Bicycle Touring South Asia: India, in Dhule

Cycling around South Asia, my latest bicycle touring update from India, on Friday, the 14th October 2016. In Dhule. I had another cockroach in my room last night. Luckily, I spotted it before going to bed, although it wasn’t very lucky for him! He was a big brute and much bigger than the one from the other day. I saw him when I returned from supper, just as I was about to sit on the bed! He was sitting beside the bedside table, looking at me! There was no way that I fancied sharing my room with that thing!

Not knowing what to do, I didn’t want to kill it, and I didn’t have anything I could catch it with, so I went and got the young lad from reception. But of course, the roach had disappeared when he arrived! With no cockroach to be seen, there was nothing to be done, so the young lad left. I knew Mr Roach was in here somewhere, just waiting until I was asleep, then he’d come out and crawl over me!

I lay on the bed with my head hanging off, trying to see if I could spot him scurrying around on the floor! Got him behind the bedpost of the other bed! Now, what was I going to do? By the time I went to get the young lad, he’d have headed for cover again! As I said earlier, I was reluctant to kill him, certainly not with my bare hands. It wasn’t as if it was a fly or ant. This thing was a good two inches in length!

Now What Do I Do

I came up with the idea of throwing my towel over him to hold him while I went for help. After getting my towel from the bathroom, I returned to find it out in the open, away from the bedpost. He was along the edge of the wall, an ideal place to catch him. So I quickly threw the towel over him and tucked the sides down so he couldn’t escape. As I sat back, pleased with my work, he suddenly shot out from under the towel, causing me to scream like a girl!

There’s A Cockroach In My Room Video

He was now under a chair, and I was getting bored with all this (as no doubt you are hearing about it). When he broke cover, I again threw the towel over him, but this time, I’m sorry to say, I made sure he wasn’t going to escape as I squashed the towel down. Sorry, Mr Roach, I did give you a chance! Once I thought he was dead or at least incapacitated, I went back to reception for them to remove it and get a clean towel!

Off To Hospital

Deepam took me to the local hospital on the back of his Royal Enfield motorbike this afternoon to get checked out, as I’m still not right, but have I ever been??

We arrived at the hospital and had to take our shoes off before entering. We then went into a room where there were four or five doctors. One of them spoke excellent English and started to say that they were going to keep me in for a couple of days so they could do some tests! I think he must have seen the look of horror on my face as he quickly changed it to maybe one day then!

I was then led to the ICU ward and given a bed. They then proceeded to take my blood pressure and temperature. They also gave me an ECG, all standard practice when going into hospital, so I wasn’t too worried, apart from being admitted to the intensive care ward! Thankfully, all the tests came back okay.

Next up was an x-ray which wasn’t quite so good. And I was referred to another hospital. After giving me some more tablets to take! I was allowed to leave. I was just relieved not to have to stay in hospital! Although Deepam did say that if I did stay in, I could order food from the hotel, and they would deliver it to me! Now that’s service!

Tour Information

It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:

• Photos: See my photos on Flickr
• The route: View my route across India & Nepal
• Videos: Check out my YouTube videos
• Tour page: Ride overview

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