My intention when I set this blog up about 4 months ago was to update it regularly and post pictures and really communicate what I am doing with everyone...but as I am sure is pretty obvious now, I have not touched it and no communication has been established.
As everyone knows I spent 3 months in Australia on a tourist visa working illegally in a Mexican Restaurant for cash. Kind of ironic and fabulous all at the same time. Australia was awesome but it just became daily life for me and was not worth keeping up a blog for. I met some amazing people! Hopefully people I will stay in touch with for years to come. Kody Betonte came and visited and we did the East Coast for a couple of weeks. We rented a car and did the whole camping thing! It was a nice break from the hectic life of Sydney. I thought when I was on the West Coast I liked it much better, but once I got back into my groove in Sydney I realized I loved it there as well. Moral of the story is that Australia is just fantastic! I have a lot more to say about that, but for now I'm going to live in the moment and continue on with India! Oh, and in case I have neglected to inform some of you, I am traveling with my friend Rachel (who our boss called us the "Wonder Twins," feel free to adapt that as well!). She spent the last year on her working holiday visa in Australia and is the same girl that I traveled through Central America with. So when I refer to things as "we," that's my sidekick. She will be the funny looking girl that will appear in photos with me throughout all of this :) ...if you are reading this Rach, I was just kidding...you are only goofy looking sometimes!
Anywho...
It took me about 4 days to remember that I wanted to keep record of everything I was doing, so I finally started journal-ing. I realized after writing 8 pages for 2 days I was writing too many of the details and not capturing enough of the moments. So hopefully over the next 4 months my stories will shine a little more and won't be filled with the unnecessary reports of very useless information. That being said...
We left Australia on Friday the 20th and traveled for about 12 hours before finally making it to Singapore around 10pm with no clue where we were staying, how to get there or what to expect. We settled on China town and took the MRT (train) into the city and wandered aimlessly on the streets, thinking we were smart enough to follow a map to where we thought a hostel might be...we weren't. The taxi driver laughed at us when we told him where we had come from and where we were trying to go, because had we walked in the right direction, our twenty minute journey would have taken 5. In my journal I wrote a lot of unnecessary details about our stay in Singapore so I will spare you. Moral of the story is that both Rachel and I were feeling under the weather so we didn't do much. We never left China town and we tricked our bodies into thinking it would be a good idea to have a night out with our hostel mates for some good ol' fashion Karaoke...and yet again, another poor judgement call made by us! My throat at this point decides when I will be able to get a breath in, and my eyes fill up with tears every time I try and swallow. My body is aching to no end and I think I might have a fever. Needless to say, it was not the best weekend for me to discover Singapore and I am going to have to chalk that up as a miss.
We left Singapore around 9pm and got into Bangalore, India around 11. By the time we cleared customs, got our bags and got ripped of by a taxi driver, we made it into the city. We haven't figured out where we are going to stay (this is a common thing for us, as you will discover of the next few months), so we decide instead of looking for a guest house we should look into buses or trains to get us to Goa on the west coast. After getting our hopes up one too many times we settle on sleeping at the train station outside with all of the locals until the ticket counter opens up at 4. Probably not the smartest idea considering my health at the moment, but it seems like the best idea at the time. I think I walked away with over 30 mosquito bites on just one leg...there were too many to count both.
After sitting outside for 6 hours, completely sleep deprived we finally were able to take our train departing at 6am. For the both of us to take a decent train from Bangalore to Hubli, a 7 hour train journey, cost us 294 rupees. The scenery was surreal. I don't know what got into my head about what to expect about India, but I think poverty overrode anything and everything else, so this was a nice reality check...a nice way to ease into India. We were able to get all of our meals, chai and coffee for less than U.S 50 cents. We were able to steal a few photos of passing farmers in the fields and the sporadic characters walking along side the railroad tracks. Once we arrived in Hubli, we needed to catch a bus to Goa. That proved to be a little difficult, but with the help of some very nice locals and 2 buses to the wrong places, we finally made it to the right bus terminal just in time to run onto our bus for the next 6 hour leg of our journey.
This bus ride was something else! Only about half of the bus ride was spent on the seat, the other half was spent launched in the air because the roads were so dodgy (you like my choice of word dad?) At this point, y throat was so swollen and in pain, every time I landed back on the seat it felt like I was chomping down on a cotton ball filled with rocks. Not very pleasant I tell you. I was able to zone out long enough to make it to Punaji where we had to catch another bus to Mapusa. Rach and I both got crammed in the cage with the driver because the bus was so packed. Hot, crowded and sweaty but all part of the experience. A little negotiating in Mapusa with a rickshaw drier and 150 rupees later we arrived in Anjuna. After a few rejected attempts at finding a guest house that was in our budget we finally found a great little guest house called Coutinhos. A double room with a ceiling fan and a shared bathroom with hot water only cost us 300 rupees. We get free breakfast brought up to the roof or to our rooms every morning, Internet access as well as laundry services provided. This is an excellent place to start our Indian adventure.
23/2 Tuesday (I'll start to use dates occasionally to give a point of reference)
Rachel is still hacking up a lung and I'm still wanting to die from my throat, so we decided today would be a day of rest. We stopped for some juice on our way down to the beach and one of the workers there joked that the only difference between Australian beaches and Indian beaches were cows and dogs. Not 5 minutes after we settled ourselves on some beach chairs did a cow mosey on over to us...this is after passing all of the cows bathing in the sand and standing around like they own the place. But this one cow in particular was feeling rather sassy. It started by putting its nose on my arm, then started licking my arm like a giant kitten. I guess I wasn't tasty enough for this holy cow because the next thing you know its had my entire book corner in its mouth. I wasn't going down without a fight so I passed the book to Rachel to make the cow work a little harder and maybe he would just give up. I was wrong. The tug of war continued with the cow's full neck resting on my bare stomach, not caring the least bit that I was there. Rachel finally succeeded the cow. The icing on the cake came when a little Indian woman in her sari came over swatting Mr. Holy Cow away. I thought that the abundance of cows in India had been exaggerated for the sake of story telling...but I am going to go ahead and confirm it.
The rest of our day consisted of taking in the beautiful coastline that Goa has to offer. The bright colors, the crashing ocean, the shop lined streets with ali baba pants, the shop keepers luring in the passer-bys with "come, look in my shop. Looking is free, cost you nothing to look. I give you very cheap price. What you like?" Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We expected to come back to the guest house, wash up and go for dinner but we got as far as dinner at this wonderful organic vegetarian restaurant called "Blue Tao" and hit the sack early. This is part of my recovery plan.
Market day, Wednesday, started off with a trip to the Ayuverdic Medical Center for Rachel to get a bit of Nasal Therapy, she came out of the room with tears in her eyes... I think it worked. While we were there I figured since my throat keeps getting worse and I am starting to lose my voice I may as well see a Doc to see if there is anything he could do for me. 200 rupees got me a "consultation," some mystery alcohol rubbed on my neck and throat, then came over and poured some mystery drink down my throat and finished by giving me a little tube with some mystery chewable pills. 5 pills, 3x a day for 5 days. Not sure what the hell any of it was, but I paid the man his rupees and we'll just wait and see.
After being "cured"we headed down to these reputable markets. We knew they were supposed to be huge, but this market was MASSIVE. We walked up these stairs straight off the beach to a plethora of unending stalls of every shape and size. The energy and commotion was overwhelming and stimulating all at once. Thousands of people, cows, dogs and the occasional goat were roaming the stall lined corridors. There was constant bargaining wherever we went. Unfortunately, I didn't have my new camera with me but Rach did and got some fantastic shots. I can't even begin to explain all of the clothes, blankets, spices, purses, jewelry, carvings and the endless objects available at this market. I did very little damage walking away with only 2 lanterns. But it was worth the day just walking around getting the experience. One man passed by giving us a brochure for his yoga studio here. Turns out he lives in Seattle but is originally from here and will be returning the States this summer. We're hoping to make it to one of his classes while we are here. He also performed some healing process on Rach in the middle of the market. She said it helped... at this point we'll take whatever we can get.
I forgot to mention that we thought we were going to move further north in Goa so we have checked out of hour guest house at this point and just left our bags there for the day. Coutinho was so nice and told us we could clean up and use the place as if we were staying there until we were planning on leaving that night. But after our long day our new plan is to stay put in Anjuna and rent a scooter to explore other areas of the state. So we get back to Coutinhos and naturally she is all booked out. But this Irish girl, Lisa, who we met when we were checking out took over our 3 person room and invited us to share with her. So we did that for a night, making everything a bit cheaper. And we are now booked through at this lovely little place until Sunday!
26/02 Thursday
I'm on the road to recovery...I think the pills may be working! Knock on wood. We spent the day not really doing anything besides being beach bums. But we did just finish playing a pick up game of beach volleyball with a mix of Westerners and locals. It quite honestly was the most genuine moment I've had in India. Here we all are, having bargained, ignored and pleaded with one another over food, money, massages and acknowledgment all playing and laughing together while playing volleyball.
The guy who walks along the beach all day trying to convince people to let him give them a massage and is getting continuously rejected, is laughing and making jokes with me as the ball comes over the net towards him and he swings his arm and the ball only knocks him in the shoulder and spouts out towards the ocean. The little boys who walk around hopeful you will give them food are keeping score. After our game a man and his son are practicing hitting the ball over the net. The same 2 people who all day have been brushing sand of beach chairs and swatting away cows. At the end of the business day, here we all are just existing together and enjoying one another's company. A far reach from where we all were 3 hours ago.
A few days ago, Rach and I were down on this same beach constantly being harassed to buy anything from this little girl whose name is Shadow. After being approached 5 times throughout the day by her we finally agreed to go to her shop and I bought 2 overpriced anklets and Rachel walked away with 2 necklaces. We saw her again at the big market. And now again today she came and found us. Now she knows I am not going to buy anything from her but she keeps pushing for it but now we are more playful and more words are exchanged rather than just "please" and "no." She sat and talked for a while today and I finally saw past just this little robotic Indian girl trying to sell things on the beach to tourists. It was simple conversation about how she didn't go to school because she had to work everyday. And I am sure much of what she was telling me was a lit, but there was a glimmer of a genuine little girl who had a lot to learn and was eager to do so if the opportunity presented itself. Moments like this, today, make you realize how easy it is to look past people and never see them for more than face value. Dig a little deeper, well you don't even have to dig, you just have to stop, pull your head out of your ass and observe and listen, and you will see a whole other world inside these people. We can all take 2 seconds out of our busy life to do that, dontcha think?
27/02 Friday
Feeling about the same today as I did yesterday...still on my pills though just trucking along! Rachel and I rented a scooter to get ourselves around. 400 rupees for 48 hours...not too shabby! It felt so good to get out and go down the side roads and explore this area a little more, since we have been a little isolated in our area. Trying to capture as many of these moments as I can! Some of the scenery just seems unreal and I feel like I have to pinch myself awake from a dream...but this is real, Rachel and I are REALLY in India!!!!!!
Our exploration was cut a little short because we wanted to catch the yoga class with Swami, the yoga teacher we met at the markets. Swami is the CEO/Founder of Kripa Yoga. I would call it a fusion of several different yoga's as well as aerobics. A lot of stretching, ab exercises finished up with some meditation. I took a hatha yoga class in college but this is my first "real" yoga experience. It felt fantastic and my body moved much easier at the end of class than it did at the start. During the meditation, Swami came around with a very aromatic smell on his hands that would intensify when he would rub his hands together. He then put his hands, one on the collar bone and one on the forehead, and leaned me a little backwards and to the side, and eventually was laying completely on the floor. It was an interesting way to finish up the meditation. There was a crazy wave of calm and relaxed energy that was created through this whole experience. Rach and I are definitely planning on attending the morning yoga session tomorrow. As for this evening, exhaustion has taken over, so its dinner then off to bed.
28/02 Saturday
We woke up a like little kids on Christmas this morning. We were out of the door by 6:30am to go for a ride on our scooter. Oh and in case you were wondering, Rachel is our driver and I'm just (excuse me for lack of a better term) her biker bitch. We explored the next beach up, but the fog and chill were still set in that the beach wasn't much to see. But, the ride was the perfect way to start the day. We were then back off to Calungute for our 9am yoga session. Today was just as nice as yesterday. A bit more focused on stretching and learning about each pose. This time for meditation, we went into the meditation room, engulfed in the same aroma Swami used on his hands the day before. This time however, he came over to me while I was sitting and told me to stand up. He did the same kind of thing to me, but this time I went from standing to laying flat on my back. It was one swift motion and I barely felt it happen. It was quite an odd sensation. In this state there is no concept of time, you just do what you are doing for however long you do it!
After class, we walked around a bit to get back to a somewhat normal state. Then the plan was to head to this town called Mapusa to get some sandals made. We never made it. We came across "Mother Teresa's Roses' Children's Home" and decided we would pop our heads in to see what it was all about. We talked with the head Sister, Sister Lucy, for a minute to get some reading material and a brief introduction about the home. Once that was complete we went in to say hello to the 24 Children living here and ended up staying for over an hour. We read, danced, and made funny faces at each other. I had both of my cameras with me today so they were able to take a lot of unfocused and obscure photos of one another. There are some really great candid photos from today, I'll be sure to get them up ASAP. All of these children were so smart and interested that you couldn't help ubt fall in love with each of their faces. Eventually though, we had to say our goodbyes, and left with a list of items that they are in need of, and are planning to go back to learn more about the story of this place.
We left with just enough time to gather our things and head down to the beach for another game of volleyball with our new friends. We had a new mix of people tonight, but the energy was still very high and it felt as though we were all a little more competitive with one another. My favorite character this game was the owner of the restaurant we play in front of "Lobos." Off the court he is a quiet, reserved man. On the court he was ruthless machine. He was on the opposing team so every time we would mess up he would say, in his cute little Indian accent, "Thank You" and cackle at us or give a sideways look that either meant that he was getting away with something or he was letting us get away with something. No matter what happened during the game though, afterward was all high-fives and hugs.
We figured why stop there on our productive and adventurous day so we went up to the Baga Saturday Nite markets with George. oh George is the new addition to our guesthouse. He arrived a couple of days ago, a 19 year old English kid. Also joining us was Josh, another guy from England who we met during our volleyball game. And then at the markets we met a Norwegian guy named Vegar, so we have snowballed into quite the little traveling team. These markets were just as crazy as the Wednesday market just served with a twist. After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai late last year, they were contemplating shutting this market down because it is such a tourist attraction. It is more focused on food and music, and it seemed that the vendor stalls were more heavily run by Westerners over locals. All of these markets are famously overpriced, so we stuck to window shopping and drinking of RS 50 Kingfisher beers. Oh and for those of you wondering it is RS 50 to $1. These beers definitely rival our Portland microbrews...or maybe just rival a watered down PBR. This market is incredible though. It is built up on a slight hill. The stalls seemed to go on for ages in every direction. It would be cery easy to get lost, but all you would have to do is folow one of the many crazy Goan hippies back to the music and you would be good to go. We did a lot of people watching and by 11pm we were off to the one club in Anjuna called Paridiso. It was an unsuspecting place. You first walked through a giant gravel patch with rickshaws and food stalls, then though a giant gate, medal detector and down some cave like stairs before you were in the night club, which surprisingly enough was located right on the beach. The walls and the low rock ceiling were all completely white with colorful lanterns and plenty of drunk dancers. The entry fee was quite steep for India but once inside all the drinks were included. I'm a little out of shape when it comes to the sport of drinking right now, so we had to tap out early and call it a night.
1/03 Sunday
Not as eager to get up this morning as we were yesterday, but once we were back on our scooter we were ready to seize the day. We spent our morning gathering things to take to Mother Teresa's Roses' and made it out there by 2 to drop everything off. Sister Lucy was very grateful that we came back with goods in hand and that we came back so quickly to learn more. I'll come back with a more detailed report of what we learned today, a little later. I've got to get caught up on my journal (about 5 days behind) and then I'll be back with a full report! The kids were all attempting to take a nap, so we didn't get to play with them. But, I think we may have promised to come back to India to volunteer sometime right after monsoon season. I'll send a sign up sheet around for companions and donations later...don't worry :)
We were meant to do a meditation with Swami this afternoon for 3 hours but we got so caught up with Sister Lucy that we never made it. So instead we found ourselves at a local market in Mapusa. We wandered around for a few hours with two little boys who had attached themselves to us. They showed us the ins and outs of the market and told us about everything we could possibly want to know about. The smaller of the 2 boys told me to be careful when walking through the chicken section because if I wasn't they might mistake my pale skin as a white chicken and cut off my arm and try to sell it. So that became my new name, Chicken. While Rachel got Barbie...not sure how that worked out. And of course, these boys weren't just showing us around the market for fun. We had to promise to go into their shops and buy something small, anything. Rachel and I don't have any sort of backbone and ended up buying loads from both their shops and their friend's shop. What can ya do?
This part of the day also took longer than expected because we missed our volleyball game as well. We're not very good at sticking to a plan. Speaking of sticking to a plan...Yesterday we booked an overnight train down to Kerela, but somehow Vegar, Josh and George managed to convince us it would be a good idea not to go down to Kerela just yet, but go to Palolem (another beach in Goa) then to Hampi for a few days and then all go to Kerela together. So that was settled. Oh and back to 100% with the throat sickness thing, now just a cold!
2/03 Monday
We danced back and forth today of whether or not we should just stick to the original plan or just throw our tickets out and have a bit of an adventure. We decided on the latter. By 2 o'clock we had gathered ourselves and picked up another partner in crime, Renee from England. So the 6 of us crammed in a taxi with all of our belongings and made the 3 hour journey to Palolem. Well, Well worth it! The beach here is gorgeous! Not as full of washed up hippies but still lots of backpackers. The beach is cleaner, lined with palm trees and beautiful cliffs, tons of little restaurants but still managed to feel quiet and more laid back than Anjuna. The place we are staying, River Valley, is a bunch of little beach huts with front porches and hammocks throughout the property. You can hear the ocean waves crashing and see the river that flows into the ocean from our front porch. We found a nice bar at our end of the beach that we had to wade through the river to get to. They had palapa bars set up and lights strung from the palm trees. It was on kind of a jetty so the ocean was on both sides giving it just the perfect atmosphere. They had a DJ playing for the roughly 30 people that were there. No complaints about our little home for a couple of days!
Tuesday...
We woke up with a mission to have a beach day. We rented 3 scooters and rode just a little ways to a beach north of where we were staying called Agonda. This beach is fairly undiscovered, lined with a few restaurants and we maybe saw 30 people on the entire beach. It was the perfect place to catch some rays and frolic in the ocean. The water was really calm, it was rare to catch a wave you could even body surf on. But it was perfect for floating on your back and letting the water move you. After being exposed to the sun for probably way too long, we moved under the cover of one of the restaurants just a bit down the beach. There was a "kereem" board (not really sure if that is how you spell it) and a little 12 year old boy taught us all how to play. Its an Indian game that blends pool, backgammon and quarters...kind of. It entertained until we were ready to go find a volleyball net. We didn't have to go very far to find a ball, a net and enough people to make 2 teams. There were a few pretty decent players so we were able to get a good game going and work up a sweat. When dusk hit we finished up our game and all ran down for a cool off in the ocean. Its the perfect way to close out the day. The scooter ride back to our bungalows was refreshing and Rach and I managed to get lost. But like with anything it was a nice little experience and we were able to see more of the area than expected. Us girls went out for "Mexican" food, but it was really just Indian food with kidney beans and salsa. It was pretty decent though considering, it just wasn't at all Mexican food.
Wednesday...
We woke up this morning at went to Hatha Yoga at the bungalows next to ours. We all couldn't help but laugh a little because a group of monkeys were playing in the cashew trees that hung over the yoga studio's palapa roof. Only in India! After yoga we wandered the streets for a while and left Vegar to sort out our tickets to Hampi and Kerela. We bargained in the little shops over $2 pants, usually just over RS 20 or RS 30, but its always gratifying when a deal is made. We all tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible this afternoon since we were a little roasted from yesterday's beach quest. We found shelter in one of the many beach bungalow restaurants and chilled out over great food and fresh fruit juices.At about 5 o'clock we decided that it was yet again volleyball time. So we established ourselves at a net, found a ball and next thing you knew it was the 6 of us against 6 Indians from the various restaurants. Proud to say we took the game. I really could get used to this daily yoga, volleyball game and ocean frolic lifestyle!
Our overnight bus was scheduled to leave at 9:20, so after our game we went back to our quaint little bungalow and gathered our things. We crammed ourselves and all of our bags into 2 rickshaws and headed to the "bus station;" which really was just a cleared out dirt patch on the side of the road. Our bus showed up on Indian time...an hour late. It was set up with bunk beds where the bottom bunks converted into seats. At the back of the bus were 5 beds taking up the width of the bus. We left George in Palolem because his journey continued onto Bangkok, so the remaining 5 of us took up those 5 seats and attempted to sleep our way to Hampi. Some were more successful than others. I think I made it on roughly 2 hours of sleep.
With the sunrise came the car horns, the dogs barking and the selling of goods through the bus windows. I'm not exactly sure what time we pulled into Hampi, but the scenery was incredible! The entire village was sprinkled with boulders of every shape and size. The village is built in and around the massive structures and temples so it is really neat to see it all coexist. There is a river that runs through the town as well. All the women were down there washing sarongs, sarees and all other clothes and drying them on the boulders. All the commotion and daily life taking place with such an astounding backdrop is really quite beautiful. We spent our first day just getting acquainted with the village and climbing some boulders in the river. The heat and humidity is pretty unbearable mid day so we have found the morning and right before sundown is the best time to explore.
6/03 Friday
We woke up with the sun this morning and hit the ground running. We ate breakfast on the rooftop and the first thing I saw up there was a 2 year old boy completely pee himself with no diaper right by the table. I motioned to his mom because 1. the poor kid just peed himself and 2. there was a very large puddle of pee on the restaurant floor where we were about to eat. Nobody seemed to care and all was left until it was convenient to pick is up. What a great way to start the day!
Our adventure started with us heading out towards the temples...so we just picked one direction since you could walk any which way and find yourself at a temple. After making it to our first one we were approached about taking a 40 minute tour down the river in a disc shaped bamboo/tar boat. It was kind of like the teacup ride at the fair. Our tour guide gave us a little history of the temples and of the rock carvings and formations. Like in most situations like these, I'm in too much awe to retain any of the information, but regardless it was very interesting. This little boat ride was a great way to start our temple tour.
On our way back towards our guest house through more ruins, we encountered a group of school kids and another Indian tourist group with a bunch of women in sareers of every color who insisted they be in photographs with us and then yanked our cameras away to have a look. One lady, who obviously has enjoyed a healthy amount of beetlenut in her time, wouldn't stop pinching and kissing me on the cheek.
We enjoyed some fresh coconut on the way back, had some great cheap Indian food for lunch and then we were ready for round 2 of the temples. We crammed 5 of us into a small rickshaw and headed out. A few times I thought we were going to have to get out and push the rickshaw up the hell, but eventually we managed to get there. I don't think those little things are built to carry 6 people. But when there is a will there is a way. The temples were beautiful. They stood a bit more solitary than did the earlier ones were set amongst all of the boulders. We had a nice time just roaming around. We failed to learn much about these temples except for the fact that they are very important to Hampi... informative huh? After our packed day, we went back to our neck of the woods for a late dinner. This is where we met Julia from Shanghai. One of the tings I love about traveling is that you never know who you are going to meet and how long they will be in your life for. It keeps things Interesting.
7/03 Saturday
We met Julie this morning at 5:45 for a little trek out to "Sunrise" temple do exactly that...watch the sunrise. It was a bit of a walk and then climb up to the top but it was well worth it. When we made it up there we were greeted by monkeys and a man making chai for the early risers. It was great watching the sun come up, but to be honest the monkeys were the most entertaining part of our morning. It was a beautiful view and we were able to see all of the temples we explored yesterday and get a panoramic view of Hampi along with the neighboring villages. We stayed up top for a while enjoying the dawn of day before making the much quicker climb down back into town for breakfast. We met a British guy and a German guy up top who became part of our group for the day. There is a lake on the other side of the river that they had gone to yesterday so they introduced us to that today. We spent the afternoon laying on the boulders that lined the lake, which also made an excellent platform to jump off. One of the local guys went out and bought some semi cold beers for us to drink while we sought a bit of refuge in the shade.
The same guy who bought us beers showed us other good rocks to jump off of...only if you are a freak of nature! The area we were all standing was already probably 10 meters or so high and then there were 3 boulders stacked on top of each other which added another 10 meters. The surface you had to climb in order to get to the top was completely flat. I kid you not, this guy scaled to the top like spider man in less than 5 seconds. It was unreal! We all felt pretty inadequate after seeing that.
After our day o' fun, we made it back to our guest house just in enough time to pack our bags and get to Hospet to catch our overnight bus back to Palolem. This bus was quiet a bit nicer. All the seats were bunk beds and the cushions had a bit more softness to them. We bought some flowers for our bunk through the window from some kids. It was a nice little touch! Rachel felt ill the entire bus ride and by the time we got back to Palolem, so was I. So, our one day back in Goa was spent sleeping and nursing ourselves back to health. We booked a bungalow when we got in at 5 a.m that was directly on the beach to have for the day. I guess if you are going to have to recover, this isn't the worst place to do it.
Back on the road again tonight. Our overnight sleeper class train to Allepy, Kerela was scheduled to leave at 11:20pm but naturally it didn't show up until after midnight. The train was a bit different than we had expected. The bunk beds were all out in the open. Each stall had 6 beds but no barrier from the aisle where another set of bunks were lined against the wall. People were everywhere. And even though we had reserved bunks it didn't seem to count for much. Now that I have typed that all out though, I guess that is EXACTLY what we should have expected for a train in India.
People were continuously walking up and down the aisle trying to sell food, drinks, jewelery, books, performing or just straight up begging. We all managed to sleep for the first 8 hours somehow and the last 7 were spent soaking up the very vibrant Indian train culture. One boy with very deformed legs was scooting down the aisle on his butt trying to sell some type of book. Seeing young kids (and adults) with deformities has become an unfortunately common sight. It is really hard to see and even harder to ignore. Its hard to know what to think or do in situations like these.
Vegar's friends recommended a guest house and tour operator for our Kerela backwater boat trip. So we were greeted by Mathew, who owns the guest house, at the train station. It was by far the nicest place we stayed and only put us out RS 300 per room. We ate some delicious veggie food at a cafeteria and spent our evening playing games on the balcony off the boys' room.
10/03 Tuesday
Our new addition Tom, from Australia, arrived about 8 this morning. We met Tom for about 2 hours at the lake in Hampi, and he has made the 15 hour journey to come hang out with us for a couple of days. We woke up eager this morning for our houseboat adventure. By the time we finally made it down to the canals it was about noon. While we were waiting for our boat to arrive, we were "oo-ing" and "aw-ing" over the different varieties of boats available. Some were double deckers, some with large open air decks, others with large windows, some modest and basic and others extravagant. We knew we had gotten a decent boat because we were referred to this boat operator, but we didn't expect what we got. As our boat was pulling up, before we realized it was ours, I think the exact words out of my mouth were "Oh my God, look at that on." It was much larger than we expected. A beautiful open air deck in front with...brace yourself...a flat screen t.v and dark wood with crown molding. 8 chairs to lunge in with 2 bed like cushions at the very front to lay on. A nice dining room table. 4 bedrooms with full wall windows all with private bathrooms. I don't know what we did to deserve this, but I'm glad we did it.
As soon as we left shore we were brought out fresh coconuts with straws. Not too long after that a man on a canoe strolled up with freshly caught seafood for sale to be prepared by our kitchen staff if we wanted. We were then called back to the table for lunch and our plates were dished up for us as we sat there. It was surreal. The food was delicious and there was so much we were unable to finish it all. We cruised at a very mellow speed and waved at all the other houseboats as we passed. Secretly I think we were all sizing each other up. We cruised through a big lake and palm tree and village lined canals. It was absolutely unbelievable. Words can't even come close to doing it justice. We all were so relaxed with permanent smiles. WE just sat all afternoon and talked, enjoyed an afternoon tea with fried bananas served on elaborate china, lounged on the cushions while Rachel did henna and relished in our newly found luxurious lifestyle.
At around 5pm we docked alongside the shore of the canal. There was a village opposite us and India Sports Authority mess hall and cabins just behind us. The boys were jumping off the back of the boat while us girls started to enjoy the cheap drinks we brought along with us. The boat started to fill up with the amazing aroma of something delicious. Minutes later we were back at the dining room table being served rice, chapathi (a standard Indian bread, almost tortilla like) curry, fish, the fresh seafood from earlier, spicy green beans and dahl. We sat for hours after dinner talking and drinking. Pinching ourselves because all of this just seems to good to be true.
We woke up with the sun or right after the sun today. Today we celebrated Holi...well kind of. Its a a big holiday but mostly just celebrated up North and is celebrated by throwing colored powder and water all over one another. We heard some commotion coming from outside the Sports building. Rachel was the first off the boat to check it out and came back quickly when she saw the colorful me approaching. We all then trickled off the boat to partake in the color festival. We were greeted with smears of various colors on our face, arms and hair by each of the 20 some guys. The words "happy holi" were exchanged by all. They shared powder with them so we were able to smear it on everyone as well. Turns out this group of guys were India's National Kayak team. A nice little surprise. So if ever we see them competing in any of the international competitions we can say we celebrated Holi with them. This lasted fora bout 30 minutes before we were beckoned back to the boat for breakfast and our return journey.
When we made it back to shore we left they boat employees a nice tip, but as we were getting off they came out with the towels they had lent us and tried to charge us for the color residue, when we all knew that the color was going to wash right out. They started by saying each of the 4 towels would cost RS 400 each then a strange man came out of nowhere saying RS 150 each. At the end we didn't pay because we just walked away after Mathew said he had never seen that man before. But its just another one of India's little quirks. No matter how nice and genuine someone seems, at the end of the day they are going to try and get as much money out of you as possible...
We got back to the guesthouse where we had left all of our things and were ready get on the move yet again. We caught the local buses and then a ferry to Fort Kochi. The guest house we found cost us RS 200 per room with private bathrooms. I still can't get over how cheap India can be. The erst of the day consisted of a 2 hour lunch, a siesta and an accidental rickshaw ride around town. We were looking for a shop but it doesn't exist anymore. One thing we did discover though, is that instead of Holy cows roaming the streets of Kochi, it is goats. You can't go too far without spotting one or an entire family.
For dinner we found ourselves waiting at yet another restaurant. We thought we learned that in order to get quick good service, you need to go to a cafeteria style place with all of the locals. But we keep making the same mistake. We sat outside too, just to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. The little buggers are ruthless here. They are extremely painful and bit through clothes. My body is absolutely covered in bites. And unlike the abundance of bites I received at the Bangalore train station, these things itch like hell and are in massive clusters. Not a fan! (In fact, as I'm typing this, I just killed 3 on my arm in the last 2 minutes...suckers!).
Since it is Josh's last night before returning to England, we found a place that served booze so that we could have a toast and reminisce over the past week and a half as a traveling family. Alcohol is not legally served in this area so it all needed to be arranged secretly. Josh's taxi arrived at 1:30 a.m to haul him off to the airport. We had to say a surprisingly emotional goodbye to the backbone of our group. And then there were 5...
