Unlucky Goa

3/1/2013-9/1/2013

I was so happy to meet Jeremy again after few weeks. I wanted to hear all his stories about driving with the rikshaw all the way from Udaipur to Arambol, Goa. Arambol is a city in North Goa and it's popular among electric music fans and young travellers. There are also lot of Russians like anywhere in Goa. When I was sitting in the bus on the way from central Goa to North I saw lot of signs written in Russian. It felt like I wasn't that far away from home. Thoug, here were 30 degrees warmer than at home. 

Jeremy was staying in guesthouse called Ave Maria. The owner is really nice lady Maria and she is happy to welcome everybody in her guesthouse. Actually her guesthouse had this cool rooftop where people can put their mattress and sleep. But we didn't sleep there .. I was lucky to sleep in "Kathi", Jeremy's rikshaw. The best thing in Arambol was driving around with Jeremy and listening to reggae ! So cool.

Kathiii !

Lovely guesthouse in Arambol

 After couple days in Arambol I decided to go South Goa and place called Palolem. After hours in the bus I arrive to the place and I immediately have a bad feeling about the place. People are yelling to me and offering places to stay or drive or bikinis .. I wanted to leave and happily I meet a Finnish family which I met before on the way from Hampi. They suggested me to go Agonda beach which is much more quiet and luckily I did. It is much more quiet and more like a village. When you arrive to Agonda it's better to walk around and all the way beach from the other to the other. Guesthouses are very different and I thought that the nicest ones were in North (or South? haha.). Some places are very luxurious but there are cheap bamboo huts too.

My guesthouse on the beach

Agonda

From my favorite beach bar - the only one where I visited !

Surprise - there were cows too !

After finding a place to stay I went for a walk to the beach and I could realise why the place is much more quiet than Arambol - it is full of couples and families. It's not a bad thing but if you're a single girl travelling alone you don't necessarily want to see happy honeymoon couples around you all the time. So I have warned you ! Otherwise I must say that I can't tell you more about the place .. As thank you for the diarrhea I didn't see much else except the pink walls of my guesthouse.

calmness - beautiful

Agonda's main highway

I was supposed to take the train back to Delhi on the 9th January but after being sick for days I had to book a flight to go there. As I wasn't so keen to spend two days in train's toilet. So all in all - Goa wasn't such a good experience for me. Had two nice days in Arambol and one in Agonda. Four others .. Oh my. I was happy to go back to Delhi.

Hampi

29/12/12-2/1/13

My first experience in Hampi: an elephant bathing in the river and spraying water to people. I was looking the sigth and thinking that this couldn't be anything else but a good sign. And it was - a good sign.When I arrived to Hampi I met two Swedish girls - Moa and Alicia who are two amazing and friendly girls. We got along very well from the beginning and they were ready to share a place together. I was so lucky to meet them as one thing I have noticed when you travel alone as a girl. We girls are not that open to other girls and getting friends with girls is pretty hard. But not with these two Swedish girls !

The temple elephant bathing in the morning

 After difficulties we found great place to stay: White Elephant. The staff, food and rooms are pretty nice and good but so are the prices. For us the room wasn't so bad as there were three of us who shared the room but for one or two person it could be too much. But sometimes it's worth to put more money in something and this time it was the staff. They were great and were one important part of my happy memories in Hampi.

White (or Pink) Elephant and it's rooms

Indians and Hindus believe that elephant brings good luck. I think the elephant which I saw on the first day brought some good luck for me too. I spent amazing time in Hampi and I have nothing bad say about it. On the first day we rent some bicycles and drove around to see temples. We met new friends like Mose who was travelling too, local shop guy whose name I can't remember anymore (noo!) and other local guys who help at his store. I also tried yoga first time in my life and it was so funny ! I was feeling like an old granny as I couldn't strech at all ! Our yoga teacher instead was like rubber and he looked like a big spider with his long legs and hands and skinny body.

Virupaksha temple

There are also some one living in the temple ..

.. and some others too!

She got little bit tired

Hampi is full of these boulders !

Street food !

Fried chilli - the best !

Next day we rent bikes with Moa and Mose and drove around Hampi to see temples and we were supposed to go and swim to a lake but instead we ended up to a local water park ! That was so funny ! There were no others but us and Indian families and school kids. Me and Mose jump in the pool and we got long looks. I perhaps got longer as I had only bikini top and that is pretty less in India. Local girls usually swim with full clothes. The day was perfect and in the evening we gathered to have dinner as it was New Year's Eve. We didn't party much as all the places closed already at 22.30. And anyway I will be mysterious from our night. I just can tell it included stars, river and coconut boat.

Water park and can you notice who are the "strangers"? haha

They had a swimming pool for ladies only ..

.. and slides for girls and boys !

The slide rebellious !

Next time .. some more clothes on !

Views from the Monkey temple

Monkey temple and some tree .. (?)

Some more views from the road

At one temple they were drying cocnut and chilli

RHCP !

Me, Moa, local boys and Mose

On the last day we went to this lake which we were looking for on the first day. We were sunbathing and just relaxing. There were only local guys and I have to say they were pretty interested about us. Girls with bikinis. And they even came to ask if they could take a picture from us if they paid ! We felt little bit too uncomfortable and we rent this funny coconut boat to go to other spot. That was fun and we could be in peace !

Boulders and goats at the lake

Mose and the coconut boat

Our driver

The last day arrived and it was time to move. I left to meet my friend Jeremy in Goa as he had finally arrived there with his rikshaw ! I was happy to leave Hampi as I met really cool people but I was also so happy to meet my dear old friend again. Hi ho let's go !

Curry Christmas ! - Gokarna

21/12/12 - 28/12/12

It has gone a while again since I last time wrote here. So it's finally time to continue. So I made it to Gokarna and Kudle beach. The first night wasn't so pleasant as like I told you I was bitten by mosquitoes and I wasn't sure were there someone other too living in my room. So it was time to change the place. And I wanted to get near the beach. I don't know what is it but I want to hear the sea and be able to go swimming easily if I am staying at the beach. And I got lovely beach hut just next to the sea from a place called Skylark. Which was great place anyway as I met really nice local people over there. Actually Gokarna is quite popular among locals and lot of young people came there to spend the weekend. Gokarna is more quiet than the busy Goa but there are the same beaches and more relaxed athmosphere.

Yo ! Me and the new friends

Even the cows are chilling !

Yoga is the thing in Gokarna

My beach hut - loved it !

Relaxation. That's actually my word for Gokarna. I didn't do much else over there. My mornings started with a swim or run (!) and with my favorite breakfast - plain curd and fruit salad. Then it was too hot to do anything so I could have a siesta and just read my book or just chill. Real beach life ! Lovely. Sometimes I visited with Adrien in Gokarna village or once we went to the next beach, Om beach. The beach has actually got it's name from the shape. It's just like the sign Om !

YUM !

In India cows are everywhere - they're even using stairs !

Om Beach

Fisherman boat @ Om Beach

Om Beach

Fisherman fixing a fishing net - perhaps?

Gokarna Beach

Gokarna village

Christmas also came and it was interesting to be again away from home. I would like to write here something about home sickness or how special or weird it was to be away but .. It wasn't. I were under palm trees and it was 30-40 degrees warm ! How possibly it could feel like Christmas then? Or in a way it did if you say Christmas is about good food and happiness - I love Indian food and warm sunny days. I had Christmas in my way in India ! Actually I think I had much better food there than I've ever had in Finland on Christmas.

Kudle beach on Christmas Eve

Did I already put some pictures from cows?

I have heard from public toilets but this was a public bath

Although the days were lazy in Gokarna they went fast. Soon eight days were over and it was time to move to the next place - Hampi. I had big expectations about the place as everybody sighed happily when I mentioned I was going there. No one said a bad word about Hampi. I had to go and check this place !

Good bye and good night Gokarna !

Udaipur+Mumbai+Goa+Gokarna= 52 hours

So from Udaipur started the looooong journey all the way down to Gokarna in Karnataka state. If I would have known before how long the journey would be probably I wouldn't have done that. First one night in rambling night bus to Mumbai. That went ok as I got in the end little bit sleep. I had booked a sleeper bed from the bus but it changed to a seat as my bus didn't actually arrive and I had to change to another. But I didn't care, anyway I was in the bus !

Paulo Travels is THE bus company in India - they even have Volvos !

 So in the morning we stopped in Mumbai where we had 5-6 hours to do sightseeing. We walked around the streets of Mumbai and saw the glory and the poor side of it. Probably not the extreme ends but still .. Mumbai is the richest city in India and also it owns biggest slums. So in a way really interesting place. Perhaps worth to visit for couple days but this time I heard beaches calling my name and it was time to catch another bus. My bus left in the middle of slums (interesting place by the way to put a bus stand) and the bus where I got in was totally something else than a luxury bus. I was the only Western person and I got lot of long looks towards me. In the background was playing Hindi music and later it changed to a karaoke. The music was playing again so loud ! I can't understand why the locals like to play the music so hard? I mean I like the music but my ears were hurting .. Later they also played the popular Bollywood film Dabang which was interesting to follow. It was in Hindi but I could follow the main plot and it kept me entertained.

Sign in Mumbai

Promenade in Mumbai

Men doing laundry

Thumbs up ! Looking sick? Noooo ..

Nice little apartments with balcony

After all the music and films I finally got some sleep and I woke in the morning at Goa. But still I wasn't there where I wanted to go. From the center of Goa I had to take a bus to Madgao, south of Goa and there take the last on final bus to Gokarna. So still 6 more hours ..

Madgao bus station in Goa

In India bus stations are full of little food stalls where you can buy samosas etc.

My last bus

 After that travel I didn't want to do anything else but get a bed and some food. I didn't eat anything on the way as I was scared of getting sick or getting some stomach problems again. So I was pretty hungry too. Too tired from the travel and not eating I ended up staying in the middle of a jungle in the cheapest place possible. The family who run the place were lovely and so nice. Unfortunately the mosquitoes also loved me and I was full of bites the next morning .. Not the perfect start in Gokarna but luckily it got little bit better later ..

My first place in Gokarna

Cute - Yeah?

My backyard.