Hi! So here I am now in Mumbai. The internet here is not as readily avaliable as other countries and I'm not even going to try to upload my pictures yet until I get home!
Last time I updated I was in Mangalore about to set off for Goa. We caught an overnight coach but the Indian roads made it a bit like trying to sleep through an earthquake! We arrived in Goa bleary eyed and found a hotel, basic but clean with a wonderful owner. After a few hours of shut-eye we rented mopeds and drove up the coast in search of one of Goa's famous beaches. We never found the beach in the end but I was on a moped with Francis and driving around was so mch fun! It was a great way to see the scenery and appreciate how different it is from the South. Red sands were replaced by tropical plants and greenery, and it was even more humid! We stayed in a town called Calagante, which is supposed to be the Costa del Sol of India where all the Indian tourists come. There is a mixture of shops some selling tat and some selling really nice souvenires, so I had some good shopping!
The next day we checked out of the hotel and had a long breakfast at one of the cafes. We hired mopeds again and set off towards Panjim. The main roads were much busier than the small back roads we had driven on the day before and were quite scary! As we joined the highway though we encounted a problem. The police were stopping mopeds and checking licences. I was confident there wouldn't be a problem because we had a licence and all the bike information but it turned out we had to have an International Driving Permit to drive in India which none of us had! We were gettign very worried about what we would have to pay as the police took all our bikes off us. But they were actually really nice to us! They didn't fine us as they wanted to finethe owners who had rented them to us. They even gave us a ride to Panjim so we could get home. We were all quite relived and beginning to enjoy the situation when we realised that we would have to deal with the owners when we got back who weren't going to be happy! They all knew each other and the owners of our respective hotels so we bagan conjouring images of having to flee the town! In the end it wasn't so bad and we paid our owner for a 'missing helmet'. So travellers beware, we were really lucky! In the end we spent most of the day in the cafe and when the others eventually arrived from Mangalore we caught a taxi to an amazing hotel, owned by a family friend of one of the people in our group. It had the comfiest beds and hot water, and after having some dinner and catching up with the others I had an amazing nights sleep!
The next day was a lazy day! I got up late and then had a long lunch. In the afternoon we headed into Calangute for a bit. As it was Independence Day it was packed! The beach and the streets were just full of people! It was also Anna's birthday so in the evening we went to a restaurant called Athen's Pizzeria. It was really basic but did the most delicious pizzas. We ate on the beach with candals lighting the tables.
Another lazy day followed. I got up late again and had another long lunch. Then in the evening we headed down to the river for a boat cruise. We were expecting a chilled cruise down the river and were very surprised when it turned out to be a disco boat which had a large quantity of young Indian men boarding. This definetly seemed to be the place to be on a Sunday night. It was a very stange journey. We stayed on the top deck (away from the 'disco') where we seemed to be an attraction in ourselves. We were used to people staring and even taking pictures by now but this seemed a little ridiculous. It was when one person asked for a picture with us that it really got crazy. Once one person had had one everyone wanted to be snapped with the white people. Our group was surrounded by Indians, also tourists to the area, taking pictures as if we were zoo animals. We should have been charging. But you have to laugh really at the completely insane situation. After our celebrity experience aboard the boat we headed to Baga to a place called 'La Pub', a contradiction in a name. It was really expensive so we stayed for a drink and then headed back to trusty Athens again for some more amazing food.
On the next day we hired a bus and went on a bit of a tour of Goa. We went first to Old Goa which seemed to consist of nothing but enourmous churches! They all had amazing altar pieces carved out of wood and painted in real gold. I have been really surprised by how much Christianity I have seen in India, from churches to religious messages on buses and tuc tucs.
After that we headed over to a spice farm but it turned out it wasn't the one where we had a reservation. We stayed for a bit though to ride an elephant called Babo. It was a really strange feeling sitting on its back as it walked, and its skin was all prickly and not what I expected. But it was so cool! We then went over to the actual spice farm where Ash's dad and uncle had made reservations for us. It was amazing there! We were greeted by teh staff who threw flowers over our heads, put red spots on our foreheads and flower necklaces around our necks. We then had some amazing food and the owner explained to us how to eat it, which we did off banana leaf plates. We also tried hot lemongrass tea and cashew fenny which was 40% alcohol! We were given information about many different natural remedies which were supposed to treat everything from ache to poor labido. We were then given a tour of the farm in the pouring rain. Did you know that the second most expensive spice in the world is vanilla? And that the largest grass in the world is the banana grass? After that we went to the gift shop and I bought some cinnamon oil for Mum which is supposed to help painful joints.
Yesterday we caught the traint to Mumbai and left Goa behind. The train journey was uneventful until we had to change seats in the middle of the journey because we couldn't reserve the same seats for the whole trip and the other passenger refused to use the other seats even though we were already in bed. Very rude. Rahul says he will get bad Karma.
We arrived in Mumbai at about 6 this morning and came to the hostel we are currently in, the Salvation Army hostel. It is about the same price as were are used to paying but is by far the shabbiest place yet. Today Francis and I caught the boat over to Elephanta Island. A local guide showed us around the Caves which are actually temples to Shiva carved by hand out of the rock. They took 1300 years to make and their size and the carvings are just so impressive. Then in the afternoon we went to this amazing cake shop for the best gooey chocolate cake I have ever had!
Thats about it for now, a very long entry I know and I have been hogging the internet for ages! To update, I have now recieved 23 texts from vodaphone since buying my sim card on the second day I arrived!
Speak soonxxx
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