It started waking up under the road and ended camping in a far flung desert in a remote part of far Western China. As with the journey, it was what happened in between that defined it. The previous afternoon, I had rolled my sleeping mat out in the confines of a concrete culvert. It was [...]
READ MORE »Posts in category Stage 2
Familiarity
My return to China was flooded with a kind of reverse culture shock. The dirty, run down city of Kathmandu had cows shitting in the street; the rivers ran full of rubbish; chaotic traffic spilled in all directions around every corner and intersection. The tangled cars often sang in a symphony of horns. In contrast, [...]
READ MORE »Delhi Belly
India was a dead end. I had the world to cycle and nowhere to go. Sure I could have flown directly to Iran but, apart from contravening the low emissions lifestyle that I’m trying to encourage through the Expedition, it would be self defeating. Besides, where was the adventure in that? Things very seldom go [...]
READ MORE »Fighting against a surging tide of pessimism …
I had exhausted just about every option. A bureaucratic roadblock stretched from the Indian Ocean, 3500 kilometres northward, all the way along the mighty Indus River to the highest peaks of the Himalayas. This was a hurdle that, no matter how much strength I could muster, would be difficult to overcome. There’s only one way [...]
READ MORE »Sweeping Generalisations
Perhaps one of the prerequisites for visiting India should be a question such as, “Are you prepared?” It would be a good question. “For what?” they would naturally reply, to which there is no answer worth explaining. If you say “Yes”, you get the visa. India needs to be felt to be experienced. It [...]
READ MORE »Shame on me. Shame on you.
When the guy pulled a gun and placed it on the table, I snapped! “Is that a gun?”, I demanded, looking him in the eye. “Did you just pull a gun on me?”, I demanded again as I bent over the counter to confirm my suspicions. Our previously courteous misunderstanding was reaching a climax. [...]
READ MORE »Doctor, Doctor give me the news!
Early one morning, almost a month after Goa, I went to see another doctor at a local hospital about the continuing stomach and intestinal problems I was having. It was a small clinic and yet crowded with people coming and going, both sick and seemingly healthy. There was little order, but somehow through a [...]
READ MORE »To the trenches!
Fast forward a month meeting old friends in Goa and things were still touch and go with my health. I tried to let my body take care of itself but, even after a month resting on palm tree-lined southern beaches, feeling better one week then miserable the next, it was still not recovering. Eventually [...]
READ MORE »It’s all about food …
Indian kitchens are dirty, very dirty, especially those that I frequented on the road. Rats, bugs, flies, mice, dogs, cats and even monkeys are frequent visitors to the places I ate at. Bodily cleanliness is highly valued in India but, when you’re up to your eyeballs in filth all around, then it feels as though [...]
READ MORE »Ganges Fever
India is as diverse as its people. The differences are at times often staggering. It is a land of extremes, a land in a slow moving flux. The more I came to know India, the less I understood. Trying to reduce, divide and compare is a task that seems only to disparage meaning. The people [...]
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