She travels Overland

OhmOm Namah Shivaya!  After an overnight stay, well from midnight to 4qm, I board a bus at 5 am towards Pondicherry.  It's a sleeper bus, with full reclining beds and white cotton sheets.  When I wake up at 7:30 we're in Tamil Nadu, it's hot, it's tropical after 9 weeks in the Himalayas.  in Pondicherry my Autorickshaw driver takes me to the OYO Hotel I have booked.  Sadly they can't check me in, as they're only set up for Indian s tourists.  I go round the corner to MiCasa hostels, a modern Spanish chain, and they check me right away to a quiet, cool dorm.  I explore Pondi a bit, it is lovely laid out and has a tree-lined grid system.  Very cool model for future cities.  The next day I get an autorickshaw to Greens guesthouse outside Aurobindo Mataharant temple.  I check in to my treehouse room (My son would love this!) and walk out to go into Sri Aurobindo for the first time to view the Matrimandir.  It's awesome, it's beautiful, ...

 I have deliberated , procrastinated about writing this blog.  This is what I've got up to in my extra enforced month in Kathmandu.   I get a taxi back  from Nepali immigration to the Bodhi guesthouse, and immediately get my old room back.  It's huge, it has  red/orange painted walls, an attached bathroom, and three huge windows over looking Boudha.  All for $13 per night.  I'm grateful to the lovely staff: Robin, Rameshwar and the lovely Didi, who makes breakfast, cleans our rooms, and  does our laundry.   I email the Lischa German NGO with my English teaching certificates, and offer to travel to Chapang to teach for free for Board and lodging.  Danni emails back several days later saying the school is closed, due to a two-week COVID lockdown throughout Nepal.    Staying at Bodhi guesthouse are Sarah, a Buddhist nun form UK, now with American citizenship.  Sarah zooms around Kathmandu on an electric moped....

On my last night in Kathmandu, I get to meet Rajan my trekking guide for the next ten days. H e is the man that is going push, cajole, motivate me to get around the Gorkha region,  and a 5 day trek in the Mardi Himal region of Nepal, under the auspices of the two Annapurna mountains: North and South. Here he is wondering what he has let himself in for:  I have spent the last afternoon in Kathmandu doing import stiff like drinking coffee, eating cake, and getting my hair blow dried. I go to bed at 8pm.   Day 1:  Gorkha Tour  My alarm goes off gently at 6 am on Thursday morning. I get last flask of hot water, from Koran, on the roof terrace cafe.  I lug my two "trekking" rucksacks to reception, one is more like a handbag with sketching gear, the larger day pack contains clothing essentials , such as two towels. I haven't showered for a week in cold water in Restup. Rajann goes up to my room, and carries my 15kg back down, and puts it in the backroom...

 I arrived in Mumbai, scratched and a little bruised. I arrived at 5 am, and tried three cashpoints before negotiating with an autorickshaw to take me the Navi Mumbai    for INR 800. I saw a rat the size of a cat scrunching down to eat bird food left in front of a temple or  By the time we had crossed the river from the main Mumbai peninsular to Navi Mumbai peninsula, the price had risen to INR 1500.  I asked him to be quiet .  the hotel was fine, I was given Room 102.  I couldn't get onto the balcony.  I went to the roof terrace , which was nice, but the pool was closed, it being winter.   I left Mumbai again on Monday evening by taxi to Mumbai central.  it was calm and air conditioned.  I got on the Golden Temple express to Amritsar via Kola and New Delhi.  With a police escort , we left at 18:45 promptly.  I ate my Mumbai snacks, I'm still eating them here in Kathmandu, Nepal actually! I went to sleep at 9 am and w...

 I can't quite believe I'm in back in India, and in Kerala again.  I'm searching through some emails , looking for my train , and the search reveals emails between my friend, Clair, in which we are hooking up for the start of the Cochin- Darjeeling TucTuc ralley in 2006.   A group of crazy (!!) Brits each put together £2-3000 per team, to buy brand new TucTucs, which they ten raced across India, starting in cochin across the country to the mountainous, tea growing area: Darjeeling, still on my India bucket list.  The race took some 3 weeks, with many breakdowns and adventures along the way: such as sleeping beside the road, and relying on the hospitality on India to feed them , or give them shelter.  They then donated the TucTuc to the Indian TuTuc drivers association so that they could disburse them  to the most needy.  A TucTuc can bring a cash income for a struggling family.   This time I see businesses: cafes, restaurants, ...