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rickshaw run blogs jan 2014 North to south pan-india on a glorified lawnmower
for our second run April 2015 (west - east across the top 3000+ Km @ 40km/hr) go to DO blogspot
Learn to pause or nothing worthwhile will catch you up - Doug King When doing the winter Rickshaw Run through India - the icing on the cake is the thought of Goa. Like badges of honour: Getting there first, Staying there the longest and Partying the hardest are three definitive trophies of run success. This is the primary target for R&R; pushing pause and having fun. To rest up, swim and relax. To hop out of the Auto maybe leave it alone for a day. Be tourists, like any other in India, once again be part of a visitor throng. In accelerated learning Incubation is the 5th state. The mind must have a down time for new knowledge to infiltrate the subconicious, for the lights to come on and the Ahhha to take place. Goa our fifth state in India is the perfect place to Do so. It's one of those iconic beach retreats that you wish you had done in your wild and reckless youth and you believe you may still be able to claim that just by being there. You imagine all the bad things you'll do, smoke again, drink too much, sleep too little. The trouble you'll almost get into, the tiny bikini's you'll have to fit into, the beachfront huts that you'll luxuriate in. So much of incubation is anticipation it's challenging to slow yourself down enough to make the rest occur. We rolled into Baga on the recommendation of a group of stags from the Ivy restaurant of Indiage country - the best party beach by far, not long before sunset with no accommodation and the unsettled feeling that a lack of security on Maslows hierarchy of needs creates. We hit the shore one of our team already missing. Heather has jumped ship at the first guest house that looks the part and secures us a place for the night. I was ecstatic. Team argy bargy erupted as the boys wanted to go straight to the bar and the ocean and sort out de-rigging later. It was hard enough to pry passports out of their grip and park in front of the hostel but female sensibility prevailed and we stripped the tuks as far as the foyer and headed for the sand and base beats. The shot of us walking to the ocean is one of our favorites of the trip - it looks as though we are returning home from the front line, battle weary and filthy, it's how we felt. The lure of that sea front the smell of the salt was as close to heaven as we could imagine knowing we still had a long way to go before home. When we hit the first bar we could hardly contain ourselves. Cocktails or swims both - right on sunset. The road grime incredible Baldy's feet lily white were not the result of sunburn but the shit that India throws at you from a full day on the road. It was seafood for dinner, laser lights on the sand, Russians everywhere. The days effects were felt and we quietly almost guility least someone should see us pike early crawled off to our beds. Realising that as much as we thought we would party we were already spent. Turns out I was incubating something real. That child's sneeze in the land of Sai dealt it's blow - flu, the one vaccine I had not had and perhaps the greatest risk factor in an Indian winter with no local immunity. A fever , the chills and a restless night swearing at large rodents on the grass roof of our hut. Baga be buggered we were going to need somewhere a little more peaceful if we were going to rest up. Day 2 our only rest day we head North to Ashvem beach - in the absolute opposite direction to the finish, nothing like putting even more kms between you and the end of your adventure to really make your brain realise you are taking this break seriously. Our friend from NZ Stu has suggested Yab Yum resort - and yum it is indeed. Hobbit huts on a white stretch of sand. Flu or no flu I swim, we rest read, sleep and shop. Still not able to stay out of the Rickshaws for a day - Heather and I nab homeware for home at the local market. Copper dishes,and cookware, curry powders, bindi's, yoga mats, all things Indian to ensure we have something of this journey to connect us to this space for the rest of our lives. There are massages to be had, but we still can't bring ourselves to party large. The worst behaviour becomes camera hams and our daily ritual of hysteria googling inappropriate things said by Prince Philip while travelling. A decade too late for Goa in our veins, only one team member ventures to the night club on the hill and we are sure he must have dreamt it as he was sleeping when the rest of us went to bed. Day 3 in Goa and we are starting to feel just a little restless at being further from our goal than a few days ago but not yet ready to leave Goa. We head just a tiny way South to Palolem beach. A stop en route to send our purchases courtesy of India Post is a fascinating glimpse of the system again. The man pictured here is sewing a bag for our shopping to go in. One counter at the post office is operating for everything though there are half a dozen others staffed for no observable purpose. The process is rigid even a man trying to send home a bag of cashew nuts across state needs a little cloth bag stitched up. Surprisingly it all gives us perfect faith that our good will arrive in NZ possibly even before us. And we happily stand reading notices in the post office and enjoying glimpses into how people apply for licences, pay registrations and send money while we all cluster around the same teller. It feels great to send home the winter wardrobe from Rajasthan the weather is finally hot enough to overcome the chill of tuk travel in the early morning, so puffers, ski gloves and warm hats have been stripped from our belongings. Palolem is paradise and our hut is truly beach front. A moment of concern its the first night we have not been near the tuks and it means a shlep with all our gear past pigs eating polystyrene and stray dogs weaving down back alleys to the foreshore 200 metres of so with all our luggage for less than 12 hours here... it seems a hardship without porters. How quickly we've become used to having everything yet nothing done for us. A last night of feasting on seafood, long island ice teas and excitement building for the finish just two states to go literally and figuratively. Karnataka our 6th state - Verification - time to show we know. And then onto Kerala and the finish , the ultimate learning state of celebration. Rested and feeling completely at home sights that would have bamboozled us look fully normal from the way they burn there lawns off when things get too long. To the long drawn out registration process with our temporary visas. My cold is breaking, it's hard to get started again. We are dreading the finish because it means it will be over and the last stretch ahead seems hard work after our fun in the sun.
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