Wrap-up and Reflections

I have mixed feelings about this tour. On one hand I really enjoyed being back in India, especially Mumbai, but on the other side I was a little disappointed with the organisers of the tour, especially the owner, Mike. To the extent that I probably wouldn’t do another tour with him unless he changed the system and the way he conducts tours. 

For a start, he said that dinners were no longer included in the price of the tour. That’s ok I could live with that, however then he organised dinners every night, didn’t properly keep track of what people ate or drank and then charged everyone a “plucked sum” a week or so after we all got home. I never attended one dinner because I was always still full of the enormous late lunch we had, mainly because Mike couldn’t organise the meal at an appropriate time.  I didn’t have dinner nor did I drink any alcohol, but I certainly ended up with a sizable bill for “extras” after I arrived home from the tour. I don’t mind paying my way, but I don’t like paying for someone else’s drinking habit.  He should have said I’m not supplying dinner or drinks so here’s a couple of suggestions for a meal tonight, help yourself. 

He also very rarely stopped to show us anything of interest along the route. It was ‘get on the bike in the morning, ride as fast as we can to the destination, and get on the grog asap. I would stop to photograph something and be totally left behind; not even the sweep would stop to make sure I was going the right way. So, in the end I was quite reluctant to stop just in case I got lost. Mike’s wife Kela is 100 times more organised than he is and he’d do well to hand all the admin tasks over to her. 

If I did want to do another tour to India, I would probably go back as an independent rider, plan my own route, make my own accommodation arrangements and find my own eateries. Plenty of people do it quite successfully. It’s a modern and safe country and it would not be a problem cycling around independently. 

The Business Class flights to and from Mumbai were great and I would have no problem using Singapore Airlines to fly again. I’ve used them many times before and they never disappoint.

Day 22: Wed 26 Nov - Singapore to Brisbane to Home

Thunderstorms in Singapore 25 to 32 (real feel 39) deg C

Lucky we’re not leaving this lovely cool airport because it’s muggy and rainy outside. About the same as home, after checking the BOM site. By the time I had a shower, a few wanders, some fresh fruit and a cuppa or two, the four or so hours layover went fairly quickly. Bob was going home via Melbourne, and he had another hour or so to wait. 

My flight left on time at the ungodly hour of 0055h. I elected to settle straight into my bed/seat and skip anything to eat or drink. I ordered breakfast for the morning just prior to arrival in Brisbane. The next thing I knew they had turned the cabin lights on and were serving breakfast.  

For some reason immigration in Brisbane has taken the automatic Entry Card dispenser away from the arrival corridor and most passengers now have to use the manned entry. Luckily SA had given the business class passengers a Gold Express Card, allowing us to use the same lane as crew. Needless to say, a normally easy and fast entry into the luggage hall was made even quicker this time. I was waved through customs and quarantine and in the pickup area in a matter of minutes. Wendy turned up a minute later and we were on our way home.  

The three legs, with lots of waiting around caught up with me so, although I tried to stay awake, I slept off and on most of the way home. Three hours later we were home, great to see it so green, clean and quiet. It really brings home how dirty and noisy India is, but that happens when there are 1.5 billion people!  It is always great to experience how the other half of the world lives, but also nice to be home again.

Pub night at home

Itinerary

Route map

Day 21: Tue 25 Nov - Mumbai to Singapore

Fine and sunny 24 to 31 deg C

As the room is underground and has no windows it was difficult to wake up this morning. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get to breakfast about 0640h. Just had fruit and yogurt as I’ll be going straight to the business lounge where I can enjoy a proper breakfast. 

It was nice and very convenient to be able to just catch the lift straight into the departure lounge from the airport hotel. Never done that before. We waited in the foyer reading the newspaper for about 30 minutes as we knew that check in would not open till about 0900h. Check in went like a breeze, normally does for business class, a few layers of security and an immigration stamp later and we were sitting in the Adani Lounge (SA doesn’t have a lounge in Mumbai so they use Adani) sipping a coffee. The lounge provided the whole nine yards of breakfast delights, both western and Indian. As we are not scheduled for departure until 1155h, we knew it would be a late lunch. 

Left pretty much on time, which is usually the norm for SA and had a very pleasant four-hour flight. Watched a whole series of Amazing Renovations and ate too much yummy food but tried not to sleep so I could get myself in sync with the time at home. The SA lounge in Singapore is delightfully huge and after a shower and change I had a nice cup of tea. Got about four hours to kill before the flight at 0055h, an unusual time for a flight out of Singapore.

Mumbai 

Adani Lounge Mumbai

Reflecting on the flight ahead 

Our plane 787

The 787 business seat, very comfy

The slums beside the Mumbai airport runway

Day 20: Mon 24 Nov - Candolim, Goa to Mumbai

Fine and sunny 25 to 32deg C (real feel 39) 

Hard to believe that we’re coming to the end of our tour already, it has certainly gone quickly. Up before 0500h again, doing my normal routine. A nice walk along the beach before the sun became burning hot was completed just before sitting down to a simple but nice breakfast. Today there were three of us (Bob, Dogan & I) and a pleasant younger German couple from Berlin.   

Back to the room to do the normal sorting and packing, made a little tricky by the fact that our domestic flight this afternoon has a baggage allowance of 15kg while the SA flight tomorrow is 40kg. Not that I’ve ever been close to that on any of my travels, even with a bike in a box. I think my luggage weighs about 14kg, but not sure, so I should be okay. It was all fine, only 11kg.  

It wasn’t long before it was morning teatime, so Bob and I headed to our now favourite coffee shop for a brew and bite to eat. We’ve noticed that coffee has not taken off here like many other countries, the locals preferring to drink chai or tea from their traditional style roadside shop. Also, that would cost them the equivalent to $1 or less, compared to $5 for a coffee from a western style coffee shop. A piece of cake cost us $5 each this morning. 

As we had to vacate our rooms before 1200h we walked back, had a shower, changed and moved our luggage to the foyer. We started the waiting game for the trip back home. Three hours here, three hours at the airport in Goa and then overnight at an airport hotel in Mumbai before another three hours waiting for the flight to Singapore. That’s what happens when you live down under!  

The taxi to the airport turned up on time and we made it to the airport in just over an hour. Check in took a while but not too bad, and they had humans doing the work, not a machine anywhere. The security check was thorough, and it wasn’t long before we were sitting in the departure lounge eating a veg Thalis. It was good too, funny how we haven’t got sick of eating curries. 

Just when we thought that things were going along nicely, Bob received a notification on his phone that the flight had been delayed by 35 minutes. In the end the flight was one hour late for departure and arrival in Mumbai so not a problem because we didn’t have anything else to do anyway. Luggage collection was a real ‘Indian experience’ with people pushing and shoving to get to the bags. I got mine in no time, but Bob had to wait ages for his. In the meantime, the scrum was pretty harrowing. We lived to tell the tale and set off to the international transfer bus. I’m glad we changed the overnight hotel to an airport one as the traffic was horrendous. At the International Terminal it took us a while to find the hotel because it was underground. The Niranta Hotel is on the landslide of terminal 2, where we fly out of tomorrow. One thing is for sure we won’t get robbed tonight, the security to get into the hotel was as tight as a drum. Lovely room too, you wouldn’t know that you were at an airport, it’s dead quiet. The first of three legs down two to go.

The cows can do anything they wish 

Our “waiting room” for three hours 

An impressive bridge on the way to Goa Airport 

Just a little crowded at Goa Airport 

Mumbai International Airport 

Fancy that a bicycle in the foyer of Niranta Hotel 

Foyer at Niranta

Day 19: Sun 23 Nov - Candolim

Fine and sunny with some cloudy periods 25 to 32deg C 

Up with the chooks again this morning and pottering around until 0730h when I went for a walk along the beach with Bob. The extent of the bars never ceases to amaze me. This beach is about 9km long and there’s a bar every 30m or so!   

Back to another nice breakfast of fresh fruit, cereal, aloo puri (deep fried bread & curried potato gravy), eggs, toast and tea. Now we are not cycling, gotta stop eating so much. As John and Simmo would be gone by the time we got back from our next walk, we said goodbye to them after breakfast. 

I needed a good walk after all that food, so Bob and I headed out to Fort Sinquerim, about 5km north. The first part of the walk was hot and sticky but after a while we found some shade along the side of the road. The fort was a 17th century safe harbour for the Dutch, but it’s now a favourite beach and water playground for the locals, and of course a wonderful spot for a sunset selfie. From the part of the Fort that sticks out into the sea we could see all the beaches on this strip, Sinquerim, Calamari, Francoise, Calangute and Candolim. Good or bad it all provides a great deal of employment opportunities for thousands of locals who otherwise would have to move to the big smoke to find work.   

We wandered back, finding a suitable place to get a caffeine fix along the way. Bob looked for and found a suitable addition to his worldwide trinket collection down a side lane back near Candolim Beach. We made it back to have a chat and farewell Ken, who was the next to leave us. It wasn’t long before we were saying farewell to the next two to leave, Simon and Baz.  And then there were three of us, Dogan, Bob and me.  

As Dogan had not long had lunch and was not hungry, Bob and I wandered downtown for an early dinner. We hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, so we were getting a bit peckish, as it was now after 1600h. So, it was back to our now go-to restaurant, The Coastal Grave. The waiter who served us last night, and took our names to split the bill, greeted us by our names, good memory!  We ordered two veg dishes and two different rice dishes and it was the best Indian meal both of us could remember. See the highlighted menu below. My favourite was all of them, but if I had to pick one, I would choose the potato and cauliflower curry, it was amazing. When the dishes were first served, I thought no way are we going to make a dent in that, however we managed to polish off most of the curry and over half of the rice. The meal plus two drinks each cost us about AS$18 each, outstanding value.  

As we left the restaurant the sun was setting so we went directly to the beach. While we missed the actual sunset, we managed to catch some lovely colours in the sky. The parachute speed boats were still towing people around offshore so that added to the atmosphere. It was then back to the hotel for a well-earned shower and an early night.  

Morning delivery of coconut drinks 

Some nice murals 

The endless beach bar

A very contented looking dog

Yet another shot of our lovely old hotel 

No wonder there’s so much pollution, everyone is burning their trash

Another nice looking hotel down the road 

One fully packed roadside store

Ceramic mural 

Another iconic bar

A little church down the road 

We made it to Sinquerim Beach 

Fort Sinquerim 

A couple more bars

The locals tend to walk onto the beach, take a few selfies and then leave

More selfie opportunities 

A nice old Royal Enfield

Everything was so flavoursome 

Bit late for sunset 

Baz, Simon, Bob, Ken, Dogan & John at breakfast 

Simmo enjoying his last breakfast with us this trip

John, the better side

 

Day 18: Sat 22 Nov - Candolim

Fine and sunny 26 to 32deg C

Even though I had nothing to get up for, do you think I could sleep in, no way. Up before the sun again and after making a cuppa in the room, I went out walking with Bob. Breakfast wasn’t till 0900h so plenty of time to kill. Seeing there’s a beach nearby, no better place for an early morning wander. The extent of the bars and restaurants right on the beach is staggering, they go on for kms. All the building and digging going on in the sand is having a devastating impact on the beach structure, with signs of erosion everywhere. They are attempting to prevent any further damage by putting sandbags down, but it would work only until the next storm or high tide. Sitting in an old, dilapidated hut drinking beer all day is not my scene but plenty of people must like it or there wouldn’t be as many places open. Very much like the tourist traps in Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Back to the hotel for breakfast. The owner had asked us what we wanted and ordered in supplies of cereal, etc to suit our western tastes. It was a nice change from the Indian food we’d been getting along the ride.  

Most of the day was spent wandering around the town, lounging around the pool or beach and knocking out zzzz in our rooms. The highlight of the day was the final dinner with the four UK guys who are flying home Sunday, tomorrow. A fantastic meal, with live entertainment (Philippine singer) made for a great night. I had the chicken tikka biryani which was delicious, full of herbs and spices, just nicely hot. Got back to the hotel about 2130h, one of the latest nights of the tour.

Early morning beach walk 

Our newly discovered coffee shop

The rather crowded beach 

The live entertainment at dinner 

Our last dinner for a while