Kilometers covered till now: 2750
Kilometers left: approx. 3000-3500
States covered:11
Time elapsed: 6 weeks
Time left: approx. 8 weeks

First I would like to wish all of you an incredibly happy new year full of experiences, opportunities, love and peace. Here is yet another greeting from a thrilling but loungy, colourful but polluted, glossy but poor India. A land full of extremes...

During my 3 days stay in Puri I visited among others the mighty Sun temple in Konark, the Jagannath temple in Puri (one of India's biggest), some colourful festivals and enjoyed the scene on the beach, where there is life everywhere, any time of the day. Whether it are cows watching the beach cricket, fishermen making nets, the plenty of market stalls, *chai, belpuri* and *paan *sellers, the beach is the city's heart, the central meeting place.
Although it's sometimes a bit of a public lavatory... After some days I had to go further, but where...?

As free as I am in going whereever I want, as radically have I changed my plans. That will say: not Bhopal (there would simply be no accomodation on the road to there), but further to the south! I wanted to see some more exotic parts of India too, and the regions of Andhra Pradesh and Goa seemed to meet that condition. And beside that I could affort this myself, since I had dropped Darjeeling.
Just a day after having left Puri, I bumped up in Cuttack, a famous silver city (with the expected jewelleries). The hotel keeper seemed to be quite interested and impressed of my cycle tour while we had a talk. So when he took me out for shopping in the city, at a certain moment he just pushed a silver sculpture of the 'Om' sign in my hands. 'Well, this is for you actually'. I couldn't believe my eyes. Why was I worth this...? Allah may know it.
The same day I met a good friend I had met earlier in the National Park, a police men in training.We went to a depressing Zoo, he showed me the whole police residency, his friends and his training camp, which was a very special experience.
While continuing further along the eastcoast, I passed the biggest saltwater lake in India which houses the biggest population and biodiversity of birds.
For the rest the road - in perfect condition - leaded through green, hilly and tropical landscape, along banana and and palm oil; plantations. Through small villages with children, screaming and laughing as soon as they saw me on the bicycle. Along heavy trucks, truck drivers and motor drivers blowing their horn to greet me (or to warn me for - maybe - my last minute... traffic is not always the safest in India).
So as you can see, the whole image is becoming more and more comfortable, enjoyable and rich of experiences. Cities I passed include Baleshwar, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Christmas was an idillyc experience in a small bamboo hut near the beach in Visakhapatnam. Nearby was a hill park with an amazing view over the bay, the city and the hilly landscape behind it.
When I arrived in Vijayawada, a big city away from the coast, I decided to take a bus from there to Goa.I couldn't affrort myself cycling the whole route within the time I had, and beside that, it would be an experience apart.. The first part to Hyderabad went very comfortably and succesfully, in a Eurolines-like bus (VERY luxurous...) where I could put my bicyce in the luggage room. Arriving in Hyderabad was like arriving in Las Vegas: lights everywhere, enormous hypermarkets and shops on everything you can imagine. The next day I had a little time to see some architectural wonders of the city, which included thew famous Charminar, an enormous islamic building with 4 towers standing in the middle of the traffic crowd. And many, many mosques. It was more like being in the Middle East than in India.
But the bus to Goa was something totally other... I had to put my bicycle on the roof of the bus. The bus ride itself took 22 hours and was a bit of a 'kermis' experience. Not very relaxing. But my cycle had survived!
Incredible!

As soon as I arrived in Panaji, the capital of Goa, I got a kind of a 'welcome in Paradise' - Erlebnis. Green hills with spice plantations, dense forests and stunning views to the lowland near the coast. Panaji itself was a quiet, pleasant town with lots of signs from the earlier colonialism of the Portugese. To keep it short: a world away from the real India...
Especcially for the more rich and younger Indians, Goa is *the* place2B around Christmas and New Year with exclusive parties for Bollywood and fashion stars... Although, it's a perfect place to relax in the narrow streets with colonial houses, which make Panaji one of the most colourful and pleasant cities in India.
As poor as some other parts of India are, as glossy and as touristic is Goa.
But - unfortunately enough - the beaches are also overcrowded, overpolluted and overexploited. By Indian tourists, but mostly by foreign laid-back travellers. A kind of people I don't feel especcially attracted to. However, there are still some small 'paradises' left: beautiful coconut groves, smallbays and forts standing on steep cliffs... A landscape you nearly only find in stories. Unless the crowd and the many tourists, I have enjoyed Goa royally (in the little time I had for it).

Now I'm going to continue further to the north to Mumbai and further along Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur and finishing in Delhi. Then my friends in Varanasi will hopefully wait for me to go shopping.... For the more than EUR 2500,- which has arrived in the mean time, we might purchase 4 computers and much of other eduactional material also, for the Social Centre in Varanasi! Thank you all so much for your donations!

I would like to invite all of you to my website too where is much more to experience, including some photos (a very little selection, I hope to make a small film afterwards).

Have a nice time and enjoy life!

Yours sincerely,
Christopher Baan