Blogs from Vagator, Goa, India, Asia - page 2

After our time in Bangalore we headed out west to Goa for a little break. On the train on the way in a family politely asked B if they could take his picture because he looked like Jesus. That was pretty funny. he actually did! They also kindly directed us to the public shuttle bussess & from that moment on we caught only local bussess... which was so much cheaper and more fun than Auto's :) The hotel Bhawan found us was gorgeous. cheap and friendly, with a yummy breakfast & cheap scooter hire, had us cruising around in no time! While it was really hot everything was fine on the back of the bike or with a cold shower or a cold 25rupee beer at sunset point! We got to see Dudsager Falls, the 2nd ... read more

I was originally going to fill this entry with jealously inducing stories of palm fringed white beaches and the hassles of hawkers, but we stumbled upon something significantly more interesting. While having lunch today we were warned of 'Colour' by a brit expat weirdo, he said 'Chapora takes no prisoners' and that they fill up water guns with this 'colour' and shoot down tourists. He said 'It's like they hate the colour of our skin or something'. We generally take advice from bitter wack jobs with a grain of salt - and it's a good thing we did!!! But we were still a little apprehensive as all day long we would hear 'colour' in the middle of Konkani conversations and the street were eerily quiet. We decided after leaving the beach this morning (complete with shin ... read more

We arrived in Goa about 830 am, we chose the early flight to get the most our of our day but arrived at the airport about 4:30 to catch at 6:15 flight. We were able to get some sleep on the flight, incidentally we flew King Fisher Airlines, who is also the largest beer producer in India. We did not however have beer with breakfast but were served a nice vegetarian sandwich, which was nice of them. We spoke with a local on how to best get to our hotel and opted for a prepaid taxi, which is the best way to go, for about $15 we were taken directly to our hotel with no hassle, which was more than 60 km away. We were to meet one of my closest friends, Brian at the hotel. ... read more

So we'd spent a week living the holiday dream in Goa. Ok, so maybe not a dream exactly - what with all the viruses and stomach upsets, was more of a nightmare. After Theo left, Rach's insides took a turn for the worst so we did what Skip and other friends had suggested doing - booking into a swanky resort hotel with aircon and riding it out in comfort. You really can't put a price on health. Mariketty, the Greek restaurant owner who'd befriended us during the freak cyclone chef's table, sent one of her boys to reserve us a room at a posh hotel - and it WAS nice, and soon we were both feeling back on track and ready to experience again. We didn't stay at the posh place for long - we spent ... read more

Namaste (Greetings) everyone! It seems like it has been a while since we last updated the blog but we wanted to wait until now so we could give you our last India update along with our final thoughts before moving on to China, so here goes....... After much chilling in Gokarna which we both thoroughly enjoyed, we got a train to Goa only 1.5 hours away, We got off at a place in south Goa called Chaudi, then got a rickshaw to Palolem Beach, We managed to get a big beach hut on stilts with an en suite bathroom for 200 rupees a night (1.40 each). Palolem is a picturesque beach with a palm fringed cove but unfortunately tourists have taken over, bringing with them the Ibiza atmosphere! There are stacks of beach huts, restaurants and ... read more