Chittorgaugh: We were told by the lovely Stephan (the German) that Chittor had the best sound and light show in the country... and the bible talks up the huge fort quite a bit so we thought we should check it out on our way south. The massive fort overlooking the town was interesting and quite nice but I've now seen better. We went to see the sound and light show to be told at 8pm that they couldn't put it on for only 2 people... such is life!

Mandu: Youch! A 320km drive is a really hard slog! Luckily Mendo and I can say that Mandu is currently our favourite place in India, so it was well worth it! Winding up, up, up on Shepa and then just before we reached Mandu there is a breath-taking view into the valley from a look-out point. Mandu is a very rural, quiet place which hasn't quite hit the tourist trail. There are beautiful temples, tombs and palaces everywhere you look, but the nicest thing about Mandu is the people. It's 600 Rupees ($18AUD) to see it all and since we are on a very tight budget we decided to just see what we could see without paying. And so we ventured off on Shepa who led us to most of the gorgeous palaces where we could explore quietly and imagine what it would have been like to be a queen/king there. Shepa then took us right through the town, past the lake, over the green hills to the farthest palace and back again. We then did the same trip walking which turned out to be magical. Locals sharing food, chai, giggles, waves, henna etc. We learnt a new hindi word: 'muscu rana' ('smile!') because when we go to take pictures (after asking permission of course), the people get all serious for the photo's... but when they hear us speak this hindi they think it's hilarious so we get some lovely smiles. As we walked along we would be admiring a beautiful monument/tomb 100 metres away and in the foreground would be a cute little mud hut complete with cows, chickens and chicks scampering about, goats, pigs, crops and people doing their everyday chores. After imagining being a queen at the palace, we were being followed by a small pack of dogs who became very friendly - licking and nestling into me... of course I patted 1 and since I was surrounded by dogs I mentioned that I was the 'queen of the dogs'... not a second after this the dog which I had patted lifted it's leg on me! It was just one of the special moments in Mandu which I won't forget for a long time...

Omkareshwar: We were recommended this place and really I just liked saying the name out loud, so we took our little booty's to Omkareshwar. The first afternoon it didn't seem like much so we decided to stay another day and try to get more of a flavour of this mini Varanasi (since it's situated on a large river). The next day we took ourselves off for a long walk of the island (2km x 1km) and had litle chats with Baba's (holy men who were usually stoned), used the local greeting of 'Hare Om' like locals, fed the monkeys and had chai on the ghats. On the very top of the island we sat with a Baba who blessed us, then took 500Rs ($15AUD) out of our wallet - Mendo got it back, but in the process of the Baba protesting he opened his robe to reveal a sad-looking penis which had been pierced and attached to a chain around his waist... I guess he thought this was worth $15 to a foreigner...? We also met a Spanish guy who was in the process of setting up a cafe overlooking the water - hence we were lucky enough to get a real coffee and a nice chat in Spanish. Unfortunately the beautiful town of Omkareshwar has been spoilt by a dam project, so that when you look past the island all you see is a massive cement wall. Apparently the dam company had to flood several small villages to construct it and as compensation they gave the people land which is unable to be farmed... the dam company also gifted Omkareshwar with a siren which goes off everytime they are opening a section to let some water through, so several times a day a siren reminiscent of the World Wars' bomb siren shatters the peace. We met several characters in Omkareshwar who have made it a really lovely memory - a man who thought he was Shiva (painted blue, tiger skin clothes etc); a gorgeous Aussie family travelling for a year with their lovely 10 year old daughter (the mother, Emily, has further inspired me to investigate teaching as my next career move) and Olivier the sweet French man who we'd previously met in Bundi.

Ellora to Panchgani to Goa: We rode 11 hours (!) to get to Ellora only to discover that the next day (when we wanted to explore the famous Ellora Caves), the caves were closed. Since we wanted to get to Goa to meet up with Ali ASAP, we decided to leave the next day rather than waiting 2 more days before moving on. In Ellora we met a sweet couple from Australia and Japan who were also travelling by Royal Enfield and were heading in the same general direction as us. So Sim and Emy, Mendo and I left early the next morning to head to the coast. What a beautiful ride! At one point we were in the plains of central India passing sugar cane, bananas, cotton etc, then up up up - we were high overlooking the plains, winding around small mountains to a cooler and greener climate in the holiday town of Panchgani. After a peaceful night and sampling the local speciality of strawberry's, Mendo and I set off to finally embrace the ocean which I had been longing for for months. This was perhaps the most beautiful ride we've done so far - not only the change in scenery, but also the anticipation involved in getting to the destination. National Highway 17: Winding, winding, down, around and out towards the ocean. At first small changes like a few coconut trees dotted amongst the green bush, a subtle smell of fish wafting from a village, different crops being grown, more colourful and traditional clothing being worn by the villagers etc. Then we landed in Ratnagiri, a small dirty Indian town on the coast north of Goa. Here we saw the ocean (!), greyish sand with cows and camels being the only ones enjoying the scenery. And what a smell! After being inland for so long the smell of the coast was like month old rotting sea-weed assaulting our nostrels. The next day we headed south to Malvan, another coastal town where we had our first fish (delicious!) and after getting very lost, we coasted in to Goa on the afternoon of the 13th December, into the loving arms of Ali, Geoffrey and Nina (Ali's friend from Australia).

Goa: There's a part of me which cringes to say we're loving our time in Goa because it's just such a well-worn touristy spot... but it is really quite lovely here. We are all staying in a Guest House right on the beach, it's a minutes walk from our room to the ocean, there's coconut trees all around us, beach chairs with umbrellas set-up for everyone, cheap delicious food, good music, activities like yoga, learning opportunities, relaxing relaxing relaxing! We have been disappointed in the lack of parties so far, but I have a feeling this will change fairly soon. Mendo's met up with a Spanish guy who mentioned soccer matches on the beach and a nice restaurant for chilling in. Tomorrow Ali's going to give the 6 of us (Sim and Emy are here too) a morning yoga session on the beach. Shepa's in the mechanic for some TLC and Jules (biker we met in Kajaraho) has been a wonderful source of local knowledge and a great friend to hang out with. We'll be here for Christmas and New Years, then we'll head south to be in Sri Lanka for January 19th to meet up with Raphy. The plan is then to head up the East coast to be in Nepal for March, then Bhutan for April... if anyone has any ideas on where/who to visit or activities to do then we would LOVE to hear from you.

Besos y abrozos! (kisses and hugs!)

Nic and Mendo.

XOXOXOXOXOX