18/10/2008
So where were we….
Well we left Cochin with Ben feeling sick and arrived into Bangalore with Ben even sicker! We went back to the 4th block Inn where we left our big backpacks and stayed for a week. It was great to be back, felt like home and everyone (the workers) was overjoyed with our return. Knowing we only had one week left in Bangalore we ate loads of yummy food and sweets, sung, laughed and hung out a lot.
We’re not even going to get into too much detail about our horrid 11 hour bus trip from Bangalore to Goa was which ended up being 17 painful hours. Picture this, a full bus, no toilet, no air con, an overnight trip on a dirt road full of potholes waking up every oh… lets say 5 to 10 mins to find yourself in mid air…. airborne!!
lets just say we did a lot of praying that night and had a good talk to ourselves and excepted the fact that if it was time to go… it was time to go!
Goa it is, a wee bit of history..
The Muslims arrived in the 1300’s but were not fans of the beach (Mohammad wasn’t a surfer!). The Portuguese arrived in 1510 wanting to control the spice route from the East. Mid 1500’s Jesuit missionaries led by St Francis Xavier (Goa’s Patron Saint) arrived and that’s why you’ll find the majority of Goans to be Roman Catholic. People of Goa have hung onto some Portuguese traditions, you still hear older folk conversing in Portuguese, traditional food is alive and kicking like pickled fish, salami, port wine is readily available and sweets we haven’t tried yet.
We’ve heard stories of the craziness that goes on here in Goa, 6 months a year foreigners flock to the beaches covering the coast for all reasons, lots of families, package deals, backpackers, hippies, freaks and Indian tourists.
Ben and I are in the very north of Goa in a small beach town called Arambol. It was popular back in the 60’s and was every hippies destination, now it’s full of gracefully aging hippies, freaks, randoms and underground rave party goers popular with Israelis, Russians, Germans, Geezers (aka pommies) and Italians or daggy nerds like Ben and I who came for yoga.
It’s like a tropical Byron Bay but Indian style.
We found a place to call home that we accidently stumbled across. It’s a 2 story house, we live on the ground floor, a family live on the first floor and the owners live on the roof 6 months a year when they’re not living in their Mumbai home. A lovely 2bdr, living area and a kitchen and fridge YAY! We finally found what we have been looking for 2 and half months.
The owners treat us like their children in the sense that they make sure we are happy by feeding us occasionally. We have big long chats, they give us cooking lessons and then we feast together and they make sure we don’t get ripped off by the locals.
Everyday starting around 6am to 6pm in the evening different salesmen riding past on their bicycles selling an assortment of foods and stuffs and they each have their unique way of letting you know they’ve arrived. The fresh bread man has a horn he honks in a certain way, the ice cream man has a normal bike bell, the bucket and doormat man yells and the egg man… nothing so if you happen to see him you’ll be eating eggs!! We’ve finally figured who’s who and can blend in with the local’s lifestyle.
Composting doesn’t exist here so we collect all our food scraps and go for daily walks sometimes just to our backyard and feed it to the passing cows. mmmmm fresh papaya skins mixed with onion and lime skins.
We stared yoga on Friday and we are both very impressed so far. The teacher is a German student of the Indian teacher (who will arrive in 2 weeks). He is really good but sounds like Arnie (Swarzenegger) so as we are both so mature we have to try really hard not to laugh when he says "juss feel za bodeeee".
The classes are 3 ½ to 4 hours long, a real challenge but very satisfying and there’s a good mix of people who have and haven’t done yoga. The class size is small now (10 or so) but we are not looking forward to the Season starting as its going to be packed.
There’s not much else to tell. We get up go to yoga. Eat lunch. Chill. Swim. Read. Eat dinner. Go to bed.
That’s pretty much the next 3 months so we will see you in January!!!!!!!
P.s. forgot to mention the ever increasingly disturbing older male beach fashion becoming more and more popular on the beach…… the dreaded G-string! lord!
‘till next time xox
