India express crossing
6 Jan 2014 | Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
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It's new year day, everyone is packing and updating their plans, most of the people only have a few weeks of holidays and want to make the most of it while they are in India.
It reminds me that I didn't plan anything as of yet, I had first thought of continuing cycling, but my knee is still painful when I cycle, the couple of hundreds kilometers I make going around Goa remind me of that. We finally decide to travel together for a while with Serena, agreeing that it won't last too long as we both enjoy the lonely travel more nowadays :)
So I have to do something with my cycle, I could take it to any cycle shop but I know they will try to screw me not giving much for it, especially here in Goa where I learnt that white man means money... But today is Wednesday, the day for the tourist market in Anjuna beach; so it's decided, I pack everything and cycle the 30km to the market, Serena will join me there and we'll decide what to do then.
When I arrive at the market, I understand it's not gonna be easy task, the sellers are organized in kindof mafia and are not very happy to see a stranger here, I first play with their attempts at discouraging me, but after a while it's not funny anymore. Nevertheless, I finally met Sean, a british guy living in Goa, who design his own shirts and sell them at the market. He is interested in buying the bike but doesn't really know how to do with it as he has he lives next to Arambole, 30km away and has all his stock to take back on his scooter... I feel he is the right kind of man, so I offer to deliver the bike in the evening for free if put us up for the night in exchange, he smiles, 'deal'.
So there we are, he and his housemate are both super nice, interesting and well travelled man, we stay one more day there so we can enjoy Arambole without being stuck in the tourist mass, and we have to refuse the offer to stay more, it feels like otherwise we would still be there after months :D
While we are there, we decide we will go to Thailand, I have a ticket for there in less than a week time from Kolkata (I had taken it in case of control as you are supposed to have an exit ticket when flying in), and also it's alway nice to have a drink with Pierre, especially as he couldn't make it for the wedding and had tried to get the people coming for an after-party at his place. We take a ticket for Serena on the same plane, say goodbye to Sean and hit the road.
We start hitchhiking our way out of Goa, the first people who take us are going straight to Rajasthan, it's very tempting to go with them, but then we take a turn and cross the mountains with a man who stop each time he sees cows or monkey to feed them bread, it's very funny... And so on, hitchhiking in India turns out to be very nice, there are so many kind of vehicles, and people are so kind, even some random 10yo kids wanted to give us money for the bus... We end up the first evening in Miraj, 240km today which is not bad in India but won't make to Kolkata in time. So we decide to take an overnight bus to Solapur, from where we make our way to Nanded and stop for a few hours to have a look at the city of the last Sikh guru, from where is my good friend Radhika. Those Sikh people are so nice, after my experiences in Gangtok and Bangalore I start to know their uses, so we go to the main gurdwara for a ceremony, and then the guard won't let us leave the temple without making sure we enjoyed the free meal which is served in every gurdwara :)
While we walk out of the city, we meet another Sikh who seeing that we are hitchhiking make a few phone calls and find us a direct truck to Nagpur.
Probably the slowest ride ever :D , it took us some 13hrs to make the 300km. The drivers would stop every now and then to have a meal, a drink, a nap... We finally arrive early morning, with the newspaper delivery truck, and decide it's enough hurry! We'll have a day rest here and take the train to Kolkata. I don't like to hurry....!
Nagpur turns out to be a nice and quiet city, I'm happy also I can meet my friend Maansi here just before leaving the country...