Get Goin' to Goa!

Hello All!

Due to travelling, it’s been a long while since I’ve been able to update my blog-take this as a sign that I’ve been having far too much fun to want to write about it just yet J.  The last few weeks of travelling after our experiences at CHAI have been a whirlwind time, involving multiple flights, overnight trains and buses, day long jeep rides, a boat and of course, rickshaws. I am absolutely loving travelling India, and the more places we visit, the harder it is for me to want to come home!  The next two weeks will be another whirlwind trip, but I am excited and happy as ever to be exploring and learning about this diverse, magical and insane country! Here goes the beginning of our travel experiences!

After having a lovely time in Hyderabad, we finished up our loose ends at CHAI and the seven of us took a flight to Goa for some post placement R&R. We settled into our guesthouse on Calangute beach, which is one of the more touristy beaches, that wasn't at all busy since this is the off season due to monsoon. We made our way by foot along the beach to find some food and a beer. For our snack the others tried various versions of seafood cocktails while I got a club sandwich and a Kimgfisher. We enjoyed having beers on the beach despite the overcast weather and the series of men who would set up tables around ours and just stare at us (no, we were not wearing our bathing suits, but the same conservative clothes we had been wearing in Hyderabad). As time passed and the evening came, the restaurant set up a barbecue on the beach, and laid out the catch of the day for people to choose from. There were all sorts of fish, some prawns, small lobsters and a small shark. We ordered some BBQ prawns and lobster and here's a shocker- I actually LIKED the prawns! Anyone who knows my aversion to eating anything that once swam will surely be shocked by this. 

The man who had prepared our delicious BBQ prawns!

After finishing up our BBQ and sauntering back to the guesthouse we got ready for our first night out. After some happy hour drinks at a fun bar on the Baga beach strip, we went to the famous Goa beach club, Titos, with -just wait- not only free entry for ladies but also unlimited drinks! Huzah! The only drawback? We were basically the only girls in the club for a long time-apparently this deal isn't quite as appealing to other tourists visiting Goa. This meant that I finally got the Indian clubbing experience, where men dance in circles with their friends with the most exaggerated moves, and the women (just basically us) creep from the walls of the club, both entertained and horrified. Even though I am primarily a beer drinker, Kingfisher beer does not in anyway taste good to me, so the  free drinks were somewhat lost on me, but we had a good time dancing to Top 40 music once the club filled up a bit. All seven of us then piled into one small taxi and made our way home. 

The following day we wanted to explore Baga Beach, and so made our way by foot along the road to the beach, which should've only taken 45 minutes but turned into more like 3 hours, because the 7 or us together are all pretty good little shoppers :). We found another beach hut on the much more happening Baga Beach, where we took refuge during the massive monsoon rains that come and go throughout the afternoon. We all went for a swim in the Arabian Sea, which was kinda difficult considering the waves were huge and the riptide was very strong so we couldn't go very far, and since we had to wear our clothes swimming, as we got stared at enough wearing our conservative clothing. Also, of the Indians swimming, it was about 99% men who don't actually swim but lay on their stomach their underwear on the sand where the waves hit. 

Anyways, after some weak attempts at body surfing, we got our sopping selves out of the ocean, we sloshed back to our guesthouse and got ready for Jo's last night in India celebrations. Jo and I went for a walk, for her to buy some last minute souvenirs and me to get some more rupees out from the ATM (Goa is "expensive" compared to Hyderabad with taxis costing about 3 USD and meals about 4 USD. kingfisher, however is cheap :)). Anyways, while we were standing around one shop Jo was looking in we both got assaulted-by red fire ants! We have not encountered these little devils until now but basically without our noticing these little buggers crawled all over our feet and when they bite it burns and he stinging feeling lasts forever. We had to buy water to try to flush it out and it helped a bit but the pain persisted, unfortunately. 

After THAT experience, we went back to Baga to a famous seafood restaurant called Britos, which was probably one of the nicest places we has eaten at. Though it was also on the beach, it had an inside restaurant feel because it was so well decorated  and professional. Most of the girls ordered the seafood platter, and I had a delicious prawns curry made with coconut milk that I came nowhere close to finishing. 

Enjoying the moments of sun at a beach hut!

After seeing Jo off the next day, we made our way back to Baga with the intention of getting a light lunch at a beach hut-and we ended up staying there for 7 hours. They had free lounge chairs on the beach which was a great because the sand is usually damp due to the on and off monsoon rains. After a few Kingfisher's the rain inevitably came down so we moved our party inside and enjoyed the music and atmosphere from inside the bamboo like hut protected by plastic tarps from all sides. We had some funny mishaps during the day that amounted in an overall good time, and only once the sky became dark did we consider going back to the guesthouse to freshen up. We made our way back to the "main strip" that night which basically means the only area where there were actually people in restaurants and bars. We met some nice people that night, both Indian and Western, and it was nice to swap travel stories with another group of people for a change! Our final day was more of the same, as we bid farewell to our hosts, which mainly taking pictures with the owner of the guesthouse, who was a very old man who told us lots of stories about Goa through the ages, as well as his travels to Portugal (Portugal has colonized Goa prior to independence, as evidenced by the food and architectural legacy left behind.

After saying our goodbyes to Goa, we made our way to the train station for our first overnight train to Kochi, which is a 17 hour ride south basically alongside the west coast of India. We tried to figure out where to get on, as the trains are many cars long and we had assigned seating, but most people's responses involved a finger shake in the general direction down the platform, so winging it seemed like our best option. During the seemingly endless waiting we met a pair of lovely ladies just beginning their travels. It turns out we would have chance run ins with them throughout our travels through Kerala, so it was nice to get to know them a bit that night. Boarding the train was a breeze, and we all found our seats relatively easy enough. Unfortunately the 6 of us girls were not all together, but no one was left alone, with Michelle and I sharing a "side bunk", which  are two bunks running parallel with the aisle of the train, and the other four in a cubby type thing, which involves two sets of three bunks stacked on top of each other with a small sitting area beneath. The sleeping area is a bit squishy, needless to say, but the class we paid for (3AC) was fine, and we welcomed the relative cool after many hot, humid days in Goa. We settled in and did some reading, which was overall very comfortable except for the endless amounts of cockroaches Michelle and I had running over and around us. I tried to kill as many as I could but they just kept coming out of every possible crevice of the train, so my strategy changed to trying to just not think of them, which probably was more effective than it would've been prior to our other experiences in India. At one point, a man brought around some sheets, blankets and pillows, which was a pleasant surprise, and they even looked (relatively) clean. Poor Michelle slept on her tiny higher bunk with her massive backpack, and I settled in nicely right below her, with my pack stowed safely under my bunk, my money belt on and my purse and daypack stashed under my pillow-call me paranoid, but I slept soundly knowing it'd be pretty difficult for our things to get stolen. I drew my curtains closed, tucked into my cozy sewed sheet, and fell asleep before I could even open my book. The train sleep was pretty peaceful- I think that the rocking motion of the train  was pretty soothing, and I slept restfully until some kids decided to play a game at 630 in the morning which involved running up and down the aisles ripping open my curtains. Ah, c'est la vie- between that and the endless calls for CHAI CHAI CHAI and BREAKFAST!! I decided to doze for the rest of the ride I was so comfortable. One thing that's interesting about train travel in India is that you never have any idea what stop you're at- there are no signs at the stations stops, you can barely see out of the dirty train windows to try to recognize the platform and there are no announcements. For us, this usually means we end up asking about 5 people when we get off, with vague responses like "soon" or waves in the general direction that the train is going, which is not entirely helpful. So far so good though, as we have managed to get off at all the right stops. Our train actually got in EARLY despite being so late the night before, and off we were, taking two very crowded rickshaws with 6 people and 6 packs through mainland Kochi over to the island of Fort Cochin.  More to follow on our next adventure in my next post!