Blogs from Goa, India, Asia - page 124

just wanted to wish you all at home a merry christmas, happy channukah and an enjoyable solstice! we are currently celebrating the holidays on a gorgeous beach in INDIA, but at the same time we miss being bundled up for the bay area fog and spending time with everyone we love and miss so dearly! xoxo S & J... read more

Geo: 15.9824, 73.201We took a short break from the craziness of Mumbai by flying down to the beaches of Goa. Goa is worlds apart and not just because the whole state has 1/8 the population of the city of Mumbai. Initially Goa was ruled by various Muslim and Hindu leaders. It was an international trading center for about a 1000 years when Arab seafarers and Asian merchants from the "Spice Islands" (what is now Indonesia) would meet to trade pepper, gold, perfume and other luxuries. The Portuguese, led by Vasco De Gamma, came in 1498 to spread Catholicism and ensure that they would have a presence among the traders. From that point onward, the Portuguese had a toehold in Britain's colonial India until the Indian government annexed Goa in 1961. A span of 450 years of ... read more

Hi Everyone! I am now at the southern-most part of my trip, in Goa. Colva Beach is in South Goa and it is a small town of less than 10, 000. I arrived very early yesterday morning, about 5 am into the slightly larger town of Margao, and took a rickshaw here. I waited around near the beach for a bit more light before trying to find a place to stay. I tried two before finding room at Graciano Cottages. They aren't, as the name implies, cottages, but reasonable rooms with bathrooms. I got a non-ac room on the second floor corner for 618 rupees ( $16) and promptly had a nap. The bus trip from Pune was better than my last trip, but I was at the back of the bus and it seemed like ... read more

Hello my fellow travelers! This is the second of three posts I'll make about my trip to India in 2005 together with my parents and my uncle Anders. The last post covered our time in Panaji while this one covers our second excursion which was a two-day guided round trip of Goa. Together with other guests we were picked up by a bus with two friendly and engaging guides and the first stop of the tour was a market in Panaji we we walked around for a while and bought some fruits for the road ahead. I also got to see an example of the famous Indian phenomenon of a cow stopping traffic. It was just laying very casually in the street without a care in the world as the cars were gently easing around it ... read more

We are almost at the end of our time in India and I can happily say that it was a very different experience to last time! Mind you, we have spent all of our time in Goa, which isn't the "real" India in that it's much cleaner and easier to travel in, but much less stressful! We have spent most of our time in a small beach town called Palolem. It has been fun to meet lots of other travellers, who basically fall into two categories: those that have been travelling in India and are here to escape the reality of it all, and those that flew straight into Mumbai, couldn't stand it, so came straight to Goa! We met one British guy who flew into Mumbai, got a rickshaw for 30 minutes into the city, ... read more