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.
Showing posts with label the price is oh so right. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the price is oh so right. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
New Fotographias!
Eliot here, with a dump of neuvo photos for your waiting eyes. These range from the first few days in Mumbai down to just a few days before we bopped into Goa just days ago. As we reach closer and closer to the 2-week mark, reflecting back on things we've done and things we've seen, it feels like a year. I can barely remember Holi, much less arriving and feeling that first breath of fat, humid air smack me in the face. Stellar.
New buds in Alibag.
Injury: gnarly.
Lordy Lordy, it is hot here.
Some pieces missing from the rebuild.
Refreshment at the Gate of India
And these guys were loading their jugs with water for their boats and ships across the waterfront. Maybe a little more interesting than the Gate.
The most beautiful Royal Enfield either of us has ever seen. Yet.
Don't touch me, bro. Rickshaws! Like Vespa plus Tilt-a-Whirl! Awesome!More photos to come soon! Uploading on local computers requires a measure of patience and enlightenment that our Indian visit has yet to instill in me, so in the meantime I'll just sip some chai. Namaste.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Drew & Eliot beyond Ratnigiri-dome
after chai with the Alsacian contigent, we bid farewell with plans to meet in Goa in three days. that means some heavy biking for me and eliot, so we stock up on quinoa, lentils and masala sauce from the local market. we purchase a bar of tide to wash clothing with that night. seriously: we stink.
we walked over to a restuarant for more tea and chai. there, a cow arrives on the doorstep and moos. a man from the kitchen feeds it some bread and pats it's "third eye", before the cow proceeds to urinate all over the entrance to the restuarant not 15 feet from us. we exchange glances. wether this is a blessing or a curse depends entirely on which side of the pacific you come from. recall that cows are revered and furthermore, hinduism generally believes that the fienst souls get reincarnated as cows, to spend their lives wandering the country and eating what is given to them. we see a cow pissing in a resturaunt. this guy sees a holy man or a wise woman who has chosen to grace this place with his presence. perspective, folks. gotta have it.
back in the room, i try to true my awfully untrued bike wheel only to mess it up even more. a few minutes of cursing loudly subsides when we journey to the local bike walla to have the thing professionall fixed. he trues the wheel with much bemoaning and dirisive laughter. i don't speak hindi, but i'm pretty sure when we walked up and handed him the wheel he muttured something like "blankety-blank gringos." (a note: walla here means "guy or person" as in chai walla, bike walla, plumbing walla, computer walla, etc. it has also become a term me and eliot use for any thing jury-rigged into working like, say, our poorly strapped bags on our bikes. eg: "wow, using duct tape to seal a wound? way to walla that, dude.") running late on our departure, we head to the cyber cafe and send some e-mail out to friends and family.
ratnigiri is not a pretty town. it's big, smells awful and has nothing to offer in tourism, even the guide book says so. what it doesn't mention though that you should know, is that it is the best place on the Kohkin coast to resupply. food, soap, clothing, shoes - there are shops of all kinds here and the rates are very reasonable. internet is plentiful and hotels and services are very cheap. there are fruit markets (for the brave) and beer. find a cheap room, refuel and then get back on the road. the aluminum siding walls hastily erected around blown-up concrete buildings, trashfires and rats brazingly feasting in the road makes this place seem more like a set piece from Mad Max that a sleepy Indian village. I spent a week in Ratnigiri one night, if you know what i mean.
when we finally did get on the road, we discovered that we had to take the inland highway (#17) and couldn't stay on the coast without battling the headache of negotiating ferries and days spent going to and from the national highway anyway. we were a little bummed, and not looking forward to what we thought we be at least three days of climbing the Ghats. but when we started the ride, we found that the day of rest and good eating had paid off. plus, the roads were exceptionally maintained, traffic was not too badand there were many watering holes along the way.
we practically flew up and down hills all day on our way south. we would be climbing for some ten or fiften minutes straing, only to crest a hill and coast for five minutes or so at 30+ mph. brilliant riding through gorgeous mountains (if severly technical - we moved up and down the gears all day). we even stopped for water at the office of a land developer who gave us tea and showed us around his property. he gave us advice on the best time to buy alphonse mangoes (see our food week article for more on that) and invited us to coem back and see him anytime - particularly in may when the mangoes would be best.
we rode another hour and made camp on soe unused land in a village. as ever, the locals were very interested in who we were, what we were doing, etc. after a while, the dispersed and we settled into sleep.
we walked over to a restuarant for more tea and chai. there, a cow arrives on the doorstep and moos. a man from the kitchen feeds it some bread and pats it's "third eye", before the cow proceeds to urinate all over the entrance to the restuarant not 15 feet from us. we exchange glances. wether this is a blessing or a curse depends entirely on which side of the pacific you come from. recall that cows are revered and furthermore, hinduism generally believes that the fienst souls get reincarnated as cows, to spend their lives wandering the country and eating what is given to them. we see a cow pissing in a resturaunt. this guy sees a holy man or a wise woman who has chosen to grace this place with his presence. perspective, folks. gotta have it.
back in the room, i try to true my awfully untrued bike wheel only to mess it up even more. a few minutes of cursing loudly subsides when we journey to the local bike walla to have the thing professionall fixed. he trues the wheel with much bemoaning and dirisive laughter. i don't speak hindi, but i'm pretty sure when we walked up and handed him the wheel he muttured something like "blankety-blank gringos." (a note: walla here means "guy or person" as in chai walla, bike walla, plumbing walla, computer walla, etc. it has also become a term me and eliot use for any thing jury-rigged into working like, say, our poorly strapped bags on our bikes. eg: "wow, using duct tape to seal a wound? way to walla that, dude.") running late on our departure, we head to the cyber cafe and send some e-mail out to friends and family.
ratnigiri is not a pretty town. it's big, smells awful and has nothing to offer in tourism, even the guide book says so. what it doesn't mention though that you should know, is that it is the best place on the Kohkin coast to resupply. food, soap, clothing, shoes - there are shops of all kinds here and the rates are very reasonable. internet is plentiful and hotels and services are very cheap. there are fruit markets (for the brave) and beer. find a cheap room, refuel and then get back on the road. the aluminum siding walls hastily erected around blown-up concrete buildings, trashfires and rats brazingly feasting in the road makes this place seem more like a set piece from Mad Max that a sleepy Indian village. I spent a week in Ratnigiri one night, if you know what i mean.
when we finally did get on the road, we discovered that we had to take the inland highway (#17) and couldn't stay on the coast without battling the headache of negotiating ferries and days spent going to and from the national highway anyway. we were a little bummed, and not looking forward to what we thought we be at least three days of climbing the Ghats. but when we started the ride, we found that the day of rest and good eating had paid off. plus, the roads were exceptionally maintained, traffic was not too badand there were many watering holes along the way.
we practically flew up and down hills all day on our way south. we would be climbing for some ten or fiften minutes straing, only to crest a hill and coast for five minutes or so at 30+ mph. brilliant riding through gorgeous mountains (if severly technical - we moved up and down the gears all day). we even stopped for water at the office of a land developer who gave us tea and showed us around his property. he gave us advice on the best time to buy alphonse mangoes (see our food week article for more on that) and invited us to coem back and see him anytime - particularly in may when the mangoes would be best.
we rode another hour and made camp on soe unused land in a village. as ever, the locals were very interested in who we were, what we were doing, etc. after a while, the dispersed and we settled into sleep.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Mumbai, mi amor part II
After the helpful advice from the Indian call center we stumbled into we found our way to the India tourism office and a man who gave Shilpa a run for her money in terms of helpfulness - Rakesh.
Not only did he patiently wait for an hour, himouring our every request, but he gave us loads of maps and recommended hotels for our entire journey! Lots of advice on how to deal with folks, where to camp and how people will just take care of us.
Went to the grocer, saw the Gate, chatted with some merchants and shared our snacks (they looooove foreigners who love their food. apparently most don't? Schloobs.), ate again, got pan with a doctor of chemical engineering (more on this later!) and caught the train back at peak time - the pictures don't do this fact justice but think cattle car (or dokow train. Too soon?).
Pan Walla - more on this later.
A fine "Givson" guitar for sale.
Mumbai, mi amor
Well here we are. India. Two or more years ago Eliot and I started talkin about a trip and, through an intense year of planning and talking (especially the last four months) we're here where we said we were going. That alone is further than a lot of plans make it and I want to take the opportunity to pat myself and Eliot on our respective backs. So patted, let's talk about today.
Our tiny hotel room is where the tale begins. After two sink showers (the shower head is abysmmal nevermind that there is no shower area, just a head in the middle of the wall), we caught a rickshaw out to the train station. There is so much to say that I don't know how to sum it up ... I
Imagine a managerie on the move. There are elephants ( buses), maybe some rhinos (trucks), oxen (vans), tigers (taxis, cars), gazelles perhaps (rickshaws), rabbits (motorcycles), and squirrels (bicycles). There are also horses (horses) and cows (cows) but nevermind those fir the moment. So this big managerie just cruises down the road with no rules, no lanes (animals, remember?) just lumbering along. Big things go I. Big places, small things go in small places. If you see a gap and cut in front of everyone just to nearly collide head first into someone else, almost crush a few pedestrians by going up on a curb and just manage to slip into a space, well that's par for the course. I AM NOT EXAGERATING. we passed within inches of buses and taxis more than once. And not like "I could have reached out and touch the car" close. like "had my knee been barely poking out of the rickshaw I wouldn't have a leg" close.
On to the train station where we confidently purchased our tickets and were on our way ... In the complete opposite direction from our destination we soon found out. After much asking around and looking like total gringos we met the goddess of helpfulness, grace, patience and gringo-tolerance: Shilpa. This young Indian maid not only helped us buy tickets, she boarded the train with us and rode a few stops to make sure we were going the right way. Her reply to our over zealous thank you's? With a big smile: "it's in my nature ... I have no choice." genuinely beautiful.
Bless you, Shilpa.
Once we disembarked, we cruised around downtown Mumbai looking for the Indian tourism bureau that our hotel had recommended. We grabbed some food and went from one shop to the next trying to find this place. Eventuallyvwe ended up in travel call center and they put us right on track. As in America, when you need help with something it seems that eventually you'll end up talking to an Indian call center.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
4 Days to Go-Time
Here's a summary of Eliot's countdown week:
Yesterday: We weighed our checked luggage (see: bag of pannier bags) at Kinkos FedEx ( the guy there really gave us the hairy eyeball, too) - after a quick wager between Drew and I about the total cumulative weight of our non-bike stuff (he said 40-something, I said over 50 lbs), the bags came out to just about 41 lbs. Point Drew - he's definitely going to the showcase-showdown now.
Last night: Fabulous party at Cameron's folks' house (your Mom is a premium dancer). Ended up in a very cold swimming pool. Good night, amen.
Tonight: Put my bike and anything else under 50 lbs in the giant shipping box that we'll be using to check our bags on our Emirates flight to Dubai in 4 days.
4 DAYS!!!!!!! HOLYMOLYROLYPOLY!!!
Tomorrow and Tuesday: Breakfast at Chuy's with Grandfather, dominoes and Trivial Pursuit with Grandmother, quality time with Merlin.
Wednesday: Hop a bus to Houston, meet with my cousins and spend the night. More Trivial Pursuit, hopefully.
Thursday: AIRPORT!!!! Adios, 'mer-cuh, hola Dubai and India-na-na-na-na-na-na
Time's up, let's do this!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)