I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts!

My god! Goa is such a paradise. I haven't written because I have been too busy swimming in the Arabian Sea, laying on the beach, eating yummy food and drinking Indian wine.

Goa was a great place to end a 6 week backpacking excursion across India. I was VERY heartbroken to leave. We were in the North of Goa staying in a place called Candolim before heading to the South and finding a way better destination called Palolem. Candolim was a little too resorty for me. Full of packaged tours with many tourists from Russia and England.
However, we did see a HUGE crocodile when we went out on a "Crocodile Dundee" tour with John's Boat tours...which was ridiculously stupid!! The only good thing about the tour was how lucky we were to see this 5 metre beast. We got so close to her that I am sure if I reached my arm out of the boat I could have touched her.

Our guide told us that this was the biggest croc that he has ever seen!

When we went south, we found ourselves on a beach with many other backpackers who were ending their trip the same way we were, relaxing on the beach. You could see the difference immediately! In Palolem there were no topless women, or over-tanned oiled men in bright coloured string thongs or people who were completely naked like there were all over in Candolim, though it made people watching a lot more amusing, I was pretty glad to get out of there, (too hoity-toity for me!) Though Goa is a far more westernized province then anywhere else in India, Palolem had people who had done more travelling around the country. Everyday you saw new backpackers arriving! Also, Polalem was a far younger crowd of people, and the beach was prettier and we stayed in a bamboo hut right on the beach in a forest of palm trees, so it was more like a cabin on the sea! It was far cheaper too and more laid-back.

This is Palolem Beach! Sigh!

We laid on the beach during the days with a temperature reaching high 30s to mid 40s (Celsius) and went swimming as much as we could!

Riding the waves was soooooo fun! I can't believe HOW much I loved swimming in the sea. Before this, I was afraid to go in the water and I have seen a lot of seas and oceans through my travels. It's the fish and other alien like things in the water that give me the heebie-jeebies! Needless to say, Julian helped me get over my fear, to the point where I actually went snorkeling!!!! Sorry, no photos of that, but it wasn't the most exciting. I'm not sure where all the pretty fish were, but they weren't in the sea off Grand Island, thats for sure. The boat ride back from snorkeling was terrifying. Had we been at home there would have for sure been a warning about being out on a small boat with the HUGE waves, but in India, it was "safe", lol. So, we sat back and drank beers and enjoyed the ride...we were absolutely soaking wet! Needless to say, snorkeling in Goa isn't worth it.
The food is just WONDERFUL!! We ate and ate and ate as much as we could!! I fell in love with coconuts! I had coconut pancakes with honey everyday!

And the coconut man walked up and down the beach all day, so sometime in the mid afternoon it was time for a fresh coconut accompanied by masala chai and Beano (the most travelled card game ever!)



After we finished the coconut, it made a perfect bowl so we could hydrate our many beach friends. This guy was with us the whole time, he was so sweet. He loved cashew cookies too! He would sleep under me in the shade all day.

And then, it was time for a swim...again.

Every night we would take a long walk along the beach and watch the sunset and the crabs come out to play! The sunsets were just incredible!

I will miss Goa, I already do. It was really difficult to leave, but I feel better knowing that we WILL be back one day in the near future. Getting on that train back to Mumbai was very difficult. I passed the time watching Dream Girls for the 4th time this month, lol. It's a great movie to watch on the train, I can't help but sing along!


We are now back in Mumbai about to go to sleep and we'll wake up early and head to the airport to catch our plane with British Airways, who are on strike at the moment, so we'll see how or if this affects our flight. It's amazing that the last time we were in this HUGE insane city was when we first arrived and I couldn't stand it. It was to intense for me and the smells were something else! But now that I am back here, there is a sorta comfort to it. It's funny how something that seems so overwhelming and uncomfortable and scary at first can make you feel sorta "at home" with a bit of time. I guess all change takes some getting used to, and I am used to India and I LOVE it here. I will be back!!! I haven't even left and I already miss it!
Goodbye India. Thanks for the BEST honeymoon EVER!!!

Mumbai.

After spending a week in London we have arrived in Mumbai. We have been here for 2 days now and all I can say is WHOA! I can't believe I survived the taxi ride to the hotel, lol. Lanes and traffic lights mean nothing here. There are far more people then cars and they all mix together down streets just trying to get to their destinations.
The garbage here is pretty crazy, it really makes me feel like no matter how much I try to recycle and stay away from plastic at home, it makes no difference. We took a boat from The Gateway of India to Elephant Island today, and the garbage in the water was unbelievable. I watched parents teach their children to throw their chip wrappers and plastic bottles in the water! I wonder where the closest Gyre is to here and how big it is?!
Anyway...Elephant Island was wonderful! Tons of monkeys!! They are super aggressive though. I watched a monkey attack a women for her water bottle, and then he took the water bottle, twisted off the cap and drank it! I also saw one do that with Coke! Any food that was available was for either a stray dog or a wild monkey, and they would fight over it. There were also cave temples, and Elephanta Caves, that have been carved out of rock, they were magnificent!
So far may favourite things about India are the children, the animals, and the food. The young boys feel the need to blow kisses at me, lol. Julian and I also seem to be an attraction on our own. People running up to photograph us and to have pictures taken with us as if we're some kind of movie stars, lol.
Tomorrow we leave this very stinky over-populated place for Gujarat, where Ghandi lived! Hopefully I can post photos soon. By the way...apparently Mumbai is supposed to double in population by 2050!! Where will everyone go!? lol.

Twenty Four Hours To Go

Honeymoon, here we come!! Okay, so it's officially 24 hours until we check in at the airport. My husband and I are off to London for one week, and then to India!! Our first week in India we'll be staying with a family that has a farm in Gujarat. They grow potatoes, tobacco and mangoes. I will get to eat a perfectly ripe mango right off the tree! After the farm we'll be heading off to see the rest of India. We'll go North then all the way East and then all the way South and then back up North to Mumbai. We're not entirely sure the root we'll take, but we do know we'll be going into the jungle on elephants to see Bengal Tigers and rhinos and lions! We're hoping to see baby sea turtles hatching too. There have been blue whale sitings in Orissa! What I would do to see a blue whale...they are like the brontosaurus of today...sooooooo big! Aside from the landscapes and wildlife (which is my favourite part) we'll get a taste of the big overwhelming cities. I have been to Buenos Aries, I have been and lived in London...but I hear that Mumbai is something else. I can't wait. The people, the bright colours, the culture, the food, the warmth!! It's all too much. I will update with photos and stories when I can!

H.

Photo taken by Bertha Sawatzky with a Holga using 120 film.