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Published: November 20th 2007
Hi Everyone!
We are still alive and loving every second we have left of India. We have less than 10 days here before we jet off to Thailand on the 30th!
We left you last time with us arriving in the sunny and beautiful coastal region of Goa, in a place called Colva. Colva is one of the more Southernly beaches, it is known for being a bit quieter and attracts allot of Indian tourists.
We spent about a week there, in a little guest house called the 'Fishermans', where the view from our ground floor balcony was the palm fringed beach and the fishermen bringing in their mornings catch. We didn't do much besides lounge on the beach, and chat to one of the local girls who we made friends with, Rose. She sold jewellery and sarongs on the beach, but mostly just chatted to us about the local gossip, and commented on how white we were, like white paint.
It was exactly what the Doctor ordered, after our hectic time in the Cities up North.
From Colva we took our first local bus, where there are no personal space boundaries (Bum on shoulder, elbow in
face, child on lap) and headed for the most Southernly of Goa's beaches, Palolem.
Palolem had more of a backpacker, traveller feel to it, and the beaches were amazing.
The beach wasn't too busy, and it was great to sit amongst the rocks and watch the sunset. Most people who travel to this area hire out mopeds to visit the surrounding beaches, and after a fews days of sun bathing, we decided to give this a go.
We approached one of the local men with bikes for hire, and after much questioning, we assured him we were very good drivers back in the UK, he looked doubtful, but handed the moped keys over anyway.
After beeping the horn and turning the hazard lights on and off several times, a shopkeeper took pity on us, and helped us to start her up.
Clare had a practise up and down the road, and having mastered at least 200m's I climbed aboard and we set off.
Around ten seconds later, with our shop keeper friend still waving proudly at the roadside (having just taught us how to ride the bike) we attempted our first corner. Clare took the corner just a
bit too sharply, and Clare the bike, and me were all heading staright for an open sewer. Somehow Clare pulled both herself and the bike back up to road level, but could not quite save me!
I did some kind of commando roll, and landed on my feet in the sewer, then scrabbled back up to the road with a few scrapes and bruises.
I would just like to add at the is point, that it is very difficult to ride a moped with more than one person, even if they are very small! the sewer was actually dry! and the bike was very heavy!.....and the sun was in my eyes (Clare)
As the crowd of local women looked dissaprovingly at us, we pushed the bike to a nearby cafe with our tails between our legs.
After some much needed chai, and some serious coaxing from Clare, we once again climbed aboard, and I put my life back in her hands.
We sucessfully made it to a nearby beach (Patnem)and actually began to enjoy our new little bike (going at 5 km an hour, being overtaken by elderly women on push bikes.)
We enjoyed it so much, that we
decided to keep it for the following day, and headed to the nicest beach we have visited in Goa so far (Agonda). However our bike adventure did continue as we did run out of petrol on the way there, and had to walk through a village in the mid day sun asking where we could find it, eventually we managed to find some as everyone was so helpful, and after figuring out where to put the petrol, we made it to the beach. Agonda beach was amazing, there was only a handful of other bathers, and a few naked ageing hippies doing yoga in the sea, but despite this it really was an idyllic beach.
We ended up staying in Palolem for about a week, sunning ourselves and doing nothing besides chatting with other travellers from all different walks of life, including a man from Fakenham, who now lives in 'A fine City', Norwich! It really is a small World. We eventually decided it was time to make our move to somewhere else, before we became completely horizontal, and we took a train to Hampi.
Hampi is a World heritage sight and is absolutely stunning, its like nothing we
have ever seen, it looks like a film set. The place is covered in prehistoric rocks and boulders, we kept expecting to see a dinosaur in the distance, or Fred Flintstone to pop up from behind a rock.
With over 2000 temples to see over a huge expanse of overwhelming scenery, we took a tour with some other travellers and our local guide Kumar.
Kumar grew up in the area, and was a fountain of knowledge, he was really passionate about Hampi and gave us a great tour.
We started off with a four hour bike ride visiting temples and old palaces, then after a lunch break walked up into the hills and watched the sunset from some old deserted ruins.
Whilst we were in Hampi, Diwali was being celebrated, the Hindu festival of Light, and Indian New Year. It was fascinating to experience it all first hand, as the atmosphere was buzzing, everybody drew colourful pictures on the ground outside their houses to ward off evil spirits, lit candles and set fireworks off in the street (a little too close at times)!
We watched a procession in the main street of the village whilst eating out Indian Thali, and
chatted to some other travellers.
We loved Hampi and ended up staying for 3 more days than we originally planned, but finally moved on to Mangalore and Trivandrum.
We took our first overnight "sleeper" bus to Managlore (we are yet to figure out why they call it a "sleeper' bus as the roads here are so bad), and stayed just for one day whilst we waited for our connecting train to Trivandrum.
Trivandrum is the furthest South we will be travelling, and we stayed for 2 days, visiting the Zoological gardens, some museums and art galleries. Whilst in Trivadrum, the Indians celebrated 'Children's Day', and we found ourselves caught up in a procession of 56 local schools trying to impress some judges hidden in the crowds. It was really good to watch, as kids were dressed up as Gandi, and Mother Teresa, waving colourful flags, and stomping along to the marching bands.
Next we headed to Kollum, the South Gateway to the backwaters of Kerala, (the reason why most people visit this area).
We took a canoe tour, and punted through tiny remote villages watching the local fisherman and daily life on the backwaters, it was really
peaceful, a bit like the Norfolk Broads but with palm trees.
The following day we decided to pamper ourselves with some ayurvedic treatments. Ayurvedic means the 'Knowledge of life' but its basically a local method of massage and treating illness, every beauty product in India contains Ayurvedic herbs.
Our Lonely Planet Guide to India, recommended a nice retreat not far from Kollum, so we headed there for our massages. The Guide also said that you should definitely succumb to an Ayurvedic massage whilst there, we didn't realise this meant get naked, lay on a wooden table, reminiscent of a 1900's operating table, whilst two ladies rub you from head to toe with strawberry oil, we nearly slipped off the table!
After our massage, we were lead to a steam box, which was a cross between an old school desk and a cupboard, where we sat baking for a few minutes (it was a bit too hot on the buttocks, and we discovered afterwards that the safety vaulve had come loose!)
It was quite an experience, and the ladies that gave us our treatments were really sweet, and giggled along with us, as they tried to speak in broken English
to us, as we sat naked as the day we were born!
After a few days in Kollum, we caught a boat to a nearby Ashram, where we are staying at the moment. Its different, and a bit extreme, but an interesting living experience.
Its great to see how things work in these communes, but you needn't worry, we definitely wont be joining long term, its all a bit too....well...weird.
The Ashram we are staying in is called Amma's ashram. She is famous all over the World, and is known for being the 'hugging Mother', she travels for 8 months of the year hugging people, and curing their illness's (apparently), she has even brought people back to life (would like to see that!), she is in the UK in December if you fancy seeing her for a hug.
We had planned to stay for about a week, but as Amma the mainlady Guru is not in the Ashram at the moment, and alot of the usual activities aren't happening, we have decided to save ourselves from being roped into more washing up (our selfless service of the day) and we are leaving tomorrow!
We are hoping to find
somewhere to do a bit more yoga (probably back in Goa) before we head back up to Delhi ready to fly to our next port of call, Thailand!
We will leave it there, tune in for the next instalment, hopefully before we head off on the plane, we'll give you more details of the Ashram and our yogic/Goa adventures.
Hope you are all well back home,
Take Care,
Lots of Love,
Jem Weasel and Clare Bear x x x x x x x x x x x
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Sandy Gordon
non-member comment
Great to hear from you again! I loved the bit about the bike and your experiences - I could just picture you. Jem it could only happen to you!! So glad you are still having a fab time and taking in all the experiences. So come on how much jewellery have you sent back home yet?? Keep enjoying yourselves and let's have some photos if you can before you head off to Thailand. God am I jeolous you will have a great time. Everyone here sends their love, take care, Sandy