Dharmsala to Sri Lanka (before you ask we didn’t get lost, but we didn’t make it to the Golden Temple or to Goa)

We have had an amazing week being minor celebrities and visiting more areas in India.

Dharmsala was nothing like we expected, it was definitely one of those areas where the journey to and from it was better than the destination its self.

On our way to see the Golden Temple we took a detour to see some stone carved temples which led us off course, which was fine as we thought we could do a day trip from Chandigarh.

On our way to Chandigarh we stumbled across the Anandpur Sahib also known as ‘the holy city of bliss’ which is a very prominent Sikh temple, it was very impressive but we didn’t feel the need to go to the Golden Temple especially when we learnt it would take us a further 5 hours by car.

Once In Chandigarh we caught a train to Mumbai, although the journey was 28 hours long it was really interesting watching the countryside and the way people live and much more comfortable than our over night train journeys in China, but we did miss our good friends Ian and Candy and Clive and Liz for company.

We have learnt the hard way what it is like to cycle in the south of India during the monsoon season. It is either really hot and humid, drizzly (most of the time) or throwing it down, so your constantly wet. The roads in Mumbai are in an awful condition, they flood easily and the traffic is complete chaos, there are no lanes and no rules that anyone abides by. After being in Mumbai for a couple of days and checking the weather and road conditions for Goa we have decided to head for the sun a little earlier than planned. This is a shame because we both wanted to cycle the coastal road to Goa but as the conditions are so bad we don’t think we would enjoy it, or be able to appreciate the views as it is misty most of the time – maybe we will get time before we fly home…

Instead of going to Goa we have decided to do a little detour to Sri Lanka, apparently the elephant gatherings begin during July and August and this is something we would really like to see. We have done some research and the weather and cycling conditions are suppose to be really good, so we aim to stay in Sri Lanka for a month and then head to Indonesia, from there we will fly to Vietnam. But as you can see from this blog we are very flexible and may change our plans again once we reach Sri Lanka.

Hope life is treating you well

love and kisses

Ginette and Gary
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