India is amazing. We are continuously meeting more and more people. I wake up every day excited to see what will happen throughout the day. It’s hard to believe we’ve only been in India for two weeks. I have met hundreds of people and every single one of them has been curious, kind and very interested in what we are doing. Dozens of people are asking for selfies with us and I can’t imagine how many pictures of us have been taken already. The Indians that we have met so far have been quite intrigued by the tandem bicycle that my dad and Tarn are riding. But overall, the fact that we are blonde, white, and travelling by bicycle makes us quite the extraterrestrials here. However, people have been extremely open towards us and are constantly saying hello, honking and greeting us whether we are biking or not. We have determined that if we stop anywhere for longer than five minutes, we will be surrounded by anywhere from 5 to 50 people. The other day we stopped to fix the brake pads on Markos’ bike and it just so happened that we had stopped right in front of an English-Medium school. After about ten minutes, the school had ended and we were engulfed by 50 young kids asking questions, laughing, pointing and having a great time. I love the culture here. Everybody is always happy. No matter how big their house is, what type of sandals they have, how many uncles and cousins they have, they have been filled with joy and happiness. There is no such thing as aggression here. Even sounding your horn on the road is a form of greeting. Although the roads are always loud with beeping horns, the majority of them will be followed by a smile with a wave.
We have ridden through India for about 500km and are going to continue along the coast for the next 900km. The roads have been decent, although they can get quite bumpy at times and are quite difficult to ride on. We are now in the state of Goa, which is a common tourist destination and there are tons of people here. I am enjoying the weather and the ocean is wonderful.
The food is amazing. It is far beyond any explanation I could ever write down with words. There are always new things to try and I am eating as much food as I can whenever I get the chance. They have a whole different style of cooking here and I am super curious to how they are able to create these delicious dishes of meat, rice, spices and vegetables. The restaurants will either say “VEG,” or “NON VEG,” or both at the same time. This is how they market their restaurant as either vegetarian (VEG) or non-vegetarian (NON VEG). Both are super good, but they have their different tastes that are included in the dishes. It’s hard to single out my favorite meal so far but I think that the homemade meal I had last night was definitely up there on meals I would like to have again.
I could keep writing for pages and pages but India is really a country of its own. You really need to be here to fully experience every aspect of India. It has been quite difficult to find Wi-Fi and that is why it has been so long since I have posted on the blog. Enjoy the photos on the India page and I’ll keep you updated when I can!
