We arrived in Goa two days ago--it had just finished pouring down rain when we arrived around 6 p.m. It has rained most of the day today- but was great weather yesterday. The daytime train to Goa from Mangalore was MUCH better than the nighttime train. As always, everything seems better in the daylight and the cockroaches sleep! We were still in 2nd class A/C- but this time with an Indian family. They were offering us food- including birthday cake for to celebrate the dad's birthday- before we left the first train station! That is exactly what someone told us would happen on the train if you were sat with and Indian family.
Their four year old daughter eventually drove us crazy...to the point where I had to pretend to wear my headphones and ignore her. Most four year olds are manageable- but she was constantly touching our faces, closing the curtains, closing our books- it was actually quite comical. Ang and I both put our "mom faces" on at one point and told her to stop. Her parents didn't seem very interested in entertaining her. I immediately thought of how wonderful my mom was on road trips- entertaining us, making up games....you name it. At one point, Ang and I had even moved seats and she was still following us (I can't believe we are avoiding a 4 year old on a train)....and after telling her 'no' about something several times- Ang walked her right back to her parents and said "I'm sorry, we are trying to read and she keeps poking our faces and slapping our books." I guess that is a nice way of describing annoying. She delivered the message in a serious, loving tone as I giggled and pretended to read.
We stayed for two nights in Palolem- it is South of Goa- try to find it on a map....just for a challenge of the day. It is just a tiny beach town and was really relaxing. But enough foreigners travel there that we even had fajitas last night....AND a mozzarella, tomato, basil salad which was our first fresh veggies of the trip! The stomach seems fine today:)
We met up with some girls from Holland and have been hanging out with them ever since. We are actually all reading the same book and Ang and I had just decided to have our own book club- when we ran into them at a restaurant and they had just decided to do the same thing! Our book club grew by 100% in 5 minutes!
Tonight we are having dinner and discussing the book. It is a very moving story called "Shantaram"- by Gregory David Roberts- which is all about life in Bombay and India. It is easy to relate to and he even does a great job of describing the guilt I have been feeling while travelling. I will try to quote some of the cool parts later- since he says it much more eloquently that I did!
We moved up the beach about 15 km today- to another small town- which is probably not even featured on a map. I will try to get pictures up soon- the slow internet makes me unmotivated to try.
No comments:
Post a Comment