Varanasi to Goa Via Pachmari

Hello Hello Again!

Hope everyone is still fine.
We are now in Thailand, but I am still trying to get this blog up to date, so here goes:

We left Varanasi on a "London weather" kind of day, the streets were all muddy, well, not only mud, because the cows aren't too hygienic either, if you see what I mean, so when it rains and you walk in sandals, well I don't have to draw a picture!! So it was rainy and windy, and everything that we had thought we had escaped when coming to Asia! We got to the train station, we had booked a ticket to Madhia Pradesh, South West of Varanasi, and had also enquired about tickets to Goa, cause the beach and the sun were calling us, so when we saw this horrid weather, we made up our mind and booked the Goa one too, for a few days after.

The train journey to Piparia, which was the stop we needed to get to Pachmari, a little hill station, was supposed to take about 18 hours (yes, i know... big country!) The train was late to arrive, and therefore ended up having to give priority to all the others (Londoners, you know the deal) and so, 5 hours later, we had happily travelled 60 kilometres... Great.

About 24 hours later, we got to Piparia, and from there caught our first bus up in the mountains.
In Pachmari, we checked into a lovely little cottage, little house for ourselves with a room service, and a helpful manager who kept on trying to book us on a tour in "Jeepsies" (jeeps). Instead, we rented a motorbike, that was probably on its last legs, and made the visits ourselves, with the help of a map. The town was in the middle of a national park, and it was amazing, there were waterfalls everywhere, and little pools of clear (icy) water, canyons surrounding the whole place, and lovely people... we stayed there about 4 or 5 days, and again, chilled. It seems like we are doing a lot of that, and it's great!! We have a thought from time to time (not very often) about everybody who is at work, and, well, it feels good HAHAHA! No really, everybody should do this. We've forgotten about work and life in the Western world, no stress, the only questions we ask ourselves are : What are we and where are we gonna eat tonight, and what other amazing place are we gonna visit tomorrow.

On one of our motorcycle trips, we headed for a hill on top of which there is a temple. It's pretty high, and we didn't realize that until we got to the bottom of it. We didn't climb, but at the bottom (Pachmari is a pilgrimage place for Hindus) there was a sort of festival, and loads of people there, walking up and down, little tea stands and various food, more accessible temples (those we went to) and again, lovely smiling people.
What was great also about this little place was that we were the only white people there!! After the tour of Rajasthan where we had met the same busses of tourists time and again, it was great to feel a bit like pioneers, to make our own way, and visit places that are not on the guide book.

It is also in Pachmari that I learned how to ride a motorbike myself (Jenny speaking), in a field (Steve wouldn't let me out on the road, wise decision) and i loved it! I think it might be something we might get into a bit more when we're back in the UK.

A few days later, we left Pachmari's quietness, and went back to civilisation. Instead of the bus, we got into a shared jeep down to Piparia, sharing means waiting at the main car park for people, as many as possible, to get in there with you. We ended up about 8 or 9 in there.

We got back to the train station safely (one of the lord's miracles!!!). The driver didn't seem to care too much for the gearbox, and happily took hairpins in 4th gear, i was holding on, closing my eyes and hoping for the best. Steve has got that confidence in people's driving skills that i certainly don't have (anyway no one drives as well as me, we all know that!...)

We had to get to the next train station, Itarsi, to get our connection to Goa, so we went there, and had to wait until 1.30 am the next morning, so we hung around in the town, tried finding an internet caf, but didn't (after asking directions and being told to keep going straight and straight and straight... we gave up.
We played Blackjack (no money involved) for hours in a snack place, and in the evening went for a hot curry in a bar restaurant that sold beer !!! yes, beer is fairly hard to find in India. We got into that little bar, and walking through to the back, i suddenly realised that I was the only girl in there, and i was being stared at quite a lot. Luckily, there were tables at the back with curtains around, and so we managed to hide ourselves in there. It didn't stop a few people from poking their heads in, and some of them started talking, looking quite drunk, and apparently, it can't have been too pleasant talk as the waiter came and hushed them away... I think it was something to do with me! Sometimes it's a good thing not to understand the language.

Got out of there safe anyhow, eventhough a fight broke up at some point and a few bottles were broken...
At the train station, as usual we got surrounded by about 20 people, most of them railway workers, bag carriers and such. Sometimes they don't speak, they just look at you, and look quite happy to just be standing there with you. We asked the rail workers if they didn't have any work to do, they all seemed to be around us twiddling their thumbs, but no, apparently, nothing to do!

Got to Goa, Magdaon Station at 6 o'clock after about 26 hours in the train again, and got to the beach in time for sunrise. We met a guy from Somerset in a shared taxi and ended up looking for a place together, walking a few kms on the beach. we found the Cocohuts, little huts, just 10 meters from the beach. As we were deciding if it suited us, drinking a cup of Chai on the terrace in front of the arabian sea, some dolphins came and said hi, just about 10 meters from the beach! it was lovely.

We eneded up staying there for 5 days. We had thought about visiting the place, renting an other bike you know, but hey... "il faisait trop chaud pour travailler!!" (too hot to do anything) so we lazed on the beach for 5 days, eating fresh seafood in the evening, walking a bit along the beach, Steve had to buy sandals, and ended up having to buy two pairs as the first pair started eating his feet... quite vicious little things...

Goa wasn't much to talk about really. Yes it was sunny and hot, the sea even hotter (i think it was about 26-28 degrees) and it was relaxing, but it was not India. They couldn't even make a good Massala Chai (indian spicy tea) and it was far too westernised. It was kind of a holiday from the holiday.

After Goa we had 2 choices: Keep going South to Kerala, which is supposed to be pretty amazing, or go back North to the Himalayan foothills. We opted for the 2nd choice, because it was kind of our original plan, and closer to Delhi, and by that time, we had only about 2 weeks left in India.

We got a pretty fast train back to Delhi, where we had a connection to go up to Haridwar, in Uttaranchal. This will be the next post, as my fingers are getting tired, and internet here in Thailand is a bit more expensive...

I hope everyone is fine, and that our stories are making you jealous... hehehe.
Please do give some comments, it's nice to get news from the civilised world...
Lots of love from the 2 of us,
Don't work too hard
xxx
J & S