3/12/16 to 6/12/16

Our Long Journey Home Begins.

By Will.

The rundown:
Team wiljen spend 4 days at Bogmalo Beach, most of the time one of us is quite sick with the dreaded gastro, not much fun. Then we tackle India’s Domestic Aeroplane Travel System in the effort to return back to Delhi.

3/12/16, Saturday, Bogmalo Beach, Beach Bay Cottages, near Goa’s Airport.
Jenny ended up getting some awful form of “Gastro” during the night so that wasn’t pretty.
She spent the day recovering while I just chilled out. I headed over to Joet’s by myself for a late lunch/early dinner & had a couple of beers as well.

4/12/16, Sunday, Bogmalo Beach, Beach Bay Cottages, near Goa’s Airport.
We did some clothes shopping at a nearby garment shed on the beach, the owner Leila told us a little about the struggle with her life. She said she was 31 but seemed much older, she had scaring on both cheeks. It looked like old burns to me. We didn’t ask about them. She said she was married off at 14yo & had the first of her 4 children at 16. The mothers on both sides of her family believe that Leila shouldn’t educate her 3 daughters, only her son. It was actually quite emotional, hearing her story.
Yes it could have been fabricated to make a sale, but we’ve both been around long enough now to know when something doesn’t sound true. Because of the currency debacle there has been hardly any tourists to buy her merchandise. Jenny ended up purchasing 5 nice garments for the equivalent of $30aud. She needed us to buy more ! We had to explain that our trip is focused on sight seeing & not shopping, Leila understood that.

My turn for the dreaded “Gastro”, since lunch time I’d felt a little off, we had stopped at a small bar/restaurant, Jenny didn’t eat and I had a small plate of curry prawns. They tasted fine & I was feeling suss beforehand.
Later we both went back to Joet’s for an early Dinner, I couldn’t even get through my beer & started to get that “Car Sick/Sea Sick” feeling. Our food came out but I couldn’t eat. I told the waiter that I was feeling rather ill & had to go. I said Jen would sort out the bill.
I took the short cut via the beach & didn’t even make it halfway before I had to have a big vomit, poor Jen said she could see me being sick from Joet’s. I won’t go into anymore gruesome details but it was a horrible night. In the morning I felt a lot better but weak & all my muscles were aching. Don’t mind admitting I’m looking forward to heading home.

5/12/16, Monday, Bogmalo Beach, Beach Bay Cottages, near Goa’s main Airport.
Just getting over the past 24 hours of “Gastro”, still don’t feel hungry, just keeping up my fluids. Knew it was to be too good to be true for both of us to get through 8 weeks touring India without getting some sort of stomach bug.
Arrgghh ! Surely the savage chest cold at the beginning of our trip was enough to endure !
We finally share a dinner together, once again at Joet’s but only because it’s the only nearby restaurant that will accept our credit card, once again our Gandhi’s are getting low & the ATM’s are either shut or queues for cash are very long. The food has been quite bland at Joet’s, seems like generic westernised curry !

6/12/16, Tuesday, Goa’s Airport to Delhi, 3 hour flight.
Flying with Air Asia on an A320. I’m feeling at about 80% today. We left our Cobra Basket Woven Hut at 6.30am. The Beach Cottages Reception man was asleep on a cane couch, to be fair he was pulling a double shift due to a no show. Jenny had booked a taxi with reception the previous day, but for whatever reason it had not turned up. Sleepy Reception Man got on the phone & the taxi rolled up about 5 minutes later.

We were about to discover the joys of flying domestic in India. Firstly they wouldn’t let us through the front door at the Goa Airport without a boarding pass. Jenny showed the Guard the pass on her smart phone, but it only had my name on it. I could enter but not my wife. To say Jenny was fuming at the bureaucratic ineptitude was an understatement.

“You need to go into the Airport to get your boarding pass but you’re not allowed into the Airport without having a boarding pass”. Then you can only get a boarding pass if you have had your checked-in luggage x-rayed first. You can only x-Ray your luggage if you are with it (remember Jenny is stuck at the front door), it’s a huge Catch 22 situation….go figure ??
They expect you to print one off at home, not a simple task for the average Joe Blow Tourist touring India. Luckily one of the Air Asia Staff bent the rules, issued me our 2 boarding passes, said go and retrieve your wife, x-ray your bags then come back and see me, only me he made very clear !

After a lot of hassles and at least 6 individual security checks we eventually found our way into the departure lounge just as boarding was commencing. The flight was full but turned out good and the lady sitting next to us holding the 18 month old baby boy on her lap turned out not to be that much drama either.

Arrived at Delhi Airport I overpaid for a prepaid taxi. Jenny said we should have told them no & tracked down another cheaper one but I was on a “just get it done” mission.

The traffic to Lalli Singh Adventure Bikes was heavy & an expected 45 minute trip took 1 hour & 15 minutes. Difficult to find Lalli’s new Workshop in the Motorbike district of New Delhi as well. Once we were close, Lalli sent out one of his men on a RE Bullet to guide us in to the district.
Great to see Lalli & Tony, they were quite busy so we had a short chat about our bikes & trip did a quick debrief on the bikes current condition, oil usage, damage, etc. then handed over all the keys & paper work. As a final favour Lalli sorted out a taxi for us which took us back to the Tara Palace in Old Delhi.

 

Wrapping up the bike handover with Lalli Singh in New Delhi. The bikes should arrive back on the 8th or 9th. Once checked over we will receive our final bill. It has been quite a ride, really appreciate Lalli’s assistance in helping make our adventure happen !

The Tara Palace Staff, Billa, Amit, Dilip & Chubbi were all happy to see us back. We had a very early dinner & few beers on the rooftop, while reminiscing about the amazing journey we have just had through India.

 

We are both happy to be back at the Tara Palace in Old Delhi, still heaps of smog around, though this time there is a bit of actual fog added to the mix as well.

Early tomorrow (Wednesday the 7th) we head south to Agra in Utta Pradesh, on an Express Train, the air pollution in Delhi is still shocking so we’ll be happy to escape it for a few days. Stay tuned !