so, in gokarn killing time till four o’clock when we can catch a train out of this pesthole.

not that we have had a perticulaly bad time here, but there is a strange atmosphere of depresion gripping the town and we cant wait to move on. the people are in turn really friendly and really bleak. the other travelers are a strange lot, they try and avoid meeting your eye, prefering to pretend that they are the sole westerner who thought of coming to gokarn. they look as though they are trying desperatly to fit in. decking themselves in various foux indian raiment as if this in itself will distill them with some sort of spiritual significance. this wierd behaviour looks like it cant be much fun as we have noticed a distinct lack of smiling or any kind of lightheartedness. after walking around the town for a bit we returned to the hotel depressed only to find in our own company our spirits rising. it felt really good to laugh after seeing so many grim faces. bit odd. i think most of them are just annoyed becouse after buying what apeared to be trousers, it turned out on closer inspection to be some sort of sack with two feet holes in them. must be agravating.

 

 forgot to mention the train journeys. i shall scribe them into my palm later and blog em. this place doesn’t have a usb. all in all travel by train is pretty good fun.

 

i also forgot to mention my epic travel pants. they have proven themselves invaluable, practicaly drying as soon as they are exposed to air and aiding the drying process of other clothing within a mile radius. also i wear my rohan trousers at all times, seemingly they require no cleaning. 🙂

 heading to mangalore, then verkala i think. we don’t have much time to go to far south. any places you would recomend in the north of india tom? when in newzealand i would avoid the big cities like aukland and wellington as they were soul draining. nelson was pretty cool, and be sure to do the abel tazman trail.

 might buy a indian sim card at some point. is it worth my trying to ring home from a payphone or something?

 see you!

julio