India - Goa (12/13)

A lazy day is called for today - time to chill and just enjoy the whispering palms, the swish of the waves and the cooling breeze.

After a hearty breakfast and the blog typed up, we donned the swimming costumes and headed down the beach. At low tide, there is hard sand to walk on so its easy walking. We walked all the way to the river mouth - about 2 km - and then around the bend to see all the fishing boats moored along the river. The smell of fish was overpowering so perhaps they dry them here? Once again, there is not much tourist info of the area from Holiday Inn/Averina beach.

On the way back, we chose a shallow pool of water which had a sand bank further out so we figured it was safe to wet our bodies as we would bounce off the sandbank if the current decided to catch us! The water of the Arabian Sea is like a bath - so very warm. It was really just a dip in shallow water as we have been warned about the rip and the sea was pretty stormy. Walking back, cooled down, was most pleasant.

The pool then beckoned and we had some cool R&R in the stunning pool. Everybody is so well behaved that it is a pleasure taking a dip. We have also been doing some exercises in the pool - more activity than we ever get at home! Today is fairly cool so we even felt chilly after our afternoon swim - believe it or not!

Time for those Kingfishers so off we went across the road to our wine shop, Bryson's Stores. The owner works till late at night with a short lunch break. He also stays open all year round so says there is no time for jiggy-jigg!! However, with 3 kids, he managed to squeeze in a few moments somewhere! It's a tiny little shop with everything one could possibly need and we wish him all the best for his dedication and very long working hours.

The chugging of the fishing boats going back to the river, the sound of the waves, the continual squawking of the crows, the swaying palm trees, all make for a relaxing and enjoyable Kingfisher before our supper!

It seems that 1st October heralds the end of the Monsoon season. The farmers are looking forward to harvesting a bumper crop, Goa is looking forward to a bumper tourist season with increased hotel tariffs, the heavy plastic drapes have been removed from the upstairs lobby today and the guy playing the sax started in the restaurant tonight! The air is much cooler today so let's see what tomorrow brings?

My body is feeling a little overdone from the sun but what the heck - we are escaping the last of the Cape winter!

What can I say - we have become total blobs and have spent the day at the pool, lounging on the loungers with our Kindles.

At one stage, after coming back from the loo, I could not find my glasses so I freaked. What have you done with my glasses, I shouted at James.
Astounded, he shouted back at me "They are on your head, dear!" Shows how much one loses brain power lazing around all day long. But it is delicious to do this sometimes instead of always dashing around the place. Of course, in India, one cannot dash anywhere so the slow pace takes hold. Give it up and just go with the flow. My independent streak has taken a knock in this country having to be so reliant on either taxi's or public transport. In many places the "cheap" tuk-tuks are not available. This is not a bad thing as they would just cause more chaos on the already chaotic roads.

Having said that, today's paper had a report on 2 deaths of 2 wheeler drivers (scooters) in separate incidents in Goa within one week. One week? The public were so incensed that they blockaded the road where the one accident happened and it had to be closed for a spell. This tells me that despite the crazy driving on India's roads, the drivers know how to cope with the traffic most times and obviously have some sort of secret code to keep total mayhem from disintegrating into death and destruction. Hats of to Indian drivers, I say.

Whilst there are many reports of crime, rape, prostitution and corruption in India, these are vividly reported and most of the culprits are apprehended.
Some official even had to spend a night in an Indian jail and complained bitterly about the mosquitoes and even worse, the bedbugs!!! It seems that prisoners have been complaining about the bedbugs for nearly 2 years - now something will be done to eradicate the little pests. Can you imagine being so hellishly itchy all day, every day with no respite from the tiny terrors? Enough to put one off crime for life. Introduce them to more prisons? Maybe they will do what society fails to do - keep crime off the streets. Hope springs eternal????

Passports are also a problem in India it seems - police are supposed to verify the applicant's residential address and this is taking up to 79 days instead of 21 days. False passports are also an issue here. Problems the world over these days appear to be much of a muchness - just in varying degrees.

On a lighter note, I love the Chile Limon Lays Chips - when can we have these in South Africa? PLEASE?
"Wicked chilli and naughty lime come together in an irresistibly tangy flavour. Make your moments magical with the all new Lay's Chili Limon that lets your playful side loose" says the ad on the packet. Not too spicy but of so tasty, say I!

Today (2nd October) is a celebration of Ghandi's birthday so it is a "dry" day in India - meaning that no alcohol may be sold from shops - but we still have the hotel mini bar to fall back on for that thirst-quenching Kingfisher.

If anybody has the tempting idea of retiring in Goa, this is possible, at a price.
For instance, take the Bougainvilla Hermitage Retirement Village in "Magical Goa" The following facilities are on offer:
Health-care Infirmary, Ambulance Service, Wheel Chair Elevators, Senior-Friendly Fittings, Yoga, spa, gym, Prayer Hall, Library, Swimming Pool and best of all, round the clock security. Situated in an "eco-friendly" village it sounds to good to be true??? I love the idea of "Senior Friendly" fittings - the mind boggles as to what exactly is meant here?
This does exist - I have not made it up - see www.bougainvilla-hermitage.com

Back to the beach scene which is Goa's most famous asset. From where we are right at the south side of the long beach, one could walk and walk and walk. The beaches down south are huge and very clean but do have rip-tides so take care.

Thankfully, smoking in public places is prohibited in Goa - this was my worst fear, that we would be surrounded by many smokers! Thankfully, it has not happened so far on this trip. Even in Mumbai, smoking was not an issue.

So, India is growing on me slowly - just wish we could drive here - it would make it far more interesting and adventurous!!!!

For Accommodation Cape Town, South Africa

www.bradclin.com

Please share - if you did not enjoy this post .....Shhh - but please still share!

Thanks!

India - Goa - (11)

Monsoon season is not yet finished and the rains were very heavy during the night, leaving pools of water on the beautifully manicured lawns of the Holiday Inn/Averina Resort, Goa. It is no wonder that Goa is a malaria risk area, heavy rains, high humidity, rivers and lakes. Fabulous breeding ground for the mosquitoes!

As usual, breakfast is a feast. Besides my English Breakfast tea and omelette every day, I try at least one Indian dish with breakfast. What is so amazing is the huge variety that is on offer - something different every day. The Indians also love their eggs so there is always a queue at this counter. The chefs are so fast and so good at making perfect omelette's right in front of you.

Our tour today is with the Holiday Inn bus to Mangueshi Temple, Old Goa and Colva Beach.

We started off at 14.00 hrs with a very full bus - again, we are the only Westerners aboard. It is great to see so many Indians enjoying their own country which is so vast that it could take up many holidays in different parts.

This ride was an experience in itself - bone-shaking, rattling, creaking and groaning, the bus struggled up the hills in first gear and very seldom reached full speed. Being high up we could see all the small settlements/villages as we passed and, always, hundreds of scooters darting in and out of the traffic. Many drivers without helmets. Today we saw larger houses in very bright colours scattered amongst the more squalid looking ones. Bright yellow, purple, orange, lime green and red are popular colours and stand out in the greenery which is everywhere in Goa. There appears to be new construction of apartment blocks (called Residency) in quite a number of areas so the economy can't be too poor for the construction industry. In some of the areas there are large. modern complexes which stand out, being so Western looking and clean.

At the start of the journey the passengers were very vocal but we could not understand a word of what they were talking about. Gradually, silence descended which was most odd. Looking back, we found that virtually the entire bus load had fallen asleep! Peace and quiet for a spell. Not that we minded the chatter, they were all enjoying themselves and on holiday, after all!

As we chugged along, we took to spotting names or signs along the way as we were still wide awake!!

Tobacco Free School
Infant Jesus Laundry
Papa Joe's Goan Restaurant
Ferrao Ice Factory
Chapel of Glorious Saint Sebastian

In Sirlim:
Royal Lush Family Restaurant, Wee Wonder Kindergarten, Watch Repairer and Repairer of Two Wheelers

Other Villages:
St Francis Xavier Chapel
Dream Skyline Residency
Be Happy Caterers
Angels Primary School
Rosary High School
Mum's Darlings (Child care)
Top Gear Bar and Restaurant - do you think James May, Richard Hammond and  Jeremy Clarkson have visited this pub during their Indian visit?
Walk In Hotel
Are We G-Oan Out - Pub
Janki Wine Store
Eco Friendly Putty that prevents your paint from flaking - they sure do need this in the rain and humidity.
Right Fuel is your Right - seen at a Petrol Station
Just Inn Bar and Restaurant
Adam and Eve - a  place for all occasions - the mind boggles and one has to wonder what goes on here?
Divine Medical Centre
Drive slowly - accident prone zone - ya right!!!

It seems that our bus does not have indicators as the guide needs to stick his arm out of the window to indicate when we are turning left or when asking somebody behind to slow down. Just ahead of us was a lorry and the co-driver has his door wide open - Indian Air-Con? He did eventually close the door when they passed another vehicle. At the back of most trucks there is a sign saying "Horn Please" So they expect one to hoot at them? Seems so.

Cows in the middle of the road are commonplace - how they do not get run over is beyond me. These cows also seem to be lying down much of the time - not grazing and chewing the cud. So they are either too well fed or have no energy to move? Only very load honking horns seem to get them up and off the road.

Goa has many dogs, all look totally ill and underfed, many have their ribs clearly defined. Very sad to see.

After about an hour or so, we reached the Mangueshi Temple. This Hindu temple is over 400 years old and is dedicated to the goddess Shiva. In the car park there were many buses and also a State Bank ATM - a blue bus parked and waiting for people to draw money. The road to the temple is lined with small shops selling clothing, trinkets, snacks etc. It is also very filthy with litter scattered all over. This is despite a sign at the temple asking for Silence and "Maintain Cleanliness"  The ladies outside sell the offerings meant for the gods of flowers in banana leaves at 10 Rupees.

Before entering the temple, shoes must come off and one has to walk barefoot into the temple. In the temple, the half-naked, fat men (no tops) are sitting cross-legged and doing their prayers and blessing the followers by giving them some "water" which they put to their mouths and then they throw it over their heads. No photos are allowed inside the temple.

We were watching this when a chap asked us where we were from and offered to show us something as he was a "priest of the temple" He took us outside to a large, wooden carving but I have no clue what he said it was. He then proceeded to tell us that:
We would expand our business
I would receive promotion - yeah, I can promote myself at long last!!!!!
We would move to a new house in April
Our children would all become very successful in 2014 - I think all 4 between us are already pretty successful.
We would return to India in 8 months time!!!
He professed to "see" things when talking to people as he was a priest.

By now feeling hood-winked, it came as no surprise when he asked for money. I have my doubts that he was even a priest, just some local looking for gullible tourists to con. The men in the temple are all rather large - this guy was dressed in normal clothes and skinny!!!
Oh well, I suppose everybody gets conned at some stage in India - we will be more careful next time.

What did really make me mad was the state of the place - for a temple that is supposed to be very holy, it is surrounded by filth and litter so how can this possibly be of any value to anybody? Surely, it would not take much to employ a few cleaners to pick up the litter strewn around outside by the Indian tourists? The mess just gives off bad vibes. One would also think that anybody visiting would want to make this a holy place and cleanliness is next to godliness? Or does this not apply to Hindu temples? Sad to see.

Our next stop was Old Goa - again hundreds of buses and tourists. This was the Portuguese capital of Goa - today the churches and cathedrals are all that remains. The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi was built in 1521 and looks very imposing. We only had time to visit the Basilica of Born Jesus where the remains of Saint Frances Xavier are preserved. He was a missionary and the Patron Saint of Goa. Born in Spain 7th April 1506 at the Castle of Xavier. He was a brilliant student and excelled at sports.  He later became a priest and after journeying for 13 months, he arrived in Goa in 1542. He undertook many hazardous journeys whilst preaching and died on 3rd December 1552.

Before entering the grounds of the church, one is again accosted by women selling candles. I was offered candles so accepted them and walked off!
The lady came tearing after me telling me that I had to pay her. They are very shrewd, these people. Anyway, I handed the candles back amidst her voluble protests that I needed to pay! The grounds of this church are immaculate and clean - a major difference from the Hindu Temple seen earlier. Restoration of some sort is in progress and this is now a Heritage site.

Back in the bus, we shook, rattled and rolled onwards towards Colva beach.
On the way, we spotted the following:

Drive with Care, life has no Spare
Driving Rash causes Crash
Don't be a Hell Mate, wear a Helmet
There were more of these signs on a large bridge that we drove over but the driver had a good speed going so could not write them all down!

Passing a railway line, we spotted some people walking right on the tracks - one hopes that they have the train times in their heads to get out of the way!

As we started on a minor road towards Colva, the "Speed Breaker"  humps are back in full force. So irritating to slow down every few yards for a Speed Breaker. Our bus is unable to break the speed limit which seems to be 50 km per hour for 2 Wheelers (Scooters), 70 kms per hour for cars and 60 km per hour for Commercial Vehicles. I wish!

However, it seems that there are accidents as we passed the Paediatric Neuro Centre along the way. There are many kids being carried on 2 wheelers, most without helmets. There was a huge Dental College and also a Signal Corp Army base along the way plus My Eye Hospital and Clint Restaurant.

Billboards are all over, they are huge and advertise Milk, Insurance, Housing Products and Jewelry.

As we got closer to Colva Beach, shops were lining the road on both sides. The parking area at the beach was again packed with buses. Unfortunately, it was now rather late and the light was fading so we could only take a very short stroll the the beach which was full of people, staring at the sea. A large Life Guard building = busy beach! This beach is apparently a huge favourite with local Indian travellers and gets even busier during October month when many pilgrims come to visit Colva Church. One of the Indian guys wanted a HOUR here. Bummer for us as the light was gone so a walk on the beach was out of the question and we were not too taken with the many shops around as we are watching our budget!

There are loads of food stalls, ice-cream vendors, plus fancier jewelry shops that offer Credit Card facilities, pubs etc but we abstained from everything.
A beer would have gone down a treat but the bladder would not have been too happy afterwards in the "shake, rattle and roll" bus and I refuse to use local toilets.

There were many scooters available "Motor Bikes On Rent" and the Black and Yellow Colva "Auto Rickshaw Stand"

The cleanest looking restaurant I saw was affiliated to a hotel!

A local chap, also on the bus, started chatting to us. He lives in New Delhi and is employed by an American company in Reno, Nevada. He was telling us that he had recently visited Johannesburg on business and visited the Gandi Museum there. Being paid in USD makes life very pleasant in India I would say! We have to admit that we would never be able to walk/move around so freely in South Africa as we have been able to do in India. The folk are pleasant, honesty seems high on the list of priorities and even the beggars/hawkers have a smile on their faces when you say No.

Get the place cleaned up and it would certainly be a wonderful country. Even with the honking horns and traffic!!

A great day out - who needs rock and roll music when you can enjoy the Holiday Inn "Shake, Rattle and Roll" Bus???

© Judelle Drake

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradclinphotography

For Accommodation Cape Town, South Africa

www.bradclin.com

Please share - if you did not enjoy this post .....Shhh - but please still share!

Thanks!

India - Mumbai - Goa (8)

View from our room at Taj President, Mumbai

A sort of sad good-bye this morning to Mumbai and the Taj President Hotel. Mumbai's noise will not be missed yet it has been a great stay and the hotel service has been extremely pleasant.  The trip to the airport took approx. an hour over the amazing sealink - this road, built in the sea, took about 7 years to complete and makes a huge time saving in the grid-locked roads of the city. There is a toll fee but well worth the price for a little bit of  speed! No honking is supposed to be allowed on this bridge - I wonder who this sign is aimed at as nobody takes a blind bit of notice! There are numerous shacks along the way - feels like the N2 Cape Town!!

Checking in for Jet Airways we had to pay for 12 kilos of excess baggage. Not sure how their scales reached this amount as we were only 38 kgs coming from South Africa - but it is no good arguing. Perhaps this is just Jet Airways method of making extra money from foreigners? There are very few International tourists who would only have a 15kg bag per person unless they are back-packers or intend buying all their clothes in India.

The Security check point is split into sexes! Metal detection is used on everybody. There are no announcements for boarding so make sure you are sitting near your boarding gate and keep an eye on the locals. When they start lining up, follow suit! At the point for the bus, all bags are checked again for Security stamps. My handbag did not have one, even though it had gone thru the machine so my boarding pass was taken away from me and I had to go back to Security. Needless to say, I was not impressed by this service - if the staff at Security had done their jobs efficiently, I would not have been subjected to this extra stress of thinking that I would be left behind!!!! Slap-dash security at Mumbai Domestic airport is not confidence boosting.

So, not a good start to the flight. The plane was a Boeing 737 - 800 - very modern and new. There were a bunch of very noisy people - some guy was obviously cracking jokes which made the rest laugh and laugh and laugh. Not being able to understand the language meant that it was just plain irritating!

The flight is only 45 minutes to Goa so service was brisk - a veg or chicken roll with juice and water. Unfortunately, there was some turbulence so I started feeling ill. According to James, the plane was virtually on the runway, when the pilot announced very low visibility due to a sudden rain squall and he had to abort the landing. Not good for my motion sickness problem. It took another 10 - 15 minutes of pure hell for me, eyes closed, praying for a smooth landing and the end of the feeling ready to puke. Luckily, I didn't.

Bag collection at Goa was another nightmare - hundreds of people jostling near the carousel. It always amazes me that bags go on together yet come off nearly 20 minutes apart. Anyway, the bags eventually arrived and we made our way outside to be met by a rep from Averina Beach (Holiday Inn) Vey pleasant and full of smiles, he welcomed us to Goa and introduced us to our driver.

It is a 50 minute drive from the airport to the hotel through very winding roads, with many speed-humps! Goa is incredible green, with huge palm trees and lush vegetation. High humidity! Houses and small apartment blocks line the road with little shops every now and again. The welcome from our hostess, Melissa, was warm and friendly - this is so important, especially after my horrendous flight! Ice cold apple juice went down smoothly and we were shown to our room. Quiet and spacious as requested, it's gorgeous!

Our next mishap was the laptop getting wet - I don't even want to contemplate the fact that all our photos and videos of Mumbai may be lost - the thought is just too depressing for words. Now it is down to my Asus only and, holy cow, let's hope this can stay dry!

I was terrified of falling on the way to the bathroom during the night as the floors get so wet - air-con plus high humidity seem a huge problem here. The floors are tiled and very slippery.

To cheer ourselves up (very difficult) we took a walk on the beach. Apparently, we cannot swim in the sea due to strong currents prevailing due to monsoon season - can it get any worse? It was very low tide so we walked as far as the river mouth. We spotted many fishing boats, some larger than others, still out fishing. On the way back, we saw a few people in the sea just up to their knees and the life-guards were standing guard. Goa is all about beaches - we are obviously just a tad too early for the good beach vibe in the Indian winter (November/December)

Breakfast and Supper buffets are included in our package so after a cold shower we set off to sample the buffet wares. Curry, curry and more curry. Once again, the staff are very polite and friendly and explained all the dishes. James opted for chicken (very hot!) and I stayed with vegetarian. All very tasty, some hotter than others.

An early night was called for and the bed is extremely comfy so hopefully tomorrow will be better????

© Judelle Drake

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradclinphotography

For Accommodation Cape Town, South Africa

www.bradclin.com

Please share - if you did not enjoy this post .....Shhh - but please still share!

Thanks!