Shanti Bhavan to Goa...

Nikki and I left Shanti Bhavan, went to Jayashree's club for swimming and dinner, and ventured out into India. Sitting at the Whitefield train station waiting to catch our ride to Cochin, I was definitely excited.

We took the train overnight, ate breakfast on the train (nifty!) and arrived in Cochin around ten in the morning. We checked into a hotel, and that first night we ended up making friends with the hotel owners. After a day of running errands, sight seeing and taking care of necessities, we hung out with them for a few hours before bed.

The next day we went into Ernakalum via a ferry to buy some dress materials. We went to see Kathakali dance, which is FREAKY, and not at all what attracts me to dance personally. However I really enjoyed the music. We did a little shopping and a lot of walking. That night a room full of Welsh boys moved in next door to us and we hung out with them, just sitting and talking after dinner. The next morning we got up early to go on the backwaters tour. It was lovely. In the morning we went out on a huge houseboat fashioned to resemble a fish, and we had lunch on the boat, sampled local cuisine and went on tours of some islands. After lunch we went to a smaller boat, where we took canoes down narrow canals into the small villages. We stopped for tea at one end, then came back. It was pretty nice to be pushed down the water by a stick and to be waved at by smiling Indian children. It was also fun to know that just in that area, a great novel takes place. We were in Kerela, can you guess which one?

That night we caught the overnight train to Mangalore. From Mangalore we took a bus to a bus to Jog Falls. In between we almost stayed in a really crappy hotel and waited until morning to head to our destination, but we decided to move on, after quite a harrowing ordeal with the hotel. Jog Falls are the highest falls in India. We got in late at night, and stayed in an ENORMOUS hotel room with a great view of the falls. We were the only people there. In the morning we got up and hiked down. Even being low on water, the falls were beautiful. Not in the way that Niagra Falls staggers you with volume, more in the natural grace of the place. After getting cleaned up, we checked out of our hotel and headed for the bus stop. There we befriend some people from Gana. They were very friendly, and obsessed with my sunglasses. Next we made friends with an ex-yoga instructor from Chennai, who helped up catch the right bus to get to Gokarna.

Gokarna is a beautiful temple city. There we feasted on great food and saw beautiful temples and people. We went swimming at an almost empty beach. It was lovely. At dinner we made friends with a man from France, who works for a packaged food company in Bangalore. We walked all over and stumbled upon a quiet forest, where we disturbed some monkeys, sending us running. It was pretty funny.

Nikki and I parted ways at the bus station, she was heading for Hampi then Chennai and Thailand. I'm pretty sure her trip will be amazing.

I left Gokarna by bus and caught another bus, then another bus to get to Goa. It was a long trip by hot, crowded bus, though if I had found a way to go directly it would have only taken about 45 min. The bus to Goa took me all the way to Margao, then I took an auto back to Palolem. Usually I would have chosen a less crowded beach but because I was traveling on the off season I wanted to be ensured of running into other travelers. So I arrived in early evening, rented a beach hut ($4/ night) and went to the local bookstore. It is a beautiful little bookshop catering to the massive influx of westerners and has tons of info on India, novels that take place in India and various other random crap. I bought the Namesake, went next door and had CHICKEN TACOS AND A MARGARITA! It was so flipping good I couldn't begin to tell you. On that high I walked back towards my hut and noticed there was refrigerated diet coke in a can available! When I asked how much and they told me RS25 I basically died and went to heaven. I bought one and a Snickers and holed up in my room for some much needed Amanda-stays-up-all-night-with-a-book time. I took a nap around 5 am and got up at 8. I got a diet coke and laid on the beach and read until 10:30, when I got cleaned up, found internet, got a very unhealthy (see a pattern?) lunch of fries and a pineapple juice. Then I took a nap, got up, went to the beach to try and even out my TERRIBLE tan lines. I took another shower, took back The Namesake and got half off of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I went to the internet again, then went to dinner and had fries and butter chicken masala. I was having a rum and diet when six guys came in and started talking to me. I quickly made friends with them and literally stayed up to watch the sunrise from our soft chairs with a view of the beach. It. Was. Heaven. :)

More to come. I'm lazy with this whole blog thing, now that I'm not at Shanti Bhavan, sorry.