12 months, 11 countries, 0 flights 🌏

I had heard the stories of Goa being an infamous spot for the hippie counterculture movement in the 60s and 70s. Since then it has continued to be a haven for people seeking peace, love, and freedom, and has been a key spot on the “Hippie Trail”. I was excited to experience this, but also nervous that it would be ruined now by overtourism. We had been pleasantly surprised by how relaxed South Goa was, possibly due to it being the end of peak tourism season.

We met a cool Indian guy called Akshay from Kerala while staying at a hostel called The Hosteller in Wayanad. He was a free spirit whose family have actually immigrated to New Zealand and he is planning to join them eventually but for now is travelling all over India. He was actually staying in North Goa at the same time we would be there and we booked the same accommodation he was staying at. The Hosteller is a common hostel chain in India where many Indian tourists stay. We have stayed at the Wayanad, Bangalore, and now the Goa locations, and have had great experiences at these hostels meeting lots of really friendly Indians. Our friend Akshay has stayed in many of these Hostellers and knows the staff well, so he was able to organise one of the best rooms for us with a balcony overlooking the swimming pool with a stunning view of the beach. 

Our accommodation was at a secluded spot called Mandrem beach about 10 minutes away from the nearby town Arambol which is a super busy and touristic place. It was a really nice beach compared to the surrounding beaches which were much more developed and busy. Swimming in the ocean in Goa at this time of the year is like taking a warm bath. It was the first time in my life where I wished the ocean was colder!! Indians tend to be a lot less comfortable in the ocean, many of them not actually knowing how to swim. We had a real fun time teaching our friend Akshay how to dive under and body surf the waves.

We also made some new Indian friends here, a young guy called Sid from New Delhi and a lovely girl called Komal from Mumbai. Komal has recently completed her yoga teacher training (YTT) in Mysore and is a very skilled Ashtanga yogi. She is planning to start teaching yoga as a side business, and wanted to take some photos on the beach to use for her business. We did an evening photoshoot at sunset with her performing asanas on the beach. Sid, Akshay, and I were all designated photographers while Alice directed the photoshoot. It was pretty comical, but the photos actually turned out great, and Komal thanked us with beers afterwards. Komal had to leave Goa before us as she had to go back to work in Mumbai, but she promised to give us a tour of the city when we arrived that weekend. Staying in hostels such as The Hosteller has proved to be such an epic way to make friends, and it’s nice that the hostels here don’t only attract foreign tourists, but plenty of Indian tourists too

While Goa is the place to go for partying due to the cheap alcohol (there is no tax on alcohol in the state of Goa), the only party we went to was actually a zero alcohol event. We heard about this place called Arambolians which is a community driven venue which hosts new age events like sound healing, jam sessions, singing circles and ecstatic dances. We decided to try an ecstatic dance and although we felt like we might be joining a cult we tried to go into it with open minds. Alice, Akshay and I tripled on our rented scooter and drove about 15 minutes inland to the venue down some pretty dodgy looking dark roads. We were a bit concerned when we arrived, and didn’t really know what to expect. We paid our entry fee and walked into a strange otherworldly place. There were fire pits, hammocks, cushion seats and lots of people with dreadlocks. We had managed to find the remnants of the hippie movement that started here in the 60s. The actual ecstatic dance was a lot of fun. It took place on a large outdoor dance floor surrounded by trees and bushes. The DJ was a young lady playing techno and trance music, and the vibe was super relaxed with children running around as it was a zero alcohol venue. All three of us had a boogie for an hour and a half followed by a meditation at the end. After the dance there was a jam session around the firepit which we watched for a bit before heading home. It was a really fun night and a good reminder that you can have a lot of fun without needing alcohol.

While I really enjoyed Mandrem Beach and spending time with our friends here, I wasn’t that impressed by north Goa. Most of the beaches were gross and extremely overdeveloped, and the towns were full of shops selling super touristy junk made in China. It’s a sad feeling when you visit a beautiful place as a tourist and it has been ruined by tourism. Of course, we are also tourists and are visiting tourist places, so we also contribute to the over tourism. While we try our best, it is inevitable that the money we spend in these places will also contribute to further over development. I can imagine that Mandrem beach will eventually end up just as overdeveloped as the surrounding beaches in a few years time.

Now, to rewind to the beachside in Goa. 

To say I was excited to get to the beach was an understatement. I wrote a list of things I wanted to do during our time in Goa, and my main priorities were:

We stayed in two spots in Goa, each for three nights. The first of these was a quieter beach in the south called Patnem. If you go on Reddit you will find countless posts about how Goa has been ruined by over tourism and the consequent development and gentrification. The South is known for being the quieter end of the state and for being popular with families, long stayers and those seeking a more relaxing (less party) experience. April is also the very end of the season, and we had been warned that it would be much quieter than usual, with some cafes, yoga schools and beach shacks shut down for the deason already. Quiet beaches and fewer people? Sign me up. Our experience in the south was lovely.

After arriving off the overnight bus I skipped the usual nap routine to go to a yoga class I had found online. This was one of the best decisions I have made on this trip and it was the start of something very special. Brahma Yoga School is a family affair. Classes are led predominantly by Mohit, but his dad Prem is also involved in teaching the longer courses, and his mum helps with hosting students and guests. We attended the final four classes in Goa for the season, as from mid-April onwards, the family leaves for a small village called Baghsu, near Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. I left the first class buzzing, and excited to join the classes for the next few days. We went every morning, and gradually got more and more convinced to sign up for the May yoga teacher training (YTT) in Dharamshala. By the final morning we paid our deposit and locked in our spots, already feeling like our practice was worlds improved from when we first arrived.

Starting every morning with Yoga put us in pretty good stead to have some amazing days in south Goa, and amongst hours spent lazing on our local beach, we found some pretty special more secluded spots as well. 

I had found a beach on google maps that seemed to have a rough path down to it, and even a small shack like bar at the bottom. On our first afternoon we thought we would take our trusty rental scooty and give it a try. It was about an hour drive from our accommodation, with the final twenty minutes on increasingly steep dirt roads. We arrived at what we assumed was the car park and walked down for about 20 minutes to find a total oasis. Palm tree lined, golden sand and only two small restaurants serving cold drinks. We parked up on some loungers and spent the afternoon alternating between these and the ocean. The sunset was picturesque, finishing off an amazing first day. We rode home at dusk and were just so happy to be there. 

In classic Alice and Josh fashion, we managed to find some great food while we were in Goa. A cute cafe run by a New Zealander was a highlight, and we spent a few hours lounging here enjoying coffee and some New Zealand music that reminded us of home. We also went out one night with one of the girls from the yoga studio, and had the most delicious BBQ chicken wings! Not exactly traditional, but we devoured three plates nonetheless. We did a lot of our usual heading away from the main tourist area to eat, and had a great Goan thali with lots of interesting bits and pieces. 

We had one not so pleasant experience… a termite infestation in our room!!! I was up until all hours of the morning googling what those dust-like piles were that were appearing all over our bed and stuff… and soon learned they were literally termite s**t! Yuck! Thankfully the management moved us to a new room and gave us a discount, but it wasn’t very fun at the time. 

As I was writing this a bit delayed, I went back through my camera roll to remind me what we did in Goa. My camera roll was surprisingly empty, which I think speaks to how nice it was to have this time just to slow down and relax. Our yoga practice was the cornerstone of our time here, and it set us up for some beautiful, slow, intentional days. 

So far we have been perfectly on time with our scheduled trains and buses, usually having time to kill once we arrive at the station. The overnight train from Bangalore was our first hiccup. We had heard all about the nightmarish traffic in Bangalore, but hadn’t really experienced it ourselves. Of course on the way to catch our train it hit us. I was bribing my taxi driver with a double fare if he could go as fast as possible and he was more than willing to help, running the occasional red light and swerving between the traffic. As I had gone back to our accommodation to grab our bags, Alice caught a scooter taxi and she was able to squeeze through the traffic much easier than I was in a tuk tuk. Safe to say this taxi ride was the most stressful experience we’ve had so far on the road, and we caught some terrifying buses in Sri Lanka 😅 

By some miracle we both arrived in one piece at the train station with minutes to spare, and after paying our driver a double fare we literally ran all the way up the stairs and over platforms 1-8. We were both completely out of breath and dripping with sweat. As we boarded the train it started moving, and we collapsed on to a seat to catch our breath in disbelief that we had even made it. Unfortunately we had boarded in completely the wrong cabin, and had to walk between about 10 cabins before we reached our allocated seats.

From now on, we will be giving ourselves a bit more of a buffer to get to train stations as this whole experience truly sucked.

We added Hampi to our itinerary last minute as we had heard it was amazing from a few people, but we hadn’t really researched the place in detail. We knew it was an amazing place famous for ancient monuments carved from stone, particularly a stone chariot seen on the Indian fifty rupee note. We also knew it would be HOT. The temperature while we were here ranged from lows of 25°c to highs of 39°c. To be honest we struggled with the heat here, and it made me a little concerned about Ragistan where the temperature will be more than 40°c. We spent the afternoons hiding from the sun as the heat of the day writing blog posts and reading our books. The heat made us very sleepy so afternoon naps were also a common occurence. It was nicest in the mornings and evenings when the temperature was more bearable, and the sunsets here were magical.

The landscape here is surreal and unlike anywhere I’ve been before. It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, searching for treasure in forgotten ruins from an ancient civilisation. Hampi town where we were staying was nestled between a large sacred river, an ancient hindu temple, and stone cut ruins. The surrounding landscape was with hills covered by huge boulders from which many temples and carvings had been cut. Literally every direction you look you will see ruins and carvings of Hindu god's. During it’s golden era around 1500 AD Hampi is now estimated to be the worlds second largest city at the time after Bejing, and the richest in India. We walked down long lanes of stone buildings which were once bustling marketplaces where pearls, gold, diamond, silver, and other precious metals were sold by the kilogram. 

We enjoyed imagining what life would have been like here at the time, imagining the life of a princess of the ruling Vijayanagara Empire, when the ruins of today were not ruins but grand temples and royal palaces. Alice even asked ChatGPT to generate a short story for her about the life of a consort to the princess at the elephant stables, and it was surprisingly accurate with it’s descriptions. What we would give to be able to go back in time for a day and walk through the bustling markets where rich traders from Africa, Arabia, the Red sea, China and Bengal sold their precious goods.

On our last night here we had a night bus to catch. Before this we decided to walk up the nearby Mathanga Hill for sunset. This was an easy 30 minute walk and clamber up giant boulders with steps carved into them. Hampi is supposedly the birthplace of the Hindu god Hanuman, the lord of monkeys. It is easy to see why, as Hampi is home to many thousands of monkeys. For those who know I have an irrational fear of many-legged creatures, and this walk was teeming with giant millipedes. Usually I don’t mind them as much as centipedes but they were big and there were loads of them crawling around on the rocks. Along with the gross millipedes, there were monkeys, lizards, and birds all around us. It felt like everywhere we looked there was a living creature. At the summit was Veerbhadra temple, a tiny temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. From the roof of this temple we watched as the sun slipped down over the horizon of rocky hills and ancient ruins, casting a beautiful red glow over the landscape.

I’m very glad we decided to add Hampi to our itinerary, it’s a place unlike any other. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history and unique scenery. I could ramble on about the history of this place but I would talk forever so I will wrap it up here. From the arid and rocky desert landscapes of Hampi we are heading back to the beaches for maybe the last time in a long while. We had heard mixed reviews of Goa, particularly advising us to avoid central Goa. So our plan is to head to the more relaxed southern part of Goa for a few days and then spend a few days in the northern part of Goa partying with our Indian friend Akshay who we met in Wayanad. We were both very ready to relax on the beach, read our books, and do lots of yoga!!

I opened my iCloud calendar this morning which had synced the AirBnB booking we made in Kathmandu a month or so ago… starting on the 11th of April! Safe to say we are not going to be in Nepal in two days, so I thought it was about time we gave you all a bit of a route update. 

We are currently on the beach in Goa soaking up the sunshine and enjoying our last real beach destination for quite possibly a long time. Over the last month we have made our way through the south of India, exploring Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and now Goa. When you look at our map it looks like we have done a lot, but at the same time it feels like we have seen the tiniest slice of what’s on offer. We would love to come back to South India one day and park up at some of the places we enjoyed for a little longer. 

It didn’t take long for us to realize that the time we had allocated to India before heading into Nepal wasn’t going to be enough. We had originally planned to spend about 5 weeks in India before arriving in Nepal, and then another couple of weeks in India after Nepal, before Pakistan. We made the hard decision to actually remove Nepal from our itinerary for now - the whole purpose of this trip is to go slow and not rush, and with the trekking season in the Himalaya fast approaching, it didn’t feel achievable this time. I know for sure we will go to Nepal at some stage (and soon), ideas around October are even whirling around in our heads.

So, if we’re not going to be in Kathmandu in two days time, where are we going?? Our India visa is double entry, but we can only spend 90 days in the country at a time, meaning that we have to leave on June 4th unless we do a visa run (which is considerably more admin without flying). This gives us just under two more months to explore. We are now well and truly into Indian summer, with daytime temperatures in most of the country regularly reaching over 35 degrees. We’re going to brave this summer weather for another month, before escaping to the mountains of Himachal Pradesh for our final month in India. 

From Goa, our route to Himachal Pradesh is fairly locked in, we have a packed month ahead that we are really excited for. 

After Delhi, we will get an overnight bus up to a small village near Dharamashala called Bhagsu Nag, where we have decided to do a Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) starting on the 4th of May. We’ve signed up for the 100hr to start (12 days), but we will likely extend to the 200hr (23 days). If you’re not super familiar with the YTT concept, you might be a little surprised to hear this! For a lot of people (us included) doing a 200hr YTT is much more about deepening your own self practice as opposed to training for a career as a yoga teacher. The training includes Pranayama, meditation, nutrition, body alignment, anatomy, philosophy and of course asana (which is the actual movement practice part we associate with ‘yoga’ in the west). When we were in south Goa we met the best yoga teacher we’ve ever had in our lives, and after a few classes we just knew we wanted to spend more time learning from him. Mohit and his family (his father Prem is also a lead teacher on the program), split their year between Goa and Dharamashala, running their yoga school in both locations depending on the season. It truly felt like a sign from the universe that we got to join Mohit’s final four classes in Goa for the year before he headed up North!! We are really excited for the training and this opportunity to deepen our practice while being surrounded by the Himalaya.

If we do the full course, this will wrap on May 23rd, giving us about 10 days to travel south to Amritsar and cross the border into Pakistan on June 4th! Our good friends Clara and Julien are meeting us in Islamabad on June 13, before we head north and explore Pakistan together. We haven’t planned this yet, but the focus will definitely be trekking. 

And after Pakistan? We will see. Once we get our China visas sorted we will get a bit more specific with our plan beyond Pakistan - but let me just say for now that we are definitely thinking about alternative options to South East Asia…! One thing we do know for certain is that we really want to continue our ‘no flying’ goal. We’re
 enjoying the challenge, the pace and the way it makes us think about our route.

Hopefully that’s provided those who are interested with a bit of an idea of what the next couple months will look like for us, of course we will keep up the blogs, photos and messages as we go. As always, we’re so grateful that you are enjoying following our journey, we’re loving sharing it with you. 

Bangalore is the first place so far where we have decided to extend our stay. What was supposed to be two days of quick fire city energy turned into nearly five, and we just loved it. A few people we had met on our trip had talked about the wonders of Bangalore - the quantity of microbreweries, the great cafe culture, the buzz of a tech hub and the famed traffic jams. Bangalore is known as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ and has topped the global list of fastest growing cities by 2033, in terms of urbanization, economic growth and innovation. The GDP of the area is around US $300 billion, and is responsible for 40% of India’s tech exports! For context, NZ sits at around $220 billion, and California at $4.132 trillion. With a population of 14 billion, Bangalore is India’s fourth biggest city (after Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata). In 2014 the city was officially renamed Bengaluru to reflect its original Kannada name and to shed the anglicized form used during British colonial rule, but we have used Bangalore as this is what is most commonly used in day-to-day conversation. 

Here, once again, we are reminded of the dizzying and dazzling diversity of India. The reminders are subtle in some ways and glaringly obvious in others. I can happily romp around in shorts and a singlet, where there are other places we have been where I always have my knees, shoulders and chest covered to feel comfortable. I started writing this in a cafe that would not be out of place in Melbourne or Auckland, and the pizza we had for lunch could have easily cost $30 USD in a San Francisco neighbourhood. Most people here speak English, and it seems that at least every second person we talk to works in tech. The metro is so easy to navigate, and all our auto/moto rides are booked on an app, along with our washing, our hostel check in and most ordering in restaurants. We needed a new adapter and toothpaste, and it arrived at our hostel in 15 minutes after ordering on an app. We based ourselves in an upscale neighborhood called Indiranager, and this did mean our time here leant towards lattes and larger, the city of course has its fair share of temples, markets and slums.

Getting recommendations for places to visit in Bangalore was easy, we had met a few native Bangalorians on our travels who sent us on our way with lists of sites, breweries, bookstores and neighbourhoods. We ticked off most of these, with the exception of the “sites”. That’s right, we didn’t visit any temples, palaces, churches or similar while in Bangalore. Instead we whiled-away the days wandering the neighbourhoods, browsing galleries and shops, eating lots of yummy food, and almost “pretending” to live in this wonderful city. We felt like the people we met here were some of the friendliest so far and we had lots of great conversations over shared tables at breakfast or a bar. While writing this I looked back through my camera roll to remind me of what exactly we did and what to talk about, and although we didn’t visit any palaces or temples, there were plenty of noteworthy highlights. 

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that we ate our way through Bangalore, and not just of the Indian variety! We were treated to some really quality global cuisine from the Middle East, Italy and Myanmar. It was nice to step away from the day to day dosa and even though it blew out our budget a bit it was still cheaper than eating out at home. For example, we went to the upscale, very well reviewed Burma Burma and shared a soup as a starter, and then had three mid sized share plates for mains. It came to 2,368 rupee, or $50 NZD, where at home I would guess that meal would have cost at least $100 NZD. Bangalore also has amazing beer, and Josh especially definitely tested this out!! Toit was a local brewery that we loved, and was also where we parked up to watch the IPL game (more on that later). Sadly no Hazy IPA’s, but lots of great IPA’s, dark beers and lagers. It was really cool to see these buzzing locations full of young people out socializing after work, showing us a different side of India. Bangalore also has amazing Indian food in abundance, and we were particularly taken with Rameshwaram Cafe and Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR). I think we visited Rameshwaram three or four times. It was kind of like a food court in style, where you placed your order at a counter or booth, and then got tickets that you would take to the relevant stations. Although more expensive than your typical mom and pop type corner place, the dosa, idli, gulab jamun and coffee that we had here was absolutely top notch. It also made it easy to try new things, and meet people, as you ate your food standing around communal high tables. Rameshwaram is a bit of an institution in Bangalore, and we are very pleased we tried it!! We also loved MTR, which has been around since 1924. This super popular eatery serves legendary south indian comfort food, and we especially loved their specialties of Rava Idli (steamed semolina cakes made with a mic of yoghurt, coriander, cashew nuts, curry leaves and mustard seeds) and Chandrahara (their trademark dessert of deep fried maida flour pastry topped with a custard like liquid made of khoa). 

We have unintentionally timed our trip to India with the Indian Premier League (IPL), the professional Twenty20 cricket league here in India. Featuring 10 city or state based teams it is the most popular and richest cricket league in the world! Lots of our New Zealand Black Caps come over to play for Indian IPL teams during the season. I think we have mentioned how cricket is a constant conversation starter for us here once people find out we are from New Zealand, so following the IPL was a natural next step! We’ve pledged our allegiance to the Bangalore team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and have spent a few nights now watching the cricket and really enjoying it. Watching RCB crush Chennai at a bar in Bangalore was such a fun experience, very similar to watching rugby at home!! Stay tuned to find out if we are brave enough to still support the RCB as we head North…

Other highlights included a sundowner beer from a 13th floor bar where we could see Bangalore spread into the distance, the many bookstores around Church Street absolutely stacked from literal floor to ceiling with books, a BJJ class for Josh, and trying chicken burgers from the locally famed Empire. Slotting into this city and experiencing a small slice of life here was such a joy.

One morning at Rameshwaram we met a lovely couple, Tushaar and Ishani, about the same age as us that we got talking to and exchanged details. Tushaar’s family is from Punjab and Ishani is from Rajasthan, and they have been married for three years now. They both work in the city, Tushaar as a Product Owner and Ishani as a lawyer. As we were planning our Saturday night we thought they might like to meet up for a drink, as Ishani had mentioned that the neighbourhood we wanted to visit was one of her favourites. They sorted us a reservation and we met at The Bier Club - a three story craft beer bar in the heart of Koramangala. We spent hours chatting, enjoying sharing stories about our respective lives and reflecting on the differences and similarities. It was so special to meet a couple similar age to us, living and working in Bangalore, and I’m sure we will keep in touch and maybe meet again somewhere. 

We also finally visited a doctor for my chronic sore throat and got onto antibiotics which worked a treat after about two days. The medical system was super easy to navigate, I had my appointment at 4:30 PM, and by 8:30 PM I had the results of my blood test back and antibiotics onboard. Super efficient and really cheap too compared to New Zealand healthcare (although this should be covered by our travel insurance). 

Finally, Bangalore is known for its traffic. The infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the growing population, even with efforts like their rapid Metro construction. We didn’t find it too bad, mainly choosing to travel outside of peak hours. Never did we notice this more than our manic rush to the train station on our final night. I had come straight from the pharmacy and Josh had headed back to get our bags, and we both bribed our respective drivers with extra cash to weave through the traffic and run some marginal lights to get us there on time! After a literal sprint upstairs past platforms one to seven, we jumped on the train as it started moving, with racing hearts and lost breath. We vowed to never leave it that tight again, and found our beds for the ride to Hampi thanking the traffic gods that we had somehow made it on the train.