Going GOA gone..

Goa! 

Goa was the last stop of this Indian Adventure of ours.  And after traveling for quite sometime in northern India, Goa was a well deserved 'vacation from the vacation.'  haha

As soon as we landed in Goa the entire feel of India changed for us.  The time started to slowly slip away,  our pluses seemed to slow right down and we settled in to enjoy another "Saturday."

We decided to make our way to Anjuna beach, where we would call home for the next week.  Anjuna is an old beach town with dusty unpaved red dirt roads. This little beach town looks like its retained the same vibe and authentic exterior as it did in its hippy hay day.  Most of the tourists still consist of expat hippies, returning hippies and even the young new age hippies. Everything and everyone is moving at a slow nonchalant pace.  It is dry and hot in Goa but Shaun and I just couldn't get enough of drinking hot Indian chi tea.  

The woman are dressed incredibly beautiful, arms covered in bangles, every single toe has a ring and their nose has a large gold hoop right though it, henna covering the palms of their hands, and they wear elegantly flowing saris of every color.  There is a lively Wednesday market that sells everything imaginable and you could get lost for hours shopping around in it.  There are even underground rave parties here which you must ask around about or you may never even know they exist.  

We found the cutest ( one of our favorite places we've stayed in up to date ) little room in a place called The Blue Nest. Our blue room was large, comfy, clean and very refreshing,  just perfect and for only 200 Rupees!! It is owned and operated by a local Goan Family. True Indian Hospitality doesn't begin to describe how wonderful the family was.  They definitely took us under their 'wing', always up for a chat/laugh and making sure we were well taken care of at all times.  So as we settled in to our new favorite place and went to scout out a new favorite spot to eat to go along with it.  We found THE BEST Indian restaurant in ALLL of Goa ( maybe even all of India! Except for Raju's home cooking back in Udaipur, of course. ) We ate here at our "Oasis" for almost all of our suppers. The Indian curries were to die for and the portions were well beeeyyyyoooondd our western standards! haha.  So far Goa was treating us rather nicely! 

Here are some of Anjuna's finest: 

Yum! Yum! 

The families bike which they lent to us. 

Local Indian woman who sold handy crafts on the beach

This is quite a common site in India. One Shaun just couldn't get use to. haha. It is common to see most men in India holding each others hand or showing one another close affection. 

Most of our days in Goa were spent quite simply.  We enjoyed sleeping in, then ate an amazing breakfast at Oasis before heading to the beach for some relaxation. We would sit all day and soak up the sun and sand...not to bad hey?!  We always bought fresh fruit from the same cheery old Indian woman, who might I add; carried all her fruit in a basket balanced on her head out in the hot sun ALL day. One day I offered to help her lift her basket and put it back on her head but it was so heavy I could not lift it to help her.  I am always amazed by the different people around the world, especially here in India.  The people are working so hard, even the people as old as my grandparents and the young children that are made to work. All without complaint, and a smile on their face too.   

And some more:

A lady selling Indian spices at the Wednesday Market 

Anjuna sunset

These were the homes of some of the locals who lived near the beach. 

Coming back to the beach.. we would purchase our pick of  her fruit for the day ( usually mangos or watermelon, papaya, coconut or banana ) and we would be right back to our lawn chairs soakin up that sun.  I forgot to mention the cows... by the way, there are cows everywhere! It is the funniest thing in the world to see a herd of cows hanging out on the beach!  The cows will come up right next to you while you are in your lawn chair and sit beside you in the sand where your umbrella is casting a nice bit of shade for them. It definitely freaked us out and had us laughing  first few times this happened.  But then ( like everything else that is strange in India ) you get use to sharing the beach AND your umbrella with the cows.  There was even one day Shaun and I had just bought a kilo of fresh mangos and before our Indian lady left she warred me "watch out for cow, cows like mango! hehehehe" and she took off quickly. I wasn't sure what to make of this until I turned my head and saw a cow coming full steam ahead right toward me and my mango! I jumped out of my lawn chair and started running down the beach to get away from this cow that was chasing me for my mango.  I couldnt not get away from this guy, I would run to the left and then stagger to the right then sprint as far as I could away.. then look behind me and there he was...still full steam ahead! Shaun was dying laughing the entire time,  along with a number of others watching and I ran as fast as I could right into the water with my mango in hand.  Finally! The cow stopped, stood there in the surf , quite unimpressed and watched me eat my mango. haha 

Here are the mango thieves here! 

When a festival comes to the town it is always a MUST as a tourist/traveler that you attend. 

I mean, who wouldn't want to be included in local tradition or celebration or excitement or the enjoyment of festivities? So when we heard that Goa was home to one of the top 5 destinations to spend Mardi Gras ( ranked by the Lonely Plant ) we absolutely had to go! We thought it was going to be then next best thing to Fat Tuesday in New Orleans! So, we rode 2 local buses 50km to Panjim, Goa's capital city, ran around like crazy trying to find any vacancy for the night and when finally found one ( the dirtiest dingiest smelly-ist place imaginable! But thats another funny story  itself which Jan and Terry were our only saving grace that night!) we hurried downtown to watch the parade. 

We arrived downtown 3 hrs early to save ourselves a nice front row seat for the celebration to come.  Some people were dressed up, decked out and covered in sparkles and wacky makeup while were buying and selling hats and waving flags. It was all getting to be quite exciting.  About 30 min before the parade began is when most of the Indian people arrived. That is when everything got crazy!

 

Both taken before it got crazy! 

The streets flooded with people, roof tops were at capacity and people were hanging from the downtown buildings to get a good view. The music blared and the elaborate floats marched past the street.  Some people who were in the back were not so impressed at the crowds of people blocking their view, so they started throwing bottles and all kinds of food at the crowd (which we were now part of). It was all so crazy to be a part of. Later there was dancing and live music and tons of food food food! It was definitely a night to remember. 

It wasn't long before our Indian adventure was coming to a close. Already a month had gone by. We were feeling bittersweet, both happy to what was to come as we moved on and at the same time we were very sad to be leaving the most interesting country yet. 

We were going GOA gone... 22 hours of a train ride across India to Chennai and on to Malaysia (where we were in for a surprise!) and then off to the Philippines! 

Thank you for continuing to read and keep up with us, we have much more to come. 

xo Melissa

On the road again

Wandering India

After our amazing time at the Taj Mahal we headed South-West to Ranthambore National Park in search of seeing a wild tiger.  We arrived after a great train ride we arrived at the train to a sign saying "Shoan" I assumed that was me and we hoped into the back of his jeep crammed with 6 others and we were off.  We met a Canadian/New Zealand couple and a older 'world traveled' coupled from England in the jeep as we were all headed to the same resort.  Yeah resort......only option for the park, but it was worth every penny of the 17 dollars!

The first evening we all decided to go and see the old Fort that is situated in the heart of the park perched on top of a cliff.  As we were driving out there some one yelled something to our driver and suddenly all the Indians became panicked and I figured that there might be a tiger around.  Sure enough as we turned the corner out of the jungle casually strolled this cool cat.  I could not believe how calm it was just kinda looked at us and keep going.  After it looked at us it walk into the bush and our jeep along with few others hurried as we all wiped out our cameras and tried to get the money shot of the tiger.  

It was pretty humurous as all the people in the jeeps were looking so intense and just waiting for the pretty shot.  It seemed as though everyone was hunting with their cameras!  After we saw the tiger we headed on up to the Fort.  It was a very impressive fort built right in the middle of a mountain which was filled with monkeys.

The next day we woke up at 5:30am to do our actual did our actual safari.  It was a chilly morning out in the park so we bundled up and hit the road in our Cantor. 

 Once we entered the park you could feel the anxiety and want to see a tiger.  Everyone was on the edge of their set.  As we drove through the park our guides began to get very serious and you could tell that they wanted to find a tiger.  At one point they stopped and got out to examine some tracks and sure enough it was a tiger's.  So we all got excited and followed the trail, which eventually lead to no tiger.  However, along the way we saw numerous spotted deers, Indian Moongoose, Owls, parrots, wild alligator, many exotic birds, several langoor monkeys, a huge bald eagle, many peacocks and many other exotic birds that I have no idea what they were, but they were cool to see.

The safari was drawing to an end when all of sudden the monkeys starting acting weird.  They were sitting on what looked to be watch out duty on the tops of palm trees in a specific area and they were all making noises to each other. Our guides told us to be quiet and again every one had their cameras out ready for the money shot.  After 10 anxious minutes the guides gave up and said that the monkeys were warning each other that leopard was coming.  It was a great day and we enjoyed every bit of it.

After the safari we relaxed bought a train ticket to Udaipur.  Our train was a few hours late and of course we met a local who was ever so interested in planning our trip and insisting that we call him if we ever need help.  For some reason we got that on every public transport we took in India.and we boarde.  We arrived in the beautiful white city of Udaipur and checked into our guesthouse and took to the streets and explored the city.  

Our Guest house

Udaipur in considered one of the most romantic cities in all of India and just happened to be Valentianes day coming up!  

We toured some city sights, as we saw a vegetable and spice market, a gorgeous garden made for the prince, old tombs of the royal family and some other Hindu temples all made out of pure white marble.  

Women always work in their saris.

Musician 

Opium Smoker

After the city tour we went to a traditional Rajasthanie dance showed, which showcase how the Rajasthan women dressed and danced.  It was very entertaining and to top it off a lady danced with nine vases on her head at once time!

The next two morning we did yoga on the roof top of our guest house.  It was very hard, but felt good after the fact.  But man I am so unflexible, Missie did very well though.  On valentianes day we went into a cooking course, where we learnt how to make 10 Indian dishes!  It was fantastic, 10 dishes, we learnt how to make Masala Chi tea to a sweet fruit curry.  And of course after the class we did what we do best and ate to much.  

Two of our 10 dishes!

Making the naan

Right after supper we hurried and bought some beer and bacardi breezers and made it up to the moonsoon palace for sunset.  The view from the palace was so incredible, we could see the entire area surronding two cities.  The sunset was unbelievable, what a way to spend valentianes day!

Moonsoon Palace

The following day we went to go visit the City Palace.  This palace was constructed of pure white marble, just as the rest of the city, but this Palace housed the royal family.  Every little detailed of the palace was unbelievable.  We kept thinking how cool it would be to live during these times.

City Palace

This is Missie's henna that a 16 year old girl did.  It was the daughter from the family run guest house which we stayed at.  She loved it and would look at it every morning to make sure it wasn't going away too fast!  It is an Indian tradition for women to have henna work done ( by the other woman in her family ) to their hands and feet when the women is getting married.  Since it was wedding season when we were there, we saw many women with henna all up their arms.  Missie loved and admired the beautiful work on the Indian woman and wanted to experience the tradition herself. Many local people would comment on her henna and how beautiful it was.  She was very happy! Locals told It is suppose to mean that you have a happy healthy relationship when your henna is very dark and if you look at hers it is!!

 

The next day we boarder a bus ride from hell headed to Jodhpur.  We have been on some rough rides in the past 4 or 5 months, but this was seriously crazy.  The driver seemed like he had a trillion dollars waiting for him in Jodphur if he made it there faster then some rediculous time.  I mean he was swearving in and out and in and out of traffic.  You could feel the entire bus swaying as he turned.  He would drive through villages at like 8okm an hour and just lay on the horn the entire time.  And for what ever reason Indian horns are all different and his was the most annoying little tune that would play for 10 seconds when he just pushed his horn once.(we never got to hear it only play for ten seconds it was more like 10 minutes straight.

But we made it safe and sound and the following day we set out to visit the magnificent Mehrangarth Fort, which is the most majestic and one of the largest forts in all of India.  The fort was built right on the end of the city and it over looks the entire city.  It was so impressive, we got the audio tour, which made us feel like the biggest tourist as we had headphones on while looking at this big map.  

The next morning we stopped for a famous omelette from a guy who claims to go through 1 000 eegs a day.  So for 50cents we enjoyed two omelette sandwichs  each.  After that we hopped on another train and headed for Jaipur.

In Jaipur we were lucky enough to stay at a families house.  The lady picked us up from the train station and took such good care of us.  When we arrived at her house we met the family and sat down for some Chi tea and talked about our different lives.  After a couple hours of conversation, Missie and I went to a Bollywood movie in a very famous theater called the Raj.  After the movie we stopped for some good old Indian sweets and headed back to the house for supper.   The family made a outstanding supper and yes again we ate to much, but it feels so good at the time to taste all that food.  After supper we skyped with the family and their daughter who now lives in Dubai and then we watched her wedding video.  Indian weddings are very colorful and are a big deal to the Indian people.  They spend lots of money and put a huge 3 day event on.  

Inside the theater

Supper!

The next morning we ate again too much, but the breakfast the family made was wonderful.  After our goodbye ( one daughter even took the morning off work to say goodbye!) we headed to the airport where we were off the GOA.

Take care 

shaun

Deli Belly..only one cure..the beautiful Taj

Hello Everyone! You will have to excuse us as I know we have fallen quite far behind on the blog updates. I know some of you have been waiting and waiting to see some of India, and what we have been up to, we are only now just catching up for you guys. So again sorry for the delay, thats just life on the road! Hope you all enjoyed Shaun's rendition of  Varanasi, it was the best city we have seen by far, it is almost indescribable! 

Here are some Dehi photos to start you off with.  Hope they give you an idea of our Deli experience..

Note the cows, ricksaws, people and the chaos! Where are the sidewalks haha

We arrived in India's capital city with a warm welcome from its famous "Deli Belly." Which, at the time was almost ironic because as we ate our hearts out in Varanasi we bragged to each other ' ya, we have stomachs of steal! theres no way we will get sick!' So, we ate..and we ate..and we ate! 

We ate everything under the sun, we ate curry for every lunch and dinner of every day, we ate samosas and all sorts of  other tasty snacks from any vendor who was selling them and we drank bottomless Lassis of every single flavor. 

Everything was great until 3 am..5 hrs into our 17hr night train across northern India. 

Almost simultaneously our bellies both were painfully tossing and turning. 

We were SICK! I can not even begin to count how many times we both were RUNNING to the toilet in agony. ( And let me tell you, there ain't no 'toilets' on a train in India, you squat and do your business over a hole over the tracks.. And, in this 'toilet' might I add, everyone else seems to have been to lazy to just aim for this hole.. and instead does their business all over the walls and floor BESIDE the hole. ) Not exactly an ideal situation when you are sick. 

But, we made it though the night and arrived  in one piece the next day in Deli.

Deli was an eye opener for sure.  Not sure if it was the fatigue, the headaches, the heat, the horns, the frustration, confusion, cows, beggars, touts, or people we saw pooing in the street.. maybe a mix of everything actually haha! But, Deli was an eye opener indeed. 

The tourist area was the dirtiest area of any city we had ever seen, we couldn't believe our eyes when we were witnessing half of these things we were seeing. I have never experienced or imagined I would witness that kind of poverty in my life.  This area can turn any positive traveler beyond anything you would consider jaded.   But, it is these experiences that bring me to a new level appreciation and gratitude for the things in my life. 

We hurried and found a comfortable hotel, AC, private bathroom, TV etc.. all the comforts of home and then we didn't leave that room for the next three days! We did not even have the energy to really speak to one another for those three days, only when we were trying to eat( which was hardly ever) or swapping turns using the toilet.  Finally, we had enough.  On the 4Th day of being sick we decided to go see a doctor.  We did some tests and had some blood work ( which Shaun fainted during! and is a bit of a funny story its self.. while he was getting his needle, he started to turn ghost white and began to fall over.  A nurse and I grabbed him and put him on the bed, they checked his vitals as I was talking to him. When he seemed to be coming back around the nurse had wet a towel and asked Shaun if he would like her to wash his face.. and he replied: "No! I am not dirty!" ) By the end of it the doctor recommended we stay for one week in their clinic for a whopping $400 EACH per day! ( insurance scam at its best )  This was just crazy so we left and rested up another day or two until we were soon back to our old selves.   Getting sick did not leave us much of a chance to get to see anything else Deli had to offer, so on our final day we crammed in as much sight seeing as we possibly could.

 We visited: New and Old Deli,  The Gandhi Memorial, The Red Fort, and a park where locals gather to play cricket.  Soon we were back on the train and on the way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. 

Red Fort

Cricket games 

Gandhi Memorial 

The exact spot he was assassinated

When we arrived  in Agra we found a hotel that advertised a roof top view of the Taj.. which we thought was  perfect.  Little did I expect to walk up onto our rooftop restaurant and actually sit see the Taj RIGHT there infront of us.. it was so close you could practically see its beautiful rose carvings from our room.  

Roof top view

 The Taj Mahal was built by Emperor Shan Jahn during the Mughal empire. He became heartbroken when his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died during the childbirth of their 14th child and as a tribute to his wife's death he was inspired to construct the Taj Mahal.  The Emperor layed her body to rest in the principal mausoleum, where you can now view both bodies in the large marble tomb. It became the ultimate symbol of  the Emperor's love for his wife, and today as we are looking at its soft white marble and ruby red flowered walls, all you can feel the Emperor's love for his wife.  The Taj Mahal is honestly beyond beautiful. You can almost hear its beauty resonate in the eyes and hearts of every single person there to marvel at it.  It is the most exquisite building I have ever/will ever lay my eyes on. 

Our first day in Agra we took a rickshaw across town to the back side of the Taj where we could watch the sun setting.  We sat along the banks of the Yamuna river, the second holiest in all of India and watched the sun sinking, turning both the Taj and Yamuna all shades of pinks and reds before it disappeared on us.  I was so happy in these moments, it was so beautiful and romantic and surreal.  This night made me feel like we were really living a dream come true. 

The next morning we visited the Taj again to see it at sun rise.  Before you see the Taj Mahal 

(the famous postcard picture, the front view and the fountains) You must walk though the towering red marble Great Gate that has the same red flowers engraved on it as the Taj.  And as you walk though, you immediately see the breathtakingly beautiful view. The Taj Mahal.  

Great Gate -  entrances to the Taj Mahal 

We walked all around and through it all morning and I did not want to leave. 

India has a way of bringing to the surface every single emotion a human being has. 

It strips a person down to their raw core and tests a person constantly. It is a country like no other. It is exotic, its exciting, its exhilarating and exhausting all in one. You experience things you can not even begin to imagine or prepare for.  There is no way to explain 'India' fully to someone who does not know or understand what 'India' really is. 

In one moment/experience you will find yourself more happy then ever before,  the very next cursing and fuming mad! Already, as I am reflecting and we write these Indian entries..I miss everything about India.  So stay tooned!  Because this country holds some of our best memories from this journey, and some of the best moments/memories of my life.  

xo