We haven't been as busy as we were in the first two weeks although we still have alot to report! After letting all the trouble pass in Mumbai we got a sleeper coach from Udaipur to Mumbai. If you've never seen an Indian sleeper coach, think of it as row of chicken cages full of squashed people, but not laying eggs! We left Udaipur at 4pm expecting to arrive in Mumbai at 7am, with our train booked from Mumbai to Goa at 11:40am. But in India, time is irrelevent to everyone. Nothing runs on time and everyone just takes life as it comes. Which is great, if you don't have a train to catch!! So after stopping at every service station between Udaipur and Mumbai (all of which had no lights in the toilets) we arrived in Mumbai at 12 midday. However, whilst almost everything in India ignores the relevance of time, trains leave exactly when they're supposed to. So, our first dilemma in Mumbai, how to get train tickets in an Indian train station with no air con unveiled itself.

We spent a very long 4 hrs or so in Mumbai station before finally managing to get some reserved seats on a train later that day. The train was actually quite pleasant compared to the battery farm we had just been travelling in. As we had originally planned to get to goa that night, we had a hotel booked already, but by the time we got to goa it was nearly 4am, we were suffering from lack of sleep and starvation and just desperately wanted a bed lol! So, we got straight in a rickshaw from the station and said 'hotel saaj please', only to find that when we got there, it was closed. We coudln't even get in. Luckily the driver knew another place where we could rest our weary heads! We were now in the centre of a busy town in central goa called Madgaon.

Madgaon was a world away from the north of India, it seemed to be full of smiling faces and was much cleaner than everywhere we'd been so far. After catching up on sleep and doing some much needed washing, we thought we'd treat ourselves to a decent meal in an actual restaurant rather than a shack. Kav expressed that he thought it would be really cool if there was a storm and a blackout, so we would be stranded in the restaurant and forced to eat all the curries on the menu, untill the storm had passed. Famous last words!
No sooner than leaving the restaurant, the rain came with a vengence, and its not even supposed to be the monsoon season. It rained so hard and so fast that the roads turned into rivers, causing a massive blackout (which kav found very exciting- he even started taking pictures of the darkness). By the time we got back to the hotel, we were a see through pair of drowned rats, soaked to the skin. But the strangest thing was that we were laughing about it and really didn't care! We even had a litle dance in the middle of a road! Since we arrived in India we had constantly been rushing to get from one place to another and not really taking the time to just take it all in and have fun. So with all the bad things about the north of India put behind us, the south was very welcoming to a couple of weathered travellers!

After getting the journey out of our systems and feeling less like chickens, we headed to the north of Goa to see some of the beaches. We stopped in a place called Anjuna, which was a quiet beach resort, where the clear water was lined with Palm trees and candle lit beach huts that served local seafood. After noticing most of the people around us being extremely relaxed, we smelt something more than just fishy! We later found out that the beach was nicknamed "Hippies Paradise" for its easy access to drugs and glow in the dark pictures of Bob Marley!

Our next stop was one of the main beaches in Goa called Callangute. It was an Indian version of Blackpool. So we made a very swift exit south to Colva, near to Madgaon where we initially started. This was another very busy beach, so we begain trekking down the beach with our 15kg rucksacks on in a 38 degree heat looking for a quiet beach. 15 minutes and a bucket of perspiration later, we arrived at a small restaurant that had a few rooms going cheap, so we booked in for the 3 best nights of our lives... not! In short, we had severe food poisening that resulted in fluid loss in all directions and we only left our room to get more loo roll and water! All we kept saying was "I want my mummy's stew and dumplings!" or "I want my mummy's home-made leek and potato soup!".

Which brings us to today! After almost a full recovery, were going to have some fun in the sun with the abundance of cool sea creatures! There's starfish and hermit crabs everywhere, woop woop!

We'll try and put some pics on later today after we've been to the beach. Well even put one up of Kermit the Hermit, our new travel buddy!

So for now, its goodbye from your brave travellers, we'll be in touch sooner rather than later :-)
xxx

written by  Kav & Sara on December 6, 2008 from Goa, India
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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We've done a little bit of nomadic travelling recently, followed by a bit of a lazy stretch! After going Goan, we headed to a small town called Alleppey, which lies on the south west coast of India. We had heard so much about backwater trips we thought we would give it a go. Not only did we escape the constant request for money, but we were in one of the most beautiful places we've ever been. The backwaters of Alleppey have become known as the Venice of the East, and it probably wouldn't be overshadowed by Venice. The views are spectacular. The rivers branch off in all directions, straddled by paddy fields and small huts in which families live. After finding out that the people of Alleppey don't eat, and having no restaurants or cafes anywhere, we were pleasantly surprises with the food we had on the house boat. Fresh fish served with rice, chappati's, and an Indian potato salad was just the ticket! We watched the sunset as we floated on the still backwaters.
The escape from reality was short lived as we only spent one night on the house boat before we had to head to Trivandrum. We decided to do this in style and travel like a local on one of the state buses. Not for the faint hearted! Aside from the heat and the sweatiness, some bright spark had fitted the loudest horn in the world INSIDE the bus, approximately 3 foot from our ears. This would be ok, but Indians use the horns more often than they spit, and thats alot! But hey, for 50p each to travel 200km, we shouldn't complain, but we will, cos we can :)
After getting annoyed at the sparsity of food on the streets of Alleppey, we were grateful to find a few restaurants in Trivandrum. No sooner did we find them did we find out that we couldn't order anything without chilli's! Even the plain scrambled egg was served with chilli. But wow, they know how to make ice cream!! The ice cream cost twice as much as the meal, but absence of the chilli's was immense!! As our flight to Thailand is on the 26th from Trivandrum, we wanted to stay pretty close. We were desperate to see some wildlife so we got on another state bus and headed to Vithura, a small town close Peppara Wildlife sanctuary. Big mistake! This town had never seen tourists, and one and a half white people was enough for over one hundred school kids to stop and stare and point and laugh. The one thing we realised was that in small villages that aren't used to foreigners can be very unwelcoming. With them not knowing any English, and us not knowing any Indian, we were stuck. So after an hour of milling around trying to find food without chilli's in, we became so frustrated and angry, we paid a large some to head to Neyyar Dam Wildlife Sanctuary. We arrived in the dark and went to one of the only hotels there were, which was right near the dam. Shortly before going to bed, we heard some strange growling, we joked that it was a lion or a tiger outside our room, but settled thinking that they were playing it through speakers around the hotel. When we woke up, we realised how close we were to nature. An excited little girl shouted "Oh my god the view is amazing!", although at 8am a tired little boy replied "go back to bed". The balcony overlooked the lake, which was surrounded by what looked like a rainforest! Not knowing where to go, or what to do, we headed to the wildlife tourist information centre. Here, we met a few other travellers who were also a little confused about what to do, so we all stuck together. Once we had a group of ten, we headed over to the lion safari park, via boat as it was enclosed on an island. Once we arrived on the island, we all piled in to a small bus, which was covered in bars to protect us. Although several safety precautions were put in place, the one thing they forgot was to lock the door!!! As soon as we entered the enclosure, the door flung open and we screamed! They had no way of keeping the door shut, so kav jumped to the rescue with a shoe lace! A few reef knots later...and we were on the move again. Because of the tiger safari in Ranthambou, with no tigers, we weren't really expecting to see much. How wrong we were!! This was one of the best experiences ever, we were within touching distance of a family of three lions.....WOW! The excitement didn't stop there either, as we got a free lift with some people from Middlesbrough to the elephant rehabilitation centre. After riding and feeding an elephant, we came away feeling very content and privilaged.
After seeing what we came to see in Neyyar, we headed further south to Kovalam, a coastal town with more tourists than Blackpool Pleasure Beach! We decided to stay here for a few days as the amenities were great: swimming pool, crystal clear sea, sand, and last but not least excellent food, fresh seafood every night mmmmmmm. We are now staying here till Christmas day, which we'll be spending at the zoo :0).

So have a jolly Crimbo Chaps,
get stuffed and eat as much as you can!

P.S. Don't forget to tune in for the queens speech, we wouldn't miss it for the world!! hehe
xxx xxx xxx

written by  Kav & Sara on December 22, 2008 from Kollam, India
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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