A busy day

This day was packed. It's probably the single most action packed day of my meager 19 years on this earth.

Today started for me at 12:01 am. I was still awake lying in my bed at Annanda Ashram. I was being slowly but surely eaten to death by something. My forearms were covered in bug bites and felt like they were on fire. They weren't mosquito bits so I can only assume that I was being attacked by bed bugs. I took two showers over the course of the night. I tried all sorts of ways of sleeping etc. All for naught. I finally gave up and climbed out of bed at 5 am.

I went and partook in some of the early morning ashram stuff. There was chanting and other Hindu rituals. I then had breakfast. Then I took a nap. It's amazing how much better I felt after a 20 minute nap.

My train from Khanangod left at 11 am. I arrived quite a bit early (on accident, I thought I was late) and ended up sitting in the sun for twenty minutes. Once I was finally on the train there was some confusion about where I was supposed to be sitting, however, it was fairly easy to sort out and no harm befell anyone.

That leg of the journey was pretty quick. I think I was on the train for maybe an hour and a half or even less. Once I arrived at Mangalore things began to slow down. Because I had to switch trains I had a two and a half layover. I got some coffee and water and decided to take a little nap on the floor.

What I noticed sitting on the floor was how much attention I got. I'm used to a bit of attention simply because I'm white. However, seeing a white guy sitting on the floor of a train station was a bit too much for many of the passing Indians. They gawked. It made sleeping a bit uncomfortable.

I eventually gave up on sleeping and found a bench to sit on. My bench neighbor was a young guy from Mumbai. We began talking and he explained the best way to get a train from Gokarna Road (where I am now) to Mumbai. Before talking to him I had been planning on leaving on the 16th and getting to Mumbai in time for my 1:35 am flight on the 17th. However, it turns out that it's a 12 hour train ride. There is a daily train at 6:00 pm. So, if I had gone with my original plan I would have missed my plane by a good four hours.

The train to Gokarna arrived and I jumped on board. I was shuffled from seat to seat until I finally found my promised land. Things quited down for a bit. I slept, read and listened to music.

I was still kind of disappointed that I would have to spend a whole day in Mumbai's airport. I thought about seeing the sights of Mumbai, but that sounded like a pain in the ass with all my stuff and no place to store it. So, I resigned myself to spending my last day in India inside an airport.

And then I saw this guy from the ashram. I had noticed him because he seemed really kind. He just had a kind face. We hadn't talked or anything but I just got a good vibe from him. He saw me and immediately sat down. We began talking, introducing ourselves etc. It turns out he lives in Mumbai. He asked me if I was going to Mumbai. I told him my situation and he immediately invited me to spend the day at his house. I went with my instincts and took him up on his offer.

Maybe that is stupid of me. But like I said he has a kind face. And a wife and kids. So he can't be a bad guy right? Right...

Anyways, I agreed to that. I told him I would call him before I arrived in Mumbai. I feel good about it and it would sure beat staying in the airport.

Wow. What a day. But it isn't over. Today was like watching a Lord of the Ring's movie. You just keep thinking it's going to end and it doesn't.

I got off the train. I was immediately assailed by rickshaw drivers promising me all kinds of great deals. I made my way to the front of the train station where I had heard there is a shuttle to town (town is about 10 km away). Sure enough there was a shuttle. It only cost rs 25 and it looked like a marginally operational vehicle. We waited about ten minutes for it to fill up and headed off. By the time we headed out there were 13 people plus luggage jammed into a van about the size of a Subaru station wagon. Six of the 13 were westerners. My fellow 'whities' all had dreadlocks. They were all wearing tank tops and other tough looking cloths. They all had tattoos. I'm sure they all smoke cigarettes. I felt like such a tool in my button up collar shirt, khaki shorts and flip flops.

We bounced through the night. It is so odd going to a place you have never been to before. Especially at night. I had no idea where I was going or what to expect. We finally reached the town proper. It was pitch black. OK, not pitch black there were some lights. But mostly it was black. I later learned there was a power outage, but as far as first impressions go I was not impressed.

We were thrown out of the shuttle and onto the street. I grabbed my stuff and immediately began walking in a very purposeful manner. I've found that if you look like you know what the hell you are doing people leave you alone. Needless to say I had no idea what I was doing. I finally stopped near a slightly brighter section of street and pulled out my guide book.

The town of Gokarna itself is about 6 km from the beach. There are two main beaches, Om Beach and Cuddle Beach. Lonely Planet said you could get beach side huts for less than rs 200. I was dead set on getting me one of those beach side huts. So, I grabbed my stuff, hailed a rickshaw, and hit the road again.

The rickshaw cost about rs 130 (I bargained him down from rs 150). It seemed like a lot to me. I'm used to paying less than rs 50 for rickshaws, but it's a long ride.

We drove through the night. There were few electric lights. I felt like I was in the middle of the jungle. The road was narrow and became increasingly steep. It was hair pin turns all the way. I began to wonder if perhaps my driver was going to take me into the wilderness and kill me or something.

Finally, we reached the highest point of the road. The moon was brilliant (I think it was the full moon). My driver pointed to a fairly lit area of beach. I could see huts and there was even electricity. That is Om Beach. He then pointed to a black stretch of emptiness. That was Cuddle Beach. For some inexplicable reason I said I wanted to go to Cuddle Beach. I think I had read about it or something and my preconceived notions temporarily overwhelmed the reality that was facing me.

So, we turned off the main road. The new road we were on could hardly be called a road. There was cement every twenty or thirty feet but nothing continuous. In fact the majority of the road felt as if it was made out of pot holes.

I was really kicking myself now. Thoughts like “What the hell were you thinking, do you want to die young?” kept running through my mind.

We bounced along this road (which was also narrow and had a nearly sheer drop on one side) for about 10 minutes. Finally we stopped. It was pitch black. The driver told me, that from here I would have to walk to Cuddle Beach. The only other person there was another rickshaw driver. I decided this was the moment where they attacked and robbed me. I figured that it would be best to go down fighting so I took my 'Pen' (remember it's actually a screwdriver) out of it's holster and prepared to fight.

Then the rickshaw driver showed me the path to Cuddle Beach. It was (like I've said before) pitch black. The path was narrow and steep (like every road in Gokarna). After seeing that path I decided I had a better chance of fighting two Indian rickshaw drivers. But I had no choice. I headed into the wilderness.

The path crawled between rocks and tropical plants. The moon was bright but the trees protected the path from the light of the moon. I couldn't help but think about what everyone had told me. People say India is a very safe country to travel in if you are around crowds. But, these same people say that you should never go anywhere on your own. Well, here I was, walking through the jungle, somewhere on the West coast of India, with all my valuables, hoping to find a place to stay.

Shit.

Well I made it. I came out of the jungle and onto a beautiful expanse of moonlit beach. Couples were cuddling (Ha ha get it Cuddle Beach) in the moon light. I found the nearest room for rent and claimed it for my own. It costs rs 150 and is pretty rough. It doesn't have an attached bathroom. It's one room with a filthy bed and a stinky mosquito net. It felt like heaven.

I walked along the beach a bit and found a place to eat. I had Vegetable Chowmein. It was pretty weird to eat Chinese food at 9 pm in India but it tasted good.

Then I finally went to bed. It was a little complicated working out the best way to avoid touching the mattress, which I'm sure is home to many bugs, but it worked out. I ended up not using the mosquito net and instead just turned on the fan, which did a good job of keeping me cool and keeping the mosquitoes at bay.

And I went to sleep.

And then I woke up. I'm not sure what time it was, perhaps it was the next day, but just barely. Something was biting my toe. Not a bug. Like an animal was biting my toe. Holy shit. An animal is eating my foot. I was surprisingly calm. I jumped out of bed and turned on the light. And... it was a kitten. It had slipped in my window and was cuddling (and nibbling on my toes) with me. I couldn't believe it. In my half conscious state I briefly considered throwing it out (on the basis that it might have lice, fleas or some weird cat disease that I might catch). I decided to let it stay. It slept with me the whole night. Sometimes down by my feet, other times up by my face. When I woke up in the morning it was gone. As silly as this sounds it made me miss my cat.

So, it was quite a day. In the morning I was able to see where exactly I was staying. It's beautiful. I will try to put some photos up (depends on the Internet speed). Overall I'm glad that I didn't die and that I pushed on through the various obstacles.

The absence of electricity really made me think about how much we humans depend on electricity. Without it the Cuddle Beach seemed like a pretty big, dark and scary place. With it you realize that it's actually a tourist resort full of dreadlocked hippies.