Gokarna is untainted by tourism place where the streets are full of life...

Our hut

Gokarna is untainted by tourism place where the streets are full of life. Everywhere stalls with colorful jewelry and fried in hot oil sweeties. Local shopkeepers are not trying to convince to enter      their shops. You can walk through the streets without anyone nagging.

When we got to Kudle Beach after hike over the hill our faces brightened up. Half an hour walk with heavy backpacks up and down got paid off with a view of this peaceful paradise.  This tiny and abounded piece of beach is surrounded by hills that makes is being a hidden treasure. People here is an interesting crowd. Some of them are doing yoga, others dance with a hula hoop. You can see beautiful  performances of acrobats and dancers. Kudle Beach feels like taken from a movie about hippies in the 60s. When night falls, people are going back to their hats. Only few like us are still enjoying the sky full of stars and  listening to the bongos. 

One of many visitors

Palolem is a small village at the very end of the Goa...

 

Bus accident

  Palolem is a small village at the very end of the Goa. Before we got back to the seaside we have experienced some accident. While driving down the hill bus got broken in the middle of the reservation.  They told us to abort the vehicle and wait for next bus to come. While waiting several hours we were watching cars and trucks passing by. After some time a bus appeared. The idea was to get in to this almost full vehicle but with the decision of the majority this one will take women and children only. And there was me, the only woman left behind. While sitting on the pavement I was praying inside that none of these men will get any stupid idea. Luckily nothing happened. We took another full bus that arrived and few hours standing basically on one foot we finally got back to Margao covered in sweat and totally exhausted. The next day we left to Palolem.

When we get out of the bus, owners of huts started fighting for us. We choose to follow the one who says no word. Turns out it was a great choice. We end out in a cottage for 300 rupees only. Palolem was a short stop before we left to Karnataka. Goodbye Goa! We will miss you!

This is how you drink coffee in India

One of our activities

When we arrived, Hampi was basking in the sunset light....

When we arrived Hampi was basking in the sunset light. Once we found our accommodation we went to see the sunset on one the rocks overlooking the Hampi. To fully understand the energy of this place you need to come here to experience that 

on your own. While sitting and watching magical sunset surrounded by ancient buildings, leftovers of centuries and monkeys who were enjoying this moment as they were people, I was overwhelmed and speechless.  

Hampi is a tiny village but its surroundings are spread all over. To be able to see everything we wanted we rented a bikecycles. We were cycling between the rocks,ruins and banana fields. The heat was unbearable but that didn’t take away the excitement and happiness that was with us the whole time while being there. The next morning I went to see the sunrise and meditate on one the rocks. I wasn’t able to focus, I had million thoughts but feeling that was accompanying me was extremely good. After that I felt relaxed. The morning after I decided to change the venue of my meditation and I went to the rooftop of our hotel and then on top the rock that was just beside it. To be able to get there I had to fight my fear and crawl underneath the tiny crevice. The effort was worth I cleared my head and I let myself to be completely relaxed.  After 15 minutes I felt like a newborn. 

We arrived a couple days ago to beautiful village called Benaulim....

We arrived a couple days ago to beautiful village called Benaulim. After two days of sightseeing we felt exhausted and too tired to continue. Benaulim turned out to be the perfect escape. White and empty beach just a few meters away from our coco hut made this very enjoyable place.

Ponda- place we went to before we arrived to Benaulim was another loud and busy place but only 2 km from it we found a spice plantation where we went for a tour on which we found out many interesting facts about spices and fruits growing there.

Center of Benaulim is quite far away from a beach but that didn’t discourage us to go there every day. It was a tiny place with only a few streets. Much quieter than Arambol and any other villages in Goa. The path to the center was surrounded by green fields with rice.

On of the many walks to the village we found a quiet cafe where we stop by to have a coffee and pancakes. The owner invited us to join him drinking his homemade alcohol fenny. We spent a nice evening listening to his plans about travelling.

Jirka and his biggest fan- Trilok

Our days could have been quiet without any noisy locals bothering us while sitting on the beach if we didn’t make friends with Trilok or more precisely if Jirka didn’t make a friend with him. This particular Indian was very special. He knew a few words: beach, hotel, bike, sun and he kept repeating it over and over again with some gestures just in case we didn’t know what is he talking about. Whenever Jirka was coming out of a hut Trilok was following him to have a conversation with him.

When we were leaving Benaulim,early in the morning, he run after us with tears in his eyes to walk us to the rickshaw. 

After the big disappointment that we met in Anjuna...

After the big disappointment that we met in Anjuna we are in Calangute. It’s our third and last day here.

Anjuna was tiny, messy and quite unfriendly village. There was no place to escape the heat and we couldn’t even hide anywhere since our temporary home was a tent on top of the roof.

Our roomate

After a sleepless night I woke up sick. Feeling nauseous I had to spend an hour in hot and bumpy bus to Calangute. While trying to find an accommodation we stop next to the hotel where I was resting and Jirka negotiating the price. It was too high and I was willing to keep going and then owner of the hotel showed up again. He saw me nearly dying in front of his property. He offered 600 RPS that we could accept that.I could rest in the spacious and chill room.One day and I was completely fine. 

The next day I had an energy to go for a day trip to Panaji where we got disappointed again, “the cutest city of India” as the guide book described turned out to be nothing more than ordinary. The pick of a day  was a visit to the Mahalaxim Temple. We are leaving Calangute tomorrow and we are going inland to Ponda.

Chilli prawns in our favorite dhaba in Calangute

 

Panaji

It has been a week in Arambol....

It has been a week in Arambol . I will miss that place and people we came across like Sona- our cook, waiter, housekeeper, receptionist. His laugh  made me smile every time. This tinny toothless man was one of the most warmhearted people I ever met. Seeing him every morning brought to our life a bit of sunshine.

Sona

But the queen of a laughter was Lina.  This 50 years old Norwegian rail worker from Bodo with a husky voice and crazy hair had many stories to tell and we loved to listen to her. Our friend accompanied us many times during our meals providing us entertainment.

Being a woman in this country is difficult....

Being a woman in this country is difficult. Men treats you like an object. If you have white skin you are an exotic creature and Indian men won't hesitate to take a picture, touch you or even kiss you. I have witnessed or experienced myself their way of being. Several times I found myself feeling rather uncomfortable or disgusted. I was always a tough independent woman but here I feel like a small girl that needs a protection. My respect for single girls that travelling a world has raised. Good that I have Jirka with me, without him I would probably need to sit inside of my hut to avoid situations like those I have described above. Evenings are especially challenging here, it's a time when men coming out to fish for girls that are on the beach without male company.

During nights I feel safe as I'm never left alone, even when Jirka is not around I have a guardian- ginger dog that  always comes every night to sit with us. He won't let anyone near us, barking at everybody who is passing by.

Meet Pepe

Pepe is a walnut. Yes, correct, he is a walnut. That's what happen when you have nutcases at your work and you one of the biggest one among them. Things like that happen on a daily basis and no one in the office was surprised when he appeared in our life.

Pepe was a great companion, he never asked for food or money, he pretty much never asked for anything. We had great hopes and expectations related to his presence. At the end he spent most of his time in India closed inside of my bag. 

Below some pictures from the time he wasn't a prison of my bag:

                        Big thanks to aunt Luisina who gave him a name, before he was nameless. 

We arrived to Arambol late....

We arrived to Arambol late but we didn't have to look for a hut too long. The very first sign "FREE HUTS"  we saw was our lucky one. The owner and his brother took us on their bikes to our lovely hut. We dumped our backpacks on the floor and run to the beach. Happiness that accompanied us is difficult to describe and only we could measure it. While sitting on the sand and watching the sea we heard music coming out from the distance. We decided to check out what is happening. We saw a crowd surrounding the Russian artist singing Hindi songs. I felt so distanced from reality. People were dancing around the fire and the energy of this place was so powerful that I wanted to stay in this state forever.

Next morning we woke up and we went discover our beach in the daylight. People were meditating and doing yoga. It is really peaceful here and if only Indians could leave us to enjoy that.  The moment we sat on the towel someone would come and try to sell jewelry, clothes, DVDs etc. Occasionally someone would like to clean our ears or offer the message. As a newbies we were very polite but still strong enough to refuse.

After loooong breakfast time for relax

In the evening we went swimming in the sunset and pretty much we did that every day since it was a part of our daily routine: morning swim, long breakfast, some relax with a book, walk, nap, dinner, sunset swim and sitting in the night with our ginger dog drinking beer and listening to Nada Surf.

                               

On our way to Goa

Today was our last day in Mumbai and what day would that be without a bit of adrenaline and a pinch of craziness.

When early in the morning we went to Churchgate we found that it is not a station from where we expected to take our train to Goa. Not loosing a time we got a rickshaw to the Mumbai Central Station. We had only 15 minutes to reach the correct station but our driver almost like a race car driver sped through the streets of sleepy Mumbai.

At the place we found that the Mumbai Central Station was also not the station where our train departs and unfortunately we had to continue our crazy race with a time.

Our driver didn't speak much and his response to our constant question: "Are we going to make it?", was: "Shhhhh!!!".

Cover in sweat and completely exhausted we reached the station from where we took the train to Goa.

Today for the first time I smelled India...

Today for the first time I smelled India. It was a sweet haze of sandalwood and spices. This pleasant for our noses scent accompanied us since we left the building of the airport and stayed with us for the rest of our stay in this big city. Mumbai turned out to be as expected, mix of noises and colors. It's a city where every driver knows how to use his horn and they uses it exhaustively. It's rather impossible to escape from that sound since you can hear it from everywhere.

We were travelling for nearly 24 hours but we didn't want to wait, we wanted to start living the Indian life right away. We could have taken a taxi but that would it be too easy for us. After long bargain the price of rickshaw, we finally found one crazy eyed guy who didn't speak English, tried to cheat us and has been driving like a maniac. When we finally end up on desirable station we took the public train. The journey was rather shocking, you could see poverty everywhere. If that was not enough all of the eyes were turned into our direction. Everyone on the train was closely observing two white tourists who were crazy enough to take this form of transportation.

Jirka's room at Salvation Army

  Our hostel- Salvation Army was smelly, dirty place, full of tourists who exactly like we were looking for something exciting that would change their lives.

Our meal

 I wasn't able to fall asleep. I was keeping asking  myself: "what the hell I'm doing here?" but all those  negative feelings and confusion disappeared once I  woke up and saw Mumbai with a different  approach.

India is not a place for a princesses who are disgusted by eating a kebab on the street surrounded by garbage like we did last night. However India is a lot to take, it's difficult to watch naked babies lying on the streets and seeing horribly skinny beggers but I had to become immune to that to fully enjoy my trip.

Birth of the idea

When we spoke about our plans my one was to go to New Zealand, his was India. Who would it thought that I will change my mind and join Jirka on his journey to this beautiful Asian country. We didn’t know each other very well. For a few months we were sitting face to face in the office, not knowing a single thing about our lives. It was quite bizarre and crazy idea to go together yet so spontaneously. We were both suffocating from lack of creativity and enormous amount of monotony in our daily lives. We both wanted something new and exciting; India seemed to be the place to find those things.