Hey Everyone, just writing a quick update here.
We were able to find a nice, fairly quiet beach around, with not too many annoying tourists! The added bonus is seeing dolphins jumping off in the distance. Then the tourist boats go to see them and they disappear. It's a nice little addition to the ocean view though. Today was my first attempt at scooter driving. I didn't hit any cows or people, came close to some walls (David you can probably still remember my attempt at your scooter...) so a good day all in all. It's a bit difficult since they drive on the other side of the road, so I'm still a bit worried about my instinct reaction while driving. I'll get it though. Our treat today was a real coffee shop. With real coffee. What a treat! While yes we're able to miss the deep freeze, we're also missing our Timmy's and not so excited about that.
We've been hanging out with our 4 other neighbours at the place we're staying. We've formed "The Blue Nest Gang" named after where we're staying. maybe we'll get some T-shirts! Ben is loving all the people walking by our terrace that he can chit chat with!
Merry Christmas to everyone, enjoy being loved!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Don't hate us!
sorry for those of you in freezer like conditions that might be reading this...we had a fabulous beach day today, hot and not a cloud in the sky, other than overall pollution haze of course. now with Goa (we're actually in the area Anjuna) being touristy sometimes it feels like you're in Mexico/Cuba or any other great beach spot. Although when the cow comes by to share your shade with you, that's when you know you're in India. At least the cow only shared shade with us, one person it licked, the other it almost pooped on. We faired well! It's getting busier now with tourists for christmas, we're going to head for dinner here soon with another couple travelling the world for a year and a british hippie/yoggie. should be great!
stay warm and don't get the frost bite. when we think it's too hot, we think of home.
stay warm and don't get the frost bite. when we think it's too hot, we think of home.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Oh India...
So time to catch up...
we left Kenya Dec 9 after a great month with great friends. a definite highlight would be a fabulous safari with great traditions of sundowners which you enjoy the sunset and wine with good people. Hard to top. It was hard to leave at this point as up to now it's been a really fun vacation hanging out with friends, not too scary at all. Thanks to Kari, Marty, Angie and Bryan for being great hosts, for great memories, and lots of laughs!
So after flying for part of the night we land in Mumbai on a not much sleep at all. our plan was to get our of there as soon as possible, which was a good plan. There was a lot to take in just from the view of the taxi. People sleep on the pavement next to the roads as we drive by them. And oh the smell, wow! not sure how to describe that, but you can use your imagination. the worst bathroom smell X100-not all the time though,but definitely in spots. So we got to the train station. We have 2-3year old children looking up with the big eyes asking for money, we have women holding their children asking for money, everywhere, people asking something from us. Definitely overwhelming with new things that we just don't see in Calgary nor would it be acceptable. Unfortunately it's acceptable and common here. Still not really sure how to make sense of all that...
so after a 4 hour wait in a train station we board a train for the next 10 hours. It's hot! we share this space with six people. It's noisy, there's people selling things and yelling down the aisle the entire time as well as people still asking for money from you, your skin sticks to the plastic and we're trying to sleep with our bags under our heads...10 hours! Definitely a experience, I think the next time we train I'll have to supress my Thompson cheap gene and spring for the less crowded ac part! We did have some interesting conversation with our train mates though, we got advice on our life, we should be responsible, own a house and have children already...we're already old! Maybe one day! So on this train the one thing that doesn't get yelled down the aisle is what stop it is. there are signs but these you don't see until you're pulling out of a station in the day light. So we took the advice of our train mates with our stop. it had already been 10 hours which was the time we were expecting it to take. Yeah, well we got off at the wrong stop, probabably and hour early. Good thing though we didn't have any place we had to be. It just meant a little delay before we hit the beach. We're currently in Goa, sort of SW India. we got to our destination yesterday, all the hostels are X3 upping their rent for the Christmas season so we spent yesterday trying to find a place that isn't going to rip us off, and we did. So we're here until Jan 3. We'll use this place here as our base. we rented a scooter for the time we're here so we can go and explore India with the wind in our hair! Well more my hair then Ben's! I'm getting the look from Ben here!
So now that we're here, it's 34C, humid and we, well more me, smell! Good thing is everything else smells too, good I guess... Food is great yet a bit spicy for this Calgary girl but I'm sure I'll get used to it. We are about 1 km to a rocky beach, we enjoyed a sundowner yesterday watching the sun through a haze of pollution, still beautiful in its own way though.
I guess that brings us up to date. Time to go scoot!
we left Kenya Dec 9 after a great month with great friends. a definite highlight would be a fabulous safari with great traditions of sundowners which you enjoy the sunset and wine with good people. Hard to top. It was hard to leave at this point as up to now it's been a really fun vacation hanging out with friends, not too scary at all. Thanks to Kari, Marty, Angie and Bryan for being great hosts, for great memories, and lots of laughs!
So after flying for part of the night we land in Mumbai on a not much sleep at all. our plan was to get our of there as soon as possible, which was a good plan. There was a lot to take in just from the view of the taxi. People sleep on the pavement next to the roads as we drive by them. And oh the smell, wow! not sure how to describe that, but you can use your imagination. the worst bathroom smell X100-not all the time though,but definitely in spots. So we got to the train station. We have 2-3year old children looking up with the big eyes asking for money, we have women holding their children asking for money, everywhere, people asking something from us. Definitely overwhelming with new things that we just don't see in Calgary nor would it be acceptable. Unfortunately it's acceptable and common here. Still not really sure how to make sense of all that...
so after a 4 hour wait in a train station we board a train for the next 10 hours. It's hot! we share this space with six people. It's noisy, there's people selling things and yelling down the aisle the entire time as well as people still asking for money from you, your skin sticks to the plastic and we're trying to sleep with our bags under our heads...10 hours! Definitely a experience, I think the next time we train I'll have to supress my Thompson cheap gene and spring for the less crowded ac part! We did have some interesting conversation with our train mates though, we got advice on our life, we should be responsible, own a house and have children already...we're already old! Maybe one day! So on this train the one thing that doesn't get yelled down the aisle is what stop it is. there are signs but these you don't see until you're pulling out of a station in the day light. So we took the advice of our train mates with our stop. it had already been 10 hours which was the time we were expecting it to take. Yeah, well we got off at the wrong stop, probabably and hour early. Good thing though we didn't have any place we had to be. It just meant a little delay before we hit the beach. We're currently in Goa, sort of SW India. we got to our destination yesterday, all the hostels are X3 upping their rent for the Christmas season so we spent yesterday trying to find a place that isn't going to rip us off, and we did. So we're here until Jan 3. We'll use this place here as our base. we rented a scooter for the time we're here so we can go and explore India with the wind in our hair! Well more my hair then Ben's! I'm getting the look from Ben here!
So now that we're here, it's 34C, humid and we, well more me, smell! Good thing is everything else smells too, good I guess... Food is great yet a bit spicy for this Calgary girl but I'm sure I'll get used to it. We are about 1 km to a rocky beach, we enjoyed a sundowner yesterday watching the sun through a haze of pollution, still beautiful in its own way though.
I guess that brings us up to date. Time to go scoot!
India the next adventure
We are now in India.Unfortunately we can not download any pics at this time since the internet here does not support my system of camera. We arrived here on December 10th and got lost in Thivm 100km north of Madgoan where we were trying to get too. Even with this we have found a beach in Anjuna which considering how much we have gone through with the 12 hour bus ride, 3 hrs of taxis and getting off at the wrong train stop is quite nice. The adventure of getting here and being bombarded with beggars,taxi drivers,anyone trying to sell something and the heat was actually really stimulating. We have only been here for a few hours in Anjuna and I have a feeling that it might just be fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
