On the plus side, there's an awesome beach in front of me

Namaste (is what they say here),

After 2.5 days of travel with minimal sleep, I have arrived at my intended destination, Gokarna. It is a small town several hours south of the notoriously hippie but now unfortunately crowded and commercial Goa. Thus, I skipped Goa, spending 2 hours there waiting for a train this morning after spending 16 hours on a bus from Mumbai last night, and headed directly here.

To recap, my journey began two days ago in New Jaipalguri, the Northeast corner of India (not counting Assam), where I caught a flight to Mumbai via Delhi. The entire traveling experience took about 14 hours because of a delay during my layover in Delhi. At the end of the delay, as we were exiting the terminal to board the plane, I saw a girl outside very obviously smiling at me in a very clear "hi! I'm trying to get your attention!" repeatedly kind of way. I smiled back, and as soon as I got outside, she asked if I was going to Mumbai and if I had a hotel yet. I did not, since that seems to be the way I've been doing things lately, and neither did she, but she knew of a place that wouldn't be too expensive if we split a room. The guide book said that finding a cheap place to stay in Mumbai upon arrival can be Hell, and I'd imagine arriving at 1 in the morning doesn't help. So we split a taxi when got to Mumbai and shared a room. It's not every day you share a room with a German girl who flags you down at the airport...unless you have a German girlfriend who picks you up at your airport job, I suppose.

The next day I found out that indeed all of the trains to Goa were full, even the special tourist quotas they set aside for last minute people like me. So I bought a bus ticket, even though the guide book specifically said "no matter what your budget, think twice before considering the hellish overnight bus journey, which ranks among the worst in India." We left at 2:30 pm and arrived at 6 am, which was actually on schedule. The roads were windy and bumpy, but I didn't expect to sleep, so it wasn't that bad. Plus we got to watch the first half of 2012. It was in Hindi, but I think I got the gist of the plot.

This morning I was understandably grumpy after not sleeping all night or bathing in two days, so the 2 hour delay at the train station didn't help my temperament. I caught a 1.5 hour train to Karwa, and then instead of waiting a few hours for a bus, spent a little extra to split a taxi with two Welsh people to go the rest of the way.

Gokarna is small, crawling with barefoot hippies, but still full of laid back Hindus. The beach is right there too. I walked a little further to get to Kudlee Beach, which is more secluded than the main beach, and therefore rumored to be completely booked since it will be New Year's Eve tomorrow. After being told "sorry" by 3 places, one mentioned that his brother had one hut available behind a nearby hotel, so I followed a boy who didn't speak English to a row of thatch huts with clay floors, and they cleaned some trash out of the last remaining hut, set up the mosquito net and gave me the key. The mattress lies atop a raised rock structure of some sort. But at least there's a working light bulb. And I'm right by the beach for only 200 rupees (between 4 and 5 dollars a night). Supposedly there will be a crazy party on the beach tomorrow night. After that, I'll search for better accommodation either on the beach or settle for something in town that's a little more with the times. The upside of being so close now is that it's supposedly not a good idea to walk to and from this beach after dark, so that would put a damper on celebrating New Year's where the party appears to be.

I'm not sure if much of this made sense or was blandly descriptive of travel details, but I haven't slept in a long time, so my next post will be better.

Swimming in the Indian Ocean (I've hit the big three now!) was great for shaking off three days of dirt, even though I am very salty now.

Enjoy this decade while it lasts,
Ben