I'm sitting here in my office (tin sheds arnt that warm) wondering if I have enough interest in this dizzily 8 degree weather to put on my lycra, lights etc and go and race Bruces Flat Hill Dirt crit?? I just dont know if I love the bike enough.......
After over 11 hours in labor yesterday Turiya (big sis) gave birth to her second child a beautiful girl Evelyn Freda Orme. We got the call at about 8 last night and by 8:30 Mum, Dad, Michelle and I were at the hospital holding the tiny little blue baby. Sooo Cute looking around and taking in everything. Don’t stress Michelle and I aren’t about to start having babies but Evelyn was very cute. Today Ben Randal led us once again around the secret trails out behind Melton. It’s a great loop and a the New Specialized epic took too it in style. Shame the rider on it couldn’t have had a bit more skill. I think I hit nearly every rock out there. The group was Ben, Alex, Ivan, Bellie and myself but Bellie had to turn back just 6km’s in having some trouble with breathing. Hope everything is ok. Probably ate too many easter eggs with the kids bellie! Here are a few pics.
Top of the Hill with Ivan (the Mule) coming up
Alex taking a well deserved break at the top of the final climb. This one once made Jack Lamshed cry.
Most the parts on this bike are brand new or have just been serviced.It Weighs only 11kg and is a sensational ride.The frame has some small scratches from general use.Still very Red and very Shiny though.
Thanks Jason, just when I was saying that I didnt feel I had anything to put on my blog at the moment you went and rode off the yarra trails and ended up with your bike in the river. Cheers!
Jason trying to no watch as the guys try to fish his bike out of the yarra before it sinks. Thanks to flashing light on the back we could easily locate it. Fishing it out took about 4 guys linked up though.
Watching on as the bike is retrieved. It had a good few liters of water in it. About time we slowed him down a bit.
Some pics of a road ride I stupidly organised on Sat to ride some hills. I am suitably on the back here but unlike most of the ride in these pictures I can acutally see them. That didnt last long
What do you do when you want to ride with your friends but they make up 2 thrids of the cream of Victoiras elite MTB field?? Hmm suffer. Poor Big Eddie Wilson and myself found out the hard way that after time off the bike comebacks hurt quite alot! But without pain there can be no gain and right now there is alot of gaining to be done.
Right bed time. This old Ginger needs his sleep to cope with his long days in the office. Poor me!
Heading to one of the very remote hippy beaches in Gokarna
The Art shot
Michelle drawing a crowd. Come on she loves it.
My beach buddy. He wanted to share my towel.
Well after 3 flights we are now waiting to board our last flight taking us from KL to melbourne and finally home. It has certainly been a great trip and we have seen some amazing things whilst also being reminded about just how good our life is in Australia. Just to cap off the Indian experience we got the royal treatment at the Chennai airport. Arriving on our flight from Goa to Chennai some 5.5 hours before our 2.25am departure for KL we got our bags and made our way to the international airport hoping to find a few seats to wait till our check in opened. But NO. In india you cant enter the airport until check in is open for your flight so the security guard supporting a machine gun quite strongly informed us that we would have to just wait outside (in the car park) until boarding opened. right so there was a 2nd floor restaurant we could go to. Sitting there eating and drinking (Michelle getting drunk whilst I sipped lemon soda still being cautious about my stomach situation of the last few day) and playing cards. All seemed good and 1.5 hours passes pretty quickly. but then a staff member and then the manager rudely informed us that we were not to play cards in the restaurant and we must end our game immediately. Why he would not say just that it was a no! So we just sat there and ordered no more food or drinks being quite annoyed at the situation and way it was all handled. We eventually left, no tip to the staff but a good 100rp to the guy who was watching our bags and 50rp to the guy operating the lift. Michelle felt somewhat better about that.
Its been a tough trip... Ok so the last 2 weeks has pretty much been spent laying on a beach. so not really tough but India certainly keeps you on your toes at times. Still well worth the trip and a great experience for Michelle and I to share together.
We both are looking forward to our bed! Narda oh and the conversation of somebody other than ourselves!
Now why wouldn’t you want for lunch 2 curry dishes, 1 serving of plain rice, 1 japati and 5 Garlic naarns.Yep 5 Garlic narns.As we ordered our lunch I said to Michelle Im not that confident that he understood the rice and Naan order. Sure enough he had mixed up plain rice with 5 Naan.It was one of the best meals we have had yet and the standard is pretty high but 5 garlic Naan breads is beyond even Michelle and I.Needless to say we didn’t eat dinner last night.Instead we had 5 pints of beer each and snacked on the free bar nuts.Yum.
We ended up staying in Varkala for 3 nights basically because we couldn’t be bothered packing our bags again and since we were paying about $13 Aus a night for our room there was just no point in leaving.It was a great place perched at the top of a cliff with a beautiful beach below.Plenty of restaurants to sit at drinking special tea (beer in a tea pot and tea mugs as the restaurants don’t have licenses to sell it) and enjoying the view.
From Varkala we took a short train ride to Kollam where we boarded a ferry headed in the direction of Allappuhuza over a 7.5 hr ride through the back water lakes district lined with fishing nets, fishing boats, rice paddies and small water side villages.This turned out to be the quietest mode of transport in india with no boats having horns or there be no reason to use them.
Half way along this trip was a stop for the Amritha Ashram home to the nick named hugging mother.Amma over the last 30 years has hugged more than 30 million people in her Darshan sessions but there is more to this “living saint than this”.Over the years her generosity to the poor of india and donations to help in disaster situations are some of the largest in the world aside from government contributions.She has built universities all over india for students that cant afford education and built thousands of houses for those who don’t have any along with many more fantastic things.Anyway we spent 3 nights at the Ashram as it just so happened there was a 2 day meditation course starting just after our arrival.The timing was good and with an open mind it was quite the experience. The Ashram was quite a strange place with accommodation for up to 10,000 people.There was a western café or included in your accommodation cost you could eat the Indian meals provided.It was a very mush self sustained community all doing 2 hours of work each day to keep the place running.We spent 2 hours chopping vegetables to do our part.
So back on the boat to continue the enjoyable journey into Allappuhuza the apparent Venice of Inida with water cannels all around the main town.Whilst the cannels may be similar to Venice im pretty sure the endless amounts of litter and general filth was not.But you come to expect this of Indian towns.
The town wasn’t that great so the next morning we boarded a train and made our way to Fort Cochin.The tuk tuk driver helped us find a good priced home stay here so we stayed a few nights.The first day we spent doing a tour and seeing what was around the place.A very quite part of india with not the traffic that we have become used to.There were a surprising number of churches in the Fort Cochin area due to the Portuguese and English influence.Some great architecture to be seen also.We made the trip out to Cherri Beach on Vipain island to enjoy a bit of beach time for a day and that evening took in some culture attending a Kerelan dance show.The show of 2 hours in length also had a 1 hour session to start with where you watch the dancers apply their very detailed make up.It was a great experience with the dancing style based more on eye and facial expressions high lighted by the way the make up is done.
An early start saw us off to the airport where we took a flight to mangalore thus skipping a descent 8 hr train ride which neither of us wanted.We had planned on only 1 night in Mangalore but when we discovered for the first time some normal shops selling actual brand clothes and a cinema we decided to stay.It also helped that our $30 a night hotel had a massive swimming pool (ok 25 meters but that’s not common).We didn’t end up seeing any films but did enjoy a pizza hut meal on one night and a Baskin and robbins ice cream.Was nice to have a fairly conservative meal.
So its under 2 weeks to go now and our basic plan is to keep traveling up the coast.We are heading for a town called Gokarma which I was recommended by another traveler but don’t know how long it will take us to get there.We could do it in one trip but if we find some good places between Mangalore and there we may just stop off.We will fly from Goa back to Chennai for our flight home.We have decided to skip the Malaysia 3 night stop off taking the extra time here in India.
The traditional Kerelan house boat. We decided it wasnt worth the slow haul through the waters and an expensive nights accom as we spent 8hrs on the waters as it was.One of the many fishing boats pictured below.
Warming to the Indian experience. And Im now engaged!
Yes under the stars on the beach from of Kovalams Samudra beach during a candle lit dinner I asked Michelle if she would marry me (ok there was some stuttering and a bit of nervousness). AND SHE SAID YES! So that’s the big news. We are both very happy and looking forward to our lives together. Ok so mushy stuff aside how about this no bike riding India experience that we are on. Yes that’s right I said NO BIKE RIDING. Even for a mountainbiker the streets of India’s quiet towns look like a death trap to me.
So here are some brief points. • Incredible India = Incredibly hard to get your head around India • The people are very very nice although the men have no shame in having a stare at the white women • Public transport is crowded to say the least and a bus averages 20kms an hour so don’t expect to get anywhere fast. • Finally we found some quiter parts to enjoy some rest and a bit of beach life • I have experience the doubled ended Indian weight loss program but back to health now.
A bit more description below for those with time on their hands.
That night
Wind farm on the way to Kanyakamuria
An Indian Shower Random Rohin shot. Just a random cow walking down the center of the road.
THE LONG DESCRIPTION OF OUR TRAVELS THUS FAR Since arriving in India just some 4 days ago Michelle and I have seen some pretty full on things and experienced some quite amazing and also some quite shocking things. But don’t read this thinking that we are complaining. You don’t come to India for a holiday without confrontation, its all just part of the fun that is Travel. We first arrived in Chennai after a pretty seamless 1 nights stay at the Shangra la in Kuala Lumpar on our way over. Chennai was our first experience of the Indian road scene, and that is quite the experience. Roads anywhere in India are used by busses, cars, auto rickshaws, motor bikes, push bikes, pedestrians, cows, goats and dogs. All of this moving at different speeds and in no particular lane order. Every vehicle has a horn and there is no hesitation in using it. There are no footpaths and where you would expect one to be is well used by the traffic. A standard road with 1 lane in both directions can easily go 8 vehicles wide. At time you can be overtaking slower traffic and staring down a head on with a public bus which is narrowly missed as a dangerous merging maneuver is performed. I am truly amazed that so far we have not been part of a car accident and will be even more so amazed if we are not part of one by the end of the trip. After our one somewhat frustrating and confronting night in Chennai we decided to get out of there the next morning on a 6:30am train. It was a general seating only train so the advice was to board it early (5:30am) to get a seat. So that’s exactly what we did. Nobody told us that this would be from a pitch black platform with no lights onto a pitch black train, again with no light. Sitting there in the dark we wondered just who would end up sitting with us and what we may have in store for the trip. It turned out to be a very enjoyable 5hr train ride with half of it shared with a large number of Indian women on their way to a temple. Very friendly but not a word of English spoken. This train took us to Puducherry, a beach side town with a French influence still remaining from its French occupation some many years ago. We took up residence for 2 nights at a resort some 8kms out of town to get a bit of rest. Now whilst it was costing us a bit this resort was nothing special. It had a very nice garden and what was supposed to be a private beach but the room wasn’t that great. Had we not been paying over $120 aussies a night we may have stayed a bit longer but instead we pushed on. It was good to get to relax for a bit though with no noise and a sense of space which I must say is not something you see a lot of here in Inida. So from there we headed to Trichy. No trains at any time that suited (ie 4am) and all the coaches were full or only over night so it was to be a public bus for us. Finding the bus though was quite the challenge. We asked several people and were sent to several different busses with no luck. Finally we found it by asking another traveler on the bus and got on our way. With the traffic and road conditions a 100km trip here on a bus takes about 5 hrs. Not exactly a freeway! Still lots to see and all part of the experience. Trichy has a famous temple built on the top of a huge rock foundation in the middle of town so the 460 stair climb was a must on the itinerary. Bit of a sleep in and back on the train for another epic over a very short distance to end up in Madurai. Only 2.5 million people live in this place! Which compared to the 40+ million of Chennai makes it a pretty small city. Our train ride should have been a lot quicker but several bad bits of information saw us not get on the express train and end up on a passenger train. It was packed but some very nice people offered us some seats and we soon became quite popular amongst the others on our carriage wanting to know where we were from and where we were going . The travel has been pretty enjoyable once we get past the working out how to get on it bit! Madurai has a massive temple complex and apparently these temples display some of indias finest Doric architecture, however they were under restoration so none of the externals could be seen as they were covered with scaffolding. The insides were a very pretty sight though with about half of the art work having been recently re-painted giving a very vibrant experience. As non Hindi’s we were not allowed into some parts and our visit had to be quite short as another long bus ride was ahead. We paid a bit extra (about $1 aussie dollar on top of our $3 dollar fare) to get reserved seats (an Indian jumping the bus before it stopped and claiming 2 seats for us) and on the right bus. This was apparently an express bus and would take 5 hours to reach our destination of Kanyakumari. However not surprisingly this was not quite the case and we arrived some 3.5 hours later than expected. We have got dehydration during long train/bus rides down to a T now. Beats having to use a bus station public toilet! So Kanyakumari is the southern most tip of Indian and is where the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean meat. The done thing in this place is to watch the sun rise and sun set over the three seas. Ok so sun sets arnt out thing but we did watch the sun set with around 500,000 Indians. As we had experienced in our last 2 locations accommodation was not as easy to come by as we had hoped and subsequently we were paying a bit more than we wanted. We did managed to get things sorted on the 2nd night and move to a $40 aussie a night place. Other than the sun set we walked the street malls and used our time to lock in some accommodation for our next stop – Kovalam. So getting from Kanyakumari to Kovalam was never going to be an easy process without a private driver. There were no direct busses and a 4:30am train (also not direct) wasn’t on our short list. We needed to get to get a bus past (inland) Kovalam to Trivandrum and then either bus or auto rickshaw 20kms back along the coast. So the ride took us with 1 bus to a bigger town where we then had to get a city bus to the main bus terminal and then another bus to Trivandrum. First 2 steps went pretty well and we located our next bus fairly easily. Problem – NO SEATS. 1st bus too full. 2nd bus still no seats but Michelle not wanting to wait for another decided we board anyway. We did end up with a seat each but there was not much comfort in this. Michelle was at the front of the bus with no air movement and a lady standing beside her had her hand bag banging her in the head most of the way. I was sharing 3 seats with 4 and had another guy basically sitting on my shoulder as I was the aisle. 60kms on this bus took over 3 hours and had us both none to inspired about doing another bus to our new location. So rickshaw it was. Kovalam was a big relief for us both. Ok our retreat at 3500r a night ($112 au) + compulsory new years eve party at 1000r per couple was a bit expensive but for the first time on our travels Michelle was able to wear normal clothes without feeling like a hooker walking down swanston street. Not only this but sun baking in a bakini on the beach also didn’t draw any attention. We were in Samudra beach which was a small beach not on the main strip with just a few resorts and small hotels and a few little restaurants. You could hire 2 beds on the beach with umbrella for 200r a day and have food and drink brought out to you also so there really wasn’t going to be much movement from here! The beach had a pretty descent swell but it dropped right on the shaw which gave an endless amount of amusement watching rather large Brittish holiday goers get knocked arse over titt endlessly as they tried to go swimming. It did give a good but short body surf though which kept me entertained for just a bit longer than I should have and ended up resulting in quite the sun brun. So on our first night in Kovalam we walked down to the beach front to find a restaurant, taking a seat on the top of the break water with the waves crashing just meters away. We were lit by candle light and the sky was full of stars with the moon slowly rising. I was finding it a bit cool though much to Michelle’s surprise so I ducked back to the room to change to some slightly warmer clothes and at the same time made the decision to grab the ring which I had hidden in a pair of socks in my bag and make a proposal. As I walked back to the table I made rough plan of what I would say and waited for the right opportunity. After dinner as we sat there enjoying our beer seemed the right time with Michelle announcing that this place was just perfect and exactly what we had both needed. Hmm wonder if I can make it better? So with a bit of stuttering and some fumbling under the table to get the ring box open I asked and she said yes. Very happy times. The ring which I had Amilia (younger sister who is a jeweler for any body who needs anything) make me a very flashy proposal ring which supports a massive cubic zirconium stone and would impress any girl. “Is it real” she shrieked. Of course I said yes but admitted that it wasn’t shortly after. The ring was a bit oversize so we had it resized by a local shop who unfortunately didn’t quite do the sensational job that Amilia had. Still looks like a massive rock though so both happy. Right so after a few days of laying on the beach and me getting sun burnt it was NYE india retreat style. We were some what concerned about what this night may bring and rightfully so. It was boasted as being full of performances and music which turned out to be full of pretty bad performances and music that was so loud our bodys felt it well before we could hear it. Party started at 7:30 and by 9 we hadn’t been so much as asked if we needed a drink nor had the buffet been opened. Michelle used her right as an angry women to get some things sorted out and the food got sorted ASAP. Wasn’t that inspiring a meal and the entertainment didn’t promise anything better so we opted to skip it and head back down the beach to see what was happening there. Hmmm very little as it turned out. We had a few drinks and decided to head back to our room to watch the fire works from the balcony deciding to avoid the suggested street side watching poing some 3 meters from the fire works take off point. It was at about this point that I started to feel a bit on the fragile side. It turned 12 and the whole coast lit up with fire works displays which a lot of broke right over our heads. Just about as close as you would want to be. At 12:05 I made a b-line for the toilet where my own fire works display decided to get going. Ill cut out the details but by 3am my body had nothing left in it from the double ended sessions and I was left feeling a bit worse than 2nd hand. I spent the next day and night sleeping with only 3 bits of toast and the day after that I still wasn’t much chop. It really took it out of me. Not quite sure what caused it, could have been sun stroke or the Moscow Mule cocktail I had 30 mins before it all started. Either way I lost a bit of weight! This basically brings us to today where we organized a private car to drive us the Nayar dam wildlife sanctuary where we did a Lion safari, crocodile farm and dear spotting adventure from a few short boat rides on the dam. Very pretty scenery but he wildlife part wasn’t that great. From there our driver brought us here to Varkala a hippy infested cliff top town on the ocean edge. Its actually very beautiful and we may stay a few more nights after this. Michelle brought some 5 books today so she is set for a bit and I have a few to read as well so I don’t see us moving too much.
Top of the Hill with Ivan (the Mule) coming up
Alex taking a well deserved break at the top of the final climb. This one once made Jack Lamshed cry.
Little Evelyn.
Jason trying to no watch as the guys try to fish his bike out of the yarra before it sinks. Thanks to flashing light on the back we could easily locate it. Fishing it out took about 4 guys linked up though.
Watching on as the bike is retrieved. It had a good few liters of water in it. About time we slowed him down a bit.
Some pics of a road ride I stupidly organised on Sat to ride some hills. I am suitably on the back here but unlike most of the ride in these pictures I can acutally see them. That didnt last long
Some Sun set on some sensational beach.
Heading to one of the very remote hippy beaches in Gokarna
The Art shot
Michelle drawing a crowd. Come on she loves it.
My beach buddy. He wanted to share my towel.
One of the many fishing boats pictured below.
That night
Wind farm on the way to Kanyakamuria
An Indian Shower
Just a random cow walking down the center of the road.
