Scooter-Hire, more from Colva Beach

Here are some pictures and a videos of our day on the scooter. We traveled north of Colva, toward the center of Goa. We forgot to include these on our previous Colva post.

There were more cows enjoying this isolated beach than people

The beach was perfect. We had it nearly to ourselves, except for the cows. 

This nice dog was following us wherever we walked

The photo and video below was taken "illegally" the men with the elephant wanted 200 rupee for us to take a picture of their poor captive elephant. So we were very sneaky in getting the shots below. It was a beautiful animal that wanted to be with his friends in the jungle.

We stopped at a shop in south Goa to buy a kitchen knife so we could buy fruit and cut it up ourselves. This group of kids wanted us to take a photo of them. They seemed to be excited about the photo. They were either laughing with us or at us, we're not sure.

The Universe VS. Heidi

So we left off our blog Saturday when we were leaving Colva for Om Beach, which is located in Gokarna. Before leaving Colva, we said goodbye to our new friend Harish, who watches over his parents shop at our hotel.

 He was a brilliant little man who was also very insightful. He was teaching us about the symbols common to Hinduism. In the shop we were looking at all the symbols hanging on the walls. We would point to a symbol and ask what the symbol represented, one of the symbols being what looked to us like a swastika with an Om sign in the middle. We asked what it meant and he said, "That's Om." Here and in other ancient cultures the swastika is a 3,000-year-old symbol meaning good to be. In Sanskrit the word is svastika, "su" meaning "good", "asti" meaning "to be" and the suffix "ka" as a reference to diety. Unfortunately, thanks to the Nazi party, when we see it the first thing that comes to mind is evil.

 The train-ride took us approximately two hours south of Colva, and we arrived two hours later than we were supposed to .  We are beginning to understand that just because the train is supposed to leave at a certain time doesn't necessarily mean it will.  I have decided to always expect the train to be two hours late.  That way I will not be disappointed or have negative thoughts about India's railway system.  The important thing was that we made it to our location safely, and more or less comfortably.  


Once we arrived in Gokarna we hired our first rickshaw to take us to Om Beach.  We took some video of the ride, which was all very exciting to us at the time.  Our rickshaw driver took us right to Namaste, which was the hotel we had planned on checking into upon arrival.  We walked down a long path to get to the main restaurant area.  Everything looked very peaceful and green, and we could hear the waves of the ocean as we hiked down the path. 

Once we made it to the restaurant/bar area, we walked through toward reception.  The restaurant was right on the beach, and it was dark, but had small lights above the tables.  It looked inviting, and we were happy with the ambiance.  We decided to take the cheapest room for two nights after taking a quick look at the lodgings.  We had dinner and a couple beers after putting our backpacks in our small room, and then retreated to bed.  Once we got back to our room we started noticing little details that we didn't see when they initially showed us the room.  For one thing, the wooden cabinet in our room had mold on it.  Our bedding was damp and it had dirt on it.  The "bed" was also as hard as a wooden board.  We were thinking that it was too bad we already gave money for two nights.

The bathroom was another issue.  It happened to be on the other side of the property.  SO - if you had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (which I did), you had to crawl under the mosquito net, put on some shoes, and walk about 100 feet to the facilities.  I did all of this shortly after we decided to go to bed.  As soon as I made it to the bathrooms, and started "business" it started to rain.  Hard!  Unfortunately my bathroom only had half of a roof, so I got soaked.  When I got back to the room I cursed my luck.  As soon as I changed and got back into bed, the rain stopped.  Of course.  A couple hours later Kale and I both had to go to the bathroom.  We decided to go together, we climbed out of the mosquito net, put our shoes on, and hiked to the restrooms.  What happened next really pissed me off!  No sooner had I settled into my squatting position over the whole provided for voiding waste than I started to hear the raindrops come.  Of course!  After I finished what I had gone there to do, I exited the outhouse in a violet rush of anger:)  As we walked back to our room, I told Kale that I was convinced the universe was against me.  I was a little dramatic.  Kale told me that it was happening for a reason, and it was supposed to teach me something.  I guess it taught me to bring an umbrella to the bathroom from here on out!

Pictures and Video added to the Colva Beach, Goa India prior post!!

see below :)

Colva Beach, Goa India

Video uploaded from Train ride...

We arrived in Goa around 9 pm, which was two hours later than we were supposed to.  The fact we were two hours late was not a big deal, but since we had not yet booked a hotel, and were in an unfamiliar area, we felt the need to find one quickly. As soon as we stepped off the train we saw an advertisement for the Star Beach Hotel on Colva Beach.  It had AC and a restaurant.  Sold!  We walked over to the pre-paid taxi stand and ordered a taxi for Star Beach Hotel.  The taxi fare was only 200 rupees, which is only $4 USD.  It took about 20 minutes to arrive at our destination, and once we got there we were greeted with the amazing aroma of Indian food.  There was some sort of family reunion or retreat going on at our hotel, and we arrived during the time the group was having their dinner.  Fortunately for us there was a room available.  As one of the hotel employees was taking us to the available room to have a look before deciding whether to stay, four or five of the children from the large group started following us and asking us how we were doing, and giggling when we would answer and ask them how they were doing.  We decided to take the room for one night, and returned to the front desk to make the payment.  The process to procure this room turned out to be very lengthy, and as we waited, the little kids sat and waved to us and giggled.  For some reason the hotel needed a passport photo of each of us as well as our physical passports.  They had some sort of form they needed to fill out to give to the local police.  It was a good thing we had passport photos from when we applied for our Indian visa; otherwise we would’ve been really crabby:) After waiting 20-ish minutes we finally got the key to our room, and were able to go there, get changed and start thinking about dinner. 

We chose a restaurant no too far from our hotel, Portofino’s.  The food was amazing!  We had two large bottles of Kingfisher beer, which is their local beer, and all the vegetarian Indian food we could eat for $8 or $9 USD.  At this point we were still amazed at how cheap everything is here.  After dinner we went back to the hotel, and decided to find a place by the beach the next day.

 We ended up sleeping until around 11:30 am the next day, and hotel checkout was noon.  We heard a knock on the door, which woke us up, and it happened to be the front desk manager asking us if we wanted to stay an extra day.  Maybe they’re not used to people sleeping in?  We jumped out of bed, and checked out of the hotel.  We decided to stay and have some coffee in the hotel restaurant before we set off to find a hotel.  As we were having our coffee, the large group that was having dinner the evening before when we were checking in, were having lunch.  It smelled so good!  After a few minutes someone brought a plate to us with two types of dessert we had never seen before.  There was sugar on top, and there were herbs and ginger cooked into the pastry.  Even though there was a good chance they were not vegan, we didn’t want to be rude to the people that were offering the treats out of kindness, so we tried them.  They were really good!  We also got a picture of them feeding me.  It was a fun, and welcoming start to our day.

We walked around for about two hours, carrying our backpacks, looking for a hotel near the beach.  We took some strolls through mud, and forest area, ran into some cows, pigs and chickens, and finally settled in at Ben Lig guest house. It was a 3 story hotel with about 15 rooms.  The hotel was run by an older couple who were very nice.  They gave us a small discount for staying for the seven days. The cost was only $9 per night. We opted for the no AC room to see if we could tough it out just to save more money.  Turns out with an ice cold shower before bed and a high speed fan we were just fine J An AC room will cost you and extra 100 to 200 rupee per night.  We were pretty happy with our choice, I felt it was meant to be since it was a lime green building.

For the last week we have just been hanging out on the beach, eating amazing food, riding a scooter through the country side near the beach. A few days ago was Krishna’s birthday, that evening we were on the beach watching the celebration. This event involved a couple large ceramic bulbs filled with money. One bulb was on the ground and on was hanging between two palms about 20ft high. The rules were such that you had to break the bulb on the ground blindfolded, but you couldn’t make an attempt until after you were spun around a couple times, then set free from about 30ft away from the bulb. The closer you got to the bulb the louder the crowd yelled.  Finally a couple locals asked if I wanted to try, so I did. I strapped on the blindfold and they spun me around and I was off. I walked for a bit, the crowd got really loud so I stopped, I took my swing at the ground it missed. After taking the blindfold off, I learned that I missed it by about 2 inches.  Some time went by and no one had crushed it yet. The same guys came up to me again and wanted me to try again, but with no luck, I missed by a couple feet this time.  After I went, it was Heidi’s turn, she went through the same routine and I was yelling as loud as I could to tell her which way to go but she couldn’t hear me. She took her swing and was a couple feet to the right.  Eventually the bulb on the ground was broken. It was time for the one hanging from the palms. Unfortunately we didn’t climb the human tower to get to this one. We just let the locals hit this one. They weren’t blindfolded for this one, but the guy on top who was trying to hit the bulb was being sprayed in the face with a hose. After he finally hit it, he fell on the pile of guys below.  No injuries were reported :) There was plenty of cheering and laughing. We really wished we had the camera with us, too bad we left it in the room.  Although we didn’t have ours, about 15-20 of the locals all wanted their picture taken with us. It seems everywhere we go the people want their picture taken with us.

Below are many photos of the random activities we’ve done while here.

All the critters below roam freely about the area, no fences or restrictions whatsoever :)

Including us...

 Great Restaurant!

 Our Cozy Hotel

 Just your local hotel squirrel :) The owner found him when it was about 3in long.

 These cats sat next to us every time we went to the restaurant

 No gas station on Colva Beach, so you buy it from vendors who sell it by the liter...in old water bottles :)

 Our favorite restaurant - Hang Town

A couple locals :)

We became addicted to the corn from the street vendors here, and the cows always seemed to want mine :)

We have finally acquired an Indian cell phone. The number is (+91)8975982269, if anyone wants to call we are 12.5 hours ahead of AZ and 10.5 ahead of KS. If you do call, we'd love to hear from anyone, but please understand we have to make it short, phone service isn't cheap for international calls :)

Today we catch a train to Gokarna. We don’t know for sure where we will be staying, or the availability of internet. We’ll be back soon…

Mumbai India - Chaos Personified

We arrived in Mumbai during rush hour, which was total insanity.  We decided to head for Colaba, which is known unofficially, as Mumbai’s “official” tourist district.  There were a lot of hotels there according to our Lonely Planet guide so we decided to check it out.  We got a prepaid taxi from the airport to the train station.  The train would then take us to the Colaba district.   

On the way to the train station, as we were sitting in lane-less gridlock traffic, it began to rain really hard.  We are here at the end of India’s monsoon season, and apparently it rains pretty much every day. Once we reached the train station the taxi driver pointed ahead to where the station was. We got out of the taxi in the pouring rain, and total confusion ensued.  We didn't see a sign or anything resembling a train station. We saw thousands of people moving like an army of ants, rickshaws and cars in bumper to bumper traffic with people weaving in and out of the small spaces between those bumpers. We also would have been blind not to notice the prominence of Mumbai's shanty-town.  They are checkered throughout the city.  

Shanty towns dominated the landscape of Mumbai as we flew over the city toward the runway. According to Lonely Planet, 58% of Mumbai's population lives in these shanty towns. The population is said to be 20.5 Million, which means 11,890,000 people are living in shanty town, or poverty according to some projections. There is nothing like this in America.  In America we have homeless people. At least in India the "Poor and Homeless" seem to be able to build a structure made out of anything they can find to call home. Most of the materials appeared to be tarps (the bright blue ones you can buy at home depot for $4), corrugated fiberglass and aluminum, palm branches, cardboard, plastic, etc. Within the shanty towns we could see little shops and businesses.  It was truly a city within the city. They seem to thrive just fine without brick and mortar, skyscrapers, three-bed/two-baths, two-car garages, and even shoes. Yes many of the people we saw walking were barefoot. This sort of city within a city could never be allowed in the U.S. and A. Our government couldn't possibly find a way to tax and collect on everyone.  Neither would there be any need for an HOA in a shanty town...if a resident parked their boat in the front yard one day, within a week it would be made into a home:)

We didn't get photos of the shanty towns, it just didn't seem respectful to the people living there.  It also may have been construed as an invasion of privacy.

Onto the train station...after watching the flow of people under an elevated walkway, we decided to follow the path leading down what looked like an alley. After a short walk through water puddles and mud we arrived at the train station. This was also very chaotic, as people were moving in all different directions. It was hard to see any type of order. Finally we figured out which line to get into. I asked for train tickets to Church Gate, which was the southern most stop in the city. Church Gate was in Colaba, where we were planning on spending the night. The man asked me if I wanted first class tickets, and I asked how much? 156 rupees later we were heading toward platform five, by the way 156 rupees is about $3.20. I thought first class tickets would mean we'd get a nice comfy assigned seat on the train.  Unfortunately I have never been more wrong. 

The walk to the platform was more chaotic than the street. It reminded me of soda bottles on a wide conveyor belt; every bottle up against five others moving in unison toward the same destination. Looking down from the walkway we saw the platforms packed with people. After packing ourselves like sardines onto the concrete staircase, we made our decent onto the platform, and waited.  After two or three minutes we saw a train pull up that said, Church Gate, on the top, indicating its destination.  This was apparently our train.  Unfortunately the cars of this train were packed to the brim.  I could literally see hands and feet in disarray within the train cars.  There was no way I was getting on this train...no way. Besides, we wouldn't even fit on the train, especially with our back packs. A few more minutes went by and another train said Church Gate, we still weren't sure if it was the right train cause we had "first class" tickets. We kept looking for something resembling a first class car, hoping it wouldn't be packed like sardines. Eventually we figured it out, the first class car would have a roman numeral one on it, and the second, and so on. As other trains went by we realized that our first class ticket didn't mean anything. Every one was just piling on whatever train they could fit in. We paid for a ticket that was completely worthless, no one checked tickets, no one cared. The next Church Gate train came and we pushed our way on. We had to stand most of the way, the closer we got the more comfy it became, finally getting to sit for the last couple miles. After arrival we found our way to the streets and began walking around, it was raining by now and it was around 21:00. Eventually we found a nice hotel, it was RU3150 per night, about $65. We didn't care about price we just wanted to sleep.

While checking in we had the front desk acquire sleeping train tickets to Goa for the next morning, they cost about $45 total. The hotel got us 3AC tickets, basically it was 3rd level first class if that makes sense. I was a little worried that we'd be on a car with goats and chickens. The next morning at 0600 we took a taxi to the train station and got on our train. At first we were kinda disappointed in the 3AC but turned out to be really good, we had a private sleeping area for our 14hr train ride. The toilets were squat type, and at first Heidi wasn't thrilled about using them, but after the 3rd or 4th time, she started to enjoy it :) Also we were right next to the kitchen car, so the entire trip we smelled the aromas of Indian cooking. I was really enjoying being able to go to the train car door, which was wide open, and just stand there as the landscape went by.

The Squatter - note the places for your feet

 The 6' by 2.5' sleeper

The 3AC sleeper car

Scenery pics from the train will be uploaded on the next post :)

Last night in Cairo

Our last night in Cairo we decided to spend in some five star luxury. We got a room at the Concorde El Salam Hotel near the airport. The room was only $111 for a five star hotel, which sounded good to us. One night of splurging on ourselves was needed. The pool, room service, huge fluffy bed, and black out drapes was a welcomed treat.

Will post photos later - at internet cafe now.

The next morning we checked out at 1400 and got the bus to the Airport, even though our flight left at midnight, we like to be early and just wait around for the flight. Midnight came and we boarded the 747-300 to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The flight was about 2hrs, they served a midnight snack and we were pretty comfortable, except for some rotten kids who screamed and jumped around on the seats the whole time. After landing in Riyadh and entering King Khaled airport, we realized our friend Blue was right, he warned us that the airport was the most boring, bland airport on earth, he was right. Our six hour wait went pretty fast then we boarded the new 777 for Mumbai. This flight was great! It was about 5hrs total and they served a very tasty Indian vegetarian meal. Being a new 777 the seats were very comfortable, with the provided pillows and blankets we were able to sleep very well. There was one little issue. There was a man sitting behind us that kept putting his dirty feet on Heidi's armrest, touching her elbow to his dirty toes. Other than that it was a great flight.

Islamic Cairo

Sunday - Blue wanted to be sure we made it to Islamic Cairo before we left Egypt; mainly for the experience and to get our January 25th Egyptian revolution t-shirts. The only thing I accomplished during the day was taking this photo.

This is Cairo at sunset...Taken from Blue's top floor balcony.

Around 2100 the five of us, Blue, Heidi, Kate, Ryan and I, piled into a little cab. The German was a no-show for this outing, which is probably a good thing because there is no way his gigantic body would have fit into the cab with the rest of us:)

Once we arrived we noticed a large open court/square area. There were people everywhere, and they were all celebrating Ramadan. Our first stop was Midan Hussein and Sayyidna al-Hussein Mosque. This mosque is considered one of the most sacred Islamic sites in the country, as well as the Middle East.  It is alleged to contain, within a shrine, the head of Ibn al-Hussein, the grandson of Muhammed the Prophet. In a mosque, women and men are separated into their own praying rooms. The entrance is also separate. Heidi and Kate did not have their heads covered but were given a hijab upon entry. Also when entering a mosque you must remove your shoes.  We gave the shoe-checker guy five Egyptian pounds (LE5) and he safely kept the shoes in a tagged box for us.

The Shrine

After visiting the mosque we walked around the street markets for a while, and settled at a cafe for juice, tea, and some shiesh. 

This is the small street/ally way the cafe was on:

I was declining to purchase a Koran that a street vendor was trying to sell to me here:

Here's a video of the action at the cafe, which was a narrow alley of shops and other businesses checkered with walking vendors selling everything from jewelry to cell phones to an English version of the Koran.

After all this excitement we walked around the market some more. Blue took us to his friend's shop where he bought us January 25th revolution t-shirts.  I also got a red a white checkered scarf, courtesy of Blue. 

The owner of the shop had his kids with him, a boy, Ahmed and a girl, Basan. The little girl instantly became attached to Heidi and they played for at least an hour, dancing and hopping around.

Here is a pic of Basan and Kate, the pictures with Heidi are on Kate's camera. Our camera died:(

This is a pic of the mosque taken on our walk back to the street. 

Heidi and another new friend. Too bad he is about to be offered as a sacrifice at the end of Ramadan. The goat that is, not the boy. You never know what you'll find in an Egyptian tire shop...tires, tools, and goats!

So, Mission accomplished! We have our t-shirts and were able to experience Islamic (medieval) Cairo.

Thanks Blue!!! 

THE GERMAN!!

So here we are, still in Cairo, staying at our friend, Blue's apartment.  We've mostly just been lazing around reading, going to the movies and hanging out at the gigantic Egyptian mall.  We did venture out on Friday however.  Ryan, who is also staying at Blue's apartment is from California.  He is also traveling for a year, and decided to coordinate a little excursion to some archaeological sites that are located about 30 kilometers south of Cairo.  The original plan was to rent a car, but that fell through since we didn't have international driver's licenses.  But Ryan found a company that would pick us up, and take us to the sites we wanted to visit for 60 Egyptian pounds each. 

A small Hyundai van picked us up around 8 am, which was 30-minutes earlier than they were supposed to be there.  I had about 10 minutes to get ready, and no time to have coffee, which was kind of a scary way to start the day. Our group consisted of Kale, Kate, Ryan, me (Heidi) and ..the German:)  

 The Van

After driving for about 40 minutes we arrived at our first location, Darshur, which is home to the first man-made pyramid - Snofru's Red Pyramid (2,600 BCE).  We actually were able to crawl inside the pyramid, which was completely devoid of oxygen.  To reach the center of the structure, we had to crawl through 3-foot by 4-foot tunnel that descended 68-meters at a 28-degree angle to the bottom.  I would not recommend this activity to anyone who is remotely claustrophobic.  Aside from the fact that it was hard to breath inside the pyramid, the smell of ammonia from people urinating inside of it was almost unbearable.  However, we were inside a pyramid, and that was an adventure in itself. 

This Pyramid was built at 43 degree angle, the first true smooth sided pyramid on earth, so they say...

  The 68 meter shaft downward - coming back up was a lot of work, we are all still sore from the climb.

Our next stop was the "bent pyramid" ... it was um, bent. And here is THE GERMAN!! No one really knows his name, we're not sure he has one, so we shall call him "German"  LOL  This Pyramid was built around 2600BCE, it began at a 55 degree angle, and then was completed at a 43 degree angle, due to structure issues with the steeper angle. The great pyramids of Giza were successful at the steeper angle. hmmm

"German"

On to Memphis, which is the ancient capital of Egypt founded in 3,100 BCE...it basically consisted of an open-air museum. The "docents"  at these sites are locals who instead of explaining the exhibitions, follow you around and ask for money.  Their method of asking for money is rubbing their fingers together and making a hissing or kissing sound.  It's really funny, and gets really annoying sometimes.

The largest statue found, although legs were broken. This is Ramses II ...and Ryan is to the left:)

  Sorry

Our final stop was Saqqara, which was the ancient burial ground, which serves as the necropolis of Memphis.  I got to pet a donkey there.  He was so cute!

The day after this excursion we were all very sore from climbing and crawling through pyramids.  Our historical excursion turned out to be a great workout.  Bonus:)