OFFICIAL WORLD WANDERER STATIONERY

November 2, 1995

Budapest Hungary to Agra India

I'm sitting on the roof of the Hotel SID MARTHA in the labor colony section of Agra India. In front of me I see the marble dome of the TAJ MAHAL. Beside me elevated on a large cement block two boys howl and whistle, wave their arms and just plain shout to keep the pigeons from landing and flying around this building. This is their job. There are so many people here nothing is thought of two boys being used to keep birds away. Indeed it's difficult to find any personal time. We are constantly surrounded by people.

My last entry was from Budapest. That seems like ages ago now. Our group members have changed a bit. Louise finished cycling and switched to riding busses and trains, visiting friends she has met from previous travels. Although Michele wanted to ride with us she was told her personality and style had upset others in the group and she was not welcome. Charles and Lisa on the tandem had been riding with Helen and Michelle. Helen, mother of seven, 55 years old, was told that she can come along with us but we're not going to wait for her. Regena, Ole, and myself had spent a lot of time waiting for Louise and didn't want to continue that experience. The tandem couple Charles and Lisa we figured would always be waiting for us so if they wanted to come along and had the patience to go our pace it was okay with us. So leaving Budapest was Ole, Regena, Charles, Lisa, Helen and myself.

The first few days of riding were fast paced. Helen fell behind but always caught up. After three hard days we settled into a more maintainable pace.

Our route has been from Budapest, Hungary to Trieste Italy. There we boarded a giant ferry, sailed to Patres Greece on the Peloponise Island. Rode to the south shore then hopped another ferry to the island of Crete. Rode from the west side of Crete to mid island then took another ferry to Rhodes. Stayed in Rhodes for four days resting, recuperating, and a little sight seeing in the fortified city then took another ferry to the last Greek island, close to Turkey, the Island of Kos. The Greeks and Turks don't get along very well, and don't like people going between Greece and Turkey. They add a tax to the price of the ferry to go between the two countries. The tax is based on the length of the ferry ride. Therefore, we wanted the shortest hop between the two countries. Kos to Bodrum Turkey was about a 45 minute ferry ride on a small poorly maintained ferry.

Biked from Bodrum to Seljuk Turkey. Rented a van to go inland and see Pamukkale where there are some famous water flows and pools then to Goreme where people have carved homes into pillars of sandstone called Fairy Chimneys. Rode the van back to Seljuk, then biked to Izmir, Turkey took another short ferry ride to the Greek Island of Chios. Then an all night ferry to Pireas near Athens, Greece. Biked up to Delphi to see the ruins of the Oracle of Delphi, biked back to Athens then flew from Athens to London, slept in the airport overnight in London then flew to Delhi, India. Now we've just finished cycling from Delhi to Agra India, sight of the TAJ MAHAL. Our group of six is doing well. Enough people for security, reasonable personalities, and not so many that there's too many to keep track of.

Seems we've been spending a lot of nights in budget Hotels and Pensions works well with Helen and Regena sharing a room, Charles and Lisa sharing a room, and Ole and myself sharing a room. Helen rides in the rear; Regena, Ole and myself in front, the tandem behind us. We switch off lead. Helen keeps up when she can but drops back when the pace gets too fast or there are hills. Anything over five or six percent she walks up. The tandem powers ahead on the steep grades, it's hard for them to keep balanced if they crawl up the 10, 12 and 15% grades at three to five mph as Ole, Regena and I do. We hit a lot of those steep grades in the Greek islands. Especially on Crete.

Was hoping to get a windsurfer or sailboat rental on Lake Balaton on our way south through Hungary. It was stormy as we passed the lake, and a big resort and recreation area. Saw where windsurfers were for rent but didn't seem appropriate to out in threatening skies. Spent that night camped far off the road behind a vineyard listening to raindrops hit the fly of the tent. We weren't real sure about entering Slovania, but it was the direct route to Trieste where we'd catch the ferry to Greece. Slovania was the first country where you could only get the money in the country and once you left, you couldn't get rid of it. I used my left over money to stock up on groceries then bought an ice cream cone. Ole was so unsure about Slovania he got some Australian schillings. Austria would be our bailout country. He's still carrying those schillings cause Slovania surprised us.

Slovania was wonderful. Super friendly people and beautiful green hills to pedal through. Crossing into Slovania we stopped at the next town past the boarder to get money. A fellow came up and started talking to Regena. They'd never had American cyclists in their town. Before we left we'd had two free rounds of cold seven-up and sodas. The locals calling it Slovanian wine. Looking for a place to camp we found nothing but farms. So we stopped and asked a woman and her daughter working in a corn field if we could camp behind the field in the area hidden from the road that had already been harvested. Our communication is crude. Sign language and a phrase book. She insisted putting us up in the unused second story of her farm house. She insisted on cooking dinner for us. We had chicken and something else I didn't recognize but had a "No Thank you" helping of. She was a hard working woman. Her older sons out at school. Her husband out of the country for 2 years is "driving truck." She sweat in the heat of the kitchen yet she had an endearing smile. Her daughter had gone to fetch a neighbor who spoke German. Ole tried his German with him, but his was an unrecognizable dialect. The neighbor had learned german in a German concentration camp. Charles talked to the daughter and found she wanted to be a hair stylist when she grew up. She motioned scissors cutting hair with her fingers.

Rode the ferry for two nights and one day. Deck passage to Petros Greece. The first night was pretty windy. Ole had his plastic under his sleeping bag to attempt to keep the diesel soot that collected on the deck from soiling his bag. He spent the whole night trying to pile things around the edges to keep it from blowing away. The rattling of the plastic kept me up all night. Next night wasn't so windy and Ole slept on another part of the deck.

Our introduction to Greece was in the ferry port town of Petros. We found a supermarket. More like a corner store in southeast Portland, watched some gypsies being forcefully escorted out. There's no bottle bill in Greece, in fact it seems to be quite acceptable to toss all your garbage anywhere, and there is garbage everywhere. Rode to Olympia, saw the original Olympic Stadium and the ruins of the city around it. In the adjacent museum saw statues of Zeus, and Nike. A bell went off in my mind. Ah Nike, that's where that name came from...a female goddess. The Olympic games had been halted in the third century A.D. due to the "pagan acts" that went on with them. The ruler had converted to Christianity.

Went inland on the peninsula to the mountain town of Dimitsana. Spent two days climbing hills to get to an ancient city built on the side of a steep slope. Brick buildings with tile roofs built adjacent and practically on top of each other on the steep slopes in the city. The highway through the town necked down to a single lane where opposing traffic of trucks and busses had take turns to inch through watching that they didn't scrape their sides on the buildings. Many streets of the town were merely cobbled stone walkways and stairs. Ladies dressed up for church walked the uneven streets in high heels with ease. Regina thought that truly amazing.

In this area we constantly heard the bells of goats and sheep in the hills. We camped in the cover of olive tree groves, saw sheep being herded up the main highway, saw donkeys, beasts of burden, carrying everything from bricks to straw to sticks. Even saw donkeys carrying old women dressed all in black.

We searched out a Monastery perched on the wall of the gorge. Some rooms carved into the side of the cliff, others supported by angular sticks bracing up the floors which protruded away from the rock face. Asking directions we met a man of dual Greek and American citizenship. He said he spends six months and 1 day in Greece so he doesn't have to pay U.S. income tax. It's apparently a common trick for those of dual citizenship. We asked a monk who was giving us a tour of the monastery what the average day's routine was. Up at 4:00 a.m., to prayer at 5:00 a.m. till 7:00 or 9:00. Do your work. Reading, writing, gardening, or painting, then pray again before 1:00 p.m. lunch. Work for two hours to try to improve yourself, get closer to God. 5:00 p.m. pray before dinner.

Back to the coast to a resort campground near Kalamanta, Greece. A big port town which was destroyed by earthquake. Now has only a third of it's original population. The guide book says not a very interesting city but a good place to get things done. The front rack of the tandem designed to carry a twenty five pound load was disintegrating under the seventy five pound load it was being asked to carry. The aluminum support rods were bending and deforming. Welds had been broken. Things were in a sad state. Charles borrowed a drill from the campground. Ole and Charles got a bunch of Aluminum sheet and nuts and bolts and I helped shape the aluminum sheets into parts that could be sandwiched around the failing aluminum support rods of the rack. Bolting the sheeting on either side of the rods. Fabricated additional fork mounting clips from a flattened steel tent pole we'd found discarded at a previous camp. By the time we were done it looked like something you'd expect to see on an armored truck...really bullet proof.

After some discussion Charles called home and had his folks order a new front top rack and low-riders. He hadn't put low riders on before cause they wouldn't fit. But now he'd seen how to fabricate things to make them fit(Ole and John style) and was convinced he had the know how now to make it work. It would help immensely to have two racks. The top rack, and the low-riders to help split the load.

Helen's 27 x 1 1/4 continental super sport rear tire had worn out. She'd found some other 27 x 1 1/4 tires but the quality available is not up to carrying the touring load. One tire lasted 150 miles. The next 180 miles. They failed the same way Ole's rear tire had been failing in the states, cut by the wheel at the bead. Ole fixed his by putting rim tape over the hook bead of the wheel. We didn't have spare rim tape so I showed Helen how to put two layers of white adhesive tape over the bead of the wheel. With that she got a tire to last 300 miles to Athens where she got more continental super sport tires shipped in from her family in the states. Expensive tires $40 shipping, and $40 import duty to pick up at the post office.

Turns out that Lisa is a self taught hair stylist. she offered to give Ole, Regena, Helen, and myself haircuts. She always cuts Charles' hair and her own. Everybody went for the hair cut except Regina who apparently would rather pay for a "trained" stylist. I thought the cuts came out just fine.

We were bound for the southern most tip of the island. On the way we ran across a scale in front of a shop. Of course we had to weigh the bikes. Weighed front and rear tires respectively. John 64, 68 lbs., tandem 98, 105 lbs., Regena 68, 67 lbs., Ole 77, 87 lbs., Helen 56, 81 lbs. After this weighing I helped Helen move her tent and sleeping bag off the rear rack to the front so she's more balanced.

Pop, pop, pop, pop. The sound of hunters in the distance. This is hunting season. On this sparse island there's no ground bound wildlife apparent. What are the hunters hunting I thought. Turns out the prize of the hunt are birds. The best time to hunt, early in the morning and late at night. We camp, with permission, behind some houses. The land slopes down to a cove where fishing boats are tied up. Early in the morning I hear their small in-board motors start up for the days fishing outings.

Ferried to Crete, cycled over the spine of the island to a bay where we could catch a short 1 hour ferry ride to the base of the Samarian Gorge. Hiked up the gorge a ways, wondered at it's cool setting of pine trees contrasted against the desert like surroundings we'd been bicycling through. Saw "the doors" a very narrow part of the cannon with polished hard rock high on either side. Could picture walls of flood waters flowing through during flash floods which still occur annually. Ferried back to our bikes then climbed over the spine of the island again. Our timing for these steep climbs have been impeccable. We seem to hit them in the heat of the day. About noon or 1:00 p.m. Consuming large amounts of mostly filtered well water.

Each night we play the tent placing game trying to predict where the morning shade will be. Guess wrong and you loose, you'll be "burned out of your tent" by the morning sun about 6:00 - 6:30 a.m. Ole's figured out since London he's spent on average 32 cents/day on bike maintenance. $13.00 a day on all other expenses.

Sometimes on these islands it's hard to find a safe place to camp. One night we camped above the road high above an inlet. In the daytime the area looked terrible. Lots of garbage dumped all around. At night, though, it was beautiful. The garbage disappeared, a view of boats lit up on the inlet and a line of car and truck head lights tracing out the path of the road. At night you can't tell your in a foreign country. All the visual cues are gone. It's just landscape. Stars and the moon. Even the line of car head lights don't give a clue. Can't tell that they are from car and truck models you wouldn't see in the states.

On the islands I started have tube problems. I'd put in a new tube in my rear tire and promptly had a rear blow out. I'd gotten three new spare tubes in Germany. One by one they each failed. All due to the seams of the rubber splitting after brief periods of braking down hill (intense heat). Didn't get more than 100 miles on any tube. I re-supplied with the local tubes. They have a different style valve. A pintle fits in the valve stem, a seal is made by a small piece of surgical tubing around the pintle. The pintle is clamped into place by a threaded knurled ring. It's taken me awhile to get used to this valve. It has it's own idiosyncrasies which lead to air loss and flat or soft tires. I'm running a tube like this now and three of my four spare tubes are of this style. I think just yesterday figured out how to keep them from slowly leaking. Put a little baby powder on the surgical tubing to allow it to slide tightly and smoothly into it's seat. Hope this continues to work. I'm getting tired of pumping.

Before leaving Crete I found a shop to sell me a new zipper for my tent. The original zipper has long been a problem, and since we're heading into malaria country I want a zipper that works. During our R&R in Rhodes I hand stitched the new zipper over the original zipper then found a shoe repair shop to machine stitch over my hand stitching making it insect proof. Now I'll be able to keep those beasties out! Enjoyed the cobble streets in the fortified city of Rhodes Narrow walkways originally intended for people and donkey carts. Now have people and mopeds. The mopeds are distracting but you still get an appreciation of how it felt to live ages ago in this ancient city. Over the years city has been overtaken by so many groups it's impossible for me to keep track, but I do understand the walls around the fortification were for protection, and with each conquering the walls were rebuilt to be bigger and stronger.

Once in Turkey we found that camping wild was a problem. There just weren't too many areas where the land was left unattended. The bicycling was a bit more stressful than in Greece. We'd gotten accustomed to blowing an hour to change money, shop for food, or get some water, but here it seemed to take even longer. The people we had to deal with seemed angry rather than friendly. On the roads we saw trucks severely over loaded with cotton bales. The bales literally overhang two feet on either side and are piled ridiculously high. The trucks seemed poorly maintained spewed out streams of black exhaust and some I noticed had 2 to 3 inch square chunks of rubber totally missing from their tires.

Trying to decide what route to take we found that it was impossible to collect accurate information about jump off points for ferries back to Greece. Each travel agent was only allowed to talk about the service out of their town. Feeling nervous about getting back to Athens for our next flight we decided not to go as far north in Turkey as we wanted cause the information we got on ferries just couldn't be relied on. We rode north to Seljuk. Really wanted to see the Ferry Chimneys described in the guide book but it was way too far to cycle. Found we could rent a Dulmus (a van) with a driver for five days for 27 million lyre (100,000 = $2.00).

The landscape looked much like southern California. "I came all this way to see what I could see where I grew up", I thought. The people and lifestyle, however, where very different. There is 30% inflation a year here. People are poor. Cotton is picked by hand. We stopped in a village to get groceries. Our drivers (we had two) lean out the window to ask directions in Turkish. We come to a narrow street lined with shops. When we get out of the van people wonder what planet we came from. We buy dry goods in the supermarket. Bread from a bakery, and fruit and vegetables from a guy on a corner with a four wheeled cart.

At Pamakala we go to Mustathas Pension it's 400,000 lyre per room per night. He tells us how to get into the mineral water pools to avoid the toll booths. It involves climbing on slippery wet rocks. We go in small groups and all survive. Beyond the pools are ruins of an ancient town which has been partially excavated and looks to be a renovation project that just stopped. Fences keep us out of some areas but not out of others where there are some truly dangerous holes. I find it much more interesting than the ruins we saw in Ephesis which thousands maybe millions of tourists go through each year. These ruins don't get much attraction 'cause the attraction here is supposed to be the pools.

On to Goreme in the Cappadocia area of Turkey. The ferry chimneys look just like the pictures in the postcards. Tall columns of naturally formed sand stone that have been eroded away generally a large rock on the top which has compressed the sandstone making it harder than that around it, and there by not being eroded. Rooms, actually entire homes carved into the base and up inside the columns. Windows 1/2 way up the column. Pretty incredible that people lived here...and some still do. We rented a cave room in a pension. All four walls ceiling and floor is simply painted sandstone. Toured an underground city. A network of rooms and tunnels. People lived here in seclusion so they could have religious freedom, free from persecution. Great round disk shaped stones at strategic locations could be rolled in front passageways and entry ways to seal the underground city if an invasion was attempted.

Loaded up the Dolumas at 6:10 a.m. for our ten hour low flying ride back to Seljuk. Ali and Niyazi taught us some Turkish phrases not in our phrase book.

Person 1 Meriba Hello

Person 2 Nas-sa-shem How are you?

Person 1 Ee-e-e-erum Fine

Person 1 Sen-nas-sa-shem And how are you?

Person 2 Ven-de-eerum I am fine too.

Went through the town of Dinar, Turkey. Between the trip out and the trip back there had been an earthquake. The news said 60 people killed. As we approached the town we went through a tent city. Large white conical tents, each with a red moon and star (the flag symbol of Turkey) on them, presumably government issue tents. In town the main highway was blocked by the corners of building which had toppled down into the street. They don't use earthquake proof construction techniques here. The construction technique appears to be to start with steel reinforced concrete pillars. Pour concrete floors and ceilings for multilevel dwellings. Add brickwork layed between the pillars on the edges of the floors to make walls which forms rooms. Add a little plaster on the inside and if you're rich stucco on the outside and you're done. The earthquake made a real mess of the center of town where apparently the most severe shocking took place. Devastating to an already poor population.

Saw two bus wrecks on the way back too. One bus over on it's side on the shoulder of the road. Driver apparently swerved too hard. The second went off the road through a rock wall and down an embankment. The driver fell asleep. Saw a woman bleeding from yet another wreck where she had rear ended a tractor. The Datsun sized car was shaped like a V in front. The tractor had been thrown forward off the road. While cycling we never saw wrecks like this but considered ourselves lucky not to be involved in any.

Rode to Izmir, then to Cesme, Turkey and ferried to Chios, the nearest Greek Island on a ferry so small we had to wash the salt spray off our bikes when we got off. Then took an overnight ferry to Pireas, Greece next to Athens. Still had 10 days before our flight so Charles, Lisa, Ole and I rode up to Delphi to see the ruins up there. It was nice to be back in a land where wild camping was easy. We finally had given up in Turkey, spent almost every night inside. Back in Athens we stayed at a campground in a suburb of Athens. Rode the bus into downtown, went round and collected bike boxes for our airplane ride and did a little restocking on camping supplies. I got a pocket can opener some call a P-38, it's a little army issue device. I suffered an incident of theft in the pension in Rhodes. My utensil bag was stolen, then returned minus my Swiss army knife which had my can opener attached. Was glad to get the utensil bag back cause it had my iodine for treating drinking water in it. The bag might have looked like a small purse. In that pension my stuff was closest to the door, and we'd left the door ajar to improve the ventilation. It was an easy target, but amazing that it was returned with most of its contents.

We all started the trip with no airline tickets figuring they'd be cheap to get along the way. We were trying to put off buying the bulk of our tickets till we got to Bangkok, where tickets are cheap. It's true they are cheaper to get along the way, but it's been a major hassle, and the hassle has been costing us in both time and money. So we decided it was time to bite the bullet. Additionally enough time had passed that we could now be eligible for the Round the World tickets that have to be used all in one year. We decided to deal with a bucket shop in London after a little shopping around and buy the rest of our tickets and be done with it. For 1105 British Pounds, about $1800.00 we've got cheap tickets on various airlines to finish our trip. Spent $330.00 on the ticket to London from DC, but racked up $200.00 in phone bills calling London from Turkey to get all remaining tickets. We have to back track in our connecting flights to get the cheapest rates. So, to fly from Athens Greece to Delhi India we actually fly from Athens to London on Virgin Air then spend the night at the airport then fly on a Thai Airline to Delhi India. From Katmandu Nepal we fly back to Delhi, then again on Thai airlines to Bangkok. Interesting the way this discount flying works.

In the London Heathrow airport, we found out from a British customs officer a place in the airport we could push the chairs away from the wall and sleep behind them in relative comfort on a carpeted floor. I was tired enough I slept pretty soundly. With an early departure, and a seven and a half hour flight, and a time change we arrived in Delhi India at 11:00 p.m. local time. We'd planned to just spend the night in the airport then figure out how to get out of there in the morning.

Helen whose son works for Delta airlines, has been making her own flying arrangements for next to nothing. She got into Delhi the day before us and had orchestrated our arrival. She had two cabs lined up with roof racks. We tied five bicycles 2 and 3 on top of the cabs still in their boxes well tattered from their two flights. Then we were taken to a Hotel about 5 km from downtown Delhi. All worked out rather painlessly. Went to bed at 3:00 a.m. local time.

Stayed at the Pooja Palace Hotel in Delhi for two more nights. Explored around, rested. Reassembled the bikes, got Nepal Visas and planned a route to Agra where to see the Taj Mahal. Pretty straight forward planning. There's only one road to Agra, the National Highway #2. Left Delhi early on a Sunday morning when we were told traffic would be light. They were right. We'd been dreading trying to bicycle out of the city for traffic was a gnarly mess. Trucks, busses, cars, hundreds of mopeds, bicycles, bicycle rickshaws, moped rickshaws, motorcycle rickshaws and taxis. Oh, and a few cows here and there all trying to weave in around past each other. India having been a British colony had adopted the drive on the left hand side of the road. This confuses us more.

Traffic was light, it was a cinch getting out of the main part of town. But even after 20 or 30 miles we were still surrounded by humanity. Tough to even find a bush to pee behind where someone else isn't there already. Each time we stop we're surrounded by the curious. The road side is a constant line of shacks and adobe (mud) houses. Villages are just denser shacks with bicycle repair shops, tire repair shops, moped repair shops and some food stands. We'd read in a guide book that truck stops were safe havens. Won't be bothered there. It's true. Buy a soda for 7 rubies, about twenty cents. Sit down at a table under a dirty canvas awning surrounded by dirty trucks, but no crowd surrounds you. We've been allowed to camp at tourist motels. First one had a beautiful large green lawn with a fountain in the middle. All walled in to keep out the peasants, and mark the boundary. Second night not quite as nice, but we were guarded all night by a man with a 12 gauge shot gun. In each place we rented one room which Regena stayed in but we used the shower and toilet. Got amazingly gritty in just one day with all the blowing dust, dirt and car and truck exhaust.

After two sleepless nights I was glad to check into the cheap hotel near the Taj Mahal. We toured the Taj Mahal, a monument built by the fifth Mongol ruler of India for the passing of his third wife whom it is said he dearly loved, who between the age of twenty and thirty nine bore 14 children and died in the last delivery. We'd stumbled across Akbars Tomb and looked at it. You could see how it once was an expanse of beauty and elegance but now was dirty run down and in need of repair. The Taj Mahal, however, the symbol of India is well kept and clean. It's probably the only clean monument we'll see in India.

After resting here yesterday and today we'll be heading out for Nepal tomorrow. Unsure where our entry point will be or whether we'll be able to do the trek we'd like to do out of Poleanha. We'll collect more info as we go and see what comes about.

It's quiet now on the roof of the motel, just the occasional sound of the distant pigeons ... those guys do a good job in keeping the birds away ... and the sound of the occasional moped rickshaw and their worn out fading horn. The Taj Mahal stands as it probably will for some time to come. Tomorrow this will be but a memory for me.

Trip status: 7911 miles total

247 days

Ah, here's something unusual. A monkey just walked by.

That's it!

John