Approaching the End...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that your new year's eve was fun and merry and that you are making [and consequently breaking] lots of new year's resolutions already! The last posting was written in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and was followed by a supermarathon travel session for me and my friend kasey. We left jodhpur on an overnight train to mumbai, arriving in mumbai at about 12 noon and went straight to my friend Misha's house. Kasey had never been to bombay so the idea was to do a whirlwind tour of some of the most fun stuff in the city and then grab an overnight bus (ugh) down to Goa for the night.

Of course, nothing goes as planned. We arrived in Mumbai sweaty and smelly and could not have been happier to be shown the way to a gorgeous shower (the best one ive had in india methinks) in mishas flat... ahhh! after refreshing and unpacking a bit, we drove down to town (colaba area), grabbed a snack at Leopold's cafe. By this point, I was getting a bit antsy to try to get bus tickets before it got tooo late and it s a good thing we left right away because we got to the bus stand at probably 4:13 only to find out that the latest bus possible was leaving at 6 pm and there were no sleepers (basically, we were going to be sitting in a chair on a shitty bus for an estimated 14 hours) AND all our stuff was at mishas... so we had to RUSH to mishas, grab our stuff, and hope to get back into town through rush hour by the time our bus leaves! we made it. after near heartattack and no time for grabbing dinner, we finally found the bus only to sit on it for an hour [wiht staring children and the most annoying of bombay's rich young men] before it left. fan-frickin-tastic!

needless to say, this bus ride did NOT take 14 hours... it took almost 18, stopped about 1.5 hours away from the destination when they forced us to get off the bus and get onto another one to take us the rest of way. when we got there (margao) at 12:40 pm, we found out that the ONLY bus per day that was going to our destination was leaving in 20 minutes! Yet another instance in India of slogging through the tough stuff to get a major reward after... but the rewards just kept coming!

We met some awesome folks on the fantastically gorgeous bus ride, arriving before sunset at about 5:15 to Gokarna after 4 nights of straight travel. This was when we were practically praying because we had no accomodation arranged in hopes that we could find a hut on the beach and sleep there... but there was a chance that all the huts would be occupied and we would be out of luck. once we hiked down to the beach and asked around at a few places, we found an unoccupied hut to rent (150 rupees for two people = $3.90) with a bed inside, rigged up mosquito net, a naked light bulb, bamboo walls, door that hardly closes and a sand floor... not to mention the funny hole-in-the-ground toilet and bucket shower. I would have thought that after marathon traveling one would look at such an abode with disgust but we embraced it quickly and wholeheartedly, hanging scarves to use at mini hammocks for our clothing and blasting some music on the iPod/speaker setup that I have.

In short, Gokarna ended up being absolutely amazing, a wonderful place to pass the new year! We moved after that first night into a hut that was located more centrally on the beach and was part of a hostel with a fantastic restaurant, running (cold) showers, and the best people around! Kasey and I mostly hung out with either a huge group of South Africans or a smaller little crew including us, an American guy (Coby), an Israeli guy (Chezi?), a British indian woman ('G'), and a French dude and his dad (Alex and Baba Andre)! The french father son combo are living in a little house made of cow shit in the woods about a 5 minute walk from the beach and just behind the Om Shree Ganesh guest house where we had a hut! We spent a large part of the new year back and forth between the 'well house' as its called because it has a massive well in the front and the beach...

The greatest thing about Gokarna and Om beach is that the beaches are about 30 minutes from each other and there are beautiful little hikes in between! most days we wold wake up, meet up with the little crew, eat some breakfast and then take a hike (or boat ride) to another beach for most of the day. some of these are more like walks and some are semi-strenuous rock climbing hikes but all superfun and mostly safe :o) and when you get to another beach, there are always shacks with food and drink and lots of people (sometimes nude) hanging around! Then we would head back to Om, catch the magnificent sunset from the sand and shower up for dinner and evening fun! sounds like a tough life, doesn't it? the toughest part was definitely leaving this morning... Besides the slow pace and picture-perfect scenery, it was amazing to feel like we had a little family there on Om beach. Not just friends, but the guys who worked at the restaurant knew me by name, loved my music (music can break all language barriers and so I was the designated iPod DJ for our stay there), took care of me and even offered me a job to stay! In going back to Bombay, I am also leaving Kasey to travel on her own. She has been a most amazing travel partner - so mellow and funny and easygoing - spending almost 24 hours a day with yours truly for almost 2 weeks!

Now I am in between and waiting for my overnight train back to Mumbai. It will be great to see some friends in bombay and have a few days at "home base" before facing the reality of real home! I hope that you had a happy and safe new year and perhaps see ya soon!

love