The Lambe Holiday Inn was a nice place to stay, which was just as well as we ended up staying there 4 nights. Although Shrivardhan was a nice little place it didn't take long to explore, so at least we were able to just lounge about in the resort. The bike, as expected, was a bit of a saga.
Firstly someone important in the village died so everything was closed and no one was allowed to work. Then we were told that a manifold couldn't be found locally and we would have to get one sent from Mumbai. The mechanic was excellent and he arranged for a manifold to be put on a bus in Mumbai and collected it from the bus station. While we were waiting for it to arrive he was tinkering with the bike - cleaning things up, tightening things and even fixed all the electrics.
When the time came to pay the bill we were thinking it was going to be a fortune as he had spent so many hours on it. When he asked for rps 1000 with parts, about £12, we couldn't believe it. We tried to give him more but he wouldn't take it and said he had really enjoyed working on the bike
While waiting on the bike, Colin certainly never had a problem lounging around the resort. It was actually full most nights with Indian tourists having a few days break from Mumbai etc. Everyone was very curious about us and I have never been in so many photos - everyone wanted to take one of us. We have invites to stay with people in Mumbai, Pune and other places inland. True to Indian people, they are so friendly, although they did think we were bonkers riding a bike 3500kms rather than being driven in an A/C car.
A wee cosy snooker table.
Govind was a Nepali guy who worked in the place and was really helpful and friendly. He did most of the work around the place looking after the guests and serving food. The food was excellent and cooked freshly each day by a local woman. She would ask you in the morning if you wanted meat, fish or vegeterian for lunch and dinner. You never knew how the meat, fish or veggies were going to be cooked but they were always excellent and tasted different every day.
The sign on the room doors, however every evening you were asked if you wanted something from the bottle shop! If so one of the staff went into town on his push bike and got it for you.
Word was out in the town that two foreign tourists were around and we had many locals come visit us. One was a guy who had an enfield and who had heard we also had one, came by to see us one day for a chat. He was so proud of his diesel enfield and was delighted when we told him we had never seen a diesel version before.
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Bike fixed we finally left Shrivardhan to continue our journey. We were relieved to be leaving so we could complete our journey, but also sad because we had had such a nice time there.
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