L'aventure commence le 31 décembre

Je décolle le 31 décembre et après des mois de préparation le programme sera assez varié mais avec beaucoup de plage. Je vais commencer avec quelques jours a Gokarna un petite ville sur la côte au nord du Karnataka qui est une ville de pèlerinage indien pour le temple et occidental pour les plages et des reste de 'hippieland'. Ensuite je descends la cote pour me rendre a Calicut la troisième ville du kerala tout au nord de l'état et situé en bordure de l'ocean. Je me suis inscrit a un stage de 4 semaines d'art Martial KALARIPAYAT qui propose également des soins de massages Kalari et ou je vais également suivre des cours - http://www.cvnkalari.
Ensuite ce sera Varkala pour plage, lecture, yoga et massages juqu'a la mi mars. Je remonterais par avion sur Calcuta pour la fête des couleurs 'Holi'. Le train me conduira alors à Darjeeling ou je compte faire un beau trek avant d'aller visiter l'état du Sikkim pendant le mois d'Avril.
RDV dès Janvier pour des photos, des commentaires et plus encore

Planning

As always planning is part of me and even if I do have some surprises along the way, it does help me to try and get things right. I did get Agra and Ajanta completely wrong last year. But hopefully I am learning through experience and mistakes.

So getting back to this NEW trip, I will be mixing some old and new. The beginning of the holiday will be spent on the coast of Karnataka, slowly traveling down to Varkala where I will settle until mid march. I will then fly to Kolkata to live the Holi experience in the 'city of joy' before heading north to Darjeeling and Sikkim. Originally I thought I could travel through the planes of Nepal and visit Kathmandu and Pokhara. I had even booked my flight to get me back from Katmandhu to Delhi in time for my return to Paris BUT BUT BUT... I had not realised that Darjeeling was more than a hill town and offered an apparently stunning 8 to 10 day circle trek and then Sikkim would take another 10 to 12 days to visit and enjoy the numerous sites and day treks. So I think I will take the option to take my time to enjoy the beauty of the north east moutains of India and this will allow for a few options to spend one extra day here and there so that I can really relax and take in the calm and serenity of this special place on earth. Also, i recently walked in the pyrennees mountains for 3 days to test myself and I really really enjoyed it so I feel ready for more.

This will also give me the opportunity to plan another trip for Nepal but also for the region of Assam that was also at one point on my mind and could be added should I rush through Sikkim, but the more I read about it the less I want to rush. Also in terms of budget, taking time greatly reduces travel costs and allows to spend more time in rural areas that are much cheaper than bigger towns. This way I can also allow to go a bit over budget in Kolkata and maybe treat myself to staying in the Oberoi grand hotel. So now I have more or less settled the end part of my trip, as well as the middle part, I will be able to start thinking of the beginning. This is also essential as I do need to know what budget I have available as this part of the country I am a little familiar with and can easily adapt my spending to not jeopardize the FINALE.