Oh india....

We reluctantly left our beach front room to board a night bus to a small town of Hampi.
We arrived at the "bus stop" very early cause we had nothin else to do...and met two pairs heading to bangalore...two different bus companies...but both were due for departure at 730pm. By 8, neither of the buses had shown up. Shortly after the one company's bus rolled right past the stop without slowing down. Thankfully,  the girls managed to catch it. Then the other pair's bus rolled by after 9pm and didnt slow down, despite the dude waving the bus down!!! So then they had to wait until the next bus who picked them up and met them with their proper bus at the next stop!!!
Our experience: several buses from the same company came by but none for Hampi.  Finally an hour late a decrepit looking bus rolls in. The men running the bus didnt seem to have a clue what they were doing. Then a second nicer bus rolls up and then the dude realizes half the people going to Hampi were on that nicer (aka. A.c.) bus. We get to our spots after another couple vacated to the other bus to find two single sized strips side by side to make a double.  No curtain. Bent rail. Drunk russian below us. Excellent.
We did manage to snag same deal but with a curtain across the way but sleeping on a moving bus, crammed side by side did not equal any sleep for me.
Chocking that one up as experience.
But.....we did arrive in a fantastic little location.  A large spread out area of ruins of a hindu nation fron the 16th century.  Amazing stone work and temples galore!  All tucked in among banana fields, rice fields,  and a lovely river running among some amazing monolithic rocks!!
We spent the day wandering these ruins and are now spent! Few more hrs tomorrow to finish it off and we'll be on the train to Hyderabad! !!

Goa

After the business and rush of Mumbai, we headed south to goa. An overnight train on a bunk barely wide enough for a person....but the coffee and chai were readily available and cheaper than chips. (They love to say that here...thank you england for the influence ;)
We found ourselves with a beach front room, literally steps from the water. The room is simple but cheap and the surf puts us to sleep each night.
The water is a perfect temperature and the soft sand is throughout the bay. Sure...its filled with tourists but this bay still manages to be quiet and underdeveloped, with simple beach huts and rooms lining the beach. No high rises or big resorts.
I kayaked out to a small island and along the coast dotted with secluded little beaches a couple of times. We had fresh tandoori fish , dining right on the beach. We swam. we sat on lounge chairs under an umbrella. We basked in the warm sun.

Today, however I did something different.  I hired one of many royal enfield motorcycles and went for a ride into the mountain jungle. It was a narrow winding road where you never knew what you would get around each corner. A lori passing a car on a corner; a brightly painted temple; a couple of cows; people walking with huge piles of wood or water on their heads; a monkey. ...
I stopped at a tower lookout near the top of the mtn, where a van full of men happened to also be taking a break. After a nice view of the valley below I head back to the bike...and have no starter. Within a couple of tries on the kick start, I was surrounded by this gaggle of men jabbering away. With their insisted help, we got the bike started and I was on my way again. Later on down the road, I stop for a cold drink. And the bike won't start again. This time the kick start won't work and I enlisted the help of a standerby to push start the thing up again.
At this point I have lost trust in the bike and head back without another stop. Despite the failed bike, I really quite enjoyed the ride...and even the traffic that doesn't seem to follow any rules other than "bigger is better and gets right of way".
A lovely relaxing spot to chill before we head to Hyderabad to start work. 

First lesson

The first lesson we learned in mumbai is that everything can be found by walking straight; five mins. Every single set of directions, when asked was "walking straight. 5 mins".
Even when it wasn't. 

We have now spent 4 days tramping around the streets and neighbourhoods. We have seen everything from posh new high rises to colonial british buildings to the poorest slums in the world. We watched thousands of men doing loads of laundry in the outdoor washermans colony "Dhobighat". We saw muslim mosques and hindu temples. More colourful saris than we can count!
The city practically vibrates with people,  horns, black and yellow taxis, dogs some goats in t-shirts and a few cows. 

I even got the chance to meet up with a gorgeous couple I met ice climbing on a glacier in alaska (as you do) for an evening out. We had drinks at a local watering hole and a delicious meal with these yogurt filled pastries being the favourite.

We braved the city trains (which ended up being way easier than we expected) to another up and coming suburb to check out some graffiti. 

We took a ferry over to an island with caves filled with ancient carvings of hindu deities.  on the way back however, our motor broke on the ferry qnd we sat drifting for about hald an hour until another ferry came along and pulled us back to the harbour. 

The air never really clears up. The locals walk on the road with all the crazy traffic instead of the footpaths. (We have managed to get pretty good at dodging traffic as we cross these busy streets. )  pedestrians are very low on the totem pole of importance on the roads. But even the constant honking and weaving and zipping around each other on the roads didn't seem to bother us much. The red lights and lane lines are merely a sugeestion and frankly. ...I think I could quite enjoy driving here! ;)

We loved our little restaurant at the bottom of the hotel where the only english speaker was a manager who always took care of us. Chapati bread, boiled eggs and curd (local yogurt) was our breakfast usual. The small cups of chai for 2 pennies is refreshing and delicious and readily available just about anywhere. 

The beginning of things

Today we both commented that our entry to india was so smooth and uneventful,  it felt eerie.

But I'll back up.

First we followed a blizzard to new york and spent a day in a freeeeeeezing NYC! But perfect excuse for a broadway matinee.

Our 14 hr flight to Mumbai got us in a bit early and much to our surprise, breezed thru immigration and customs without so much as a glance in our direction.
What we expected as chaos turned into a quiet but long wait for our luggage and both pieces arrived...in tact! Which is always a victory in my mind!
We even prepaid for a taxi, lined up in a quiet cue waiting for a customers voucher (vs the haggling and bombardment we are used to getting at other airports around the world)
Our driver got us to our hotel without straying/getting lost which is another victory! And to top the night off we were shown to our hotel room straight away which was exactly as we had reserved. The final victory in a very long journey.

Today has been an excellent day of wandering thru a fish market first thing in the am when we were attempting to find sonewhere to buy a SIM card for our phones ! Finding a posh organic coffee shop for lunch where we convinced the poor young bloke we were French. Wandering thru street stall markets and poshy artisan shops. And seeing the amazing but seriously out of place english architecture from the old british empire.
I loved the brightly coloured women in saris, the warm sun and the hot chai. I might change my story in a few weeks but today.... it wasnt nearly as overwhelming as I thought it would be. The streets are surprisingly clean , the people are generally polite, the traffice seems perfectly tolerable (even crossing the big roads on foot!) And the smells really havent been that bad.

So all in all we're still a bit weary but in good spirits from our first day.

another new beginning

It is with an open heart and mind, I embark on the latest of adventures in this amazing life I get to call my own. 

Jan, 27th we (rosemary; a nursing friend of mine) will board a plane to Mumbai, India. We will be volunteering in India with an NGO "Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration" (twoworldscancer.ca) for a total of 11wks, aiming to bring knowledge of palliative care to the health care professionals in India and Nepal. 

I will attempt to keep this as up to date as I can; sharing the journey for those that wish to hear/read/join/see.

so stay tuned.... mark this page... keep an eye on facebook....

it shall surely be an adventure!

R