A laundromat isn’t just a laundromat, it’s also a great place to take a break and read the latest gossip magazine, consume colas and candy bars (I’ve never come across one with a coin operated health food automat) and rest from a long cycling day.

The Indian hotel manager said, “I just have one room left…”

We (incorrectly) figured that the small dirt roads to Nepal would be easy cycling.  What we didn’t take into account was the monsoon mud…

Cycling in South America © Daisuke Nakanishi

Daisuke Nakanishi of Osaka, Japan is a traveler in search of new friends and world peace. He worked and saved his money for six years and then he started to ride from Anchorage, Alaska on July 23, 1998. Daisuke has since cycled more than 100,000 kilometers and visited almost 100 countries on all continents, all on the same bicycle.  You can read more about that trip which ended in 2009 at: http://www.daisukebike.be.

In 2012 he cycled Australia together with his friend Mr. Motomitsu Ikemoto who had built a sailing bike. You can view pictures of the sailing bicycle crossing the Nullarbor Plain at: http://blog.daisukebike.be/ (in Japanese).

We knew we were back in India when; we visited the Rampur palace gardens.  After a leisurely tour, we tried to leave the complex and soon found out that the entrance gate was now locked. A local told us that in a couple of hours the caretaker would come along to open the gate.  (note; there wasn’t a sign on the gate that posted “opening hours”.)  So we patiently sat down and watched the unfolding theatre show of stressed out Indian vacationers running around the gardens – trying to hatch up escape plans…