Blogs from Gokarna, Karnataka, India, Asia

Well now Gokarna. It was an interesting place to get to and I met some great people! The overnight 'delux' sleeper bus was supposed to be a special treat really for the journey from hampi to Gokarna. Getting to Hampi on the hard plastic chair of the standard public bus for 10hrs had not been comfortable in any way so i thought it was an investment to get a nights sleep on the trip back to the coast... What I had not counted on was the 'delux' bus being full of cockroaches! And the part where they dumped all the people not headed to Goa (to Gokarna) in the middle of nowhere by the road at 2am to wait for an uncomfortable minibus to come collect us. Of course of the said minibus, the driver was ... read more

9 Mars 2012, Gokarna, Karnataka Namasté! On a terminé notre semaine à Palolem avec un verre de vin rouge indien. C’était disons… correct. Le clou de ma soirée a plutôt été la comparaison entre notre guide Lonely Planet et celui de nos voisins israéliens, rédigé en hébreu. C’est fascinant comme écriture! Ils écrivent de la droite vers la gauche, sens également dans lequel on tourne les pages. Par conséquent, la page couverture se trouve où le verso de nos livres. Et comme ils écrivent de la droite vers la gauche, leur alphabet semble à l’envers du nôtre, comme un effet miroir. L’effet est d’autant plus saisissant quand il y a des illustrations, leur sens commun contrastant avec notre perception inverse de l’écriture. Une lutte pour le cerveau, je vous jure… Bref, si vous avez la chance ... read more

The train ride to Gokarna from Canacona, the closest train station to Palolem, was the most packed train I have ever been on in my life. When I got off a couple of hours later, I had to fight my way past a swarm of people who were pushing and shoving in an effort to get the best space left on the train, which was probably a metre away from the stinking, putrid toilet as opposed to 5cms. The train hadn't even stopped, when people started pushing past me in a mad rush to get on to the train and this was Darwin's survival of the fittest at its best. It's very easy to get on your high horse about it as I did at the time, thinking what a bunch of uncivilized, impatient so and ... read more

We headed straight to the beach in search of a nice rustic beach hut to spend the next week at. It turns out that rustic wasn't what we wanted after all and opted for a "deluxe hut" instead. Deluxe seems simply to include a bathroom and the ability to not be able to touch all 4 walls at the same time. It also appeared to mean a lack of creatures inside the room but more about that later.... So the beach itself is beautiful and virtually undeveloped with just a few cafes dotted along. However underdevelopment comes at a price and this happens to be that the beach is frequented by herds of cows and stray dogs. But once you've learnt to usher them along or hide in the sea as I prefer to do, then ... read more

Salut les copains, je fais un mail carte postal pour faire un petit resume de l'inde. Ici pour se faire une idee brute, c'est l'anarchie : Pas de code de la route, chacun pour soi, sur la route le plus gros a souvent raison. Une regle tout de meme: sers toi de ton klaxon autant que possible, quand tu tournes, quand tu depasses, si tu accelere, si tu freines, pour un pieton, un poteau, un chien bref TOUT et meme parfois pour verifier si le klaxon fonctionne...avec la population en question ca peut vous coller un mal de tete rapidos.. Sur la route on trouve des trucs inexistants chez nous : les rickshaws.. comme on voit dans toute l'asie, vraiment flipant sur la route mais au final ils maitrisent pas mal.. en tout cas jusqu'a present. ... read more

Pour la douzaine de jours qu'il reste avant d'entrer à l'ashram* de Neyyar Dam, nous nous posons dans l'une des plus belles régions de l'Inde, le Karnataka. Située sur la côte ouest du pays, la région possède une flore incroyable, un littoral magnifique ou la mer arabique s'y frôle sur des kilomètres. Malheureusement, elle jouit d'une tranquilité qui s'effrite de plus en plus, vu son emplacement géographique, coincée entre le Kérala et Goa, les deux régions les plus touristiques de l'Inde du sud. Nous sommes donc, dans une vieille carcasse rouillée, touristes et locaux empilés les uns sur les autres. Nous franchissons les quelques derniers milles, à travers les palmiers qui dansent au gré du vent, les plantations innondées qui scintillent sous le soleil de fin d'après-midi et sous le regard des curieux dans les petits ... read more

da har vi kommet et stykke lenger på vår vei. siden sist har vi tilbragt noen flere dager i palolem: med tiden kommer man inn i strandtempoet, da alt går bedagelig for seg og ikke så mye behøver å skje. med litt mer tid kommer man også ut av det, til det punktet der rastløsheten griper en og noe må skje, deretter skjer dette noe og dagsrytmen flyter igjen av gårde. vi har vært på sykkeltur litt opp og ned veiene i nærheten, og sett folk i landsbyer gående rundt i sine daglige rutiner. veiene blir med tiden mer håndgripelige, til tross for kuer, rickshawer, trailere og en gjennomgående hardhendt tuting fra alle hold. dette til tross er det ganske behagelig å cruise gatelangs på sykkel, i blant med et mål, i blant uten. bursdagen min ... read more

Today i feel like near-death. I started feeling dodgy yesterday while I was sitting in a hammock outside our bedroom door and writing my blog. I felt a little bit achey and knew I was coming down with what Ed, Sarah, Will and Maddy had a few days ago. I also had a very bloated uncomfortable feeling in my stomach which wouldn't go away and which I'd put down to eating too much right before bed the night before. I went to bed really early and hoped that the paracetamol and echinacia I'd just taken would help keep whatever the illness was away. It didn't. I was awake half the night with cold sweats and a seriously painful back from what was the hardest and most uncomfortable vague resemblance of a bed I had ever had ... read more