Very-ee-naazzz-ee

Some shots of Varanasi while floating upon the Ganges at dawn. Pilgrims lined the shore washing their sins away, funeral pyres burned the recently deceased on their way to Moksha and the sun rose behind us and lit up the sky. Pretty cool.

This goat was also there to wash away his sins. Or just hang out.

20 hours later, Darjeeling!

I'm on the Night Train...

To Chennai - tonight we take long distance train No.2 for a 8-9ish hour ride across mountains and valleys, through the darkness of nighttime India to the Eastern Coastal city of Chennai. From there, we have precious few hours to kill overnight in the Chennai airport before a drastically early flight to Port Blair in the Andamans.

I (Eliot) really look forward to the methods of travel, sometimes more so than the destination. Riding on trains, planes, buses, trucks, rickshaws, bikes, cars, elephants, it's all just a way of getting from one place to another, but I often enjoy it more than staying in one destination for several days. Maybe it's the inherent multi-tasking involved (getting from A to B and seeing stuff along the way), or maybe it's just the romance of alighting from your home to some place new. I don't know, but it really tickles my travel glands. Wherever those are located.

More photos and stories to come - now, time for Rock n Roll choo-choo!

Greetings from Goa

Eliot and I came to Goa on saturday the 6th and have stayed here ever since. for two nights with stayed Horrible Harold the landlord at the Comfort Inn. The place was amazing, and the manager wasn't sooo bad, just really gruff and weird. He looked just like Chuck Hughes, for those in the know. lots of cool pictures of frank frazetta-esque female araby around. pretty great, actually.

on monday morning, i awoke at 7:00 from the most recent in a strange series of dreams i've been having with the resolve to lay the past to rest, and ride my nards off biking and working hard to explore this wonderful country.  we set (not sail. wheels?) for the north beaches which are an old hippy strong hold that apparently went the way of the club / dance scene and then collapsed leaving ... well, accounts vary. we went to investigate.

passing the festival of something-or-other in several small towns along the way, we came a beautiful beach in an area called (i kid you not) "Disco Valley." don't let the name fool you - the beaches were pristine, the fort on the cliff was impressive, and the accomdation prices were gringo-riffic but there was no boogie-oogie-oogie happin' here. in fact, all the little beach communities in the north were dominated by, as eliot put it, "a scene." i called them "no-good doped up smelly hippies." take your pick. 

tarnation, but there were hippies everywhere. and not the cool, lord of rings reading, plastic-fantastic fightin', fun loving ex-hippies of yesteryear. ooooh no, these were the nappy-dreaded, "like whoah, man," euro-trashy hippies that haunt beaches and forested music venues like plauge rats on a galley. we were bit off-put, as you may be able to gleam from my description, especially since our previous experiences revolved around locals, cheap eats, good conversation and exploration. we just didn't feel like settling down into an established tourist scene and "passing the doobie on the left side" you know?

so we biked back to panaji only to find our room had been taken. shucks! we looked around and found an almost-equally as good room right around the corner. we rested up.

today we took a self-destructive 80+km roundtrip to margao to buy train tickets to go to bangalore on thursday. that will take us deep into the heart of the country to the "silicon valley of India." should be interesting! not only do we have a family to stay with for a few days (thanks so much Samuel, Danny and Soya!) but our buddy seth arrives in the wee hours of saturday to join us! soon we will be a trio, and we'll be ditching the bikes when he arrives so look for more adventures by foot, boat and (fingers crossed) jet-propelled rocket pack.

until then, we are resolved to day trip out of the city, seeing beaches and wildlife preserves while we soak up the sun and eat well in panaji. our accomadations are excellent, the tourist trade through the town drives food prices down and we can bike away from the city to some of the most untouched stretches of beach in asia. it's been a nice break and definetite change of pace from "MUST GO SOUTH" all the time. still, sedentiary is not our style, as today's massive bike journey proved, but day trips keep the exploration in while giving us "home base" or a place we know we can return to at night.

keep peddling, ghost-followers.

Greetings from ???

not quite sure where we are, but we have a hotel and an internet cafe. covered an insane 90+km today!!! we're definetly getting the hang of this - biking longer, faster and with more food and water on the bikes than we can consume. budget has been wrangled in.

i started my 25th birthday at sunrise in a field in india, biked nearly 100km and am crashing in a hotel with a cold beer, american movies and the knowledge that, this year at least, i did exactly what i wanted on my birthday.

lots of love to everyone back home and thanks so much for the birthday greetins! transcribed three posts from the iphone over to the blog so you guys have something to read. pictures and at least three more blogs coming up in two or three days when we hit Goa.

enjoy the posts and stay in touch!

maharastra by bus

yesterday we awoke on the beach, packed up and made tracks to Srivrahndan.  after breakfast and water refill, we found out that we could on, in fact, take a ferry accross the creek to continue south but had to catch a mus to mahad and from there get a bus to Diapoli.

a quick note: the guide books don't mention Srivrahdan, but it is one of the cleanest, most organized and friendliest littles towns we're visited. eager help from the locals, great chai, cheap eats and a pristine hidden beach just 1 km from the roundabout at the big tree.  we got the impression that tourist very extremely rare.  we were treated with exceptional care, but the gem is the town itself: clean streest, wide ravines running infront of each well kept house.  idyllic.  if you happen to be in the area, check it out. the beach would be perfect for camping and i'm sure the locals would oblige.  highly recommended.

we bused to mahad and waited for two hours for the next bus which too us to Ratnigir in four hours.  we opted to use bus travel as both a day of rest from the four previous days of 6-9 hours biking, and a good way to cover difficult terrain quickly.  in all we made it 100km down the coast.

the nightbus was terrifying and exciting.  no lights, inside the bus or on the road it seemed. occasionally the headlights of an oncoming cargo truck, a snap swerve to avoid the collision, skirting a cliff gave and then back to total darkness. eliot and i opted to listen to music through earphones to keep ourselves distracted.

we got off the bus in Ratnigiri with no idea of where to stay or go.  in the dim mercury-lamp glow of the bus station parking lot we loaded up the bikes, stray dogs and znoozing beggars watching. we were hopeful - if our time here in india has taught us anything, it's that when you hit bottom, india will provide something for you.  you must have faith that thigns will be okay, and then they will be. so, with trepedation we put our feet to the pedals.  rats scattered. dogs and cows featsted together on waste and trash in the streets, as we headed into the Ratnigiri night.


... only to hear a familiar voice calling "Hello, my friends!" we looked over to find Daniel, our Alsacian friend from the previous morning standing before a hotel not 30 yards from the bus station, lazily pulling on a cigarette with two friends. he tells us that he's staying in the hotel there, very cheap and clean, convenient and safe.  we pull in, pay a scant 416Rs and head around the corner and up some stairs into a shady, blown out bar where we pick up a couple bottles of beer. back in Daniel's room, we sit on the balcony over looking the closed shops and the streets full of grabage and smelling of human and animal waste. we spend the rest of the evening there, talking politics, film and wine over kingfisher beer and beedies. the whole time we shake our heads and think "what are the odds?"

india is magic.

stalling for time

another post to let you know we're a-o-k here in india. we haven't found wi-fi yet but when we do you'll be ablt to catch up on the rest of the first incredible week including:

* the time we were rescued by the Indian Ernest Hemingway!

* the harrrowing adventure of Daniel the Alsacian!

* The mighty HILLS of India!

*the NIGHT OF THE GECKOOOOOOOO!

and

* Beach Bash Summer Sleep Away India 2010

stay tuned dear readers! we promise we're not dead or lazy!

Hills and Sea

we biked from the sea beach about 3km to the port. we caught breakfast at the sea rock and there, we met Daniel, a charming Alsacian journalist. it was nice to converse in english for a hwhile and a good break for us. daniel took some pictures of us, and us with him, and we bid farewell. we took some masala for the road.

because they wouldn't let us take our bikes to the fort, we skipped it and opted instead to spend rs24 on a ferry across the bay to Dige. the ferry ride was great. i relaxed in the sun atop the boat while eliot sat nearby playing his yukele for the locals. as i lounged, i watched the impregnable pirate fortress janjira slip by us.

from dige south, the road is beautiful. marsh land, big trees, monkeys, lots of cattle.  the folks here are simple, rural types.  they usually glare at you until you wave, then smile big toothy grins and wave back. they usually shout something like "hello john!" "how are you?" "happy journey!" sometimes we get all three rapid fire. stopping to ask for directions frequently leads us down from small town to small town. we dipped to and away from the coast, lazily cycling the back roads where gringos are rare.

we climbed some seious hills with poor road conditions late in the day. we stopped in a small town and a young girl ran back and forth from her snack stall filling up water bottles for us. these last hills were brutal. the highlight was meeting a knife sharpener, whose services we accepted. the hills soon crested and we coasted down a lond hill that spilled out onto the beach road just before a tiny town. we pulled over and pitched a tent after eating chala masala from our tins.

later, we made a small fire on the sand and talked for a few hours about sailing, old friends, summer camp and learning to drive. lots of things. it was good to just talk for a while without biking. read for a while by our smallbike lamps and then fell asleep to the sound of the approaching tide.