Intrepid Journeys - India

Ha Bloody Ha... the Kingfisher strikes back with avengence !!

In Panjim now, much harder finding a Cybercafe in this place than in Touristville central, the beaches.
Spent last evening in the company of the Fijian-Indian-Kiwi blokes and 2 UK-Indian girls from Leicester on Vagator beach, along from Anjuna. Somehow ended up at a place called Prim Rose, for some food, altho the lads were strictly on the liquid refreshments. Come kick-off Chelsea vs Liverpool, a mob of Fans arrived to watch the game upstairs on large screen, so we joined in. Boring Game, but it ended in 90min or so, if you didn't catch it Chelsea won 2-0 and take away the League title. Anyway, Nick found the club associated with Prim Rose and it was superbly organised with seating, dancefloor and psychedelic lighting... just very few punters, so Baskin and Robbins icecream seemed a wiser choice. Shared a taxi back to Calangute with the UK girls only to find the power was off, and the boys at Shalom had already started on the bottle of Smirnoff for the night, so popped over to enjoy the moonset until power was restored.

Superb morning today, went for nice last walk along the beach before all the sun loungers get full of people and also got a 'Real coffee' from the Kaya Cafe... just along from our accomodation. It is owned by a Japanese woman and her Goan husband.. good freshly ground coffee, with a fantastic breakfast of fresh fruit (papaya, pineapple, strawberries and banana) with this terracotta pottle of fresh yoghurt, as well as eggs and toast on a plate made from leaves. Amazing presentation and undeniably the best breakfast I had in Goa.

Found Nick relishing in the after-effects of Kingfisher, and after a 'refreshing' beetroot juice he almost caused the rickshaw driver to have a panic attack as he puked red-purple on the side of the road. He is blaming the chicken toasted sandwiches from Room Service, but I never saw any of that or carrots either !!

Staying in Panjim on AB Road, there is no C or D.. we asked!. Went for a stroll and Nick picked himself up to do some shopping. Tis a good moto to buy now as you may not see it again. Have got a Family Supply of humungous cashew nuts, fingers crossed NZ MAF will let us in the country with them, or will be crazily eating them by the Amnesty box.

Just spent an hour on a 'Sunset Cruise'. Very popular with at least 4 Operators and plenty of 'tourists' mostly Indians from other places, but also a few white and other colours too. Very corny Entertainment director, who loved the sound of his own voice rather too much and seemed to be almost swallowing the microphone.

OK, so our Southern Indian adventure is almost over, just another Domestic flight and it has plenty to compete with and then the train ride homeward.

Ciao for now.
Maya

Ciao guys and gals,

Well, was a beautiful start to the day, wandered down to Calangute Beach early and was rewarded with seeing the fishing boats coming in and the nets being emptied of crabs, fish etc. Found a quiet spot and guess what you do not get any hassles if you are sitting and meditating. In fact you hear people walking towards you and then around your 'space'. The whole personal space thing took on a new dimension, considering how crowded everything else is.

Nick became human around 10am after a big night out with some 'new friends' that he made in Club Paradiso.......Indian Kiwis no less and they are friends of Ashwins from Auckland and the UK.

After some blog picture uploading, we decided to check out some local transport to Anjuna (the party beach). It is always helpful when someone tells you that to get there, you have to go to Mapusa first and change buses. Well, what a trip... the local scenery is great, heaps of tall coconut palms and something strange was with every cow in a paddock there was a white Heron type bird nearby. Hmm, maybe the cow stirs up the bugs for the bird.. nature is full of symbiotic relationships.

Buses.. Ha Ha, getting off the first was OK, but the next one was madly filling up. Needless to say the 'polite foreigners' stood back and let the locals on..... only to have the last 2 people standing on the last step, just enough for the door to close. Yes actually these ones have doors that close, unlike some others. So, we waited for the next bus which duly arrived, unloaded and reversed into its space. Sweet, seats all around... but then another bus arrived and we were told that the one we were comfortable in wasn't leaving for another hour but the latest arrival was loading up and departing ASAP. So we hoofed it over to the new bus, and were invited to sit in the the compartment with the Driver. Funny actually the bus is like 1/4 Bus driver compartment and 3/4 passengers. In the driver space there is all mention of Religious pictures (Jesus, Buddha), garlands, decorations etc. The roads these buses go along and the way they are driven you can appreciate why the driver needs as much religion on his side as possible.

Anjuna Beach... finally and we even managed to meet up with Nicks New Friends, with whom we went to Sunset Cafe for Beers and some food. Great seats looking out over the water. Could feel myself changing colour as the beer kicked in. Following being fed and watered, chilled out on some Sunset Beach loungers that the incoming tide was lapping at... Nice !!!
Yes.. there were even Cows on the beach.. how perfectly typical for here.
Decided to actually try the water and it was WET and SALTY !! Lots of floating vegetation (seaweed and sticks) and some serious sudden sand bars on the way out. The beaches here are quite steep so there is only about 10m-15m from the high tide to low tide mark. Anyway the water was ...... tepid !!, yes like a cool bath.. not as refreshing as the water was at Narrowneck before I left. So ended up doing the plunge thing, in for a few minutes then out to lie in the sun and then in again just to be wet. Hmmm, got rickshaw back to Calangute.

Picked up Train tickets for the 7th, so hopefully our third and last Domestic carrier will be on-time into Mumbai, so we can get our 1935 train to Navsari.

Nick en route to some Beach Party somewhere... I done my share of partying in beach shacks, sand getting everywhere and losing keys, shoes etc !!
Probably need to check out some goodies tomorrow, heaps of silver jewellery, leather sandals and embroidered cloths around.

Let all things happen as they will.

Cheers
Maya

Ciao People,
Well yesterday was Bangalore in a nutshell... From the slums, thanks to Nicks elaborative descriptions to the Rooftops.
We managed to a place to sleep for the night.."Hotel Sunflower", right on a busy intersection, but at least it was central and came with supposed hot water and a TV (100+ channels, about 20 in English and 80 in different Indian dialects)
Wandered down Richmond Road to MG Road, the Hub and place to be seen here. Got flyer for Channa pattie burger at ...... KFC !! and there was also Eat as much Pizza for Rp99 (=$3)

Speaking of Hubs, there are these roadside, well arranged 'cafes', not unsimilar to 'Starbucks' which were positively pumping with people all there to be seen and heard, if that was possible above the loud 1980s music. Ha Ha...

Well, as Nick was hanging out for a beer we went in pursuit of some cold alcoholic liuid refreshments.. found a place called 'the 13th floor' and had to wait till 7pm (15min) for it to open, and it was well worth the wait.. cool, outside barstools with views over Bangalore in the evening, lights and no noise at that height, and the Beer .. 600ml Kingfisher was superb as well.

En-route back to Sunflower checked out another Bar called 'NASA' and Yup it was all about being in a spaceship with fluoro blue lighting and TV screens all over the place. Not sure if the music is as loud in space !!

Ho, Hum ,after some decision and indecision was decided to try and find some 'nightlife', so consulted the "Lonely Planet' only to find the so-called open to 2am places were in fact closing at 11:30, anyway headed off to a place that didn't look so far on the map. About 6 blocks later and we hear loud music coming from the top of a highrise !, Yup right on track to "Zero G", a rooftop club that was 'going off'. Yest truely there was dancing and jumping on the dancefloor, really drunk people being held up by their friends, young and old alike... but all Hip in the bangalore way. The place was rather incredible, actually outdoor with big sails well arranged and great seating in the adjacent restaurant. Watched and drank for a short time, felt strange not knowing any of the music, but pretty good beats none the less.

Not a bad day overall in Bangalore.. Silicone Valley of India
Cheers
Maya

Like Urdu (old Indian language) I am starting on the Left of the page (well today and will attempt to add a Maya-retrospective to the already posted Nick-tales)

A Bugger of a night, mostly because it was so sticky hot and the sheet sacs were awesome but too hot to breath under them when one is hiding from mosquitos!! Anyway headed off to the 'Backwaters' with Crazy Erratic and Tooting bus driver to where we were loaded onto a houseboat complete with red plastic chairs. Rather an idealic ride along to the 'Shellfish processing' place which was non-operational on Sundays !! and to admire local medicinal plants etc. Highlight was Kerala Lunch... White rice (std), potatoe/pumpkin/some other root vegetable curry, salads of different types and some beautiful fresh yogurt lightly spiced!! Then punting along some smaller waterways stopping to have fresh coconuts and to see Coir ropes being made.

Exploring the backwaters of Kerala

Tonight made B-line to waterfront to buy our own seafood and have it cooked for us. Decided on a huge plate of Tiger prawns and had them made into 2 dishes. Beautiful flavours but a tad overcooked, like ordering med-rare and getting well done!!, just not what your mouth was watering for.

Cheers
Maya