We won the RWC hehe and I'm still in Varkala Beach

18/10/11 to 24/10/11

  Afraid this is another short post, mainly because I have stayed in the same place for the last week so I could see the Rugby World Cup Final. And I'm glade I did because we won hehe.

   So yes lots of watching TV/movies and swimming and eating western food. From here I will head in land to the hills and up them more than the coast. The coast in the south anyway is like the east coast of Australia but without any motorways, which means it's basically a big suburb with town centers every now and then. This of course means boring and dangerous driving.

  So anyway I'll head out tomorrow. 

   Enjoy your Life

Just so you know, Frieds in Aussie and NZ

Hong Kong 27

New Zealand 21

United States 14

India 13

Sri Lanka 9

Malaysia 6

Australia 4

United Kingdom 4

South Africa 3

France   I think some more of my friends sould actually look at my blog....

In Varkala Beach

8/10/11

   Rode down to Pamban an island on the chain that leads to Sri Lanka. Had a lot of trouble finding a hotel, and found out non Hindu's are not allowed in the temple complex. So I rode out for somewhere closer to the most southerly point in India. Took till after dark riding tho some interesting back rodes and getting lost again a few time till I made it to Kovilpatti.

 Yes in this country, like all other developing countries, there is a rubbish problem. Now we all, well the ones who have travelled, know that this is a problem in a lot of developing countries. We all say it is their fault, but we gave them plastic, all these countries have spend 1000,s of years using biodegradable product to package and transport things till we gave them plastic, which they treat in the same way as all the biodegradable products they are use to throwing over the fence, so who is really to blame, the ones who litter or the ones who litter the stuff that is different to what they have always littered.

I finally took a photo of the damage to my bag. This is curable, i do have a bigger problem which i do not know how i will deal with, a broken part in my visor foundation which I noticed on the ride to kanyakumari.
 This could be a major problem as replacement helmets here are shit, and i don't want to go back to Aussie to replace it, also no one can bring me a new one or send me one as i need to try it on first to make sure it fits right.

I get the feeling that the Christians here are more worried by Islam than first thought. Although saying that these are penticostal signs, there are lots of their churchs here.

 The Major India construction that first made me come here, not as major as i thought.

9/10/11 to 10/10/11

Rode down to the most southerly point, where you can watch both the sunrise and the sunset from the same beach/rocks. Spent 2 nights here to see both, but the clouds moved in for the sunrise so never saw a proper one. But then it is the first time I've seen the sunset where the sun reached the horizon to disappear instead of a while before for a long time, Cambodia was 3/4hr before sunset ans even Malaysia the sun didn't make it all the way before the smoke from all the burning got in the way.

you cannot see the Windmills but i can, this could be anywhere in many country's in the world

As you can see by the plastic bags it is India. Of course this may be worse than it looks as the next town is the most southerly and it has a no plastic policy, so maybe the locals throw them out here.

Hard to see in this photo but the rocks sticking out are coved in pilgrims who have come here for the sunset and sunrise.

  I possible made a mistake in saying to these women they could take a photo with me, it turned about 10 to 20 minutes for the groups of people taking photos of themselfs with me. lol i did similar in a movie in Chennai and thought yeah right i've never seen this sort of stuff as a tourist. I was wrong at the set, it does happen, you can be paprazzied here.

Last photo of the sunset.

 TheGothic catherdril in town after sunrise.

11/10/11

Rode north to Varkala beach in Kerala, it's a touristy place and for the first time in ages I'm looking forward to some western food.

This is how ihad to rebuild the Indircators so they are out of the way of the bags. Yes they broke or where broken by me so that i could re attach them out of the way.

12/10/11 to 17/10/11

Well I have decided to stay here till Aussie losses to NZ in the semi final of the world cup, well I hope.

  And guess what I was right roflol lots we beat the Aussie's, we beat the Aussie's hehhehe. Only the french left.

Yes I've had a couple of beers well reading the commentary of the game lol. i connot seem to get a live stream to work, any help someone.

 Oh and Nick this is what a peice of breaded hose is good for, if you have vibration problems with the front end of a bike lol.
Yes i am Enjoying my life, stuff the Ausiies (we Have) now it's time for the French hehehehe.
   Go the All Blacks
     Oh and Enjoy your Life
        I am.

In Madurai

27/9/11

  Left for Puducherri, not a big ride only 62km according to some people at the hotel, or 162km according to the road signs, or 146 according to the speedo when I arrived lol. Puducherri is a bit French but then you get that.

Lake on the side of the road on the way to Puducherri

28/9/11 to 1/10/11

  Got hold of Karl and dropped the bike off for a few things to be done, mainly in the front end.

The bike took a little bit and I wanted to fix a couple of other little things which make it easier to pack. Walked around town quite a bit, and had a lot of French bakery stuff lol.

Went for a test ride on the Saturday to make sure the bike was running well, all good.

Gandhi

Temple at sunset

2/10/11

  Went out to a little village call Arriya (I think that is it) which is some multi national experiential place full of alternative life style people. Only got to chat to one guy who I gave a ride to a local tea shop seems like an interesting place.

There is a lot of Church here

3/10/11

  Road down to Nagappattinam which is a port down about 200km south of Puducherri. The ride was interesting and had my first accident, well sort of, a car pulled across into my left side bag and ripped the pocket open, bugger, well I said worse to him but you get the meaning. Oh well will have to wait till I'm in a nicer town then will look at getting it stitched up.

The damage

4/10/11

  Headed down to Madurai. Tried to go via the ECR (East Coast Road) But before I got to the coast I took a wrong turn and ended up a bit lost for a while. It did mean I got to ride through a few small villages and nice rural areas. Getting lost did mean that I didn't make it into Madurai till 20.00 which was a pain riding here at night isn't too nice.

Some kids who stop to talk when i was lost.

5/10/11

  Had one of those shopping experiences today, I'd just bought what I wanted and walking back to the hotel when I saw a group of tourists walking out of a shop with bags of shopping. I looked at my shopping, a 1 meter piece of 5mm breaded garden hose and thought, I'm just not the same am I lol, but I think the hose will work a treat for stopping the fairing vibration.

  The hotel has a lovely view of the temple complex from the roof and well sitting on the roof listening to the music (you can really here the Led Zeppelin influence in it lol) and watching a storm coming in from the south, I noticed that there was a big Buddha statue to the south and some nice looking hills just behind it. After a small amount of indecision I decided to stay another day and go for a ride out to the Hills in the north and around through them to the south.

6/10/11

Got up early and headed out north towards the hills, found a nice empty dam with a good view, although tar seal roads all seem to be on the flat and not up into the hills. Ended up riding out to Teni and back through another valley to Madurai.

The dam is dry at the moment, but the North east monsoon is due this month some time.

One of the valleys i rode

7/10/11

Have decided to stay one more day and try and get my blog updated.
 All is well here will be heading south for a while, then up the other coast ish for a while.
   Enjoy your life

In Chennai waiting for business cards

8/9/11

   Got the 6 month visa and very happy about it, now on to India hehe. My flight left at 13:00 and got to Chennai about 14:30, where I mucked around a bit getting money and smaller change before catching a taxi to the hotel.

   Went for a walk to find the tourist information center but failed. When I got back to the hotel there was a man there who was wandering if I wanted to be in a movie as an American soldier. Yes that is right I may end up in a Bollywood action film hahahaaa. As you get free room and food as well as $30US a day, plus the fact that I can meet expats there and hopefully get some information about motorbikes.

The hotel car park provides a reasonable feed it seems lol.

9/9/11

   Have managed to talk to a few people and get some info about good places to go in India, plus got put in touch with a man in Pondicherry who has helped me narrow down the bike options to either the Bajaj Pulsar 220/200 or Honda Hero Karizma 223, now I just need to find some lol.

Turns out the agent who got me into this is selling his Karizma, mmmmm if only I could get the price down a bit I may consider it.

   The film set is very Indian done lol and if this is anything like USA movie making, I can understand why they cost so much in the states. You are all paid to sit and talk all day then do one hour of “training”. Which is making you do bits that will be in the movie, holding the gun right, falling right, dieing right lol.

Chennai Beach, 15km long i think.

10/9/11

   Another day of sitting around till afternoon when we did some more training, got to meet another Kiwi he is the shot firer for the movie.

11/9/11

  Sunday is a day of rest for this movie. So I rested, games, sleep, movies etc.

12/9/11

   Went to the movie set after a bit of stuffing around to be told most of us aren't good enough so go home, so that is the end of my movie experience lol.

   The agent man ask if I wanted to be in another movie so I said yes, free accommodation and food why not.

A tuk tuk man found some Karizmas for me to look at, they are OK but I had had some vodka so no test riding. The good part is this was the street I've been looking for, second hand bike street, and it's only 2 blocks from the hotel.

13/9/11

   Spent the morning in waiting for the people to come and get me for the movie but they never came. So I went for a walk to find a place that could make me some flags, this actually proved more difficult than I though, but I found a place in the end that prints signs and they are printing the material I just have to get it stitched up.

14/9/11

   Went to an amusement park for the filming of the other movie, yes they finally come to get me the next day lol. Definitely a different movie this one, did nothing most of the morning. till I got ask to walk across in the back ground, but it always got cut before I walked past. Then just before lunch we had to walk out of a tour bus, the best one I've seen in a long time lol. Then had to walk past the bus door into some photographers who where waiting for us to get off the bus, and it was funny watching the umbrella man run in when they said cut and shade the one guy out of all the photographers, I'm guessing he is one of the main stars over here.

   In the afternoon we did a bit on the beach, but they couldn't find a suit that would fit me, so I had to walk across in front of the camera holding a light on a photo shoot, looks like the movie is about some budding photographer and some older famous guy, keep an eye out for it you may see me lol. No I do not know the name of it, will try to find out.

The amusement park entry

The cool ride i played on at lunch

The beach scene was done here, and well bored i made a ....

15/9/11

   I went back to second hand bike street (bell st) today, and had a look in all the shops. I found 7 shops with 11 bikes I'm interested in, 7 Karizma and 4 Pulsar 200 or 220, nice.

Not as flash as your cow shed use to be dad lol, he just moved her into a side street to get his milk.

16/9/11

   Went for a test ride on the bike I'm most likely to buy, Karizma '09 model, but not wanting to seem to keen went to some of the other shops around. Also had a chat to a friend of Karl's who lives in Chennai and he said the Karizma is the best for touring, and also that he could come in tomorrow to look at the bikes with me heehee hopefully will have a bike soon.

   I want bore you with the little bits, but I eventually bought the '09 Karizma for a little under $1000US. I still have a little bit more to sort out but will probably do that in Pondicherry as I want to get out of Chennai.

Has been interesting here tho, what with being in the movies lol, sitting on the roof of the hotel when the call to prey starts up, watching TV, and walking on the beach and around town, I've enjoyed it.

 The new bike Hero Honda '09 Karizma 223, 28,652 on the clock, now serviced with new spark plug, air filter, oil, chain and sprockets, still need a new back tyre tho.

  I'm really going to have to stay aware on the roads here i had not even considered the idea of practicing safe sex well driving. And as you can see there is a reason for all the horn blowing, the trucks and buses ask you to sound your horn before passing. 

   Bugger just found out my business cards aren't ready so am going to have to stay till Monday probably end up going Tuesday as nothing opens here till 11am so I probably want get the cards till 6pm.

I like this one, one old guy reading the other a paper, just up from them there was four rubbish gatherers playing music with rubbish and singing.

25/9/11

   Rode up to Andhra Pradesh just to test the bike out, it is nice having quick response and being able to cruise at 80km is nice, able to get up to 120km even, unloaded. So I'm looking forward to getting her loaded and seeing how she goes.

  From the roof of the hotel, a nice breezy place to sit if there is a power cut, almost every day from 1600 to 1800 lol

26/9/11

  Watch TV, went for a walk, packed everything, got the wire for flags on the bike, and yes finally at 19.30 my business cards are ready. Hehehe I'm off tomorrow.

Leave for Chennai tomorrow

28/8/11

   Arrived Colombo and headed for the YMCA which is apparently the cheapest place in Colombo. The room is nice window and every thing but the toilet is pretty bad, not that worries me that much lol.

29/8/11

   Went to the Indian visa place and waited for a while looking at the numbers not chancing, then people started running for the counters so I sat and waited while the numbers didn't change. After a while some order was restored and people where selected to go to the counters. I had been told I would need to write a letter explaining why I wanted a six month visa so had included that in my paper work, when I got to the counter the man said some of the paper work was wrong and I could get it redone over the road, but he did love the letter explaining that i'm trying to ride around the world. Once I had the paper work right I went for a feed, at McDonald's lol, and come back to find the numbers still had not changed. After waiting for about 4 hours we where told to keep are numbers and come back tomorrow as the number machine was broken. The nice young man who I had first seen had told me that the visa would be ready for pick up on the 9^th, which was a problem as I had already bought a ticket to Chennai on the 8^th, but he went and had a chat to the boss when they kicked everybody out and came over to tell me he would sort it for me to pick up the visa on the 7^th, but when I came back in the morning I should just go to his window.

30/8/11

   I rocked up at the visa place nice and early only to find the young man not there mmmm. Luckly he rocked up before my number came up and called me over, filled in the forms and said I should go to the High Commision to explain to them why I wanted a 6 month visa. So I went to the high commision and was told they couldn't see me that day and to come back tomorrow, which was a public holiday, I said ok and went for a walk around town.

 Tree in an unused lot?

They like to fly kite in Sri Lanka.

31/8/11

   Yes it was a public holiday and yes the high commission was closed, oh well just walked around a bit checking things out and hiding from the infriquent showers. Found a super market so bought some bread and bananas for some sandwiches later on.

This is all one big tree, these bit dangle down out of the branches and if the reach the ground the root in and get bigger, making it look like lots of trees.

   I meet a nice man well wandering back to the hostel and had a good chat to him, after getting his phone number etc he invited me to his place in Matale, near Kandy when I finished the visa things.

1/9/11

   Went back to the high commision, which was open this time, to be told I would only get a 3 month visa. So I explained to the lady what I was trying to do and that 3 months would probably not be enough to make it across India and up to Bangladesh then back through India to Nepal. She said wait a minute and went to talk to a man out the back, after a few minutes she came back with a big grin on her face and said yes you will be getting a 6 month visa, yes, I hope will see on the 7^th.

Back to the hostel and had a couple of cellabration rums.

2/9/11

   Found out I could not store my extra bags at the hostel but they had lockers at the train station. So after waking up late I went to see if my bags would fit, which they did with no problem and sat and watched some movies for the rest of the day.

3/9/11

  Got down to the train station and put my motorbike gear into a locker there, then got the train to Kandy to meet up with Captain Wijekoon. From Kandy train staion we headed out to his place in Matale and a nice family home there.

4/9/11

  Went to Anuradhapura again this time with the family as they needed to thank Buddha for the grandson, I think, which made it more special than the first time round although not on a bike, so not such an enjoyable drive lol.

 The family

5/9/11

   Went to Kandy for the day to see the bitanical gardens, which I didn't actually go into as I only had about 1 hour to visit them and although it is 50 r for locals it is 1100 for foreigners ($10-11US) which I was not prepered to pay for an hour walking around a garden.

   I did make it to the Buddhist temple later that day, which is a bit similar price wise, nothing for locals and 1000 for foreigner, we even get our own special shoe holding place which cost 5 times the amount of the locals shoe holding place. The temple was nice but Kandy did leave a bit of a dirty taste in the mouth with all the rip offs going on, especially as they are so blatent about it.

View from YMCA Kandy, which is cleaner than Colombo but my bed had bed bugs.

6/9/11

Back by train to Colombo which was a nice trip as I found the second class seats that I had been charged for on both trips, although saying that I did spend a bit of time sitting in the open door watch/filming the veiw as the train went along. It was a good trip. 

Back in the Colombo YMCA and they have managed to get rid of some of the smell from the toilet lol, but I need to get use to that smell as i'm off to India next lol.

7/9/11

Went down to the Visa place nice and early to get my visa, well try to, they will hopefully have it ready by 1730 today. Otherwise it will be a bit of a rush to get to the airport tomorrow.

 Well next time i update i should be in India hopefully with my own motorbike again. I'm not sure what internet is going to be like in India as i hear their phone service is not the best and i don't know how much Wifi is about. Anyway i will find out tomorrow afternoon all going well hehe.

  Enjoy your life.

Back in Negombo

20/8/11

   Spent most of the day online updating the blog nice view tho. The hotel guy took me back to his place for dinner which was nice having a family meal.

21/8/11

Been looking forward to this day, heading up into the mountains hehe. And it is nice up here, some of the roads are ruff but a lot are pretty good really. Road up to Ella which is a bit touristy but you get that. There was a lovely waterfall on the way up, also had a few ooohhh that looked cool, stop, turn around, go back, take a photo, some times stop there for a while to enjoy the view, moments.

This was my Hotel in Ella nice place. Had avocado pear for breakfast, they have a tree.

 Water buffalo.

22/8/11

  This is trekking country so I did the obvious and armoured up and just went riding in the mountains all day, I did come across some rain at one point but as it was still early ish I turned back and went a different way. The roads where all pretty good until I started getting lost then found some really bad ones, one went thro a quarry, had to stop all the traffic when they rolled the big boulders down from the upper levels lol. 

  Of course is it getting lost when you don't actually have a fixed destination, no real plan of where you are going?

23/8/11

   Started heading out toward Kandy and enjoyed the a bit of rain towards the end of the day. I ended up stopping in a Village called Kithul Hakuru, there is a river with lots of hotels along the back which I think are mostly used by Sri Lankans for wedding. I'm quite happy I stopped here as I found a little restaurant next to the hotel I stayed in which made the best Veggie Curry I've ever had, it was mainly this lemon/lime chilly stuff than was great. The lady and daughter who ran the place ended up giving me some of it to take with me lol, she said it should be ok to eat for about a month.

24/8/11

   Woke up to rain, mmm and it rain pretty much all day, oh well had to put the wet weather liners in the gear. The roads where pretty bad at times, mainly for oil/diesel, at one point there was a trail of diesel by the smell of it was on the other side of the road, oh and by trail I mean it covered the whole of the other lane and flowed over to the left on some corners. I'm guessing it was a truck with 44 gallon drums on the back but some didn't have lids, so all the ups and downs it was worse but also on the ruff stuff could be bad.

  Spotted a sign for the film location for the Bridge over the river Kwai, so turned around and went and had a look. An old guy had put out the sign it sounds like he was the jungle boy from the movie and put the sign up to get a bit of extra money.

   Kandy is a bit touristy but well you get that. I did meet an English and States guy well looking for a place to stay, then court up with them again when I still hadn't found somewhere and they where being taken to a place so tagged along to see it.

25/8/11

   Rode back to Negombo via some back road, did rain too much but saying that I had to put the covers on the bags for a while, unfortunately I didn't secure one of the pannier cover properly and when I stopped at one point it was not there and as it was a long ish stint I didn't feel like going back on the off chance I saw it. Oh well will have to sort another way of securing the last one lol.

  Had a nice break at one roadside stall when the rain got bad and got to watch an elephant get walked down the road, he was a big old one (he looked old), and it means finally I've seen something that buses slow for, he probably even gets the right of way. Was definitely a nice day.

These kids came to talk to me at one road side stall.

   Strangely enough Negombo seems a bit better this time than last time, still people ripping you off all over the place but I just don't go to there shops anymore. May help that the 2 guys I meet in Kandy got the card of left for them about this hotel and have ended up coming here for a few days before flying off.

26/8/11

   Didn't do much just writing the blog and catching up on Internet stuff, as I have discovered that I can use my phone as a wifi router meaning I can use my laptop all the time now, and Internet is cheap on the Sim card I have here

27/8/11

Decided to stay here a day longer and get my washing done. Will head into Colombo tomorrow to get the Indian visa.

Well i plan is to head to Chennai from here to buy a motorbike and get some mail from Aussie.

   Enjoy your life.