Lorry land to paradise

---

Hi folks. We set off for Gokarna and didn't make it, we got stuck on this highway dust road which happened to be a truck root to and from a quarry. If you like lorries you would have died and gone to heaven I have never ever seen so many trucks over loaded with bricks in my life and never will again! They also bombed down the wrong way trying to over take he que of trucks and come hurteling towards you, forcing you off the road and then only to then find they couldn't pull back in when another truck came the other way so. It was just gridlocked going both ways with trucks facing all ways on both side and some trying to go round on the dirt. We decided to do this and had a few little accidents and it was hard to go on the sand with massive bags. We drove slightly into a tree! which bent off the foot peg and banged into a few trucks, but we stuck it through and after 2 hours we made it to Ponda, the next big town to Bondla. We were coated head to toe in red dirt and I mean coated, looked like we'd had a fake bake gone bad! It was pretty funny trying to navigate as the signs are just stupied facing the wrong way and if you ask someone for directions they usually dont understand you and just point in any direction to be helpfull..but its not!
It got close to sundown so we went to the first place we could find on the coast which was called Colva..big tourist gallore place so drove a bit further down south to benaulim, Goa. Stayed for 2 days in a lovly guest house about a mile from the beach and ended up staying for new years as Jamey wasn't coming down and we were both nakered from all the driving.
We went to a party on the beach where there were lots of fire pois ( balls of fire on strings swung round in a cool way!) and all night music and crazy indian boys dancing and general mad stuff like that. Met a group of people from Bangalore, who were all rich as fart. They were all architects and engineers and some lived half time in canada and dubai. They had all been freinds since collage and we mostly married to each other but they were hilarious and mad as hatters. We got offered to stay there too so that might become part of our trip next!
Before the party we had dinner on the beach, whilst getting served a pudding of burnt bananas soaked in rum, the waves came so high up the beach the soaked overy one sat in the front of the restaurant and came up to our ankels! ..only in india!
The bangalorians were hilarious and had hired drivers to drive them all the way to goa and had been drinking for 14 hours when we first met them, they had a smoke which they had never tried before and soon half were vomiting on the floor, and having naps, so we left them behind and went to find better music ( not goan trance!) and managed to convince a man to play reggae on the beach for us, which we danced to on the sand alone wearing light up devil horns, for hours with the occaisional indian joining in and hugging us...happy new year!
Headed off the day after new years day and got to Gokarna in about 5 hours ish, got stopped on the Kanataka boarder and the police asked for our bike papers which are all legal appart from it not being a legal hire bike registration plate, which are yellow instead of white, so we have to say we are borrowing it from a freind. The policemen then asked russ to come inside and said "not allowed, not allowed" "baksheesh, baksheesh" at which we had to give him 200 rupees to allow us to continue! This will happen alot and we were told to expect to be stopped and charged for the trouble and time of them stopping us!
We got to Gokarna which is a small religious town, you then drive over some winding cliff roads with the most stunning views and then reach the end of a small dirt road at the headland of Om beach. We were told that this is the furthest you can take your bike so we parked up and got our backpacks on and started walking down some rugged steps down the cliff to the beach. No where had any rooms at all on Om beach and the next beach along called half moon was a 30 minute cliff walk which is impossible with our bags so we sat down and gave up hope!
We soon spotted a small fishing boat and thought this would be a good idea so Russ ran over and tried to blag a lift which we managed to do but paying a hefty price of 400 rupees ( a fiver!) The driver took us to the next beach after Half moon beach to Paradise beach and he knew a man there with some rooms free. We got dropped off and left to our own devices just as it was getting dark..this is when we realise that paradise beach is real unspoilt pardise...no electricty,no beds, no locks on doors... sweet!

---

Comments

[Jack Patient]

Whens the abridged version out??
Lovely stories, great to hear you 2 are enjoying yourself, but seriously, bite sized chunks! Its not War and Peace!xx