Well, we finally made it to the beach - and not a day too soon! We haven't
really been completely forthright in how sick we have been since coming to
India: first there was my sore throat and fever, then Eric and I had
vicious colds for a week, and then with my sore throat not going away I took
a course of antibiotics. After that it was surviving in the heat of the
desert, and then a few days later we got food poisoning and spent a whole
evening with our heads over the eastern toilet. Then a bout of diarreha for
me - only since we have been here relaxing do we finally feel 100%!
Getting to the beach required some effort - all the trains out of Udaipur
(Octopussy city) were booked, and after our horrific overnight bus to get
there we weren't keen to get on a bus any time soon - let alone overnight.
So, to my dismay, we took an airplane, which in a one hour flight saved us
two full days of travel. The flight was actually a bit bumpy, but I sucked
it up pretty well. We flew to Aurangabad to visit the Ellora and Ajanta
caves.
Now, I had never heard about these caves before reading about them in the
Lonely Planet tour book, but they sounded like they are probably quite
famous. I must say, Eric and I were quite astounded at how incredible they
are. The are both a series of caves that have been carved into solid rock,
and were the living quarters and temples of groups of Buddihst, Hindu, and
Jain people. What made them so phenomenal was that they were series of
rooms filled with carved columns and sculptures inside - but all carved out
of the one piece of rock - nothing was brought in! The pinnacle was the
Kailasa Temple at the Ellora caves - it was virtually a small city all by
itself. For comparison, it covers twice the area of the Parthenon in
Athens, and is 1 1/2 times as high - and keep in mind this is all carved out
of the one stone!
The Ajanta caves were special for their paintings - beautiful images from
the life of Buddha. They aren't frescos - actually a layer of cow dung,
clay, and rice husk was applied first, and then a layer of lime - then the
painting, which was subsequently polished. Unfortunately a lot of them are
in an advanced state of deterioration, but you can still imagine how amazing
it must have looked when it was all new. Another highlight of our trip!
From Aurangabad we took the bus to Pune, and spent the afternoon there
waiting to catch the overnight (gulp) bus to Goa. Pune was interesting, as
it looked more like a city at home than anything we have seen in quite a
while. We actually succumbed and ate at Domino's pizza for lunch, followed
up by a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone - absolute heaven. We quickly visited
the sight of Gandhi's internment (complete with some of his ashes), as well
as a funky museum filled with every possible art artifact from India:
minature paintings to ivory playing cards to erotic nutcrackers to wooden
toys to enormous carved door frames.
The overnight bus turned out to be quite enjoyable (well, as enjoyable as an
overnight bus ride can be). Our driver was quite conservative, the road was
in good condition, and our seats folded down into a bonafide (though short
for Eric) bed. Granted, Eric did ask why our brakes squealled so bad each
time the driver touched them, but he was reassured that they worked just
fine.
So that brought us to Goa, the beautiful state in southern India with miles
and miles of white sand beaches and nothing to do. We headed to Colva,
where we had made tentative plans with our New Zealand friend Malcom back in
Nepal to meet up. We arrived early in the morning, a bit tired, but rather
than succumb to the highway robbery attempted by the rickshaw drivers ($0.75
to go 1 kilometer!) we walked on the beach to our chosen hotel. This turned
out to be good and bad - we got to see the fisherman in action, sorting fish
and going over their early morning catch; we also got to see the sea snakes
that they had inadvertantly caught in their nets - some as big and fat as
pythons. Eric even saw one wriggle back into the water. All I could think
of, after travelling for so long to get to the beach, was that I was NOT
going in that water!
Well, things got better from there. We have been here almost two weeks now,
and yes, we have gotten into the water - happily snake-free. We have
settled into a bit of a wonderful routine: sleep late, try and check e-mail
(which more than not is jammed) then slowly head out to our beach resort,
C'Rocque, where we meet up daily with our Kiwi friend Malcom, and a cast of
other friends as well as characters. After watching the sunset, we head out
to dinner, and then often late night drinking. Once in a while we mix it up
with a run on the beach, or watching cricket (yes, we have learned the rules
for cricket now as well as rugby). All this swimming, drinking, and
relaxing is wearing us out!
WE have taken two side trips - one up to Anjuna, to visit the flea market
held every Wednesday, and visit the two New Zealand women we met in Nepal as
well. What makes this travel so amazing, is that we hadn't made any hard
plans with them, and yet upon arriving in Anjuna, we ran into them almost
immediately on the beach. We also made another trip to Pallalum, another
beach to the south that the tour book characterizes as "impossibly
beautiful", and it was true: a little ring of a bay, surrounded by cocnut
palms that reach over the beach toward the water. Eric took a little hike
that required wading through some knee deep water, and was sure he would be
attacked by alligators along the way (not to worry, he got across fine).
So what else has happened? Well, we celebrated my 35th birthday in style -
Eric made the incredible effort to find me both roses and a birthday cake -
blazing with 35 candles (understand that it can be difficult to get matches,
much less a cake!). We celebrated with a big dinner with lots of friends,
though retired early due to staying out until 1 am the night before. Life
here is so hard...
So it goes on - our daily coconut, where for $0.25 the guy chops off the top
so you can sip out the milk, and then chops up the rest so you can eat all
the coconut meat inside; our daily pineapple, brought to us at the beach
every day by a woman carrying a bowl of fruit on her head - she then
proceeds to chop it up ready for eating right there.
Despite our illnesses, we have gotten a bit cavalier with our eating here -
we now daily consume chicken (the best tandori and chicken tikka we have
ever had), and have even stooped so low as to eat Goan sausage (similar to
chorizo). I must say that this influx of protein is making us feel great -
maybe Eric and I just are not destined for a vegetarian lifestyle...
And last, we see the end of the trip just around the corner. We constantly
switch back and forth between dying to be back, and not wanting to leave our
paradise here - it really feels like we are on the other side of the world!
Tomorrow we head further south, making our way to the tip of India. From
there we will fly to Sri Lanka and spend a day on the beach there before we
head back to Bangkok, and then home on the 29th (may sound convoluted, but
it was the only way we could get out of here!). We hope to send one last
message from Bangkok - if not we will wrap up our journey from the good old
USA.
Hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as we have!! Save some turkey for us
- we will have a slice of papaya for you!
Sue and Eric
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