Goa

Goa is a main destination of most western tourists......

SInce Goa is mostly christian, it is not uncommon to see
Indian women in western clothes instead of sarees

Traditional Goan food - Baji

Goan coffee - warm milk with 1teaspoon of coffee powder

We first went to Calangute, since we had arranged a couch there - a Turkish-Polish couple, living in Goa and teaching yoga

-Blessed are those, who are flexible, for they will not be bent over ! :-))

We made Calangute our base for few days and visited nearby cities (distances in Goa are really short compared to the rest of India).

• Panaji - Capital of Goa. Quite a nice little Portuguese-style town.

In the bus station

• Old Goa - former capital of Goa. What is left now are just grandiose churches next to each other, but that is really it.

• Mapusa - A market town. Market is quite interesting, but be careful with entering to the bus afternoon, because all buses are full and if you are not used to fight, you will be simply trampled on.

• Calangute itself is a party and tourism town. The beach is so full of Indian tourists, that it was almost as crazy as in Chennai Marina beach. Of course, Calangute beach is not recommended for western women for sunbathing and swimming - too many observers.

men...

women...

....and cows

One day, when going out in the morning and dropping by at the downstairs restaurant, one older guy turned to us and said: "So, we can continue our conversation from where we left yesterday."
"Sorry, but I think we meet for the first time."
"Ah, never mind, where are you going ?"
Anthony, as was the name of this peculiar man, started to talk with us as we were old friends. He told us many jokes, then we were talking about life and love, also he kept saying how lucky we are that we have each other.
He was a pleasant conversation partner. When we decided to continue our way, we asked if we can take a picture together. He immediately refused, wished us nice day and disappears. Then we realized - he was an elf, that jumped into our life, as quickly as he jumped out of it, at the same time reminded us what is important and basic wisdom of the life, that people ought to be reminded from time to time.

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• We went to the main train ticket booking office in Goa with the intention to book tickets from Mumbai to Rajastan. After paying 10 Rupees the service fee, it came out that we can not book the tickets in the place A, from the place B to the place C. Everywhere else in India this ABC scheme had worked, but all Goan booking office workers kept on saying that system won't allow.... It is really funny system in a country where booking the train tickets might be one of the most nerve-racking activity.

• We were not extremely facinated about Goa until we reached to our final destination in Goa - the most northern beach Arambol. There we rented a beach hut under the palm trees, for 200 Rs (ca. 3 Eur), with big bed, mosquito net, toilet and shower with hot water. Beach was just few steps away and not crowded by young Indian observers, but relatively empty, whereas most people were old hippies and other alternative people.

This was something close to what can be called Paradise........

our beach hut

Famous Wednesday Anjuna beach market

• Although.....one early morning when Branko went jogging to the beach, he came to an interesting food chain theory, when seeing Indian people, who were working in nearby beach restaurants and shops, shitting next to the water in line, just like the are usually shitting next to the railway in line. In this matter they did not have to carry small bucket with water with them, since the waves were gently wiping off their asses. By the time when westeners come to beach the shit is long already dissolved in the sea, giving the late breackfast to the fish. In the evening however, the unlucky fish caught from near the beach, will be served in expensive beach restaurants for tourists.....:-)))
  

Paradise or not, India will still be India !

Karnataka state

Mysore:

• we drove to Mysore in the second class train.... just to have this experience....it really was one. Besides fighting for the room, where to sit or stand, the family who sit next to us had hard time to figure out what kind of creatures are we . First of all the women were pitting Kadri, since she did not have any golden rings or any golden necklaces, even not a silver bracelet....they were then looking at Branko, what kind of man is he....if he would truely love her, he would buy her all kinds of jewelery....what kind of weird relations are there between white people.....

• One of the main curse for railway workers are peanuts - when the whole family buys a small bag of peanuts to each family member to loiter away the time, then soon the train floor is covered with peanut shells. Of course, in India, it is totally normal, because there will be always some slave who cleans after other slaves, who clean after another. And if two foreigners are looking at this with weird faces and taking pictures, then there must be something wrong with them...

• In Karnataka, the cows that have any white spots on their coats are the blessed ones, because only they can go through a total make-over, and after the dull white color takes the much brighter yellow color and vague color of horns become amazingly red, they look more attractive than any other holy animals.

• Accidentally we found a way to one culture house, where at the very moment was going on a children's dance competition. The children were great, but the organizational team of the competition and the moderator will have long way to develop. The most cute was a 5-year-old girl, who could still preformed a great show, even though her dance was disrupted three times due to music system shot-down.

• Mysore market is the best market in the whole India. It reminded us good old times in Iran.

fruit section

















banana section
















flower section










































color section


















Branko tried betel nut wrapped into betel leaf. It is a very common drug in India, which makes you relaxed and even little bit high, but the effect was more like when the dentist is injecting you anesthetic.

• Again we tried to protest against the fact that everywhere, where you need to buy a ticket, people with white skin have to pay ten times higher price than locals. But who would care for the protest of two insignificant poor backpackers, all other ATMs from western Europe and America buy the foreigner ticket with no longer thinking and are even happy to have gotten it for cheaper than a beer in the pub.

• Our visit up to the hill to Chamundi temple came out to be especially jolly, because of the big horde of monkeys, who stole food from almost every second temple visitor. We learned already on the first day in India, that it is not safe to walk around the temples, plastic bag with bananas or other eatable stuff in an hand. Some Indian people have still not learned it. And so it happens, that a young girl, seeing a monkey approaching to her, can only shout: "Papaa....," and gone the plastic bag is...

quite a similar figures


Some random pictures from Mysore:





















Plain dosa - rice pancake with coconut and lentil sauce.













Mysore is a city of palaces






















Bangalore:

• Bangalore has a big green park in the middle of the city, where local westerners are making afternoon walk with their luxurious dogs.

• Even though of being an IT-capital of the World, it is hard to find a Internet cafe in the city and when you happen to find one, which seam to be a high-sophisticated prepay place for using Internet, and you have been given two high-sophisticated "systems", then it can happen, that non of the "systems" works, and no high-educated Internet cafe keepers can fix the problem....

Hampi:

• Coming off in the Hospet train station, we felt again closer to the Northern India, and realizing that once again we probably have to enter to Northern India with a shock...

• Hampi village, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, is a geologically attractive place, but being at the same time touristically attractive, the money-atmosphere has ruined a lot of its historical-mysterious atmosphere. Even though we were able to find ourselves in an totally empty temple in the evening.
  

• There was a big festival about to take place in this small village. They expected about 1 million people taking part. We on the other hand escaped one day earlier. Many Indians asked us with excitement, of how many festivals have we taken part in India, but aside from all the places where we happen to be spontaneously during some people's gatherings, we were really afraid to take part any of bigger Indian festivals. Besides, anywhere you go in India, the street picture makes you feel like in the middle of a festival.....

preparations for the festival















drawing a mandala


Some more pictures from Hampi:

• Our train to Goa was suppose to leave very early in the morning. That left us two choices - either to stay in Hampy guest house and in the morning take a half an hour ride to Hospet train station with Rickshaw, whose driver would charge us double-triple price, or to try to get a resting room in the Hospet train station, save money and some more sleeping time. To get a train station resting room for 24 hours, you have to go there in the morning, to be sure that you get one, because during the day there is most of the times no chance. Somehow we realized that train station worker do not want to give resting rooms to white people, because even if you go there in the very early morning, they try to make you believe that all the resting rooms have been already given out. Branko however did not surrender that easily and after some fight with the station manager and promise to contact his boss, we finally had the key !
  

For everybody who are thinking of using the resting rooms in Indian train station:
Train station resting rooms are very convenient, as the cost the same as a cheap hotel and you don't have to fight with rickshaw drivers in the morning over the price, to catch your early train.
However, if the station manager trying to tell you 8-9 o'clock in the morning, that for coming night all the rooms are full......do not believe him and claim what you have a right to.















waiting for a train to Goa 5 o'clock in the morning.