Goan to the beach!!

With the extended two week break from training and no other work-related obligations I was forced to find something to do after my return from Hampi.  After narrowing my search to the cheapest airfare’s of the destinations I want to visit, the list was narrowed to Mumbai and Goa.  Mumbai would have been nice, but not nearly as relaxing as Goa so with some stressful training days ahead, the decision was easily made.

After an overnight train back to Hyderabad, I turned around and flew to Goa for my first solo India experience.  Considering the fact that I didn’t really plan the trip in advance, it couldn’t have turned out better.  After arriving at the airport which is quite a long way from anything, I took a taxi to Panjim to stay in a larger city.  I picked the central cathedral as my drop-off spot and hence began the cathedral tour of this former Portuguese colony.   

 A big, tasty Indian dinner was eaten at a surprisingly modern, but reasonably priced restaurant.  That night, I stayed in a nice family-run hotel and really enjoyed the mother who managed it along with her two daughters.  They were extremely helpful and very knowledgeable.  If you end up in Panjim, check out the Mayfair Hotel.

The following morning was pretty rainy, so I didn’t get a very early start.  Eventually, I made it over to Old Goa which for the most part is abandoned apart from a couple massive cathedrals and a few other religious sites interspersed throughout the area.   

 Particularly interesting were the ruins of the Monastery of St. Augustine.  Restoration efforts have done much to preserve the area, but much of the vegetation was allowed to grow so it’s a very quiet, peaceful place that might remind a visitor of the ruins of Cair Paravel for anyone familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia.

It didn’t take long to see Old Goa, so I then made my way over to the coast to see Fort Aguada and then find a place to spend the night on the beach but not before enjoying a rum carmelized banana.  Why isn't this a staple option on every dessert menu in the U.S.?

Fort Aguada offers some nice views of the bay and the coastline, but I wouldn’t recommend going to see the jail as it is still in use although seeing it might be a sufficient deterrent necessary to motivate someone to avoid engaging in nefarious activities.  That evening I checked into a nice place near the beach and enjoyed a delicious dinner with authentic Rajasthani music and dancing.

In the morning, I walked down the beach to see the huge tanker that ran aground only a few hundred yards from shore.

It’s quite impressive, don’tcha think?  My next goal was to rent a scooter that I could take overnight to the north coast.  This ended up working out fairly well, but it required a good-sized deposit.  The couple I rented the scooter from were really helpful and very friendly.  If I ever make it back there I’ll stay with them!  With the scooter secured I was off to see the northern beaches.  I stopped at all the beaches along the way, but wanted to make sure I made it to Anjuna to see the Wednesday flea market.  I made it to Anjuna by mid-afternoon and was able to take in most of the large, open-air market that is adjacent to the beach.  It was amazing to see how many people had things to sell and the diversity of everything.

It was a colorful and fun experience, though I was glad the beach was nearby to allow a slight respite from the chaos!  I hadn’t planned on purchasing anything, but ended up walking away with a nice wooden chess set, a pair of shorts and a pair of swim trunks.  All told, I spent a total of about $20.  From Anjuna, I went to up to Arambol where I was planning to spend the night.  It was a lovely ride along the coast and through some small villages.  With the sun setting it was particularly beautiful.  Arriving in Arambol, I set out to try to find the seaside cocohuts recommended by Lonely Planet.  Unfortunately, this proved to be much more difficult than anticipated and nearly resulted in me seriously damaging the scooter and/or myself when I rode up a path intended only for walking and rode across a wooden plank to get over a small irrigation canal.  Needless to say, it didn’t work out well for the home team.  Eventually, I made it up to the cocohuts after finding out that it was a 10 minute hike to get to them!  It was already dark when I arrived, so I took the only offer I got which was for something a little more secure, but a lot less cool than a cocohut.  The restaurant there served a killer tuna melt sandwich that went amazingly well with the avocado salad (basically guacamole).  The downside to staying here was that between my concern about the scooter and the warnings I’d received about the drug problem in the area, I didn’t sleep too well.  Once morning broke, I did some exploring and found a nice secluded beach nearby.  Breakfast at the German Bakery was good, but the prices had gone up considerably from those quoted in L.P.  After breakfast, I hit the road and went back south to Candolim where I had rented the scooter.  Before dropping it off I stopped at the local 5-star Taj resort for the lunch buffet, only to be disappointed in the quality of the food.  The folks who rented me the scooter also gave me a good offer on a taxi ride to south Goa, so I took them up on the offer.  Of course it took about 2 hours to make it all the way to Palolem, but once we got there I felt right at home.  The pace there is a little slower and the people were more laid back.  It also had a lot of western tourists which made me feel more at home.  There were a number of restaurants all along the beach, so after a romantic stroll down the beach in the moonlight by myself I decided to try some real Goan food.  It was spicy, but pretty tasty and just what I needed before heading off to bed.

The following morning was my only true day of lounging on the beach.  Again I walked down the beach and over to the smaller Putnem beach where I had a great “Mexican” breakfast and a banana crepe.  After breakfast I made my way back to Palolem to enjoy a little swim and do some chillin’!  It really turned out to be a nice, relaxing way to end my vacation so I’m glad it worked out for me to at least sneak in a one-day scouting trip to south Goa.  If I ever go back, I’m definitely spending more time in south Goa!  Thus ends the “Operation Relaxation” chapter of my time in India and now the real work begins, so please don’t hold your breath for my next blog post.  It may not come for another 3 months…

Hampi (pronounced Hum-pee of course)

After my six grueling weeks in the classroom studying subjects from piston engines to western disturbances to the mental dead reckoning and seemingly everything else under the sun, I was ready for a little break.  Fortunately, my 2+ weeks off happened to coincide with a planned trip organized by a mutual friend.  It ended up being quite an interesting, fun, and relaxing break that included a lot of “firsts” for me like my first Indian train ride, my first scooter ride and my first meal on a banana leaf.  We started the adventure by taking an overnight train that arrived in the early morning at a town near Hampi.  A long rickshaw (a.k.a. auto) ride later and we dropped at the riverbank in Hampi to await the short boat ride to the other side.  This was the first taste of what has been appropriately described as a magical place.  It truly is an amazing blend of historically relevant structures and an incredibly unique landscape of boulders and implausible rock formations interspersed throughout fields of rice paddies or banana trees or sugar cane or who knows what.  The scene on the riverbank with rays of sunlight casting themselves through the massive rock formations onto the shadowy darkness was simply beautiful.  Reflections of the riverside ghats (people bathing/washing their clothes) were intermingled with a backdrop of boulders, clouds, sunlight, trees, and ancient ruins that only added to the peaceful aura of Hampi.

After checking into our accommodations on the other side of the river, we made our way back across with hopes of renting scooters to see some of the outlaying sights.  It took some time to find enough scooters for everyone and since most of us had never ridden one before a little training was required.  In retrospect, I find it ironic that I must sign 20 pieces of paper to set up a mobile phone, but didn’t sign anything to rent the scooter!  Oh and each scooter cost us less than $4 per day!  A couple of the scooter-wallas (guys) took us out to some purported waterfalls.  While there really weren’t any waterfalls to speak of, it was a beautiful hike out onto the rocky riverbed that was made up of huge boulders. 

After a good lunch at the local Italian restaurant (what I mean by that is only that they serve Italian food) we hopped on the scooters and rode out of town.  Not too long into the ride, our large group of 8 or so scooters got separated.  With daylight fading and fuel running low a group of us rode off on an exploratory tour that ended up being a fun little adventure.

  We rode down a dirt road through a number of fields before taking a random path towards some enormous rock formations that were quickly becoming silhouettes.  It ended up being a path along an irrigation canal and probably was the highlight of the day for me, although afterward I felt bad after we found the rest of the group waiting for us at an intersection because they had spent a good deal of time trying to track us down.  At this point with our tanks nearly on empty and the last rays of sunlight fading into oblivion we made our way back into town.  It made for a long, but fun day we had dinner with little delay and then retired for the evening.

The next day we again rented scooters, but this time on our side of the river.  The landscape was much the same although we did try to make the most of the day by seeing as many of the landmarks as we could.  The first stop of the day we were met by countless monkeys.  For some reason I think I could have been entertained for hours by watching them chase each other and swing fearlessly from branch to branch high above the ground.  A part of me wanted to partake in the action, but fear would have gotten the best of me I’m afraid!  There was also a serene lake and a man-made pond covered with lily pads.

The next stop was another shrine or temple of some sort.  It required some hiking, but once we got to the top we had a nice view of the surrounding land.  We didn’t spend much time there and soon-after set out for our next destination.  We ended up in a small village eventually making our way to a large open flat, marshy land with a small stream running through it.  Again there were ghats washing clothes and the remnants of past civilizations.  Oh and of course lots of cows.  There were also children playing on walls that were hundreds, if not thousands of years old.  They saw us and made the most of the opportunity because they were celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali, which is something like a mix of Christmas and the 4^th of July.  It’s a festival of lights so many houses and buildings are lit up colorfully and of course there are firecrackers.  The kids did the best they could to frighten the foreigners and were quite successful.  Nothing like being scared away by a bunch of 9-year olds right?  Well, it wasn’t quite like that, but at least it sure makes for a good story!  While we were on the banks of this stream we saw an impressive structure in the distance up the stream some distance.  We then sought to make our way to this place and after eventually finding it we were disappointed to find that it was closed or at least it appeared to be closed.  If that old lady had not pushed the gates open for us we would never have known any better!  We basically had the temple compound or whatever it was to ourselves, so after enjoying the nice view and taking a few photos, we made our way down to the stream.  There we found a lot of kids goofing off as kids anywhere will do.   By this time we were about ready to eat, so after a brief ride out of town we came back to see the “Queen’s Palace” and have lunch.  It turns out that we had driven past the Queen’s Palace earlier in the day, but hadn’t really noticed it because it just wasn’t all that impressive.  More interesting was the large group of little kids playing in the adjacent field.  As soon as they saw our cameras, they all wanted their pictures taken and some of them even climbed up onto our scooters for a better photo op! 

 Before I knew it I was swarmed by kids and everyone else had left for lunch.  I was so enjoying myself that I would’ve been happy to skip lunch to “watch the scooters” even though I really just wanted to hang out with the kids a little longer.  Then someone realized I was missing and came back for me, so I said bye to the kiddos and joined the rest of the gang for an authentic meal served on banana leaf.  There was some rice, fried peppers, something pickled, curd, and a red powder of some sort.

Après lunch we scooted on out of town and did some more riding through the countryside—fields and villages.  This ride ended at Hanaman’s Temple, which is perched atop a pretty significant rocky hill.  It provides a great view particularly at sunrise or sunset and oh by the way, there are monkeys!  Once again I found myself amused by these monkeys who were not swinging from tree branches, but from rock to rock!

It was rather impressive, but this was not something I’d be interested in trying myself.  We hurried down hundreds of steps hoping to make it back before dark, but we couldn’t quite pull it off.  Fortunately, everyone made it back safely and after a good dinner and long day in the sun we called it an evening.

The following day was intended for seeing the numerous historical sites, but my body chose rest and relaxation for most of the morning.  The outdoor breakfast area had a great view overlooking the riverbed and the distant rocky peaks, so it was hard to resist a lazy morning of card playing with friends.  By the time I got going, it was too late to do much of anything and because the river had swelled as a result of the dam upstream releasing water, it took some time for our boat to reach the other side.  At this point it was already time for lunch so we went to the Mango Tree which everyone had been highly touted and definitely met expectations.

The late lunch meant that I wouldn’t have time to see everything I wanted to see unless I hired an auto, but instead I chose to do what I could on foot.  This was pretty limiting as the main attractions are spread out by 3 or more kms.

I saw plenty of ruins and enjoyed imagining what the Royal Centre must have been like at its’ pinnacle.  Again I ran out of daylight and barely made it back in time to meet the rest of the crew for dinner at our favorite little Italian joint in Hampi.  It was a great way to finish a relaxing, but fun excursion from Hyderabad before catching the train home.