Arambol Goa - India

Since 7 days I'm in Arambol in the North of Goa. Arambol is a budget beach resort. With a nice and log beach, cheap guesthouses and all the new age activities. Such as Yoga, Reiki, chi kung etc.....

 

I stay in the south of Arambol a little bit further away from the centre. It is only 15 minutes walk to the main Arambol road. Which is more or less the centre of Arambol.

 

I stay in a guesthouse called Sunrise. The guesthouse is situated in a palm tree Forrest and very near to the beach. Every morning I try to get up at around 7 am for a  morning stroll along the beach, followed by 1 hour Tai chi practise. Then back to the guesthouse for a shower and breakfast followed by hour Indian bamboo flute practise. Then go to my local beach shack for my coffee and read a bit. At 3:30 pm i do Vipassana at the Iyengar Yoga place in Arambol. This is a very nice place on the beach to meditate and is it is free of  charge. In the evening I go out for some cheap food.

 

Arambol is also a kind of get toogether because I met many travellers who I have met before India like Myran, Beatrice, Paul, Fabian, Eva and so on   (Rishikesh, Daramasala ). 

 

I will stay another few weeks may by I take a course in Zen and Yoga next week I will see.

 

For all those who are back home in cold Europe it is here 34 degree Celsius in the shade and the sun shining everyday.

 

Mumbai

Mumbai is a city which does not look like any other city I have visit in the rest of India.

Mumbai does not look like India:

 

It is clean (there are bins, the people put there litter in a dustbin (amazing) and they clean the streets.

It is organized, there are working traffic lights.

There are clean parks without litter (amazing).

The roads are paved.

The people speak English.

The roads are lined with trees.

Some parks and perks are sponsored by companies.

At the tourist information they gave free maps away.

You see many Indian girls in tight jeans and tight shirts (wauwwwwwwwwww) in the rest of India you see this seldom.

 

There are nice coffee bars like Barista
There is Mocha a place where I smoked a water pipe with my favorite taste mint. In Iran I smoked so many water pipe.

 

I stay in the Salvation Army the cheapest place in Mumbai 150 rps a night in the dorms. The Salvation Army this hostel is situated very close to the gateway of India and next to the Taj Mahal Palace and tower hotel one of the most colourful hotels in India. Tonight they host the king and the queen of Bhutan. Tonight I went to the cinema and saw the movie " Fun with Dick and Jane" it was funny movie. 

 

Tomorrow night I will take a train to Arambol in Goa. Time to relax.

 

Sufi

Sufi,
originally uploaded by mjrijnen.

This picture was taken at a sufi festival 2 hours outside Lahore. The date was 7 september

Uploaded some new pictures from Pakistan

karamabad hunza pakistan,
originally uploaded by mjrijnen.

just a picture from Karamabad Pakistan.
Click on the picture for a direct link to the rest of the pictures.

By the way I'm still in Mumbai

still in Mumbai ( uploaded pictures from Pakistan)

He I found in my Backpack a cd of pictures from my visit to Pakistan in Augustus.

So I uploaded a few of these pictures. Just go to the link all pictures or pictures Pakistan.

You will see some new pictures from Karamabad (Hunza) and pictures from along the Karakoram Highway.

How to safe petrol

Car of the future if you don't want pay these high petrol prizes. No joke just look on the bbc.co.uk or press here

 
http://www.rijnentravel.blogspot.com
India overland by bus and train 

Mumbai - India

Yesterday afternoon I arrived in Mumbai after 29 hours in the train (4 pm). It was a very comfortable train journey with a lot of sleeping. From VT train station I shared with two English people taxi to Colaba. Colaba is one of the places with some budget hotels. Before I went looking for a cheap place to stay we had a drink in Cafe Mondegar. This pub is very popular among Indians with a lot of western music. It is like to be back in a Western European pub.     

After a few coffees I easily found a place to stay in the dorm of the Salvation Army. This dorm is full of western backpackers and it is only 150 rps. When I looked in the Lonely planet guide book you I saw so many places asking more then 500 rps for a room. So I was bit worried arriving late in the afternoon. The Salvation Army is a huge place with a lot of space.

 

In the evening I went to Mumbai visual art festival. I never saw such a good organized festival.

This festival good be anyplace in Europe. You see so many Indian girls in western clothes incl tight t-shirts. I did not see that in the rest of India. So I guess it is true that Mumbai is very different from the rest of India, at least for the rich middle lass. Mumbai still has one of the largest slumps in India.

http://www.rijnentravel.blogspot.com
India overland by bus and train

Varanasi and Marmite

Varanasi is like Marmite it does not look very good it smells not so good but you love it or you hate it.

I love it.
--
Meinoud Rijnen
http://www.rijnentravel.blogspot.com
India overland by bus and train

From Varanasi to Mumbai

Tomorow I will take the train to Mumbai. The train leaves at 11:30 am and it takes about 31 hours. In Mumbai I wil stay for about 5 days and the will do a 10 days silent vipassana course.

Varanasi is one of the best cities in India I don't no why but I realy like it. The temperture at Varanasi is at the moment also very good an appr. 29 degree, much better then in Nepal overthere it was freezing cold (24 degree).  

Meinoud Rijnen
http://www.rijnentravel.blogspot.com
India overland by bus and train

India

Since yesterday evening i'm back in India. Yesterday I took an early busride from Pokhra Nepal to the border. This took about 11 hours, this is longer then normal because the Siddharda highway was unsafe because of some Maoist troubles over there. So we made a diversion to another road. The day before the Maoist launched an attack on a village near the Siddharda highway, they killed 11 policeman, the police killed 4 Maoist and the Maoist freed 112 prisoners. About 12 people are still missing. The Maoist attacked with 4000 people.

 

Pokhra was an amazing nice and quite place. The meditation centre where I stayed was great and relaxed. Tomorrow a 7 days strike in Nepal will put transport, shops etc to a complete stop.

 

I'm back in Varanasi now and from there I go to Mumbai in the next few days. 

 

Varanasi is the place with the most holiest Hindi river Ganga. The river which is extreme poluted but still a lot of people bath in it. The difference between Nepal and India is huge. Here in Varanasi there are so many people, cyclist, cars, riksja, cows on the streets. In Pokhra I ould walk over the street there were just a few cars, people were playing badminton on the street and here is that inpossible. 

 

--
Meinoud Rijnen
http://www.rijnentravel.blogspot.com
India overland met de bus, trein en auto