had splitting headaches! We let the guys carry our bags up (which was probably only the second time I have let anyone do that :) and we shut the lights out and collapsed on the bed for a few hours nap. Whew! After the nap I was fine and A's head and tummy were still not happy. I went to our favorite place for dinner and brought in some supplies for A (mostly water and juice :). Then it's been more of the same - TV, supplies and A's napping - until today when she has been a bit more mobile. Her back is fine...it's just the tummy we are waiting for :)

So, moving on...

We decided that we were going to give the rest of Gujarat a miss and head north to Rajasthan and do the detour over to Sanchi (when we are ready! :). It is a combination of running out of time to see everything we want to see....and that it may be that Gujarat is making us ill :) They are not really set up for foreigners - Ahmedabad is surprisingly modern, but the rest of Gujarat isn't...as we both saw in Palitana (which gets lots of tourists!) and Bhavgnagar. Our bodies can not take the abuse and we don't really know what it is that makes us ill - it's tiring to be constantly vigilant about an unknown threat....

The best news is that we have our plane tickets to Hong Kong!!!!! We are so excited, even in A's weakened state she was (metaphorically) bouncing off the walls (good thing she didn't fall off the bike on the way home from the travel agent :) We fly on March 21st...WOOHOOO!!!! We are going to China :)

We are a bit battered, but well on the way to recovery and we should be on our way shortly. Nothing to worry about, I promise :) It was great to have an opportunity to watch some rugby (Go England!!!) and to watch England beat Australia for the Commonwealth Bank Series (Go England! :) and what a bonus to see cycling!!!!

More news as it happens :)