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Published: October 8th 2009
I think I’ll just ignore that last post and put it back as far as possible in the depths of my mind with the half rotten dead dog we saw on the side of the road in Ellora and the person who got knocked off their moped in Panaji.
After some “do we, don’t we” discussions about Diu we decided “we do” and hopped on a bus from Aurangabad three days ago. Despite not providing the picturesque beaches we thought it might, Diu has been a nice break from the cities, cars and noise.
We hired another scooter and as sure as the Lonely Liar said it would, the roads are REALLY good for Indian standards. We stayed at the highly recommended Hotel Sao Tome Retiro, a fabulous old white washed church with a few scrubby rooms and awesome views of the ocean and the town. It’s managed by George and his wife. He’s seriously got like a two paragraph write-up about how great he is but he tended to keep his distance and he and his wife seemed to be having relationship troubles because he has a boyfriend and is generally pretty camp. He was sitting on the roof
drinking with his mates late one night and I asked for a bottle of water and he said “if I go downstairs my wife will go crazy at me so I think it’s best if you just bang really hard on the door and wake her up and she’ll get you water.” Hmmmm ok.
The scenery around the island is stunning though and as we drove around Tom randomly broke into song with the Baywatch and California Dreams theme tunes. We also found a great little restaurant near the hotel which dished up a mean fish curry and an eggplant curry which were off the radar. (I feel so embarrassed talking about curry after that last blog post.)
Before Diu, we were in Ahmedabad for two days. A stinkin hot town that seemed to expand in the heat. Every time we headed off for a ten minute walk somewhere we arrived there 2 hours later. Toran Dining Hal serves all you can eat Thalis that include desert and are incredible. We also stumbled upon a café that made THE best mocha frappe and chocolate milkshakes. Shame on us. You can take the kids out of the western world….
Before Ahmedabad and the nightmare bus journey, was Aurangabad. The pit stop for the ancient Ajanta and Ellora caves. The town itself was dusty and yuk but the caves were amazing. Ajanta, although smaller, was definitely our favorite.
After we left Goa, our first stop on the road north was Nasik. It was a struggle to find a decent meal here (see pics) but the town was SO cute. Religious monuments everywhere and tiny little streets. There’s also the massive public baths which were stagnant and green but obviously well loved. The land around Nasik is also the home of 50 per cent of India’s vineyards, so we got our posh on and headed to Sula Vineyards for the tour and a bottle of bubbly rosé.
North again now. We’re stopping for a night in Junagadh for the 7000 step dawn pilgrimage up Ginar Hill before we’re on to Udaipur. Somebody said something about 38 degrees there… I wonder if the Dove roll-on can handle it.
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Ellie and Sharon
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Getting down and dirty in India!
You guys are really doing the works and its so thrilling to see.. All this information about where you have been and what your doing is so shocking and amazing to hear, but to actually be witnessing this whole thing... MY GOD!! WOOOOOW... Tommy, in one photo you looked a little burnt?.. Are you wearing sunblock mr?!?! I LOVE THESE PHOTOS!!!! Keep all the blogs and pics a comin.. Missing you guys like crazy!!!!!!