India 02: "All cyclists are kind!"

09/01/2017 – 23/01/2017

As mentioned in the previous entry, since Mangalore, we had been in good hands of cool cyclists along Western Indian until Mumbai. All came by chance as we were just taking a break on the road side on the way to Mangalore when a car stopped and the driver came to us. “Cyclists, huh? Do you need any helps in Mangalore? We have a big community of cyclists there. I’m sure they will take care of you! Let me connect you with them.” Boom! We found ourselves arriving in Mangalore with a whole fancy apartment waiting for us in a 23-floored-building. Joel is an active member of Mangalore Bicycle Club and right after getting the announcement from the leader about us, he offered us one of his 5 apartments in the same building. We could choose to move to a new apartment everyday, but we kept it simple by staying at only one flat for 2 nights.

 

Our accommodation in Mangalore

During our stay, the members took care of our bicycles and made sure that we would be motivated to cycle by escorted us for almost 15 km on our departure day. We were really surprised how serious these extremely busy businessmen/officers/doctors were about cycling. Every morning, they get up at 04:30 or 05:00 to start the morning ride for 25-30 km before going back home and be ready for their long working day. Every Sunday they go for a longer ride together for a hundred kilometers or more and they build up such strong relationship among the club members. We are very proud to get to know this community in India!

Leaving Mangalore, we arrived in Manipal where we met a “new class” in India: the foreign students at top universities. We were hosted through Couchsurfing by two cool Malaysian guys who have studied medicine here for 1.5 years. They live in a fancy mordern building with private swimming pool and many restaurants and cafés surrounded. A chef comes everyday to their spacious apartment to prepare meals so the guys could spend the most of their time to study. Each of them has their own room with a big balcony, A/C and attached bathroom. We were so jealous of them because they have perfect student life in India compare to our “boring basic conditions” dormitory in Europe. 

 

The fancy dormitory of the students in Manipal

We also celebrate my 28th birthday here with a morning visit to the fish market and a feast at home. We had to admit that for more than a moment, we thought that we were in Hong Kong or Singapore, not in India. 3 days later, Peter had his 31st birthday’s morning on top of a huge Hindu temple by the sea, watching Lord Shiva.

The next day, on the way to Gokarna, we and our bicycles experienced the first time together travelling by boat crossing the river. This move helped us to shorten our cycling day by almost 13 km. Gokarna had become a tourist trap with all its overpriced restaurants and western cafés to serve all those westerners who came for meditation or yoga courses. Arriving at the other side of the river, we visited Shankar Prasad Foundation, an ashram in the middle of a tiny village and stayed one night there. The villagers have had the chance to see foreigners walking around their neighborhood since the ashram opened. Frankly speaking, the owner do a lot of charity activities and cleaning action plans for the seashore but they also charge quite much for any offered services/courses. Many foreigners came here for volunteer jobs such as cleaning, physical work on the fields (they have organic farm) and cooking for all the guests but they still have to pay for food, hot shower, lodging and any yoga/meditation courses at this house. The free things such as the morning and evening chanting (singing/repeating worship lines together) are not too interesting as we couldn’t decide if they have Hindu or Buddhist background.

 

Crossing the river by boat

The next day, we finally arrived in Goa, the beach paradise of the foreigners visiting India. Our Couchsurfing host, Toto was a knowledgeable man who has traveled to many countries and ended up at a nice lovely house in Goa. He dedicates half of his house to travellers who ever visit his town. We had a wonderful street food tour with him in the evening and we never felt more selfless to eat blindly Indian food on the street before.

 

Good old Toto

Next morning, we went to Palolem beach to spend hours sitting at a café by the water, working, reading and swimming as thousand of other foreigners did. We missed the quiet, remote villages a little though...Leaving Toto’s house, we continued our trip to reach Panjim and were hosted by Lata and John, a nice open-minded couple at their beautiful villa. 

The most famous fish thali in Panjim

Despite the comfortable stay, at some point, we had very tense moment waiting for the result of Peter’s blood test. Two early mornings in a row, Peter had terrible fever so we decided to visit a hospital to see what’s going on. I was freaked out when the doctor said that my husband might got malaria or dengue fever. If it had happened, we would have had to book the flight tickets home right away. After 30 minutes of waiting in absolute silence, we bursted out as the nurse announced : “Negative” to me. It was just a normal infection and dehydration as usual. Until this point, we were still so excited to see more of India...

 

Linh