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Published: November 16th 2006
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Leaving Pokhara
Goodbye to the mighty Himalayas Leaving Nepal
After completing the trek and relaxing in Pokhara for a day or two we decided we had better leave Nepal before our visas ran out. We boarded a bus to Sunauli (on the border with India). We bid farewell to the Himalayas and we were treated to one last glimpse of the snow capped mountains from the bus station.
The 7-hour coach journey could have been worse. Though Pete already cramped in the Nepalese size chairs had a "business class passenger" in front of him who decided he could put his seat in a near horizontal position with his head virtually resting in Pete's lap. Despite Pete's protestations it took a few hours on the bumpy roads and several 'accidental' knocks on the back of his seat before he found the lever to move it slightly more upright.
Arriving in Sunauli.... well, a hotel 3km from Sunauli and the border. The bus driver wanted to stay there and get his commission.
The next day we took a very over-loaded cyclo-rickshaw (with wheels getting more buckled by the second) to the border and crossed back into India.
Never-ending journey continues...
From Sunauli we
102kg?!?
Anyone would think by their reaction this was heavy!!! managed to eventually find the bus which would take us to Gorakhpur. Getting there first we thought we were lucky getting seats on the back where we could keep an eye on our bags and relax. However after an hour of waiting to leave the bus became very full and, as they tried to squeeze a seventh passenger onto the back row with us, we realised it was going to be a long journey.
We were glad to reach what we thought was Gorakhpur, but our excitement was short lived as we had stopped on the outskirts of the city. After following the locals, we soon saw why we had stopped. The bridge (we guess the only bridge into the city) had a huge hole in the middle where people were furiously scrubbing the reinforcement. We cautiously stepped round it and luckily found another bus that would take us to the station.
If you ever think of buying a ticket at an Indian station, think again and consider paying a tourist agency to do it for you. We spent an hour waiting in the queue, where you had to fight, lean and cajole your way to the front
Benaulim Beach
Bringing in the nets. Spot the fish???? and wave your form to the ticket seller. This was made worse when the office closed for 15 minutes when we had nearly reached the front to change shifts. Eventually we just got the last 2 tickets in air-con sleeper class on the 16:50 to Delhi.
The station platform was rammed full of people, cows, mutilated dogs, and piles of rubbish all apparently waiting for the train to Delhi. We dropped our bags and joined them. There was an Indian family nearby and the father kept sending over his 8 and 9 year old boys to ask us questions. They were very sweet and quite funny. On the platform was a weight machine with flashing neon lights, costly a rupee. Both boys had a go and got a print out of their weights. They encouraged us to have a go too. Unfortunately, we only had one rupee coin. Ang kindly let Pete use it. He climbed onto the flashing machine, paid his rupee and out popped his ticket. Within moments the boys were over and asking to see his ticket. Pete proudly said 102kg, having lost nearly a stone during the trip so far. The boys initially were shocked
Palolem Beach
Yes, it was as good as it looks... and, after verifying with the ticket, they closed their gawping mouths, whipped the ticket from Pete's hand and whooped with hilarity over to their parents. The father's eyes bulged with disbelief before he and his wife started chuckling. We were pleased to cause such a distraction to the bored passengers on the platform.
The train arrived and we were pleased to find our beds in the lovely air con, full but not cramped carriage. We clambered onto our beds, bought some eggless bread omelettes from a passing vendor and settled into card games, reading and then sleep-ish. On arrival back in Delhi we returned to our "favourite" main bazaar area, found a room and headed straight for an airlines office to book a flight with "SpiceJet" to Goa. Delhi hadn't changed much since we were gone - still nice people, money-grabbing people and half the population choosing to urinate in the street (the other half are female). Smelly Delhi. Del-wee. We thought of many names.
Goa'ing to Palolem
SpiceJet safely got us to Goa where we promptly arrived and left Benaulim beach (too many retired Brits reminding us of Torquay) and headed for beautiful Palolem beach.
With palm-fringed beaches and a bamboo beach hut we had everything we needed. We even got a cheap hut as guest houses either side of us were under construction - soon the hammering and drilling blended in with the waves crashing on the beach. We did little other than read and eat (mostly seafood on beach barbeques) although Ang did spend 2 days in bed groaning with a very dodgy stomach (more weight loss though!Yippee!).
During the evenings at the hut we had various visits by hoppers. These ranged from little bugs to grass hoppers. The peak of the bug excitement was "Big Hopper". He looked like a grasshopper but with the addition of a rather large spike/stinger under his body and the ability to jump from wall to wall like something from the Matrix. After hiding behind the wall and squirting water at him, Pete came up with a better plan involving a bucket and polythene bag and we successfully managed to evict him (after he had chewed Pete's only razor first - not that he's used it much).
After 6 books in 6 days we managed to drag ourselves away from this tropical paradise. Easy considering
HOPPER
The ginger hairs on Pete's razor are a delicacy for hoppers our destination was Kerala.
We were a little concerned about our looming train journey to Kerala as we had not managed to get beds booked in the air con section of the sleeper train. We had vague recollections of carriages looking like cattle-transporters from our train to Delhi. Getting on the train we found our bunks and relaxed. It did smell a bit and there were some cockroaches but otherwise a reasonable home for the next 15 hours. The journey did seem slow but we got some sleep. We got chatting to the people opposite us. They were very friendly and were concerned that we had eaten very little so kept trying to offer us food. We were reluctant to eat too much - not wanting to spend any longer than we had to tending to our already dodgy stomachs in the train toilet - an empty stomach is a happy stomach.
Arriving in Kerala we made our way to Fort Cochin where we are now living in a "homestay" which is clean, friendly and, more importantly, bug free.
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