From Mumbai to Goa in 3 days!! 9 - 12 Jan

we made it down to Goa where it's so bloody hot the only options are swimming or drinking beer!!!

we were so sad to leave Oz and our friends in Bondi...we'd really become 'Team Bondi' over the christams and new year...with too much drinking and lots of exciting adventures!! And when we couldn't find a room in Mumbai for the first night in India, we decided to postpone our departure until we had something sorted out.... fortunately at the 11th hour we got an email from 'The Strand Hotel' (the name in NO way reflects the standard of accomodation.... neither did the title 'delux double room' which we paid for!!!)...so at the last minute we were off and away, leaving Oz behind.....


We didn't stay long in Mumbai as it's expensive and really smelly, the pollution is incredible... so we caught a 12 hour 'sleeper' bus to Panjim, the capital of Goa. I really enjoyed the bus, but Nick had a full bladder for about 10 of the 12 hours (and i can enjoy a good nights sleep on a washing line..so a small coffin-like compartment that smelt of moth-balls was easy!!) ...so he didn't have as much fun!!


From Panjim we took a local bus to Margao and then a rick-shaw to a set of beach 'cocco-huts' that some girls we met on Elephanta Island in Mumbai had recommended...


we've spent the last 3 days talking, reading and swimming (and even managed a run along the beach in the morning!) staying in a cocco hut right next to the sea....

Goa is lovely, but full of old Germans!!! and most of them wear small speedo's most of the time!!!

so we've seen the best the beach has to offer and tomorrow we're moving inland to the town, Benulim, for 1 night, then getting a rick-shaw (incidentally, the same name as the 'DJ' that was playing a shack along the beach from us last night!!!..)

to Margao, then the train to Hospet in Karnataka, and from there to the ancient village of Hampi..... where there are hundreds of ruined temples scattered about the country-side...


we plan to go inland down to Bangalore, then to Mysore, then perhaps Ooty (a colonial hill-station) in the mountains, then into Kerela for more beaches and some yoga!!


we're hoping to visit all the states in southern india before we leave... but as it gets hotter the further south we go.... we might not make it !!!


we met a lovely woman in Panjim who recommended Tamil Nadu, and said it was the most likely place we'd actually see tigers, ...so the plan is to stop by on the way back up to Mumbai...aswell as Chenni (Madras) and a couple of other places on the east coast.....


overall i'm loving india... it's everything i'd hoped and more... the cows (which are EVERYWHERE.... on our last night in Panjim we accidentally got drunk and as we stumbled back to the, lovely, hotel Nick found some gorgeous cows to commune with!!! they loved him as much as he loved them!!! very odd....)

The food is amazing!! in mumbai we were really brave and threw ourselves into a local canteen for breakfast...and started getting to grips with some of the different terms.. like 'Idili' which is a semilina cake, and 'puri' which are fried breads, similar to naan, but twice as nice!! the food in goa is excellent too..our local restaurant cooked a whole sea bass for me in their tandoor, on the first night.. it was outstanding!!!


it's quite dirty here...which i'd also expected... and sometimes it's a bit disappointing, but in a country where most people have to concentrate quite hard on just staying alive... they don't have much time for re-cycling.....


the towns are fascinating, everything is really brightly coloured and there are people everywhere... in Mumbai the drive-way along the side of our hotel was rented out to a group of carpenters and a man who sifted dirt to make bags of sand...


the poverty is quite hard to deal with at times.... especially in Mumbai, there were lots of very tiny street children, carrying their baby brother or sister..both of whom were filthy and without an ounce of fat... it really makes me grateful for everything i have.


Nick and I are doing well... sometimes it's tricky not picking an argument (me? no, never!!) when we've got our (HEAVY!!) backpacks on and it's ridiculously hot and we've no idea where we're going ......and standing in the middle of a roundabout with hundreds of buses and cars beeping, and plenty of cows to avoid !! (this happened when we got off the bus at Margao, mid-day, on monday!).... but all in all we do ok, either one of us will come up with a plan ... that usually involves a taxi and a bottle of water!!


(we've discovered that we're not 'backpackers'... there's a new name for people like us, as we're slightly different...we're 'flashpackers'... part of the group who carry rucksacks but stay in mid-range accomodation and have i-pods, mobile phones and cameras !!!...i quite like the title..especially as we found out about it while staying at a really lovely hotel with our own private court-yard!!)