Ginlizzy wrote:

Ps I love the beatles

ahh me too, my idols for years especially Lennon, it was a real moving experience going there to the Ashram I shall treasure that memory!!
chilly

Thank you for sharing Chilly, I've really enjoyed reading about your journey.

No doubt you have already said elsewhere, but how long were you travelling for?

Those monkeys must have been very scary, not sure I would have emerged from he Hotel until it was bright sunshine again!

Chilly your stories are all brilliant and great reading, youre a very good authoress This has been brilliant reading during the summer when there is no Goa holidays for most of us, thanks again

Still loving your story and photos Chilly, hope we get to meet you in November

thanks, yes me too, when are you coming out? I think its the same time as Gemma and IC .... we must definitely get together at the meet and when are you coming out miccie?
chilly

Yes we are all on the same flight, see you at the meet

jetti what date is that? chilly

We arrive Friday 21 November, cant wait, just got to do the visa thing and we are ready

so will you be at the meet the following wednesday? oops sorry
chilly

Definitely and if it is at Zicos I wont even need a taxi home as we are at the Osborne
Its ok I dont think anyone is listening

the osborne is opposite the old Newtons isnt it??

its down the little lane opposite Kamat and behind the Donna Therazina, about 2 minutes walk from Babutes

the meet and when are you coming out miccie?

We arrive in time for Christmas December 21st, staying at the MD for a couple of weeks. Bringing my Mum & Dad (in their 70s) for their first ever trip to Goa, their getting quite excited now, they're going to see what their daughter has fallen in love with - not quite sure about the culture shock for them though

my mum loved it hope they do to, see you there
chillyx

The last leg... goodbye Rishikesh ....Hello Delhi
Rishikesh, India

After the scary incident with the monkeys trying to prevent us leaving our hotel and catching our bus from Rishikesh, (see pic)
we finally managed to escape, we had one of the old guys take our luggage across the suspension bridge in a trolley!! phew!! and then caught a vikram.... now this is actually a glorified rickshaw.... but larger and you can actually use it like a bus, as in loads of people pile in and all pay 5rupees fare... but as we were laden with backpacks we negotiated a fare for sole use!! 50 rupees!!! this delivered us to the bus station..... it only really comfortably seats four but they seem to cram hoards of people in and they hang on the edges....
..........then horror of horrors we found our 'Luxury tourist' bus........ (see pic)
OMG I nearly died ... i mean to say after all these weeks of travelling i thought i had just about seen it all with regards to buses but this had to take the cake!!! ........... at first glance you could be mistaken for thinking this large white bus/coach was almost akin to a 1st rate volvo... don't forget it was dark!! and there were no lights outside either, but on closer inspection it became blatantly obvious that it was actually made up more of filler than bus ....I am absolutely serious it was virtually held together by unevenly spread chunks of filler... for real !!! ...... I looked around and asked a few people lurking about beside bonfires in the 'bus station'..which was a piece of waste ground, 'is this the tourist bus for Delhi' really expecting them to say 'no., its over there somewhere' but got answered in the affirmative... so I climbed up inside, what a great start the steps had holes in that showed the road below ...really reassuring!!

The drivers cab looked like it was about to disintegrate too and was a greasy looking mess of hanging wires and ... well muck!!!
it was manky and filthy and looked like it was something from a knackers yard!! with cables hanging down .... and the steering wheel looked rather dodgy too...... see pic

The bus also seemed to be the local meeting place for all the local destitutes as there were a couple of sadu's sitting up front by the cab whom i had to squeeze past.... and various other dubious looking lads hanging around .... the driver looked none too friendly either and when i took my camera out to take a picture they took turns in getting in the driving seat to have their pictures taken!!

As i walked down the aisle to take a better look at this most unusual of things LOL all i could keep saying was...'this cannot be it... i have never seen anything like this in my life........... this cannot be it.... it just cant' and as i walked the floor was wobbling and felt like it was going to give way beneath me... more shocking was the actual interior layout!!! This i have never come across before... it appeared to have been (roughly) converted... and down one side ran the seats and above them (literally) and all down the opposite side, where there were no seats were these little rooms with sliding doors... . ...........its just so hard to describe..... you just have to see the pictures, i then proceeded to find our middle seats (front had gone when we booked, but actually there weren't really any front ones as these 'rooms' started at the front) we had booked middle seats (hahaha) only to find they were at the very back, well surprise surprise the second worst place to sit getting all the bumps and bangs, the worst though of course normally being next to the driver..... deathwish!!!

I had specifically stated NOT back of bus and the guy booking for me and another local man who had been waiting to speak to him at the booking shop had both assured me this was a middle of the bus seat, even though i queried (over and over) the numbers as they sounded to me like back seats....'no mam, this bus has 42 seats' ..... just downright out and out LIES!!!!!! they even drew a diagram and showed me the fictitious seats!!! so never mind...parr for the course!! what to do!!!

I was extremely fascinated by these little 'bedrooms' and was told i could book one for 100 rupees for the two of us, thats a double ..... on the other side where there were no seats at all were singles (rooms) above and below........... so we agreed... as frankly the seats under the 'rooms' were really claustrophobic and i don't think i could have managed to sit underneath there, so whilst Mike stayed outside to keep an eye on the baggage in the boot (!!) i clambered up the ladder, had it been clean it might have been fantastic ... well maybe thats a bit OTT but at least fun!!! but it was rank!!! all greasy the headrest was horrible and the 'mattress' was covered with a sort of carpet cum rug thing to lay on which looked none too clean even in the dark.... and it smelt in there...

i can only thank God that it was so dark, because had i seen the real state of it, as i did in the morning i might have just declined the journey altogether!!! although there was no other choice open to us (or so we thought) it seems we could have got the train which incidentally noone had told us about!!!!! typical.nevermind we had a luxury bus!! haha

As it happened it turned out that we didn't pay the 100 rps.... as when they asked me for it i said, ask my husband and apparently Mike had such a ruck with them outside, unbeknown to me, as they charged him 10 rupees each to put his 2 bags in the boot and then they put an Indians 5 bags in and charged him nothing as he shouted at them... that they must have decided not to approach him again...or plain forgot i don't know!! LOL but he thought i had paid and i thought he had until the following day when we were chatting about it....anyway i am sure it was a scam and the money was going in their pocket, to this day i have no idea how the system worked as when we booked noone mentioned anything about beds!!! they just told us reclining seats, but as you may have gathered by now you cannot listen to anybody here in India because you can ask 10 people and you will likely get ten different answers and if they don't know, so as not to 'let you down' they seem to just have a guess and make it up!! LOL

Anyway, there were great huge sliding windows in our 'bedroom' which you could quite easily fall out of, obviously not a Health and safety issue here haha but the fresh air (well, maybe not so fresh but the flowing air) was better than the musty smelly feet smell inside!!

We spread a shawl over the 'pillow' part and surprisingly did actually manage to nod off and get some sleep and amazingly it wasn't to bad .... until someone woke me up with their snoring .... to be honest the idea in principal was a great one (the bedrooms) if they had been kept clean!! but (being such an eternel optimist ...NOT) i also kept wondering what would happen should we crash, as i am sure the whole thing would have just caved in!!!!

They just seem to go from one extreme to another, this time we had no stops at all... we were hungry and needed a drink and a stretch, whereas on the bus from Daramasala to Manali we were woken with 'chai' stops every five minutes it seemed, there really seems to be no rhyme or reason and must i think just depend on how the driver is feeling. It was probably as well we did have beds as the speed he drove and the weaving in and out avoiding near death by the skin of our teeth i don't think we could have managed to stay in one place had we been seated!!!!!

As expected the bus was 1-2 hours late leaving and we arrived in Delhi as it was waking up in the early hours of the morning...
the smells coming in the windows were making me want to retch, i don't know what it was but God it was utterly foul,
everywhere were people sleeping on the streets and in strange places, i even saw two guys asleep on the bonnet or roof of a road digger thing, they must have been looking out for it overnight... i found it quite fascinating watching everything coming to life in the city that i love, i forst visited Delhi some 15 years ago anfd have loved it ever since despite my negative remarks!!
and we did pass some really nice apartments and houses but the divide between rich and poor was so startling so obvious so huge it beggars belief...all side by side.... it never ever fails to touch me.

We were dropped off in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, shattered hungry and dirty and after haggling, arguing and having a tantrum with the Rickshaw drivers who were trying to rip us off... (just for a change!!) as i had just about had enough, we managed to get to the airport where after 6/7 or so hours we boarded our plane for Goa................ We have traveled Kingfisher before and i can really recommend them they are brilliant.great food, great service and dead comfy!!!! it was only a 2.5 hour journey and i was very happy to see Goa as we landed..............it suddenly all looked so clean!!!! (usually looks pretty dirty at times... India an all that!!) ahh my Goa.... bliss.. I love it!!

It really is a great feeling to be back ....we had a great welcome from everybody here .... the sun was shining ... everything looked so green .... and the first thing we did was.... guess... you got it ..... jump in the lush hot shower and then the pool !!!!!

Its been a fab and memorable trip, but its great to be home...it always is ....we have met some wonderful and interesting people on our travels, some of whom i am sure we will see again at some point and we shall now be booking some flights for the Uk asap to see our much loved and badly missed friends and family, whom we haven't seen now for nearly 8 months..... we miss you all like mad and can't wait to see you xx.....
so till the next time..... and it will soon come round!!
thats it !! The End!!
thanks so much for reading my blog..... and i do hope that this trip, which you have shared with us, in a virtual sense anyway, has been as enjoyable for you as it has for us both.... Namaste

Sitting here with goosebumps and a smile having read

thats it !! The End!!

Thank you so very much for sharing your trip/experiences with us, it has been an honour to read

Chilly it has been an incredible read and the photos give you some of the reality of it all, thank you so much for sharing it with us all. That bus

Thankyou chilly for sharing your trip it sounded amazing, i think your both very brave . You should write a book about India, i think it would be a sell out. Your home in Goa looks lovely

Chilly, what an amazing trip. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. If only I was twenty years younger I would have loved to have seen some of the places you visited. Dehli was the first place I visited in India and like you I fell in love with it at once. It was fascinating and from then on I was hooked on India. Sharing your pictures with us makes me feel I have seen a bit more of such an interesting and to me a beautiful country. Thank you. Hughsey.