Saturday afternoon saw us heading off to Goa. This is about half way up the west coast toward Bombay and takes aobut an hour and a half. We flew Kingfisher airlines, in a turbo prop and had one of the best flights that we have had in years. Before take off we all got a little zip up bag of goodies, pens included. Flying over Bangalore was a little precarious as the monsoon winds manifest themselves as turbulance here so while I was white knuckle gripping the arm rests, Chris had his head to the window and giving a running commentary of what he could see! It wasn't long before we were fed and watered and the coast was coming into view. We wanted to catch a government taxi as we had to travel over an hour down the coast and wanted to be safe. There was some mix up and so the taxi people outsourced to the neighbouring vehicle hire company or something like that. We were soon issued with our driver and found ourselves hurtling down the highway. There was obviously a fire somewhere or the driver thought we were in a hurry. It has to be by far the most harrowing drive we have had yet in India. Conversation dwindled to nothing within minutes as we realised that we faced potential death. Requests to slow down didn't seem to make any difference. We were overtaking on blind bends and screeching the tired around corners. We braced ourselves as best we could and held onto Daisy tightly as we flew over potholes. After an hour of this we reached our destination quite exhausted. We were staying in an ashram in a small fishing village. If you visit the website then you will see why on earth we chose to stay here
www.bhaktikutir.com.
We had a lovely stone cottage surrounded by lush tropical foliage. We even had a solid floor, electricity, a ceiling fan and a western sit down toilet. At the front was this verandah that you could sit out on and gaze at the palm trees. Because of the overgrowth everything dripped either from the humidity or the rain. Our cottage was lovely and cool. It had a big double bed with a hessian mattress and an old mosquito net. The room was lovely but one downside was that the bathroom was separated from the bed by a small partition wall. Unfortuately Chris chose this weekend to succumb to dribbly bottom syndrome. I think that this is the 'for better or for worse' part of the marriage vows! (note: Chris is up to day five now of his 'condition' so we have started him on antibiotics. I am not sure if it is bacterial or protazoal so will just keep trialing drugs until something works!) Another thing that amazed us was the size of the ants, or small wildebeast would be a more apt description. After settling in and unpacking scrabble we headed off to find a resturant. The caretaker said to walk along the beach to the main village and we would be right. So following her instructions we found ourselves climbing down a small cliff, skirting around a swamp, backtracking because of the the incoming tide and climbing over rocks. Still now sign of resturants or anything. We were in the heart of our little village which consisted of houses made from woven grasses and boats and nets. We found our way back to the ashram and ordered a rickshaw. We headed to Palolem beach as described by the lonely planet ' a sweeping crescent of white sand fringed by a shady rim of coconut palms is postcard perfect'. This isn't exactly what we found.
We know that this is monsoon season and not the tourist hub but the beach was really dirty. it wasn't german tourists that you had to fight with to get spot but cow pats!! There was dog poo and cow poo for as far as the eye could see. The beach was als very littered with all manner of general rubbish. We had trouble seeing beyond this to the magical place we were led to believe existed. Daisy did manage to dip her toes, and then her legs and then her bottom in the sea. She absolutely loved it after the first bit of trepidation. Then nothing would abate her hunger so we headed off to eat. Not much was open but we did find a nice little italian resturant and ordered pizza. Our fellow travellers consisted of what looked like 12 year olds, all in tie dye and having a joint before dinner. By the time our dinner arrived Daisy was beyond hunger and pizza wasn't the anwser. Luckily I had an old banana left over and some dried fruit and she ate this. We chose to head back just as the heavens opened. We were thankful to find that the tuk tuks are more like black cabs and have a lot more protection around you from the elements. It even had a little windscreen wiper! Our cottage was lovley but sleep didn't come easy. The temperature steamed and dropped with wild abandon so I was up to DAisy covering her and uncovering her. She was in her cot on the floor so I also kept vigil unless an ant carried her off! With getting in and out of the mosquito net, I inadvertently left it exposed to the cockroach that later made its appearance in my hair! For those that live in Australia you will understand the size of cockroach that I am talking about. I settled into a fitful sleep around 5am once Chris and I had decided that this really wasn't for us at this stage in our lives and made plans to up sticks. We all slept then til 8am and wandered up to the kitchen and had some lovely toast and jam surrounded by quite the menagerie of cats and dogs, much to Daisy's absolute delight. We then headed off to another beach.
Saturday afternoon saw us heading off to Goa. This is about half way up the west coast toward Bombay and takes aobut an hour and a half. We flew Kingfisher airlines, in a turbo prop and had one of the best flights that we have had in years. Before take off we all got a little zip up bag of goodies, pens included. Flying over Bangalore was a little precarious as the monsoon winds manifest themselves as turbulance here so while I was white knuckle gripping the arm rests, Chris had his head to the window and giving a running commentary of what he could see! It wasn't long before we were fed and watered and the coast was coming into view. We wanted to catch a government taxi as we had to travel over an hour down the coast and wanted to be safe. There was some mix up and so the taxi people outsourced to the neighbouring vehicle hire company or something like that. We were soon issued with our driver and found ourselves hurtling down the highway. There was obviously a fire somewhere or the driver thought we were in a hurry. It has to be by far the most harrowing drive we have had yet in India. Conversation dwindled to nothing within minutes as we realised that we faced potential death. Requests to slow down didn't seem to make any difference. We were overtaking on blind bends and screeching the tired around corners. We braced ourselves as best we could and held onto Daisy tightly as we flew over potholes. After an hour of this we reached our destination quite exhausted. We were staying in an ashram in a small fishing village. If you visit the website then you will see why on earth we chose to stay here www.bhaktikutir.com. 
We had a lovely stone cottage surrounded by lush tropical foliage. We even had a solid floor, electricity, a ceiling fan and a western sit down toilet. At the front was this verandah that you could sit out on and gaze at the palm trees. Because of the overgrowth everything dripped either from the humidity or the rain. Our cottage was lovely and cool. It had a big double bed with a hessian mattress and an old mosquito net. The room was lovely but one downside was that the bathroom was separated from the bed by a small partition wall. Unfortuately Chris chose this weekend to succumb to dribbly bottom syndrome. I think that this is the 'for better or for worse' part of the marriage vows! (note: Chris is up to day five now of his 'condition' so we have started him on antibiotics. I am not sure if it is bacterial or protazoal so will just keep trialing drugs until something works!) Another thing that amazed us was the size of the ants, or small wildebeast would be a more apt description. After settling in and unpacking scrabble we headed off to find a resturant. The caretaker said to walk along the beach to the main village and we would be right. So following her instructions we found ourselves climbing down a small cliff, skirting around a swamp, backtracking because of the the incoming tide and climbing over rocks. Still now sign of resturants or anything. We were in the heart of our little village which consisted of houses made from woven grasses and boats and nets. We found our way back to the ashram and ordered a rickshaw. We headed to Palolem beach as described by the lonely planet ' a sweeping crescent of white sand fringed by a shady rim of coconut palms is postcard perfect'. This isn't exactly what we found.
We know that this is monsoon season and not the tourist hub but the beach was really dirty. it wasn't german tourists that you had to fight with to get spot but cow pats!! There was dog poo and cow poo for as far as the eye could see. The beach was als very littered with all manner of general rubbish. We had trouble seeing beyond this to the magical place we were led to believe existed. Daisy did manage to dip her toes, and then her legs and then her bottom in the sea. She absolutely loved it after the first bit of trepidation. Then nothing would abate her hunger so we headed off to eat. Not much was open but we did find a nice little italian resturant and ordered pizza. Our fellow travellers consisted of what looked like 12 year olds, all in tie dye and having a joint before dinner. By the time our dinner arrived Daisy was beyond hunger and pizza wasn't the anwser. Luckily I had an old banana left over and some dried fruit and she ate this. We chose to head back just as the heavens opened. We were thankful to find that the tuk tuks are more like black cabs and have a lot more protection around you from the elements. It even had a little windscreen wiper! Our cottage was lovley but sleep didn't come easy. The temperature steamed and dropped with wild abandon so I was up to DAisy covering her and uncovering her. She was in her cot on the floor so I also kept vigil unless an ant carried her off! With getting in and out of the mosquito net, I inadvertently left it exposed to the cockroach that later made its appearance in my hair! For those that live in Australia you will understand the size of cockroach that I am talking about. I settled into a fitful sleep around 5am once Chris and I had decided that this really wasn't for us at this stage in our lives and made plans to up sticks. We all slept then til 8am and wandered up to the kitchen and had some lovely toast and jam surrounded by quite the menagerie of cats and dogs, much to Daisy's absolute delight. We then headed off to another beach. 
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