Goa...to be cont....

I was looking forward so much to catching some sleep on the train ride to Goa but that was not to be! My bed was along the corridor which ment only 5’ tall people will be comfortable. I had to bend my legs over the side of the bed to fit in it but then as it was on the corridor there was always a rush of chai, coffee, samosa, biryiana, water, fruit, cotton buds, pens that light up, mouth freshener, umbrella etc sellers to knock into my legs but I did my best! If anyone has been on an indian train you'll know that the guys selling things dont just stroll down the corridor of the train with their goods in an orderly fashion..no..everybody says the name of their product as fast as they can with a big Ahhhh at the start. For example you'll hear 'Ahhhh coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee!!!''Ahhhh coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee!!!' or 'Ahh Biryianibiryiani....etc. Sometimes you cant make out what they're saying and if you ask hey what do you have they just reply with Ahhh....and the name of the stuff really fast! Yeah its pretty funny! The Ahhh Chaichaichaichaichai is very good i must say.

my lovely bed on the train...those plastic seats when it gets hot....yup you certainly stick to them alright!


I must have managed to drift off to sleep because I woke up a few hours later tucked up in my sleeping bag, MELTING. The side of the train my back was touching was like a frying pan and there was no air. Nice view from the train though…. a little drop there dont fall out!



So wow in Goa at last! I was a bit worried that Goa would be full of weirdos and people with oversized egos. I had met one guy in Hampi that was like ‘yeah peace and love man…im best buddies with Stephen Spielberg im taking over from a movie he didn’t want to do…yeah dude peace out….ive been offered acting roles in Mumbai and LA but I like the simple life man’ and bla bla bla on and on I kept talking with him until I found it humorous no more!

So…… my plan was to stay in Goa for a few days maybe 4 or 5 but i ended up staying for more like 3 or 4 weeks. We arrived first at a beach called Calengute, it looked like total hell. Like Santaponza Chav central. Full of obese tourists with lobster red skin, in their hot pants and string tops nothing left to the imagination, with their beer bellies hanging out of their wife beater vests, beard stubble and drinking cans of cheap ass beer on the street and tacky shops all over the place! Ahhh what a nightmare!

Ahhh quite sad though it was the last night with the guys i had been travelling with the last few weeks. ...but ill see you in Oz whenever i get there!! We'd a nice meal then headed to Paradiso club where its free in for SINGLE ladies, women and girls and almost E20 for men and still the men outnumber the women 20 to 1! Anyway it was a good feeling also to have some time on my own i was looking forward to it.

The next day i moved onto Anjuna beach quieter and altogether much nicer spot, and found a lovely cheap room to stay for 150 Rupies a day about E2. I spent the next few days just chilling out, getting to know the place, and i became a little obsessed with the sunsets and the cows!

The sunsets in Goa are amazing, in fact any part of the west coast of india they are but in Goa i had time and i was alone for the first time in weeks so i suppose i paid more attention to these things. It always looked like the sun was dipping off the edge of the earth as the sea was calm and flat in the evenings and it was all you could see for as far as you could look left or right. Once the sun started to set about 5.45pm it set very fast and you could actualy watch it moving down. After it set it was dusk for about half an hour then completly dark but the weather was always warm and balmy and then the beach really came to life!


The typical Rajastani women clothes

What lucky cows!








I was riding the scooter one day with some friends and we were crossing over a bridge, this was the view we just had to stop! I'm so proud of these ones...and the last one of the cow...well he seemed to be just standing in that position for a while, with clearly a lot going through his head wondering why y=mc2 and how do they get the figs into the figrolls... Wow yes the sunsets were something really special in Goa.

To be continued!!

!

Hampi

We arrived at Hospit station really early in the morning and as we were just outside the front door all still totally sleepy these rickshaw drivers started to surround us, they actually made an inpenetrable circle around us 2 or 3 layers of the rickshaws, roaring away their engines trying to compete for us! We couldnt move! It was so funny though we were just so sleepy and incoherant it didnt bother us in the slightest! Eventually we were on our way to Hampi. There was noticeabley more animals running about here not just cows and dogs but chickens and hairy pigs! It was a bit of journey to get to the place we were staying but sooo worth it! Through hampi central, accross the river in a little boat where people were bathing and the women washing their sari's, up a hill and passed rice fields was this little oasis.

Totally worth the long journey... my room...

We had breakfast, a little more sleep then went exploring.

Hampi is FULL of temples. We rented rickshaws and spent the whole day going around temples.

Most are in complete ruins, so had more bits intact to others and just one we visited was still an active temple. This one here is of Gnesha the elephant god.

i dunno if i'd worship this one...reminds me of the cookie monster from sesame street

Some of the temples carvings were still in perfect condition.

a hard life.....



c'est moi!


That night was a relaxing one we had been moving very fast through south india so we chilled out at the place we were staying, sitting and chatting on the mattresses, swatting the aggressive mosquitos and eventually fell asleep on the hammock!

The following day i just read a book and tried to get some sort of plan together of where i would be going after i leave this group in a few days! I did make a plan...but i have to say im writing this blog almost 4 weeks after being in Hampi and well plans are just plans...today has been strange one! Anyway back to Hampi!

After a totally relaxing day a few of us climbed up to a temple on the top of a mountain to see the view and the sunset. This is nicknamed Monkey temple and yes its full of cheeky little monkeys with scarily human-like faces! The view was just something else! I never had such a view before, no civilisation just rice fields, lush green trees, a river and the mountains. Although Hampi has mountains, they are made from bundles of boulders not just one big lump of land it looks so strange, just like some giant stones that have been swept into bundles. Aparently it was all underwater at one stage so these are from the bottom of the sea.

There were plenty of people up there singing with a guitar,drinking, getting their food robbed by the monkeys etc and as the sun was setting i was just thinking yes i am quite far from home now...

The indian spelling is worse than mine! This is a sign at the monkey temple

It was a 4am start the next morning to catch the train to Goa i think i went to bed about 1am and in the end our train was delayed a few hours! But we did get to catch an excellant sunrise. Next stop Goa!

Kochin & Mysore

We stopped in Kochin for a night on the way to Mysore, unfortunately i had a raging sore throat so had to give the sightseeing a miss...but i nipped it in the bud as you say! That evening i went to see some traditional south indian dancing. It was in a tiny room, thick with the smell of inscence and two guys sitting on the stage doing their stage make-up. An old man with a very soothing voice narrated the process they were going through with the make up and the significance of it, for example exaddurating the eyes as the Gods eyes are exadurrated. The show itself was a mixture of very strange to hyptnotising! One very skinny, sinuey guy danced using exadurrated facial expressins to convey...angry...or catching a fish! The other guy dressed up as a massive woman and ran about the stage using crazy eye and hand movements and screaming!

Kochin


The next day we headed to Mysore. I instantly liked the place. It was the usual indian craziness but the city felt spacious. We were bombarded by guys selling screechy whistles and coconuts that sound like bagpipes when you blow throw it. So we went to get some food and i ordered a drink from the menu to try something new..called Jaljeera or something similiar....Well....this has to be my worst experience in India...it looked like sewage water, smelt worse than sewage and tasted even worst than it smelt! I could not get rid of this taste yuck i can still taste it! I asked the waiter is he sure it isnt sewage, he said no he drinks it all the time, i said ok so drink this one! and he politely declined!!


Anyway next onto Mysore Palace! I decided to go for the audio tour, we had to drop in our shoes and cameras so unfortunately i have no pictures of inside but WOW i was totally blown away, imagine people actually living in this place!! Not long into listing to my audio guide description of the cielings when i felt a tap on my leg. It was a group of about 40 school kids who wanted a photo with me and all of them wanted to shake my hand and tell me their name....i also was told i have funny cheeks! That was the end of the audio guide! My friends were waiting outside for me wondering where is Emma and then i came pouring out the door with all these school kids!

here is a smaller selection of children...the little boys getting over excited and squeezing my arm






the scottish lion


This didnt happen just the once, it kept happening! So many kids just mad to get in a photo with you and shake your hand, elderly couples asking can you be in their photo!! random!!! We called this mysore maddness! It was quite sweet and they werent looking for money, friendly place, we felt a bit like celebrities!

this is eh...well its a big holy cow of course!

So....the cows are everywhere but in Mysore there are neon cows! We had arrived just after a festival and so the cows (and the odd unfortunate dog!) had been covered in a mixture of tumeric and milk and they were practically glowing!

I decided to have a look around the main market area. I picked up a strange fruit which is very mushy inside, it has big seeds and the mush around the seeds tastes exactly like custard! I was told its called the custard apple fruit...yummy... The market was divided up into the meat area...dont go there! The vegetables...wish i had cooking facilities and then all the rest. So many colours and smells, excellent to have a look around but i just wasnt in a shopping mood since ive been travelling i cant help feeling.....well i dont really need anything! or more...i dont need to carry anything more!

That night one of the guys found a gorgeous restaurant in the middle of a garden surrounded with palm trees and christmas lights! One of the guys earlier bought 7 screechy flutes and a coconut bagpipe (why ask why!?) so after many cocktails we had quite a funny journey home, about 5 of us in each rick-shaw, with instruments, playing and singing away to the top of our voices! Back at our hotel we had another 'jamming' session, this time joined by a french man and some little bongos. Oh we thought we were the bees knees, listening back to a video recorded that night it was more like Satens revenge!

The next day myself and one of the guys rented an auto and headed up to visit the temples. On arrival we were givin a blessing..which was the red dot on the forehead, a red string necklace with a gold barrel on the end and a 20 rupie tip for the man! The 1st temple you arrive at depending on how much you pay you can be fast-tracked to the front of the line. We werent that interested in splashing out on that so we just went for a walk instead. More neon cows, and a tiny skin&bone puppy just hanging on to life....i wish i could have taken him.



We found a small temple and there was some kind of procession going on inside where the holy man was giving people some water into their hand and they drunk it. We were trapped in the temple for a while by a cow just 'chillin' in the doorway! It really touched me, this little temple, just to see the devotion indians from all walks of life have for their gods. Even a tiny girl who could hardly walk touched her mouth then the step as if to put a kiss there when entering.

We came accross an enormous statue of a cow with more mysore maddness going on...being asked to be in photos with kids and couples! We also found a little cave temple with a friendly looking old man sitting inside, inscence burning and pictures of the gods around, he gave us a handfull of sugar. Too hungry to do anything more we asked an auto driver to take us to somewhere nice to eat! He brought us to an indian restaurant and i had the most delicous thali ive had so far here! all for about E2!


This night we would be catching an overnight train to Hampi and i was looking forward to some sleep! I would love to have had more time in Mysore..who knows maybe in the future!

Kerala Backwaters

With raging hangovers and a vague memory of playing rugby with a coconut on the way home the previous night we caught the train then the auto then the boat ride to our next destination! Tonight we are staying at a 'homestay' in the backwater area in Kerala. The backwaters are a series of rivers that are below sea level. The people here live on the sides of these rivers which they use for washing just about everything and getting around. Very relaxing being on the boat. Its also popular spot for the very rich indians to holiday here in a houseboat.


The house i stayed in...swanky

Your Joe Maxi taxi..

Just having a bath! Bit rude i know taking pics like this but we were buzzing past on a boat!

You can call up the boat taxi if you want to go somewhere...like the Toddy bar. Even though we were all hungover and the swaying of the boat wasnt doing us any favours we were a little let down to here that Kerala is quite a religious and so a 'dry' state as in alchol-free. Our guide warned us not to mention drinking to the people we'd be staying with! Personally i would cope this night without alcohol! Then we found out about this alcohol that comes from inside the coconut tree, something like sap and its called Toddy. (the guys who extract it are called toddy-tappers!) When its freshly extracted its about 4% alcohol and after 24 hours it can rise to as much as 15%. Its a creamy white liquid. This area is also famous for its 'fat rice' the only place you can get it seemingly as theres not enough to sell its basically very fat rice grains!

We eventually arrived at the houses we were to be staying in. We were all exhausted...ok nobody to blame but ourselves! it was time to sit at this familys table for dinner. The wife of the house just kind of hid in the kitchen and peeped out to smile when she heard our exclimations of how delicous the food was, the kids were at school and the husbund just stood at the table staring at us eating. I was really so tired small talk was a struggle and he was standing right beside me just staring! All you could hear was the slopping noise of rice into the mouth and swallowing noise. Then he shoated EAT WITH RIGHT HAND!!!!!! Jeeeezus calm down if you werent staring at me Mr possibly i could concentrate on that!! So i slopped a bit more rice in (with right hand) then went for a quick shower before meeting up with the others.

Wow SUPER HUMID here!!! i have never experienced humidity like it, just the same as being in a steam room with added mosquitos! However this place was really stunning so the humidity was a small price to pay. The area was mostly rice fields, banana and coconut trees. One local said that during the monsoon it floods really bad and when he was a kid he used to try and catch the fish that were swimming around his house much to the frustration of his parents from their house being ruined!

looks dry....feels very wet and humid!


swampy areas...sun was just beginning to set ...beautiful or what!

We walked to the edge of the river and got into a small canoe and went on a very relaxing tour of the rivers. The guys pushed the canoe along with big sticks, the water dept can vary but it can be as deep as 10 metres in some parts. Unfortunately i wasnt allowed jump in for a swim! It was so lovely to sit back on the canoe considering our seriously hungover, tired condition, we drifted along for about an hour taking photos of just about everything that moved when one of the guys driving the boat broke into song! It was quite sudden but he had an amazing voice and it echoed all down the river. The other guys steering the boat banged their sticks on the boat to the beat of the song and joined in the choras. He told us it was some song the slaves would sing while they were working...i wondered was he trying to pass on a message to the local guys watching us go past on the canoe! The song was seriously catchy and after another 10 minutes or so chatting he suddenly burst into song again! I had this song in my head for the next few days...weeks...still there!

lady in the rice fields

We got dropped off at the houses we were staying in, played some card games with the kids, had dinner (the father not present this time!!) then a deep deep sleep! I had a quick walk around this guys garden before we headed off the next day...banana and coconut trees slightly different to back home! This was such a different place, ive never seen anything like it, not one thing similiar to life back in ireland and such a complete change to the chaotic indian cities!

I never got to try the Toddy in the end but some of the boys that stayed in another house did. By the look of thier faces when they were describing it im glad i didnt! I cant write down how they described it but even a few days later if someone mentioned the word Toddy they guys nearly wretched! Anyway, out of this lovely backwaters wonderland back to reality!