Today’s official plan is to cycle approx 70kms.  This is a bit of a reduction in the original itinerary as we are finding the realities of cycling in India do not match the plan created following the recce for the trip which was undertaken in a minibus. Funny that.

Today’s unofficial plan is to pimp our bikes.

Everything in India which is cherished seems to be highly decorated with some serious bling.  We asked our guide, Manish, about it and he said that Indian men love their tractors as much as their wives/girlfriends and so they want them to look as pretty as possible. Right.

Because I’m… well… me, I did of course bring sparkly bling for my bike from Belgium which was two purple flowers for the handlebars, and some streamers with spikes on the end for sticking into the ends of the handlebars (clearly intended for children, but whatever).  But this is not enough. Oh no.  The kind of bling we aspired to was more like this:

Tractor Bling

Or maybe this:

(sorry Jackie, but this really was the best tractor-bling picture I took due to the – a-hem – ‘full frontal’ aspect).

We had been keeping an eye out for a bling shop. People must have been buying it from somewhere because literally every tractor and lorry had at least some kind of sparkly or furry bling hanging off it from somewhere.

And then I saw it! Hanging in a shop in one of the villages we were cycling through were some long pink furry things.  They were not shiny sparkly, but beggars really can’t be choosers.  This was our penultimate day cycling and it was now or never.

I hopped off the bike and gestured to Jackie who was behind a tractor coming up the hill behind me to stop.  Much excitement ensued; both from us and the stunned villagers who instantly appeared to watch the two mad women buy pink furry stuff from one of their own.

Initially I waited with the bikes – my bike didn’t have a stand (VERY irritating), and we didn’t want to abandon our bikes in the middle of the road.  It wasn’t long before others in our group who were behind us stopped to see everything was alright and I could abandon our bikes with them and join Jackie for the haggling.

Bling and Buy

People crowded round us quickly, but there was absolutely nothing threatening about it – simply curiosity and amusement to see us wanting to buy from their shop.  300 Rupees later and we had three pink furry things and a gold garland with ten 10 Rupee notes stapled to it.

I did the first stint wearing the garland, and the reaction from everyone we cycled past (which had already been enthusiastic and welcoming) cranked up a notch and soon people were waving first, laughing and smiling at us.  We loved it!

At the next water stop, Pramod couldn’t help chuckling when he told us that the garlands are given to couples on their wedding day as a gift of money from friends or family.  It kind of explained the reactions we had been getting, and after making sure that we weren’t going to be offending anyone or causing a Diplomatic incident by wearing it we were quite pleased with ourselves.

No such thing as ‘too much bling’

I still owe Jackie for my pink furry thing.

After a long day in the saddle, tonight’s hotel had a pool and a supply of gin.  It also had a sinister puppet show laid on as entertainment.  As it was a ‘six-gin each’ evening (we totally should have just bought the bottle), the puppet show was bearable and we are all ready for our last day’s cycling in the morning.

Good Effort.