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the same room . Satisfied , they left us with instructions to head up to the canteen for dinner , once we had settled in .
We were the only diners in the big room . Three different vegetable curries and rice had been laid out for us on one of the tables . The chef was curious who these foreigners were , that he had been asked to cook for , and he came out for a chat . He was elated to hear that we were heading south to where he ’ s from and said to return at 8am : he would make us one of his favourite dishes from home , a sort of vegetable-filled pancake , for breakfast . He apologised that it would be an egg-free version as this was a purely vegetarian kitchen and eggs are not allowed either .
The next morning , he had the vegetable pancakes , coffee , milk , sugar , toast , and jam waiting for us . When we returned to our room , the manager called . He asked what our plans were and apologised profusely that he wouldn ’ t be able to let us stay
another night as he had bent the rules too much already . He offered to call the mechanic and see where he was at with fixing our bike . He also advised against our plan to ride all the way to the Shiva Temple . Contrary to what our last hotel had said , we did in fact need a permit to ride in this area . Since we didn ’ t have one , we should ride back and just pay a bribe if the police stopped us on the way .
Shortly afterwards we received word that the bike was ready . Yesterday ’ s cutting out and starting problem had been caused by a malfunctioning relay . The mechanic had fitted another but this morning the bike cut out again . So , he finally bypassed the relay . We didn ’ t know what it was for , but the bike was running without it . He also hadn ’ t been able to fix the juddering . It was something to do with the gearbox and the bike would only run in the first three gears . That settled our plans . We would give the temple a miss and limp back to the city of Bhuj , where we could find a Bajaj service shop that would have all the spare parts we might need .
The cement factory wouldn ’ t accept any payment for their hospitality , and we were sent off with smiles and good luck wishes . We took the smaller roads to Bhuj , enjoying the time afforded by the enforced slower pace to take in the views and reflect on the adventure of the past few days . Gujarat was a place of extremes . The dry landscape had been both an unexpectedly fun playground and a thorny , hostile desert . The remoteness of Gujarat poses its own challenges to the motorcycle traveller , but the boundless generosity and ingenuity of the people here makes everything possible . They had been immensely helpful and kind to us , going out of their way , and even breaking a few rules , just to help a couple of strangers . MS
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