So today we arrived in Bikaner. It's a city on the edge of the Thar Desert and is a stopping place for us on the way back to Delhi. Both Anand and I were exhausted, so he went to take a nap in his room while I decided to go down the street to the internet cafe to post my belated entry. When I was done, I crashed in my room for a few hours.
So just before sunset I woke up and decided to go to the rooftop restaurant at the hotel (since everything in India has flat roofs, every hotel has a rooftop restaurant) to eat and watch the sunset. So I get up there, order, and take a look around. There's the Fort (you know there has to be one) to the left, houses in front of me and to the right is a field with kids playing cricket. Then I look behind and see more houses and suddenly did a "Oh no they didn't!".
I turned back toward the kids and couldn't believe my eyes. There were two cricket games going on on some grass that was surrounded by an oval track. And the track was banked. And there was an apron and the sprinters line and the stayers line and two people on bicycles riding around. Holy shit, it's a velodrome! I got all excited and told the waiter that I ride on a velodrome in the US. He said, "this is a local velodrome only". Whatever.
But how cool is that? Besides the cyclists (on big clunky cruiser type bikes, not track bikes), there was a guy on a scooter cruising around and two women in saris doing laps around the apron. Oh, and two different cricket games in the infield.
By the time my food came and I ate, it was completely dark. I walked over to have a look, but felt the need to turn back rather quickly. The entrance was across the street from a mosque and the call to prayer was happening. Needless to say, the guys were looking at me kind of strangely.
So, now I'm back at the internet cafe for a few and will go and get some sleep. I'm so sorry I can't be there with you tonight, but at least I saw a track today. Hello to everyone!
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3 comments:
yay! Track sighting.
Last time I went and visited my family in Germany, I found out that a cross race was happening in town. My family had all kinds of plans for me that day, but I ditched them all to go watch the German cross race.
something about the familiar when you are the foreigner
wow that's one big track...
i would love to have seen pics of the ladies in saris on the track...
now there's a costume theme for track night.
hope you survived that heat
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