Blogs from Benaulim, Goa, India, Asia - page 5

Today we took a trip to the Sahakari Spice Plantation near the centre of Goa. Bandanna John nearly killed us several times on the way or so it seemed! When we arrived at the plantation we got bunches of petals thrown over us and garlands put around our necks Hawaiian style. We started with a glass of lovely lemon grass tea and a bowl of cashew nuts. Then a guide took us on a tour of some different spice plants. His English took a bit of getting used too and he asked a lot of questions, both rhetorical and not! We weren't too good at answering the questions but managed to keep up with the rest of the group. We found out how to pollinate vanilla and how it takes 9 months to mature. Other ... read more

Well after the frog incident we then had a new problem - we had something with big legs behind the (not working) AC pipes. Trav got the manager as he seemed a bit left out not having got to deal with the frog! The manager got some bug spray and spayed loads in and then got a broom off the cleaner and started bashing at the pipes - eventually a massive cockroach fell out, its body was about 2 inches long! It took two wacks of the broom to finally kill it as well - what a monster! Kathy had difficulty sleeping because she was afraid of more frogs appearing... Today we've hire bikes and cycled into Benaulim - its really really hot for cycling. Along the way we met a local on a bike who ... read more

Today we didn't do much again! Went for a swim in the morning and then it was time for lunch after which Trav built a sandcastle (see picture) which was cool although he got some sunburn while doing it :( That was about it for the day but I just wanted to show a picture of the sandcastle really! ... read more

I thought I'd take a different tack with this blog since a blow-by-blow account of everything we do will probably get boring very quickly - both to read and to write! So instead I'm going to write about impressions I have. One of the first things I noticed was the different approach to completing tasks between India and the UK. In India labour is much more readily available and cheaper. For example, we saw a crew doing some road repairs and they were breaking up the old tarmac with a spike and two people with sledge hammers - in England the same task would be done by one man with a JCB. Restaurants are the other place where this is noticeable - the waiter to guest ratio is very high - if you went for an ... read more

So Ben, Becks and I dragged ourselves away from Agonda up to Banaulim. Due to the necessity of as little time as possible in between toilet stops (Ben - Prawn Biryiani) we spent money on a taxi. We found clean en suite rooms rooms for 150 rupees (1.70GBP) at Jacinta Moraes Guesthouse. Having expected much, Benaulim is a little dissapointing, but we reckon this is because we spoilt ourselves in South Goa first, and it is nowhere near as bad as Colva. For Swifty's birthday we hired bikes and cycled down passed the paddy fields and tiny villages to Varca, and then sped along the beach back up to Benaulim, before the tide came in. We have proof on video. I got bitten on the foot by the biggest ant I have ever seen. It seems ... read more