Today started off well. It has got slightly more humid each morning as I've headed south and today it was noticeable. It's still not too bad but I suspect it'll become more and more prominent as I head into Thailand. The day passed pretty easily once again and I was finished before the main heat …
Day 55 – Pyinpongyi (Moyingyi Lake) to Kyaikto
It was weird waking up and knowing I either had a very long day or a very short day ahead of me, but no idea which. (55 or 125 miles with nowhere in between in case you missed yesterday's update) I spent the entire first two hours trying to make up my mind. Had it …
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Day 54 – Phyu to Pyinpongyi (Moyingyi Lake)
Today started early and with only a couple of cereal bars for breakfast I was glad of a shorter day ahead of me. Once riding I felt good, the wind was fairly light and the air was cool. Both of these changed as time went by but I stopped regularly so the heat was manageable and with …
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Day 53 – Naypyitaw to Phyu
Today has been one of, if not the, most physically demanding days of the whole trip. I slept fairly well despite being woken in the night by my leg cramping. The day actually started quite positively and I spent the first 20km riding in the fast lane of a nearly deserted 4-lane road. After turning …
Day 52 – Meiktila to Naypyitaw
Today started as yesterday left off. After a breakfast of doughnuts and a fairly decent sleep I was in good spirits. Not much of note really happened for the first half of the day but the time passed easily. After hitting 50 miles a few hills appeared which I hadn't expected. They were nothing big but …
Mandalay and Day 51 – Mandalay to Meiktila
Burma has been good so far. The first half day was pretty much spent fighting off tiredness from a night flight but we did manage to put the bike together and get a bit of a feel for the country. It's drier than expected; I assume that will change as I move south but it's …
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Mumbai to Kanyakumari to Kolkata – A summary of sorts
I’ve said a few times before that I don’t really know how to put India into words.. and that hasn’t really changed. It makes summarising my experience here almost impossible and is partly responsible for why I’ve waited a day to post this. Believe it or not, writing this sometimes takes a bit of effort …
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Day 50 – Balasore to Panskura – End of Leg 2
Indian leg done! Over 4000 kilometres and a fair few curries later, I've cycled both coasts of the country. Bed is beckoning, so I'll quickly cover today, and hopefully manage to write slightly more tomorrow. This morning started off well. I was in a good mood and was basically just excited to be so close to …
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Day 49 – Cuttack to Balasore
This morning was not a fun experience. I woke up numerous times in the night thinking I was about to be sick, so when my alarm went off I wasn't exactly rested. I also wasn't feeling any better and I could hardly move without feeling ill. It was an hour after I had woken up …
Day 48 – Chatrapur to Cuttack
Really not much happened today. In fact, apart from one idiot asking to buy my bike, nothing of note happened at all. I felt pretty good all day until about an hour ago. I'm now not feeling good and I think the only thing is to try to get some sleep. Apologies for this everyone. …
Day 47 – Srikakulam to Chatrapur
I didn't organise any breakfast last night, which meant I had no choice but to wait until it was being served in my hotel. This meant a late start so I was a bit stressed right from my alarm, and became worse as it got harder to fight off the thought that my stomach was not …
DAY 46 – TUNI TO SRIKAKULAM
This morning I didn't wake up in a great mood. Not entirely sure why, but it was probably down to lack of sleep. That's one thing that will be nice to catch up on when I hit Kolkata - hopefully. Breakfast this morning was, once again, extremely sweet. However, this time it was made up …
Day 45 – Bhimavaram to Tuni
It was hard getting out of bed this morning. The stress of the evening before had meant I didn't get as much sleep as I would've liked. Breakfast consisted of 2 Snickers, 2 Mars bars, a decent portion of chocolate cake, some biscuits and a coke... So not exactly savoury, but it gave me a …
Day 44 – Chirala to Bhimavaram
Today is going to be a brief summary of whatever comes to mind quickly...just to let you know. I started off a bit later than I have been recently because of a few more photos with the hotel manager. This time he put on his "formal dress" and gave me a floral necklace/wreath arrangement which - …
Day 43 – Nellore to Chirala
My mood hasn't really improved since yesterday evening unfortunately. I got very little sleep and at one point woke up to find I had been feasted on by mosquitos. Breakfast consisted of a cold bowl of rice I'd ordered the night before so that was particularly uninspiring. I was tired pretty much all day but …
Day 42 – Chennai to Nellore
After a fairly good breakfast I headed out early in the hope that I would beat the traffic when riding through Chennai. I think I probably did, but an Indian city is an Indian city and the drivers are still crazy. In case anyone is thinking of going there, my brief travel guide: some brilliant …
Day 41 – Puducherry to Chennai
I don't think I really did yesterday justice when I wrote about it... It was probably the most relaxed I've been since a week in Italy last summer and it has put me in a very good mood. But more importantly, I wanted to elaborate on the point that probably disappointed some of the males …
Day 40 Velankanni to Puducherry
Despite a breakfast of just biscuits, I set off in a good mood, aiming for an early finish. I had a decent hotel lined up, courtesy of my parents and was eager to get there as soon as possible. There was little wind to start with and I made very good progress. I ate on …
Day 39 – Ramanathapuram to Velankanni
Firstly, apologies for the rather uninspiring write-up of yesterday. Today was set to be a long one and I was very eager to get into bed. In the end I didn’t actually sleep that well. Once again my air-con was playing up but this time it was being lazy rather than working overtime so I …
Day 38 Tiruchendur to Ramanathapuram
Today has not been great. In fact, it has been the worst day so far in India....although having said that, I have had a good run until this point. I started off the day in a fairly dismal mood. A combination of factors led to this: one being that I couldn't change the temperature of …
Day 37 Marthandam to Tiruchendur
Today started off pretty well. I knew I would hit Kanyakumari at mile 34 (the tip of India and the end of the west coast) so I set that as a target for my first stop. I made it without trouble and would have been fine to carry on had I not needed to refill …
Day 36 – Haripad to Marthandam
Today was good, not great, then good.. so that works out good overall I guess. The morning started off well and was really good to ride. Nothing of note really happened though so I don’t have much to say about it. Something I am wondering about though is the influence of communism in India. The …
Day 35 – Guruvayoor to Haripad
Today started off fairly average. My legs took a while to wake up and the weather was a bit cloudy. Still hot though and more humid than normal It improved on both fronts after an hour or so and once again I was pedalling along happily. The half way point came quickly and held another …
Day 34 – Thalassery to Guruvayoor
Today, like the last few days, has been good. Although as always, not everything went exactly to plan. This morning I was prepared for the lack of breakfast. I had a (fairly big) bowl of rice to eat that I'd ordered from room service the night before. It was cold and not all that interesting …
Day 33 – Mangalore to Thalassery
Had I written this a few hours ago, it would’ve been me hurling abuse at the Indian drivers. I have since calmed down a bit so I’ll restrict it to a paragraph. That’ll come a bit later. The morning was overall quite good. The road quality started off pretty poor but improved again after about …
Day 32 – Murudeshwar to Mangalore
I hit 3000miles today. So I only have to do what I’ve done, 5 more times… Although I’m really hoping to find a happy medium on the temperature front at some point! Once again not all that much happened today. The driving definitely has got worse. There are significantly more vehicles on the wrong side …
Day 31 – Benaulim to Murudeshwar
I have now done a month's worth of cycling...it feels a lot longer! Today was long and it is now later than normal so this will have to be quick... In view of that, I guess it's quite convenient that not much really happened today: the driving got a bit worse (if that is possible) and I …
Day 30 – Kankavali to Benaulim
Today has mostly been a good day. The owner of the hotel got up especially early in order to provide me with breakfast (for free as well). It wasn't huge but it filled a hole and the generosity put me in a good mood. The morning was fast. The temperature was below 25 degrees - …
Day 29 -Hathkhamba to Kankavali
Today was actually quite good, despite being hotter than my calf muscles - which are showing some pretty good definition. Once again it was biscuits for breakfast and it started off quite tough. I hadn't slept that well so I was a bit drowsy; which isn't all that great when riding in India. Even so …
Day 28 – Somewhere in India to somewhere else in India
Starting point - the town of Mangaon: After a breakfast consisting of biscuits (as nowhere was open), I set off around 7.00am and was pleasantly surprised to find it below 20 degrees. The day was due to be just under 100 miles but with a fair bit of climbing, so I was hoping to be done …
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Tom Davies RTW 