Back to reality

After traveling for almost 11 months (and enjoying every minute of it) last week for the first time we wished we were back home. 

We started off with Morgan who got the famous “Delhi Belly” and within 4 hours she was hospitalized for sincere dehydration. We were shocked how quick it happened. In the morning all was fine but after lunch she got really ill very quickly. At one moment we were not able to reach her for at least two minutes. Unbelievable scary! Later we found out it was a fever convulsion (which we never saw before and hope never to see again) We looked up the best hospital in Jodhpur and went straight away to the emergency. Within an hour we were submitted. The doctors were great and after an “ok” from our insurance company everything was possible 😉 To make sure the fall out was no epileptic seizure they also took an MRI and EEG. Luckily all was good and after 4 days of hospital Morgan was strong enough to go home.  Finally, at home, we got very sad news that a dear friend of us, Leon passed away very suddenly. He died much to young with many “unfinished” wishes. 4 days later Lillian parents called also with the news of losing a very close and dear friend suddenly. Life can be really unfair sometimes. 

When you are travelling it feels horrible to be on the other side of the world in said times. We realize that you have to follow your dreams…….. but for now, we wished we were home. Being with family and friends, giving them lots of hugs, love and just being there when it matters. Our thoughts are with all of you right now and you are in our minds and hearts. We are unable to be there for you and it that feels very tough.

India was the country where we did not know what to expect. Some countries were high on our” list to see” but with India we always had a bit of mixed feelings. We heard so many negative stories about the country we got a bit scared…. scared about the noise, busyness, no camping spots and all other stuff.  It really depends which route you take but for now India is beautiful and nothing to be scared about. In India it’s all about the money again. We had to get used to that again. In Iran – Pakistan, is was opposite so the first days in India we had quite some discussions. Tuk – Tuk drivers are the worst! We decided after Amritsar, Kapurthala and Jodhpur to directly go to Goa. Just slowing down the travelling and finding a spot to work for a while. We will (unfortunately) skip the bottom of the country and go up again via Rajasthan to Himachal Pradesh. The weather will be very hot in April till June and the monsoon will hit the south first. After receiving negative news about our extension for the carnet (we tried to extent our carnet till October for India) we have to be out of India the beginning of August. In July we will visit Nepal but we have to reenter India again to go to Myanmar for our next destination. 

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After watching the boarder closing from the Pakistani side we drove through the same border (which was the coolest border crossing we ever did) and saw the India side. What a difference! For the first time in 1,5 months we saw ladies on the streets again, without any cover, dancing!! We realized what kind of impact it had during the last 1,5 months of our travel. We were so surprised to see women again, driving on scooters, in cars, on the streets and not completely covered. The closing of the Indian side was much more color full and less authoritarian. We also saw tourist again. In the last months there weren’t many tourist but as soon as we crossed into India, we were not the tourist attraction ourselves. 

When we arrived in Amritsar, we had to see the golden temple. The most religious place for the Sikh. A beautiful believe we really felt connected with. Every day 100.000 people will get food in the temple and everybody will help to get the food ready. It so beautiful to see the connection of people in this place. Amritsar was a nice place to get all our stuff arranged. Every time we cross a border, we have to fix a couple of things. SIM cards, insurance for the car, routes and we also always have to adjust to the country. 

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After Amritsar we drove to Kapurthala. In this city the family Singh lives. They are the relatives of our friend and tailor Harjit from Utrecht. He was not around but his family welcomed us like we were family. They showed us the beautiful Kapurthala and overwhelmed us with their love. What an amazing couple of days. After two days getting spoiled, we drove to Jodhpur and visit an amazing fort. Despite the fact that Morgan got ill in this city we still enjoyed it very much. The area of Rajasthan has enormous forts and castles. Beautiful buildings with a great architecture. When we go back up north after our volunteering, we will visit this area fur sure. After Jodhpur we went in 2,5 days down to Goa. 1500 km to go to the beach. For us it means driving 2,5 days from 6AM till 7PM. Morgan is getting used to sitting. It sounds silly but after all the cold of Pakistan and the north of India it was so nice to feel the warmth again. We went from 15 to 35 degrees. Maybe a bit too much but he, who’s complaining 🙂

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Goa feels like every bounty beach in Asia except for the cows. They are also chilling at the beach which is very weird to see. We first arrived in Arambol in the North of Goa. After one night in this party place (we are getting so old) and meeting our swiss biker friend Matthias again we moved to the south and the more relaxed beaches. We stayed for 5 days in Galgibaga and enjoyed the silence. The last view days we were in Agonda. Not as quite as Galgibaga but a nice little village with some shops and restaurants. It’s still strange to see so many tourists again. In Goa, tourists are very common (off course) and so it gives us also a break of all the selfies. We now get asked by all the western tourists how in the **** we got all the way down to India with our own car J

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Yesterday we arrived at Dudhsagar Farmstay & Plantation, Karmane. It’s a beautiful place in the middle of the jungle in Goa. There are 5 beautiful huts which guest can rent and there is a big plantation of 50 hectares of Jungle. Full with all kind of fruits and spices. We will help out with the farm and the guests. Lillian will do a little bit of revenue management and e-commerce and Stephen will help with some Sales structures (back to our roots!!) We are looking forward to stay on one spot for a while and hopefully we can learn Morgan to swim properly. It’s already going well but with a beautiful nature pool it has to work out great. 

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Live your dream, don’t dream your life.

Big kiss from us