More Beach Lounging, The Old Man Arrives and Christmas...

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Hello all and a very merry (if belated) Christmas to you all,

Sorry for the lateness of this blog; I have been inundated (mainly by my mother) for a requests of a new entry for a while. The tardiness however has been caused by the arrival of my old man; who in true Bloodworth fashion has had me walking everywhere, exploring everything and generally not stopping. I therefore have not had the time (even a spare half an hour) to let you lovely people (who need something to read while you are wrapped up warm with a blizzard outside) know what I have been up to on my ever continuing travels.

So to start things off I think I will tell you all about the arrival of my father and all of the exciting things we have been up to.

As I had no real address on the beach other than 'Jack's beach shack', Palolem I directed my father to meet me at the entrance of the beach much to the concern and bemusement of the taxi driver my Dad had hired. Even though the plan in theory should have sunk like the titanic it actually went off without hitch and as I waited at the beach entrance I could see the obligatory hand gesture from my dad being displayed out of the taxi window (you know the one I mean? - the hand signal that only hip Hawaiian surfers make that my Dad has made his trademark).

After showing him my hut (much to his delight) he promptly stripped off and ran into the sea (a sight I have been used to my whole life I must add), much to the amusement/bewilderment of the sun bathing tourists and pestering Indian sales people. Following a half hour foray in the ocean the usual itchiness my father has to explore the entire walkable area in as little time as possible took hold and we were soon frog marching up the beach dodging the various hippy style Frisbee games and local beach cricket matches. The first day was capped off by a typical Goan meal of fish curry rice and prawn curry washed down with Kingfisher beer.

To leave out the boring detail the next couple of days were occupied by exploring the area in and around Palolem with activities such as Sea Kayaking and swimming whilst we decided our next move. By utter coincidence we decided to hop across the river in a local boat made from the trunk of a mango tree and explore the coastline south of Palolem. What greeted us we weren't expecting. Two stretches of secluded white sand backed by a mix of fir and palm trees. Whose only inhabitants were small fishing boats and a few local restaurants. One of the other occupiers of the beach to note were around 7 Olive Ridley Turtles nesting sights which were in fact due to hatch very soon (making us a bit excited). It was therefore decided we simply had to move to one of the two secluded beaches for the remainder of our stay in Goa. The only problem we had was that of accommodation (which was sparse on both beaches); we decided to head back along the road towards Palolem to see what we could find. By shear luck (and some in my family would say a guardian angel) a man approached us from one of the tiny restaurants right on Talpona beach asking us if we required a room. We could not believe our luck and practically bit the man's hand off for the keys for the only two rooms he had for the princely sum of rs200 a night (which equates to 3 of your British pounds).

As Talpona beach is a long way away from anything the decision was made to hire ourselves a couple of scooters to get around on. It was also the ideal opportunity for myself to practice on a two wheeler on quiet roads as I had never ridden one before. So, the first day was spent pottering around locally so I 'could find my feet'. The only problem we had is that we both needed fuel and the only petrol station was in the not far away but busy little town of Chaudi. So on my first day of scootering I had to negotiate a busy Indian town. However, this wasn't the hardest part no... the hardest part was when we asked an Indian couple the way to Chaudi for which they were kind enough to tell us but then asked us for a lift. Therefore on my first day on a motorcycle I had to drive with a pillion passenger which made the balance of the bike I had just learned to ride completely different!

For those of you that don't know him it may pain you to know my dad is a bit of a twitcher (bird watcher); so it was in his interest to seek out a wildlife park for us to visit. Luckily there was a sanctuary near by by the name of the Cotigao wildlife sanctuary which promised bird sightings as well as the possibility of some large mammal sightings such as gazelle. One of the pain perks of the park (for me anyway) was that we could ride our scooters all the way through the park; traversing thick jungle and lumpy potholed roads. The forest service of India had constructed a large tree house like building in the middle of the forest for wildlife watching; we made this our first port of call. Upon arrival at the tree house we were greeted by another Englishman who my old man affectionately named Indiana Jones on account of the hat he wore which resembled that of the infamous fictional adventure archaeologist. The tree house was actually a large let down (in terms of wildlife seen) largely down to the noisy Scandinavian couple tramping there way up the path to the tree house. Undeterred however we pushed on in search of a second tree house located deeper into the jungle; so we fired up the 100cc's of scooter power and headed further into the bush. After around 7-8km of travelling the road began to get a little how should I say 'bumpy'; so on my first day of scootering I took a pillion, on my second day I was off roading, by the end of the week I felt I would be challenging Valentino Rossi for the moto gp title next season. We were fairly certain then that the map we were given was bogus and no such tree house existed.

So a little downhearted we headed back to the entrance of the park; calling in at a little cafe we saw on the way. What greeted us was both festive and bizarre; with large distorted volume the cafe was blasting out a range of Christmas hits along with Christmas trees and decorations... weird considering we were in the middle of a jungle!

Phew... this is a long entry.

So the bit you have all been waiting for... What did I get up to on Christmas day whilst you were all tucked up in doors eating large meals and fighting the snow?

Well I must admit the day started with a bout of homesickness; for the first time on my trip I actually missed home a bit. Waking up on Christmas day to blazing heat wasn't quite the same as a cold christmas morning in the UK with good food and company (not that the company I had was bad!). These thoughts however were soon washed away by the warm waters of the Arabian sea. Following a hearty breakfast of omelets and fruit we decided we needed a bit of civilisation so decided to head to Patnem beach (the slightly less crowded beach next to Palolem) for some drinks and food. What we found was just a typical day at the beach; sun burnt package tourists lying in the sun like dying beached whales. With all worldly accents represented form Russian to British as well as the normal plethora of local sellers.

We decided to head to a little cafe we had been to before which was a bit of a longstayers hippy hangout in a little secluded cove in between Patnem and Palolem. This turned out to be a wise choice and we spent the day listening the live music and dining on what can only be described as the best fish I have ever had. A huge red snapper perfectly cooked with roast potatoes and salad... Belissimo!

Once Christmas was over we carried on the beach life for a couple of days; i.e. walking, swimming and exploring (the Bloodworth daily routine).

This is a long entry I suggest you all take a breather... go on put the kettle on.


Our (and my) time in Goa was coming to an end; the next stage of my (and my Dad's) trip was to pay a visit to some of my Dad's friends in Kerala. He got to know the family some twenty odd years ago on his last visit and they are the family of the best man at his wedding, Babu.

After a pretty non-descript night spent in a town called Margao we hopped onto the early morning train to Thrissur in Kerala. Train journeys have become a pretty standard affair for myself so it was pretty uneventful for me; but my Dad spent the whole trip in a state of awe at the various food wallahs and scenery.

The last time my Dad was here he toured around with Babu's brother who goes by the name of Raj; I was told he was a very philosophical and insightful man who looks like a guru (or jesus depending on your theology). As the train chugged into Thrissur station I therefore had my eyes glued to the window to try and spot a man fitting such a description; and there stood on the platform was Raj standing tall among the rest of the Indians dressed in the traditional South Indian Dhoti (spelling?).

After the initial greetings at the train station we were driven to Raj's house (it was nice to turn up at a station and be driven rather then having to deal with a money hungry rickshaw wallah). At the house we met Raj's elderly mother, as well as Brindha (Babu's sister) and her husband Muti. It was really nice to see old friends back together after such a long time and it didn't take long for all of the old stories to start flowing over a splendid meal prepared and served by Brindha. The rest of the evening was spent talking and philisophising with Raj before both of us crashed out after the long days travel.

Blimey this is a long one!

In the morning we woke early to head to the local temple to see a new elephant being donated. This was an extremely rare event for which we were lucky to see. The event starts with five large elephants congregating outside the temple (these already belong to the temple); the elephants are dressed in traditional attire and men ride the elephants waving feathered fans around. The smaller elephant (to be donated) starts down the street and is paraded towards the temple led by a procession of drummers and horn players who somehow manage to sustain constant sound (which lasted for about 40 minutes!).

The rest of the day was spent chatting and eating delicious home cooked Kerlalan cuisine. In the evening we drove up to a hill above Thrissur to watch the sunset over the city; which entailed more philosophical conversations with Raj (fascinating to listen to).

The end is getting nearer I promise...

Finally onto today,

As some of you may or may not know Kerala is famous for it's elephants (especially it's temple elephants); around 30km north of Thrissur there is a large temple called the sri krishna (spelling?) temple that is home to around 65 elephants looked after by a variety of handlers. We therefore ventured to where the elephants are kept and observed them eating palm leaves and being washed by the handlers. We also visited the temple and observed some traditional Kerlalan dance which seemed to fascinate my old man (didn't realise he was an artsy type!).

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Raj, Brindha and Muti for their hospitality; Keralan people are probably the friendliest I have met on my trip so far.


So that's it, by far my longest blog over. It has been interesting if hard to write as many of the things happened a few weeks ago. I hope you have enjoyed reading it; I promise the next blog won't be too far on the horizon...

Have a very happy new year and I hope all of you will be getting suitably merry this evening.

Have a good last day in 2009 and may 2010 bring you all you wish!

Jack (and Robin) x

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Photos

Old Man on a Beach
Getting to grips with Goan Beach life

Christmas Dinner
Red snapper with all the trimmings

Elephant Donation!
Donating a new elephant to the temple

Raj and Rob
One very wise and one not so wise man

Comments

[Sandy and Doug Baker]

Hello Jack!
Hi Jack, it's Great to read all about your trip to India, especially the last blog all about your dad's visit! Sounds like you both had a fantastic time together visting old friends. We look forward to catching up with Robin when he returns home and look forward to reading more of your blogs in the new year. Happy New Year Jack! enjoy yourself and keep safe! The 'Bakers' in frozen England!