#28 - Goa [8 months in!]

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Its hard to believe we gave up our cute little apartment in Crystal City in March, and even harder to believe we have been on the road since May. 18 countries later, we are still going but looking forward to China where we would be in one place for the 16 week spring semester. Laura has finished her PhD applications to Emory, U-Washington, Hopkins, Harvard, and U-Minnesota so far. The last 3 to U-Texas, U-North Carolina and U-Michigan are due by the end of next month so that project will soon draw to a close. Also her 4th power cord just got fried but overall her 6 year old laptop is still running. She also continues to blog for ASIRT.org. I am working on getting at least one of our 2 now broken cameras fixed. The second one konked out for no particular reason while the first still has Namibian sand in the lense..

So what about Goa? Well India invaded with its army in 1961 and drove out the Portuguese, who had been there nearly 400 years, thus annexing Goa for India. It is an amazing string of beaches, like if you could combine Virginia Beach, Ocean City Beach, Myrtle Beach and others all in one giant line. There were no people on towels though, just rows and rows of lounge chairs. Basically as long as you ordered a water or snack you could stay there all day. The sad part of Goa is that during the long days of summer and fall, it is monsoon season. The tourists all come down for the good weather, which is November-Janauary but the sun goes down at like 530pm. It makes a short day of sun tanning. Goa is also one of the tourist places you are sure to find Russians and Israelis. Some people stay for months. I wish we had more time!

We took a train down, and this one was slightly better than the one we took to Gorakhpur. This time we went 3rd class but Air-Conditioning class. There were 6 beds stacked in 2 rows of three. The power outlet even worked. The screeming 3 year old was almost too much to bear on the 37 hour train ride. On our way back, now, we are on the Goa Express. I am not sure what makes it "Express" as it stops just as much and takes longer than the train we took down. This time we went 2nd class (ooohhh) which is a bit nicer since each compartment has just 4 bunks, 2 on each side. As far as I can tell there are no "seats" on these trains.. just long padded benches.

Next up: Thailand, India for New Years, Oman and Qatar (which just got the 2022 World Cup which I find super exciting).. Talk to you in Thailand! We will be in Chiang Mai if anyone has suggestions. OH, Happy Holidays!

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