palolem extra

Ok so Plaolem Beach is a really cool place and totally chilled out until we met this english guy called Guartem (He's Indian origin). We were just taking it easy outside our beach hut eating a pineapple at around 11 in the morning when this random guy walks up to us and asks us what our plans were for the evening. We had none so he suggested we join a group who were going to have a party on another beach which could only be accessed by boat. It sounded like a great idea to me and was just what the doctor ordered . Colin had been feeling rather low cause he was missing his bird, oops sorry, his girlfriend. The whole of Palolem beach is full of loved up couples. i was well up for a good party. So myself and Guartem headed straight down the beach to round up some more people for the party. Eventually we set out for the beach with loads of watermelons and pineapples a few bottles of rum and coke and spuds to put on the bonfire we were going to have. What a great day we had. There were 10 of us in all and everyone was really sound and we had a brilliant time. Of course it couldn't go just perfect. First I slit my thumb open while trying to slice ginger for out spuds and then somehow I managed to nearly slice off the ball of my foot. Talk about unlucky!!! That didn't stop us having a super night. We had to move the bonfire 3 times becuase the tide just kept coming up the beach but that certainly didn't dampen our spirits. myself and Guartem saw what we thought was a satellite but it could have been a shooting star. I still can't find the Plouh up in the night sky. it just can't be found here. I'll keep looking though. I was really looking forward, as was everyone, to a breakfast of pineapple and watermelon but the sole cow on the beach saw to it that he stuffed himself with all of it before anyone of us woke. To be honest he looked like he could do with a good feed. You'd love to just give him a big ham sandwich to fatten him up a bit. When we got back to the mainland three of us headed for a swim and invented the best water sport in the world. We called it "Lime Game". Essentially its piggy in the middle using a lime. But if the lime falls into the water it takes ages to resurface so there is a mad scramble to try and get your hands on the lime. Its brilliant!!! us lads are easily amused I think.

Heaven on a shoestring

Palolem Beach, Goa. Hot sun. Warm Arabian Sea. Palm fringed white sandy beach. Beach hut. Friendly people. No hassle. Beautiful sunsets. Cheap beer. And the best fish i've ever tasted in my life. Life doesn't get much better than this people.

Aurangabad

Well we are on our way to Goa now. We have come from Aurabang where there are the most amazing caves this side of the Shannon. The caves have been cut into monutains. it looks so incredible. For one cave alone they said that it took 150 years to complete. Its hard to even fathom that. We went on a tour bus for both cave trips and for one of the tours all the people were a great laugh. There were people from Canada, Holland France and Isreal. A good bunch of people to be with. THe heat here is unreal. Obviously the further south we go the hotter it is going to get. Its the humidity thats the killer really. We could deal with the heat but when there is humidity as well then when you take one step you are sweating like a good thing. The Indians don't seem to feel it at all. There are still people walking around with wooly hats and jackets. I just don't understand it. what is it with these people? We reckon they must all be cold-blooded creatures. The funniest thing happened at the train station last night. We were just waiting on the platform for our train when two guys came over to Colin and all of a sudden there were about 10 or 15 standing beside him listening into the conversation. While that was happening a group of students started talking to me. And again a mob surrounded me to listen into what we were talking about. It was really cool. They were all asking questions in Hindi and whoever could translate would do so and ask me in english. we had a brilliant laugh. All of a sudden someone took out a camera and wanted to get their photo taken with us. I had to call Colin over to get into the photo to. There must have been about 20 people crowding around trying to get into the photo. I swear we were like celebrities. One guy was saying to the youngsters not to be hassling us but we were loving it. you would swear they had never seen a white person before ... maybe they haven't! Afterwards they were all thanking us profusely and shaking our hands. Some of them shook our hand about 4 or 5 times. It was the funniest thing that has happened so far on the trip, I think.
So that is where we stand right now. We should be arriving into Goa tonight after a 10 hour train journey. I'll love ye and leave ye. Ta ta.

Mumbai

hi people, so its been a week since I was on to you all so I'll give you a quick rundown on what has been happening. After the Varenasi disaster we decided to do a bit of sightseeing around Kanpur. Its not renowned for its beauty but myself and Colin had a ball going around the markets. We got talking to this guy at a street side tailor shop and he was throwing out material with lightning speed. The prices were gobsmacking. The cheapest suit would have cost us around 40 Euro. If we weren't travelling for a year i would be buying so much stuff. this country is just so cheap. A couple of days later we got a train down to Mumbai (Bombay). All in all it took us over 40 hours to get from Kanpur to Mumbai. It was a monster journey. Mumbai is a really cool city. It is so much more cosmopolitan than anywhere else we have been to. The area that we were staying in was kinda posh. There were verry few beggers and loads of professioonal type people. There were loads of stalls selling "giggly giggly" movies. The people here are lovely. I really can't get over the number of people who will stop you in the middle of the street to know where we are from and how we are enjoying India. They all want to know what is the best thing about India. Unfortunately on the second day in Mumbai Colin got a wicked headache in the mid day and so he went to bed and I wandered around the city for a bit. I met this old man who wanted to go for a beer and chat. He was an old lecturer and was great to talk to. I'm loving this country. The people are fantastic and the sights are just amazing. I love just walking down the streets and taking in all the sights, sounds and smells (except when we walk past a piss corner, the name given to a wall that everyone uses to piss up against). The people piss and spit everywhere. Its disgusting, and in this heat the smell can at times be a little overpowering. But hey, you gotta take the good with the bad. You just have to accept it. we will be heading off from Mumbai in a while. I'll let you know how things progress. Bye for now.

Train station misery

Last night was some experience. we were meant to be going by train to Varanasi at 11pm on an overnight train to arrive at 6 in the morning. We got there in plenty of time and sat ourselves down for a short wait before boarding. The train station is a fantastic place. there is so much hustle and bustle. The place is open 24 hours a day. There are people there all the time, sleeping on the floor, buying and selling food, whole families enjoying a meal and everyone waiting. obviously its absolutely filthy. I've often heard of people talk about rats being the size of cats but never really understood how that could be. I now understand. All along the tracks there are hundreds of rats running around with dogs chasing them. There was an announcement that our train was delayed 3 hours so we decided to go to the upper class waiting room. It was fine. I was really tired and needed a soft seat to sleep in. Unfortunately there were a couple of mice running around in there too. To our dismay the train was delayed a further 2 hours, 5 hours delay in all. So instead of departing at 11pm we were now going to be leaving at 4am. That turned into 5am. Eventually we were assured it would be there at 5 so we went back to the platform where we met this really nice banker from Varanasi whom we got chatting to. He was telling us all the places to go see and what to be wary of. He was really helpful. What we hadn't counted on was the train not showing up. By 7 am we were getting a slight bit pissed off. we had an idea that trains were often delayed but this was really taking the biscuit. In the meantime we witnessed a scuffle break out between a number of security guards and an old man. Our banker friend told us that one of the security gurds was being accused of pickpocketing. The banker said that it is not unusual for such a thing to happen. Amazing!! And here was I thinking the security guards were here to protect me. How could I be so naive. anyway by 8:15 in the morning, after 10 hours of waiting for the train we gave up the ghost and got a taxi back to Shashi's house. i'd like to say it was an experience not to be repeated but I just can't say that. It may happen again. The train network in this country my be second to none but at least Irish Rail need not worry about being the worst timekeepers in the world. Oh what a night!!!!

you gotta love the signs in this country

The opulence of our acc. in Delhi

The Taj in all its glory