Daman

Daman, Jan 11, 2012.

49 km

Checkout at Shreelekha is already at 0900. Otherwise I would have left later. My stomach was upset again the whole night and I slept poorly. Don't know if I had eaten something bad or if it was just all the icecream I had in Valsad.

Todays cycling was a mix of very nice small country roads and a good bit on NH6. I had a tailwind and did good speed. I never saw any signs on the highway to turn off towards Daman and actually had to ride back a bit to get on it. The roads leading in to Daman itself were pretty bad.

Daman town is not entirely bad for a small Indian place. But there is virtually none of the Portuguese architecture and feel I had hoped for. The beach is absolutely terrible. The sand is quite black and there is a lot of rubbish and human faeces. The beach front has not a single restaurant or coffee shop.
The streets in town are quite clean though, and people speak very good English, something that was rather lacking in the parts of Gujurat I came through.

As I walked along the beach this afternoon the same thought kept coming to my mind; I am not staying here any longer than necessary.

I have heard that there is a much better beach only some ten kilometers further South, and I have seen on Google Maps that there is a guest house down there that looks old and charming.