Hail. Oh well, at least we can now ocnfirm that Slightly is the odd on out – or perhaps he perchased a pair of these bags and actually likes them!

Jul, have you tried Hampi? Nice if you fancy free romeing round some temples – the food is also good as far as i can remember. Have you been to fruit stalls/markets yet to get fruit? well worth it.

liv – these pics should be in colour you fool – they look washed out and quite francly add to the wishy washy colour of the site – why not something bright and lively to catch the attention rather than dead fish colour?

 

Well, two highlights I remember from your neck of the woods are Hot Water Beach, where you need a spade to dig a hole in the sands, and then you can wallow in a delightful hot bath, and you could – though this may no longer be possible – swim out to some mussel encrusted rocks and peel off your supper material; and a little further south, in Tauranga, where there is a campsite on the right hand side just before you cross the river/estuary leaving town going South. It has a fantastic thermal pool, where once again you can sit and wallow. This is especially good at night when the air temperature is low.

Clearly, New Zealand isn’t limited to wallowing, but I found something deeply soothing about it.

 

So, the Gokarn question has been settled! I trust you saw the massive wooden chariot that looked as if it had stepped out of an animated film? As for the trousers, their utter ludicrousness defies analysis.

Try switching your phone settings between automatic and manual. That may give you coverage. I did this in Spain and it worked. According to the Virgin ‘map’ you should have been okay in Goa although out in the sticks it’s patchy. Also, try the Fresh sim. Being able to send and receive texts is definitely worth it, so maybe if you find a cheapo Indian sim. Apparently, you can call overseas on them for the cost of a lassi.

Just in case you’re missing them, here is a photo of the pigs. They demolished the house we built, so I had to construct another one with the last of the hay bales. 

 

 

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

Rio out on his first walk

Stickle tarn, raining

checking out the view

On the way down from a freezing Helvellyn

Jul, congratualtions on being in India. The Best Place to Be – provided that you aren’t actually Indian that is. If you have any questions about the place I should be able to assist since I know the place quite well mostly. You may or may not like Gokarna but afterwards in Kerala, Verkala is infinitely superior to Kovalam.

We are in the Coromandel Coast in NZ. Which places in this country would you recommend or avoid like the plague?