Waiting drives you mad

Sat in the Internet cafe waiting to check in for the Dehli to Helsinki flight which we can do in 20 minutes.

This is the part of any holiday that I hate, the waiting around to get home, the worst is waiting in airports to catch your next flight. At least this time it's not Heathrow for 5 hours!

we have spent the day being lazy, eating and lounging on the beach. At one point I even thought it may rain today but the clouds cleared up and it turned out to be the hottest afternoon we have had. The sea has been just as rough knocking us both of out feet on more that one occasion. Good job there are not many English around as we both stood swearing at the horizon as bigger waves kept appearing.

Tonight we have eaten a feast, Chris had a whole black snapper covered in tikka then cooked in a tandoori oven. It was huge, glad i didn't see a fish that size in the sea as I wouldn't have gone back in! I had tandoori chicken that was three different colours to match the Indian national flag! Didn't taste as bad as it sounds. Even treated myself to a G&T, it was a George Barr measure and a half! All the food and a few beers came to 900rs, so about 12 quid. Can't really complain when a G&T in town would cost about 3 quid but this is the most expensive meal we have eaten but i don't think many pubs will take rupees back home.

Going to stop at the little shop on the way back to the hotel for a can of Kingfisher to drink on the balcony and leave the packing till morning.

Really looking forward to a soft mattress, hot shower and trainers but would gladly carry on sleeping on a bed of bricks, ice cold showers and having dirty blistered feet for another 5 months. Sounds like another trip is already in the planning!

N&C

Last Day and More Pictures...

This is our last day in Agonda, and in India also. Well, we have to fly to Delhi tomorrow and spend the night there but we can't really count that as we wont get chance to see much!

We have relaxed a lot here it is really nice to be able to sit on the beach with hardly anyone else around and no trying to sell you bracelets and bongos, although I dont think it will be like this for long. There is a lot of empty land here just begging to be built on and I think maybe in a few years it will start heading the same way as Palolem. There are already quite a lot of people coming here for the day who are on package tours in Palolem and some people have started to come here for the standard two week beach holiday. I'm glad we came now.

We have managed to upload a few more pictures from our travels through Udupi, Murudeshwar, Gokarna and Agonda. You can see them at www.flickr.com/chrisleechphotos. Other than that, wait for the slide show when we get home!

Try to post again whilst in Delhi, otherwise, see you back in the rain and snow!

N&C

Peaceful Agonda!

This is our third day in Agonda, it is very quiet and we wish we had come here earlier. The beach is gorgeous, white sand, really wide, warm sea. You actually get about half a mile of it to yourself it is that quiet. There is very little to do other than lounge around on the beach, drink and eat! IT is so hot here though you cannot stay on the beach all day. Today it is 95 degrees, wispy clouds and a bit of a breeze. We went on the beach this morning, came off for lunch and are planning to go back later for sunset and have a swim.

There are not a lot of places to eat here, around 20 i would say scattered along the 2km stretch of beach. Last night we found a little Greek cafe that just sells Souvlaki and Greek Salads. Couldn't believe it, and couldn't resist so went straight in. It is ran by two greek people who import all the food from Greece. It really was just like being in a quiet greek taverna somewhere like Thassos. If it wasn't for the cows and pigs wondering around I would swear we were no longer in India!

Not eaten Indian food for a few days which has been a welcome relief to the digestive system. A place near our guesthouse does tandoori chicken cooked in a big barrel of flames and smoke so going there tonight for Chicken Tikka and Chips with Naan bread washed down with a few large Kingfishers which are less than a quid a bottle here in Goa. The cheapest place yet.

We have a really nice (by Indian standards) balcony overlooking the beach so have been sitting on there playing cards and drinking beers at night, cant imagine it will be any different tonight.

Hope all is ok with everyone, most certainly not looking forward to Sunday when we have to come home to the cold!

C&N

Israeli Raves, Cheese Spread Pizzas and the Great Escape

Not been bothered to do a post for a few days because frankly, we ain't been doing much! Just lazing around and trying to relax but also being a little bit boring!

We had six days in Gokarna in total. Gokarna turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment, we both feel that. It was not the idyllic paradise we thought it would be and maybe once was. The beaches were ok, the sea was wild and funny to swim in and the food was so-so (the chips chilly were fantastic!) but the people ruined, the majority of them anyway. All faux hippy types, playing didgeridoos and bongos, pretend meditating on the beach and generally thinking they are flower children when in fact most of them are posh Aussie kids, Israelis, or Middle Class Americans spendng all day acting like prats and generally being annoying. It was like if you took the weirdest people from something like Woodstock or Glastonbury and shoved them on a beach you would get Gokarna! Nikki even said most of them probably cut off their dreadlocks and put on suits and go to work as investment bankers when they get home.

We generally just ignore everybody else after John and Lorraine was gone. Nikki was ill all day on Saturday after bad pasta so I walked into town on my own and got Puri Bhaji and a coke. We weren't sure when we would leave but last night we got in bed at around 11pm after a meal of Kingfish Tikka and Cheese Spread Pizzas (It was like Vietnam all over again with the 'cheese' burger, the cheese was Laughing Cow) and the bar/drug dealing den that backed on to our room started pumping out Israeli dance music. They had some kind of Israeli themed rave going on and all the annoying bastards converged onto the bar. It pounded out music until way after 3 am and we didnt get a wink of sleep. They were actually playing "I don't like Cricket, I love it" at one point and one guy was in some sort of trance in the space between our room and the bar and other Israelis were circling round him throwing beer on him. Somewhere along the line we packed our bags and when it got light we left Gokarna to get to Agonda, in southern Goa.

It is very different here than Gokarna. It is still touristy but extremely low key. Only a few places to stay and eat, and very Indian still and compact. The beach is very wide, white sand and really mad waves pound you when swimming. We've learned so far in the trip not to judge a place on first impressions, but hopefully it will be a nice relaxing week we can spend here without any problems!

The west coast of India, even Kerala to some extent, is pretty touristy, but I guess that is due to it's beaches and beautiful lush environment. Looking back at places like Madurai and Pondicherry, two dust dens, they are completely different worlds to the places we've been at recently. But I think that just goes to show how varied this place is. One train ride can take you from a dusty temple town with chai stalls, idli sellers and hot sticky restaurants, to a white sand, palm fringed beach with coconut and pineapple sellers and pizza and beer! Weird how it all unfolds in front of you and you only appreciate places when you look back at them on the screen of your camera.

Off to find a bar called 'Sunset Bar' where you can... watch the sun set of course.

C&N

Chilling out in Gokarna

Well we finally made it to beaches of Gokarna. But not before doing a couple of other things along the way.

In Udupi we had to take shelter from the heat right after writing the last entry. It was 40 degrees and way to hot to be walking around a dusty temple town. We had an amazing lunch at one of the only restaurants in town, Woodlands. I had a thali and Nikki had a curry and a bread basket (5 different types of breads! The pig! I chose the mini thali at 30 rps (45p) thinking it would be mini. It was not. came with 5 different currys, breads, papadams, and a mountain of rice! Struggled to eat it all then had to help with the bread basket over on the other side of the table. Washed it all down with 4 pepsi's and it came to about 2 quid. Ridiculous really. At night we went to see the temple procession. The priests come out with the temple deity which is like a little statue of the temple god, this one was Shiva. They put it on a golden chariot and bang drums, chant and light fireworks around it whilst wheeling around the town. It was a lot of fun but like all things in India it was a bit farcical. It was supposed to start at 7.15 but it didn't until 9.15! We waited for two hours but as it was the only thing in town to see we had to wait! The crowds were quite bad and people kept coming standing near us having pictures taken with us as if we were tourist attractions. Someone came over just to touch Nikki's shoulder.

The next morning we woke up with bad throats due to the legionnaires disease we had surely got from the dust ridden air con vent. Nikkis throat dwindled away but mine stayed. Took loads of paracetamol and bought some antibiotics from the chemist. On its way out now. We went to the bus stand early to find the bus to Murudeshwar which is a little temple town by the sea 70km from Gokarna. We wanted to spend a night there. The buses, we were told, went from just outside the main bus stand on the right hand side so we waited there for a bit. No buses came past. Nikki asked at a shop and he told us no, it was other side of the road. It wasn't. We asked a taxi driver and he told us the bus left from down a side street on the other side of the road. During all of this farce we were followed by a begger tapping us and saying "Gaa!". No idea what that means I told her to "GO AWAY!" but she didnt. Oh well. We took 5 minutes to buy some water and think about what we were going to do when a man said there was no bus anyway to Murudeshwar, you had to change at "???" and then again at "???". We couldnt understand the places he was saying. By this time we were wringing wet through with sweat. Trying not to get wound up. We ended up grabbing a taxi driver and negotiating a fare of 1300 rps to take us on the 100 km 2 hour trip to Murudeshwar. It should have been cheaper but he wanted a price for the round trip as it was so far away. Annoying but its been like that everywhere. Felt a bit bad getting a taxi but sometimes you just don't have a choice. The scenery was fantastic up the Konkan coast. Sometimes you had sea on one side lapping at the road and on the other lakes and backwaters with fishing nets and canoes. Beautiful.

Got to Murudeshwar at around 1pm. The hotel we were staying in was India's version of luxury. It was really the only option in town. It was on a rocky headland over the sea and we got a sea view room with balcony for 20 pounds a night! It even had a bath and a mini bar! Reluctantly we went out of the luxury hotel room and into the town to see what we could eat. Had puri masala at a beach cafe and then walked along the beach. Loads of Indian daytrippers were on the beach, bathing fully clothed in the sea. We even saw some camels here. We went back to the room for a bit of a nap as it was sweltering. Eagles were flying around our balcony so we sat and watched them soar for a bit but my throat by this time was killing me. We went out for sunset to see the giant Shiva statue which is perched on a hill above the town. It is massive and the worlds biggest Shiva statue. It's gold and silver and really impressive. We watched the sunset up there. Some nitty kid latched onto me though and was touching me with nitty hair so we didn't stay up there long. Didn't really feel like eating much that night but went out for a masala dosa and Nikki had cheese on toast.

Th next day we went early to the train station to get the 9.25 train to Gokarna where we would meet John and Lorraine as previously planned months before. The ticket booth didn't open until 9am, and it was 8am so we sat in the morning sun on the platform until it opened. Train didn't turn up til 10.25 so it was either exactly one hour late or the times had changed. The train was packed to the rafters we had to squeeze in one of the open doorways with our bags trying not to get in the way or fall right out of the doors. When we got to Gokarna we got a rickshaw to town and met up with John and Lorraine. Walked with our rucksacks to Kudle beach where our room was. It was 2.5km, all uphill, no shade and very hard work. The roads aren't really made for rickshaws or cars so walking is the main option. The beach was lovely, really wide, white sand, clean and warm sea. No sunbeds ruining it or places blaring out music, just shacks doing food and drinks. Paradise! Our room was nice, in a nice little guesthouse. You can hear the sea but can only see it if you look through the trees. There is a four poster bed with a mozzie net and a little varanda with a bench outside and a resident dog that seems to have taken a shine to us. It sleeps on the mat outside our door and if you shift it, it comes creeping back within minutes. We just let it be now. That first day we went back into town to eat and then had some chai at a beach shack, by this time it was sunset. We went back to the room to wash and chill out then out again for food around 9pm.

Yesterday we went on the beach, did a load of swimming in the sea getting battered by the massiv waves. I got sunburned on all my back and shoulders. Serves me right really. The beach has some resident cows that eat the pineapple stalks people leave. One approached our stuff while we were in the sea, looked at us, then trampled over all our things. It turned out to be the ''evil cow" that Lorraine had warned us about. A lot of people try to sell you things on the beach, mostly necklaces. But there are some good things too like the Pineapples. 40rps and they cut it up for you and its so refreshing. The cows come along later and eat the bits left over. Must be a good change from bricks and newspaper.

John and Lorraine left today for Goa as they are leaving son to fly home via Bombay and Delhi so we're on our own now which is a bit sad because it was nice to see people. We're supposed to be leaving too on Sunday to go to Hampi and then Goa but to be honest I don't know what we're going to do. The last 2/3 weeks of traveling through Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnatika, from Chennai to Gokarna has been so tough, very hard work and tiring but really rewarding. We both need to relax now and spending 11 days on a beautiful beach at 10 quid a night doesn't seem that bad in all honesty!

C&N

Bloody Hot in Udupi

Had a chilled out final day in Cochin yesterday. We were able to keep our room at the family home until 9.30pm which was great because our sleeper train to Mangalore did not leave from Ernakulam until 11.35. We toyed with the idea of getting the ferry accross to the mainland but this was cutting it fine for the last ferry, so not wanting another "running for the train" episode like last time we got a taxi at 9.30 which got us to the train station for 10pm. The family we had been staying with waved us off from the street. There were about 6 of them including some we have never seen! They were shking our hands and the old granddad of the family said "We will remember you in our hearts, for all our lives". They were really sweet and we expected them to start waving minuture Union Jacks as we drove off but alas, it wasnt to be. They looked very sad though that we were leaving them. Maybe it is just like that when you share your home with strangers who enjoy your food and your property. They were proud of their neighbourhood and homestay and rightly so.

The train came more or less on time. There was no one in our beds this time when got on! Unfortunately someone had used our luggage space though to store all their stuff. Nikki was livid and crammed it all under the seats, pushing our bags under with force and squashing all their boxes. No one around owned up to it being their crap but that's India for you sometimes! They came and shifted it around 2pm, waking everyone up in the process and generaly being ignorant. Nikki tutted at them and they skulked away quietly.

We were travelling in an AC car this time instead of just sleeper. Actually prefer sleeper 100%, the AC cars are just as manic yet somehow less fun. You dont get as many Chai sellers on and the windows are blacked out instead of being iron bars. Plus, there were loads of cockroaches in AC class, all crawling on the ceiling and over our bags. I was heaving at them but Nikki folded back all the seams of my bag until the last of them had gone. Why can we never have an uneventful journey???

Got off the train in Mangalore at 9am. Was going to get a rckshaw to the bus stand to get to Udupi but a rickshaw driver pointed out an orang coach in the distance, "Orange bus, Udupi" He grunted. We hopped on this 'luxury' coach and the driver got us to Udupi in 1 hr. He was leathering it down the highway I swear there was fire coming out of the back of the bus. It was like being on the big diper at times. I had to swap places with Nikki at one point because a woman didn't want to sit next to me, haha, I'm thinking it was the beard. Can't have been anything else.

Checked into our hotel in Udupi. It's ok. Fairly clean and has AC. It has to be at least 35 degrees possibly even 40. Much hotter than Cochin. Not a cloud in the sky and no breeze. We came to Udupi really to see the gods being paraded around the temple, a nightly thing which happens around 7.15. We've been to the temple already once and met a guy who once made a documentary for the BBC about Udupi, and then translated it into German. Some young lads wanted their picture taken with me one by one, each holding my hand (bizarre) and i got repeatedly hit in the stomache by a child begger with a tin dish! Nikki got whacked in the legs by the very same girl.

India is... different! Some days we both absolutely HATE it here and get a bit fed up, but you can always count on something happening to make you laugh and lift your spirits. For example, waiting at the train station last night, people were actually going out of their way to stroll by and stare at us, agog. It gets annoying after a while but one woman, a serial starer was annoying me especially and i could feel a mist of anger creeping up my skin, until Nikki pointed out her uncanny resemblance to the Honey Monster. It was true, she really did look like the honey monster. It made us really laugh, which made her stare even more.

We're off to find Masala Dosas now. They were invented here apparently so they should be good. Then I think we will get an hours sleep before heading back out into the town and seeing the procession. Tomorrow it's onto Murudeshwar and we can just feel the beach getting closer and closer...

Michael Jackson is in Heaven with the Pharaohs!

New Years Eve in Cochin was a bit mad, everybody partying (no booze at all involved either) by the side of the street and in their houses. People blowing trumpets and blasting out 80's music. People wheeled out stuffed Father Christmas dolls like Guy Fawkes but we couldnt work out whu Father Christmas was making an appearance on New Years Eve! Kids were collecting money for them in small tins but we had no idea what was going on. We saw Santa walking a tightrope, skiing and even once tied to a tree while some kids were punching him! That's India for you though.

We walked around a lot and everyone was very friendly, shaking our hands amd saying "Happy New Year". One guy asked "Which country?", "England" We said. A look of delight appeared on his face, "Ah... Tony Blair!" he replied. Bizarre! But it made us laugh.

On New Years Day there was a massive carnival and most places shut just to see it. It rolled past our street at around 4pm and it was completely bizarre. Everything is bizarre here. From what we could gather the floats should represent traditional Keralan/Indian things, like dancing, food, Ghandi, art etc. But every float seemed to be themed on Michael Jackson. There were even a few Michael Jackson impersonators. Some floats just blared out Beat It and Billy Jean while random people followed it moonwalking and dancing. One float had Spiderman tied to a palm tree but we have no idea what that one was about. In case you are wondering about the title of the blog, there was one float which was themed on ancient Egypt, there were pharaohs and puramids and even a sphynx... and of course a Michael Jackson impersonator body popping at the end to Bad. Nikki said aloud "Michael Jackson has nothing to do with ancient egypt!" An old man turned round to us and said "Ah yes, but Michael Jackson is in heaven with the Pharaohs...". I guess that explains it then! It was the funniest thing we've heard so far.

Most things didnt repoen at all after the carnival so we struggled to find a place to eat. Ended up eating at an expensive beachfront place and the food was a bit rubbish. Could have done with a New Years Day buffet at Nikki's nans because we went to bed hungry. Saying that though, we did stop at a bakery and bought some Pan Au Chocolat and some pastry twisty things but we got chased down the road by two puppies who kept jumping up at the bag as we walked (jogged) away. In the end Nikki "dropped" the bag by "accident" and the puppies or some very lucky cow probably had a feast! Makes a change from it having to eat cig packets and bricks.

We've got a train to Mangalore tonight at 11.30pm and the homestay have said we can check out whenever we want so today, we're gonna stroll around, eat some lunch, maybe see the Dutch Palace and then head back for showers and rest up before getting on the Sweatpit Express up the coast. I can alsmost smell the BO and feel the dust on my skin now.

Fort Cochin has been fun but the amount of tourists here is unbelievable compared to places on the East Coast. Looking forward to reaching Mangalore and then Udupi and getting off the beated track again. Meeting John and Lorraine for a couple of days in Gokarna on Tuesday, looking forward to getting to a beach we can swim in rather than worrying about Hepititus from touching the water. Might even have a few beers too!

Bye All

C&N

A Few Pictures...

We have managed to upload about 20 pictures to my flickr account so if you get chance have a look, and yes Ryan here is a quick one of the budding beard, although it is in more of goatee stage unfortunately. As it grows, you will be told...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisleechphotos/sets/72157622994251971/

This link should point straight to the India set, if not, go to www.flickr.com/chrisleechphotos/ and they are all there.