India: The good, bad and the ugly!

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Upon arrival in Mumbai, India, we were completely exhausted from our misadventure in Nairobi, Kenya obtaining our visas. Naturally, we were detained by immigration officials at the airport because our India visas were stamped in bold, red: "Proof of Yellow Fever vaccination required" upon entry. This was because yellow fever is common in Kenya, but it was difficult to explain that we were confined to our hotel for our stay in Kenya due to the civil war that was going on at the time. We faced a two-day quarantine at the airport. Diplomatic skills ensued, and begrudged entry was granted. Whew!

Next, we changed our flight to the earliest possible flight from Mumbai to Goa. We needed to see a friend, and quick! Inge is a great friend of Renee's and now a good friend of ours. She was going to set us up in Goa. We arrived in Goa at 6am and took the first taxi to Candolim. What we forgot to do was inform Inge of our earlier arrival, or exactly where she lived. The taxi-driver dropped us off, enormous backpacks and all, as we proceeded to search, bleary-eyed, for Inge. Luckily, someone asked us who we were looking for and informed us that our early-bird friend was already up and about, but was taking an hour walk to a local market.

We trudge down to the beach in hopes of catching Inge on her way back and encountered all sorts of natures wonders! First we heard a loud, snorting noise and jumped as a wild-pig streaked passed us in an aggressive manner. Next, a bag-lady walked passed us and smiled, her mouth spilling out a frightening, black liquid substance. We just about ran for the hills as we wondered what the heck we had got ourselves into this time! (later, it turns out the black substance was a form of natural toothpaste, but lordy did she look creepy at first light).

We ended up sleeping on the beach, with one eye pried-open looking for Inge. Finally, we walked back to her house and she had returned! We were incredibly happy to see her smiling face. She promptly gave us tea and a snack before finding a wonderful, cheap apartment with a kitchen. This woman works at a pace few can understand (although a certain Ms Martin didn't have a problem)!

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Photos

The Tropics
This is the outside of where we stayed, full of beautiful trees and lively birds.

Our spacious apartment
Although it was sparsely decorated, we enjoyed having a place with more than one room.

Cooking up some grub
We relished the opportunity to cook our own food in India.