Let’s go south
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006Hello from Pondicherry. Fabien and I have just one week (after 3 exciting and exhausting months) left in India. We are flying to Singapore next Wednesday to start the next leg of our trip in southeast Asia.
The last weeks, we’ve tried to slow down a bit, taking a much needed break from the intense traveling of the north. There’s something about palm trees and hot weather that helps you do that. From Matheran, we were feeling ambitious after 3 days of chilling, so we decided to do a half-day hike recommended in our trekking book to a village at the base of the hill. The challenge was that we would have to take all of our gear with us as we would catch a train from this village to our next destination, Lonavala. The first hour was quite easy, a flat clay path through the forest to a well-marked viewpoint. The problems started when we couldn’t find the path to begin the descent. We spent a good half an hour looking for someone to point us in the right direction. When we were finally rescued by a horse guide, he sent us on a completely different route than described in the book. The trail itself was also a bit more difficult than we expected, as we descended about 500m on a steep, rocky path. (Nothing compared to the trekking days in Patagonia, but a bit strenuous after sitting on our butts for 3 days 🙂 The path was also exposed to the strong midday sun, and by the time we reached the bottom, we were both hot and sweaty and my legs were shaky. As I perched myself against a rock for a drink of water and a snack, we were put to shame when 5 barefoot women carrying bundles of wood (a good 10 feet long) passed us. We then crossed several small villages where we were greeted with wide eyes and big smiles. I guess they don’t see many foreigners with giant backpacks in these parts. From the bottom of the hill, we still had 5km to walk to the train station and the way was not well-marked. The frustration grew as we were hot, hungry and tired. But we finally reached the main road, with the help of an old man who was quite proud to be the “guide” of the funny foreigners where we caught a rickshaw to train station. It took us about 45 minutes by train to get to Lonavala, the train was packed, and we began the trip wedged in between our backpacks in the aisle. After a few minutes, I was given a seat and the people stared in awe at me, completely covered with red clay- my shoes, my legs, my pants (whose original khaki color was impossible to make out.) We finally reach Lonavala, exhausted and dirty but happy to have survived another day in India.
We spent two days in Lonavala, famous for it’s Buddhist cave carvings. We visited two sets of caves, the Kharla cave and the Bhaja caves. The cave was carved more than 2,000 years ago by Buddhist monks. The main temple contains a giant stupa and the original ceiling is made with teak beams. The surrounding caves contain the very modest living quarters of the monastery. The fact that this was built 2,000 years ago was itself quite impressive. We were the only westerners (save one or two others) among throngs of Indians, so we also became part of the tourist attraction as we posed in more pictures for the family photo album.
After Lonavala, it was definitely time to hit the beach! We took a short, bumpy bus trip to Pune where we caught an overnight bus to Panaji (the capital of Goa and the new home of Eddy and Marketa.) The ride was also bumpy and long,(we were at a dead stop for 3 hours in a traffic jam) but thankfully this time I wasn’t sick. When we arrived in Panaji the next morning (besides being distracted by having had to pee for 10 hours), my first impression was that it was insanely hot. By the time we crossed the little bridge to Sao Tome from the bus stand, we were drenched in sweat and it was only 9AM. I was happy though. From the bus ride on the way in, we could feel that we were in a different place. There were palm trees, lush green forest and rivers with longboats. Panaji was a different world, like we had left India. The streets are freshly paved and immaculately clean; the city is pleasantly situated on the mouth of the river and the ocean. It took us a while to find a guesthouse, many places were full; we finally found a place, but we would have to wait an hour to check in (or to see the room.) I was about to explode (see earlier about having to pee)…and then one of the small wonders of travel happened. We ran in to a French woman who is traveling with her husband and their two kids who we had met 3 months ago in Delhi. She told us that we were lucky to find this place, they had stayed their 10 days and like it better than any place in Panaji. So of course we took it (Om Pousada)and set off to find a restaurant for breakfast and a place to pee. By lunch time, we were showered and rested and ready to explore the city. First stop, the cathedral. A little explanation about Goa, Goa was an old Portugese enclave in India, so it’s quite different than the other places in the north. There are a lot of churches (and a lot of Indian Christians), there are some Portugese speakers (every store/hotel owner on our street spoke Portugese); meat is easy to find as well as alcohol, and it’s much cheaper than in the north of India. We felt like we were on vacation. So we went to visit the cathedral, an impressive building on a hill in town, in blue and white. The owner of the guesthouse and recommended a bar/resto across the street for lunch, so we stopped there for a cold beer and fish lunch. I tried the pomfret grilled in garlic in butter. It was delicious. Then we went to the beach. The beach in Panaji was not as impressive as the other beaches in Goa, but it felt great to take a dip in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. After a nice swim and an ice cream, we caught the bus back to our guesthouse. For dinner I ate prawns and Fabien had a very spicy pepper steak. Then we finally got a hold of Eddy and Marketa and made arrangements to meet the next day. Marketa would come with us with a car and driver to visit Old Goa. Wow, now were traveling in luxury.
The next day (which was also Fabien’s birthday!!!), we met up with Marketa, and went to Old Goa, which is basically just a group of old surviving churches grouped together. It was interesting to see this in India…a change from all of the Hindu temples. After a short visit, we headed back to town, and went for drinks and lunch at a restaurant on the riverfront. We spent most of the afternoon relaxing there…Marketa went to meet Eddy to take care of some business, so Fabien and I took a walk down to the “Art Park,” a nice outdoor display of modern art, with a small beach of traditional fishing boats, before meeting up with the two of them for a dinner. Then we enjoyed another evening of great food in the company of old friends (we tried to help them with Indian menu, but I guess we still need training) before calling it a day.
The next day, Wednesday, we took a short bus ride up to Anjuna beach, famous for it’s giant souvenir market. The market was full of everything we had seen in India (but maybe more expensive and lower quality) so we resisted buying anything, but we were quite impressed with the beach, which was full of hippies. I wasn’t shy to jump in the ocean in my bikini, as there were more interesting things to watch, like the completely stoned guy running up and down the beach naked asking for donations to buy clothes. We also had some of the best fresh-squeezed pineapple juice- it was like candy at a little restaurant on the beach. After a busy day, we took the bus back to Panaji, and met up with Eddy and Marketa one last time before heading on. We went for another traditional Indian feast, excellent food, but perhaps a record waiting time, more than 1 1/2 hours.
After 3 days in Panaji, we were ready to find our paradise beach, so we took the bus 2 hours south to Palolem. Palolem, though quite full of tourists, is a nice palm-lined white sandy beach, with beach huts and great restaurants. We found our home for the next 5 days, in a bamboo hut, right on the beach. Each day, we would wake up, go for a swim, go for breakfast (usually fresh fruit salad or freshly squeezed juice), then take a walk, go for a swim to cool off, have lunch, take a siesta and read or play cards, go for a swim, play paddle ball in the surf, drink a beer while watching the sunset, shower, eat an enormous fish dinner, then go to bed. For those of you who think traveling around the world means all you do is lay on the beach all day…well, that’s only part of it.
So, as you might have figured out, we are no longer in Palolem, but we have crossed India for the 3rd time. Our last night in Palolem, we met up again with Josh and Marisa (our Canadian travel buddies) for a feast of Tandoori tuna and grouper. They are headed back to Toronto next week, but they have left us with all of their southeast Asian wisdom. Now we are on the east coast in Pondicherry…more to come in the next post.
For our last stop in Rajhastan, Fabien and I chose Udaipur to spend Christmas this year. Udaipur has a ... 
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