Goa

We left Kolkata early on Wednesday morning, had a stop in Bangalore and were in Goa, India by mid afternoon.

Map from mapsofindia.com

Goa, south western coast by the Karnataka province, is very different from the India we have seen so far. It is definitely more of a tourist spot. It is on the western coast, touching the Arabian Sea. It is lush, dense, green and the air is thick and moist. Similar to Kolkata, our room smelled musty and felt damp and when we washed our clothes in both places (either in buckets or in the sink) they really did not dry for days.

We went to the water almost immediately and the sea was fierce. I watched 'The Life of Pi' on the flight to India and the sea reminded me of scenes from that movie as well as from 'The Perfect Storm'. It was just intense: the white caps were powerful, high and frequent. The surf on the sand covered huge areas and lingered. As a kid when we would camp on any windy day wed be excited to see whitecaps, to the point that if it got windy at 9pm wed change and run to the lake to dive into these whitecaps. The camping/lake Simcoe whitecaps pale in comparison to the Arabian Sea whitecaps ;)

 

It is hard to have pictures do it justice but I tried:

It is the rainy season in goa; not the ideal time for most tourists to go. Apparently from December to February this place is busy and electric. Being the rainy season we hoped beyond hope for sunny days and we weren't too prod to sit on the bean through intense clouds until it came. We got a bit of sun one day and Michelle had a burn to prove it! We were stoked.

The day we were at the beach Michelle, being her friendly, out-going self, started chatting with some local gentlemen. It was friendly and safe. I was close to the conversation but everything about my body language was clear I was more interested in my book than them. When other men saw these three guys getting attention from Michelle they all wanted to be a part of the action and soon we had, and I counted, 14 men around us. Apparently it is low tourist season and three simple girls are quite the crowd-pleasers.

We walked through Calanguate (the part of Goa we were staying in) looking for someone to do our laundry. After five days of clothes not drying in Kolkata some of our stuff wasnt smelling too fresh anymore. We found two people but, because of the air and lack of sun, it was going to take them at least two days. We werent going to be there for that long so we packed up our lovely smelling clothes. Dryers are wonderful inventions.

Here are some pics from outside our $8/night guest house (likely not how you envision India, 'eh?):

The second day in Goa was spent doing my favourite thing in the world: whitewater rafting! Michelle and Teresa had never done this before which made it extra fun. We found some ghetto outlet run by a dude named Charlie and away we went. We got picked up by a dude in a car (not charlie), were brought to a restaurant for lunch and then went in a different car with a different dude (and two other men who were going in the boat with us) and got dropped off by a jungle path. We had to walk one kilometre to the river. At the raging river we were met with a boat, paddles, life jackets, helmets, our guide and accompanying kayak safety guy. It was just our boat. I've only ever rafted as part of a convoy so this was a new experience. We got some quick instructions, hopped in and away we went. Sidebar: Teresa and I were chosen to be the lead paddlers, not the two men we were with...

The river is high, fast, powerful and brown. There were class two and three waves. We were surrounded by incredibly dense forests that reminded me of our British Columbia forests. Again we were surrounded by incredible beauty. Michelle got pushed out of the boat, we went swimming in water with a ridiculously strong current and, unfortunately, no one fell out and our boat did not tip. But it was good times nonetheless!

That night we hit up an Internet cafe. It's Friday night. Michelle leaves on sunday night. That gives us 48 hours left in India. We are not beg fans of Delhi, me especially, and I was bound and determined to go elsewhere for the weekend. I needed to see the Indian mountains. Internet searching showed potentials but nothing was working out for us. We left the Internet cafe with no set plans or bookings but with a determined will to succeed.