Go go Goa!
A happy 2008 from Arambol, Goa, Idia 
After some marvelous days in Pokhara I headed for Royal Bardia National Park together with Johannes, a German cyclist I know from Kyrgyzstan, and it was great fun to cycle with him again.
The road to the Terai plains was steep and followed the slopes of the mountains from one valley to another (Nepalis don’t like to build bridges) through small villages full with friendly Nepalis and namaste shouting and jumping kids. After a few days we said goodbye to the Himalaya on the back-horizon and the landscape slowly changed with wide views over the Terai. Upon reaching Butwal at the edge of the Terai cycling became easier as the road was good and flat like a pancake. The roads lead through rice fields and wild jungles full with the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen and LOTS of monkeys. The jungle is littered with small villages and in this remote part of Nepal the people and especially the children are VERY curious and in every village we stopped we were immediately surrounded by big crowds, so it was a big circus 24h a day with us in the ring
Upon reaching Bardia National Park we took some days of to relax and to visit the park, the biggest of its kind in Nepal. The second day we went rafting on the big river flowing through the park and we were really lucky that day as we saw the rare Gangic Dolphin, a wild elephant and tons of birds, deer and monkeys (Macaques and Lemur).
The next day Johannes took it easy and I went with the hotel owner for a jungle walk hoping to find the illustrious tiger, rhino and wild elephant. We were not so lucky though although we found a big Python (I almost sat on it, easy bate) and tiger and jackal tracks and lots of deer. The afternoon I had a ride on an elephant as this enables me to travel deep into the jungle and to access places I could not reach by walking. We found tracks from crocodiles and rhino’s but the animals themselves probably laughed at us behind the bushes as we could not find them. Better luck next time.
From Bardia it was only 3 days to the border and the roads became more and more crowded and most of the days we were followed by hordes of cyclists taking us over and vise versa (you just CAN’T beat a world cyclist ). This game would repeat itself each village and though it was great fun it became very tiring in the end and in the evening we were more than happy to turn into a hotel and after squatting 20+ mosquitoes we fell asleep.
When we approached the border we saw more and more signs of maoist activity (checkpoints and camps) but we just said namaste as we flew by the baffled maoist kiddies towards India. The border crossing at was easy and on the 16th we set feet on Indian’s sticky goo (it’s definitely NOT soil).
So welcome to NUTHOUSE India!
Our goal was Goa as there we were supposed to meet our cycling friends for Christmas and the first two days we cycled through the sugar cane filled planes of northern India on pothole roads filled with suicidal Indian drivers, cows, dogs, tuk tuks towards Bareilly. But as Christmas was approaching fast and because of all the traffic we decided to take the train to Delhi and after loading our bicycles into the train in Bareilly we headed for Delhi, the capital of Nutsistan (better known as India). There the problems started as we wanted to depart at the same day for Bombay and because of this we did not have time to buy our ticket as the station as the rows at the counters are long enough to raise a family while you wait. So I decided to buy a ticket at one of the shady “tourist offices” opposite the station” and I managed to arrange the tickets there. However, though they are fully legal, they RIP YOU OF BIG TIME if you are not careful so BEWARE (I paid 10E to much).
The next obstacle was to load our bicycles on the train as it was already full when we arrived but they promised us to load them on the same train we were traveling with (never believe an Indian) but upon arrival at 1 o’ clock in Mombay after a 26h (!) ride there were no bikes!
Then the circus started but good. They told us that the bikes were on the train arriving at 5 in the morning so after a short nap at the station we returned but no bikes. Now the bikes would be on the next train arriving at 10 but again no bikes. This “game” continued day long with wrong and contradicting information day long (Indians just don’t know what they do or say, they are a bunch of chaotic kids) but finally, after more than 12h waiting, at 10’ clock in the evening our bicycles arrived safely, hooray I made a recording of the Mombay station circus so have fun!
The next day we cycled for more than 70km through Mombay and the surrounding cities on our way to Goa. Mombay (20 million inhabitants!) is a huge stinky collection of slums and apartment buildings filled with stinking traffic crisscrossing the roads and in the afternoon we were thus covered in a thick layer of soot. Finding a hotel was more difficult than expected as we were only allowed to stay in hotels “appointed for foreigners”. Now, that’s just GREAT as these hotels are far in between and we were tired but we managed to find a cheap lodge in the end. So in India they do not only discriminate their own people (caste system) but also the visitors! I don’t mind paying more than the locals but 10 times as much, what do they think!?
As we got fed up with this, the traffic, the heat and as I had “problems” again we took a truck for the final part to Goa and with Christmas evening we arrived in Arambol at the shores of the Indian Ocean.
Arambol is a relaxed (woodbe) hippy and rasta village and a place of drugs, drugs and rockn’ roll (and more drugs) so in the evening it’s best to stay away from the beach as it full with high/low/trance and whatnot wannabe rastas and hippies. During the day however it’s a great place to hang out and the last days I relaxed under the palm trees, updated the website (always a LOT of work but I like to take you with me on the journey ) and celebrated Christmas with my cycling friends but, although nice, I missed my friends and family a lot (so you know )
Yesterday I organized my ticket back home as for me my cycling days and adventures are almost over as I will fly back home on January 9th and will arrive in Dusseldorf at January 10th at 10:30 with flight TK1523 (Turkish Airlines). From there I will travel to my parents for a few weeks of acclimation (culture shock!) and in February I plan to be in Germany again as my thesis and a lot of paperwork is awaiting me.
In the meantime I will cycle back to Mombay following a (hopefully) quieter road so stay tuned and perhaps the next update will be from the Netherlands! In the meantime enjoy the pictures from Nepal and India. I’m off to the cliffs to take some pics of the sea life so Namaskar!
Marc
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