onsdag den 19. marts 2014

MC.INDIA / GOKARNA / MANDREM / GOA JOURNEY 2014 no.8


27. feb. Kullor – Gokarna 178 km.

Despite the fact that I in Kullor found 'Room with a View', I decided to move on after 2 nights to the coastal town of Gokarna, in the hope that this pilgrimage town was more visual and exciting to move around in. I'd like exploit the last 6 days of this journey as possible. 

It was great to drive north, then the sun's rays hit me from behind and not diagonally from the  





Again I stop, I have to get out and feel my weightlessness in the Indian Ocean. To be completely relaxed in floating position and allow myselves to be led away by currents. The buoyancy in the sea is so great because of the high salt content in the water, so it hardly requires some effort to stay afloat. - And then a cup thai in one of the sheds here by the road and the seashore, before going on the coastal road.


In addition to this abandoned industrial building that might once have made ​​brick, but now looked very dead , I have only encountered one another factory here in South India. The prepared plywood panels.













Maha Shivaratri, Hindu festival in honor of Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva appears to be with me. Quite expansive I arrive at Gokarna, a Hindu Pilgrims City without knowing that the annual major Hindu festival 'Maha Shivaratri' begins that evening. 

Maha Shivaratri, which means 'Night of Shiva' is a festival that is celebrated in India and Nepal. The festival is celebrated on the day when the moon is waning, the month Maagha, according to the Hindu calendar, in honor of Lord Shiva, a major deity in the Hindu culture. The festival last as 5 days.












’Green Land Guest House’

Pretty soon I found a beautiful hippie inspired 'Green Land Guest House', which was almost in the heart of the city, but a little back from the main road. Unfortunately they had no rooms available. The next day I would be able to get a room. 

Despite the extra peak because of the festival, I managed to find another hotel with a private balcony overlooking the manicured gardens with coconut palms 'Room with a View'. 

The next day I opted anyway to move to Hippie 'Green Land'. It was a more relaxed small place with lots of greenery and a 'Room with a View'. The room was brighter, airier and cleaner, a place I could breathe more freely. 

Every morning and late afternoon, the four days I was in Gokarna, I drove down to the water at a distance from the festival for a long swim and then a short jog along the coast.






The uninhabited neighboring land 'Green Land' used to dry their laundry, was filled with garbage. There may still get new garbage, because otherwise the dogs do not go around and sniff. - You learn to appreciate that there is at least OK clean where you sit. 

'Green Land’ famiiy






Visual manifestation of one's affiliation

Here in the city there are many tourists / European who has come because of this Hindu festival. Many of them have taken many of the Indian and Hindu-inspired visual expression   and thus visually outwardly to tell the outside world that there is something specific they believe. A message they want to pass on. 

Although I have only in my young life visually signposted with my affiliation to my Yoga philosophy. Over the years I actually visually could belong to many different interest groups as I mostly have dressed in black. 

Now as I sit and write this, I have taken my mala around my neck for myself here and now - and externally to show the Indians that I have taken some of their diverse spiritual culture to me. On my last trip to India along the holy river Ganga, I had created my own symbolic spiritual necklace.


The more affluent Hindus provide on this holy day of rice to the poor. They walk around with a big bag of rice, as they dive into and give a handful of rice to so many poor beggars, as they can. A form of discharge.






3. march  Gokarna – Mandrem/Goa  205 km.

My fear, to drive along the coast, were unfounded. I came to driving on a road that was built parallel to the coast, a little inland. So it was only a few cities and towns I came to run through. 

Only when I approached the border of Goa and Karnataka the heavy traffic began. I was now driving in a richer state with more private cars. 

It was a bit sad to drive this last distance before the final end of ny MC.India exciting journey. 

After passing Panjim, the capital of Goa and I approach Mandrem, I had a good feeling of being home again.





’Dolpin Beach Resort’ Mandrem

I found back to Dolpin Beach Resort in Mandrem, where I had stayed the first 5 days I came to India. I probably could have chosen a better place, for example, ' Dunes Holidays' that lay nearby with better restaurant and raffia huts. But it was only for two nights. I got the price down from 50$ to 35$ since I had returned and had  rented motorbike of her brother.

I drove out to Arambol the hot hippie place in North Goa, just 4 km. from Mandrem. I drove slowly through the few but long alleys filled with stalls of clothes and jewelry, etc. It was mid-day, so all hippie tourists were at the beach, what parking with hundreds of MC. testified.

I had visited Arambol earlier, but I wanted to check if there was something more I should see now that I had decided not to drive into Panjim to see the most important cultural buildings. I was tired of being active cultural tourism. Now I just enjoy the beach and water.

In this area bearings all, women and men, young and old, a larger or smaller scooter or motorbike. - And all driving without a helmet and jacket. With bare arms and legs, with babies strapped on chest or back young mothers and fathers drive with their long hair swirling freely in the wind. Pretty irresponsible seen through Danish glasses.

On this trip I had only taken part in one yoga lesson. It lasted 2 ½ hrs. It was a kind of Zen Hatha yoga lesson. It started with the hymn to the sun, where each position in this otherwise dynamic series of exercises, was made more and more static. Then they performed various asanas/postures where you were in the position very long time. Interesting variation of the Hatha Yoga I do and teach.

It was much easier, when I woke up at 6 am, to stay in my mental and physical comfort zone and routinely make my own yoga program. Instead of get out of my shell, up on my toes and go somewhere to receive new exercises.

The penultimate evening when I had just called Romeo and arranged a meeting about the Royal Enfield when my Iphone strike. The lower part of the screen that asks you 'Slide to unlock ' would not be affected .

A Dutch women who also has an Iphone, had been out for the same thing and had to send it to a workshop. Incredibly lucky that I am on my way home and not have to use it as a GPS locator.






South India had turned down for the bombardment of all 5 senses

This MC.journey in South India has not featured so many dramatic, stunning visuals or human experience as my other three.

The first MC. India Journey 2008 went to North India/ Rishikesh/ Shimla/ Manali/ Kurukshetra. It was a challenging MC. mountain driving on a worn-out Royal Enfield motorbike. there always had technical problems. Incredibly physically demanding journey. 

The second MC.Inda Journey 2011 was a circle in the state of Rajasthan. It was quite a fantastic journey, which is mainly due to the fact that ¾ part of the trip I was visiting exciting cities with old visual neighborhoods with beautiful Temples Palacer and Forts. I stayed at beautiful Guest Houses and Hotels 'Room with a View'.

The third MC.India Journey 2013 was a 'Holy Journey along the river Ganga. In this Journey, even though it was my third, it took me 3 weeks before I found the rhythm, all my senses were up in the red zone. My mind had ups and downs in a region with 200 million . pop. So 4 times as many people as in Rajasthan. The whole time I thought I had seen the worst, but then it should be. The last 3 weeks of the Journey, I found however, some amazing tranquil oases where one's mind on a refined exotic way, was seduced by the Indian spiritual magic, beauty and aesthetics.

Here in south India there is much less traffic congestion but also much fewer cars. They do not drive so aggressively, there are not so many loud honk, everything happens in a less hectic pace.



The black pig reappears here in Gokaran, 
otherwise I have not seen so many of them here in south India.
  
India is in an unaesthetic visual chaos

Yes, it sounds very contradictory when I in my MC. India Report No. 6 writes that my aesthetic artistic soul suffers from this unaesthetic visual chaos India is in the here and now, so I'm forced to suppress my aesthetic needs while I'm taking one aesthetic photo image after another.

It's only historical visual fragments - pictures I like this highlight and bring in dialogue with the present. A form of decay aesthetic that shows the aesthetic and diverse culture that once existed here in India and now slowly disintegrate .

The historical beautiful Temples, Palacer and Forts around India, exudes the spirit and dignity, you sense how that was once lavished on aesthetics. They are built in a time when you thought through the detail and comprehensiveness .

It is through the generations, that Indians have slowly eroded their own culture very high aesthetic level, not keeping their technical skills and artistic creative spirit at right, generation after generation.

This is due to secure primarily to India, has been under British rule since 1680 and until 1947. The British governing elite has foisted upon them their culture and thereby indirectly affected Indians not to appreciate their own cultural roots so high. Indians have felt like second-class citizens in so many years.

Only when Indians have heightened their school and education system, which will take many years since India has 61% illiteracy, and get focused on the cultural and technical skills and get it raised to the same level in their own consciousness as the spiritual, there is a chance that they will be able to save some of their cultural treasures and develop their incredibly beautiful and spiritual aesthetics. - Knowledge is there, it is the will to find resources.

Press on the picture if you would like to see it big




More harmonious and less tension on this MC.journey

It has to be a less stressful drive from my side. I have listened to my senses and initially set my psyche that it was not always possible to reach the ideal Guest House with 'Room with a View'. In my previous MC. journey I tried in frustration to drive to the next town to find it, but mostly without success. It created just even more frustration and stress.

Since I am not young anymore, I listen more to my body's signals .

On the other MC. journey I have had back problems after only a few weeks. Because far too many hours of driving on rough terrain, with a small rucksack on my back, with to few days of rest at the start of the trip, creating fatigue and tension in my back.

On most Guesthouses there are not a table and chair, so when I work on the computer, I sit poorly. My own impatient personality does not help the situation.

This time I felt only fatigue in my back after 4 weeks journey in spite of the fact that this is the longest India trip I have been on and with most driving days.
MC. journey 43 days / 3.255 km./ 17 driving days/ 191 km. per. day .

On this journey, I didn't have to go through too many megacities, with traffic jams, heat, MC. which stops etc.  

This time I drove on better roads and no problems with my MC.  

The weather has been perfect the whole trip. There have been good with days with little cloudy skies.  

So it is perhaps not quite fair that I reproach. But I think that this trip has been too comfortable on the physical plane, but strenuous on the mental level, because I expected more unexpected, cross-border, absurd events here in 'The incredible India'.

It's probably my inner need to be able to write home about situations that really got my soul on trial. I have not enough attention to the details of the somewhat stagnant depths. I probably have more specific needs, to feel physical  that I live.

I have been good on this MC. journey doing my physical and mental yoga program every day. I know how important it is to maintain the momentum of all the internal processes in the body, so I do not produce too much lactic acid in the body due to the tension you get in the body when sitting 6 hours in the same static strained position.

The seat of the Royal have not been good, after only an hour's drive I get seated problems, my legs get a little stiff and knees should just stretched out, but otherwise my body could stand the journey.

MC. had some initial problems and the noisy little too much. The spark plug was gutted when it was sooty. It got a little oil and then washed. Tomorrow was the last driving day. The direct road to Goa

Royal Enfield 500 cc. model 2011

This 2 year old Enfield has been estimated to run on, it has had the extra power when I had to overtake, and the deep slow understated explosion noises when it is idle, I love It  sounds like a small fishing boat in very low gear.

It's heavy to maneuver when no motor means to turn the well on rough roads and in loose sand.

My MC.Aprilia Pegaso 650cc, which is just as heavy is much easier to maneuver and much faster in winding and stronger. But it does not have the beautiful deep explosion sounds. The sound I come to miss .

Throughout this MC.journey it has worked almost perfectly. There have been problems with the foot brake after each drive it should be tightened. The battery should be replaced as it is broken down.

Even starter has otherwise worked every time, what I am not used to with Royal Enfield.

The old Royal Enfield 500cc model 1996 I had rented for MC. India journey in 2008, I had to constantly kick started. Already after two days, my calf muscles was completely smashed they were not trained for this extraordinary harsh discipline to kick start.  

I therefore asked young Indians, if they wanted to try to start the animal, which they were very sympathetic to. Many of them could not handle it, as it required that you spent all your body weight to pressure the kick starter all the way down - and most young Indians do not have much weight.

During my journey I stop many times to take photos - so it's extra many times during one day I had to kick start.

This older Royal Enfield , had not been through a proper technical check where you had replaced and renewed all the worn parts . So during this 28 day MC.journey where I drove the 14 of these days , I visited a MC . Workshop total of 19 times , with minor and major technical problems.

On my MC.India journey in 2013, I tried again, in spite of bad experiences in my MC. journey 2008 to rent a Royal Enfield. This time, I had been recommended a MC. workshop I could trust that would ensure that the Royal Enfield 500 cc. Model: Bullet Machismo 2007 I rented was through checked by his own good mechanics .

On this MC.journey there was not a lot of great technical mishaps along the way. They had also given me a sidebox, filled with the most important parts and the necessary tools.

This Royal Enfield model 2007 had sometimes also problems with self- starter, so again I had to kick start it. This MC. required much more effort and technique to start than the older model. So sometimes it ended up that some young Inder had to push me.  

When I again in the future takes on a new MC.India Joruney I would choose a Royal Enfield and still a 500 cc. if I feel I still have the strength to maneuver around with this heavyweight.

But it must be a new MC. It is only the newer models of Royal Enfield, where they 've mastered the electric , so you can count on even the starts work every time . On the older models , there is always problems with the electrical installations they say, which I can confirm from my own experience .

To rent an entire brand-new model is vulnerable. The slightest damage can be seen immediately. It obviously costs more money to rent a newer model, but it's worth the money.  

Throughout this trip, I have every time made ​​sure to take all my safety equipment and helmet on, no matter how hot it was. So I've been sweating a lot. I just read that 14 liters of sweat is the maximum that can run out of the skin's sweat glands per. day .


MC.India Journey 2014 
Goa / Calangute / Belgaum / Badami / Hampi / Chritradurga / Belu / Gonikoppal / Mysore / Sultan Bathery / Chreuthuruthy / Thrissur / Pontanni / Mahe / Bekal / Sringeri / Kullor / Gokarna / Mandrem / 
43 days / 3.255 km. / 17 driving days / 191 km. per. day





In my own culture, I am also sometimes 'lost in translation'

Directly from the heat - I meet with the cold.

In India, I had to use wind fan to keep the heat down and now I'm back in Denmark in a cold house - now I use a heat fan to keep the cold out. All radiators are freezing in my house. The boiler must be inoperative. I try with my weary head after 22 hours of travel, to see through the entire heating system. My brain gives up. However, I can at water meters, see the lack of water in the system.

When I moved in 2 years ago in this studio house it was also without heat. At that time also lack of water in the system. It was a weekend, so neither property office or craftsmen I could get.

My Iphone is dead, since the lower part of the screen on my Iphone, 'slide to unlock' has refused to act. I borrowed a phone and got in touch with my neighbor Jacob, who has access to my studio. He tells me that my boiler should work, because there had been a plumbing techniques out and look at it. One of the valves had to be replaced.

It was not done. Only in the morning I can contact plumbing technician. I had borrowed a wind fan, so I could at least get heat in the small room with my bed. It was as if I was still on the motorbike trip and found myself in a hotel room.








Soul Mate

When I stepped off the plane after 22 hours of travel, I had hoped that my close friend Svend Erik would stand there with open arms and soul and accept me. He had not written that he would be there, but I was hoping.

After 6 weeks, around alone in a foreign culture, one's soul is a little lost. So it's good for your soul to recognize a close friend a soul mate. But unfortunately I could not recognize any 'soul mate'. I went back a second time, because maybe he had just been a little inattentive to my arrival. But no, he was not there.

It was great to feel the fresh air and feel the spring that was already on the way here in Denmark.

When I have clarified my mobile and heat problem, I sent an email to my closest friends , that they could only reach me by mail. -

I received an email from Svend Erik. He had waited 1 ½ hours at the airport. He had tried via mobile to reach me. - He asked them to called me over the speaker, but in vain.

How was it possible that we physically where able to cross each other - A sort of ' Lost in the moment '

I left a country where I was greeted with a warmth that I had to fight with a wind fans and here I meet a cold I have to fight with a fan heaters .

'Lost in Transition'

I got a email note from another friend trying to help me.

'Try resetting your iPhone, press the small button at the top and large at the bottom at the same time for 30 seconds. Love - Philip and welcome home'.

After a few attempts did this little maneuver worked and released the tension on my Iphone. On my Iphone, it was the little button at the top and the big top, I had to push simultaneously for 30 seconds.

So, dear friends, you can again reach me on my mobile.- I had already got a new temporary mobile number and a debit card.





My fourth MC. Indien journey

This MC.India Report 8 I have now both physically and mentally put the dusty, magical India behind me. 

'It will not be India next time. I'm almost sure. - Now I've probably sucked it to me I can do for now '- I wrote home to some of my friends. 

But I'm not so sure anymore. If my next journey not will be a walk in Tibet, then it might be a repeat of my amazing MC.india / Rajasthan Journey 

This 6-week MC.India Journey has cost 3.500 $/ Fly/ Insurance/ Visa/ Vacination/ MC.rent/ Petrol/ Hotel/ Food/ Massage/ Pleasures/ All expenses. Hotel average price of 18 $ per night. 

I thank you because you have followed me on this exciting Journey in unpredictable India.






AUM


Bjarne v.H.H.Solberg

Artist
 & 
Scenographer

+45 30230036












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