Hi Everyone! I know it's been awhile since the last post and I apologize. We've had some computer issues, but I can't lay any of the blame on the computer (water and keyboards don't get along). I guess I'll pick up from where we left off...
We were convinced to stay in Udaipur until the end of the Mewar Festival and we were very happy we stayed. We watched parades of women in the streets heading to the lake only a block from our hotel. There must've been a couple hundred thousand people, all dressed in their finest, crammed into a lakeside ghat which would comfortably only accommodate a few thousand. The next night we watched several traditional Rajasthani music and dance performances.
Mt. Abu was the next stop on our Indian journey and we had our new friend Kristen with us. We chose it because it has one of the highest elevations in the state of Rajasthan and we were looking to escape the heat. It turns out that a lot of Indians had the same idea. It seemed to be the vacation spot for Indians from Rajasthan and the neighboring state of Gujarat. Almost all of the hotels in the town were DISGUSTING and we ended up staying in 3 different hotels out of the 4 nights we were there. With their standards, it was obvious that the hotels were catering to the Indian vacation crowd and not foreign tourists.
I now have a slight appreciation for how celebrities feel on a daily basis. We seemed to gather crowds of young Indian men everywhere we went in town. While sitting on a park bench one day, we had several different groups of guys taking pictures of us and with us (some asking, some not), asking us every detail of our lives in the U.S., and LOTS and LOTS of blatant staring.
Mt. Abu was a perfect place for doing some day hikes and we took advantage. We were persuaded that a guide was necessary because of certain dangers in the hills (bears and mountain tribesmen were known to attack people in the area). We found a guide that was volunteering for a girls shelter and decided to use him because all of the $$ we paid him went directly to helping educate the girls at the shelter. I REALLY wanted to see a bear, but no luck. We saw beautiful views and a magnificent sunset.
After trading north/south information with Kristen (she was heading north from the south and we were doing the opposite), we parted ways and were headed on an overnight train to Mumbai. After arriving in Mumbai, we headed straight for the Gateway to India which is an arch built on the coast near the southern tip of the city. It was blisteringly HOT in Mumbai, so we decided to cool off by taking a boat ride to Elephanta Island which houses some caves. On the boat back from the island, we saw the most amazing sunset over Mumbai. We decided we didn't want to spend a lot of time in Mumbai, so we bought overnight train tickets to paradise.
Goa is a beach paradise and we've deemed it a vacation from our vacation. Goa is a small state on the western coast of India and it is lined with beaches, on the Arabian Sea, from north to south. We started in the north at a beach called Anjuna and were lucky enough to catch the last "Wednesday Market" of the season. The market was filled with shops of crafts, spices, clothing, etc. Next we hopped over to Vagator Beach and stayed a few nights relaxing and eating good food. While in Vagator, we rented a scooter so we could explore Goa and check out some of the other beaches. After a full day of exploring, we found a wonderfully quiet beach (Mandrem) and a great place to stay. Our room was a beach hut and was a two minute walk from the Arabian Sea. The restaurant was in between our hut and the sea and was a great place to watch the sunset. We left Mandrem after several nights and headed for south Goa to a place Kristen recommended called Palolem. It's a beautiful crescent shaped beach lined with huts and restaurants. The hut we're staying in is so close to the sea that the waves crashing on the coast kept me awake the first night we were here. Most of the restaurants on the beach specialize in seafood and will display their fresh catches every night for customers to choose. I saw a shark displayed one night and had to have it. It was cooked tandoori style and was really good.
While in Palolem, Steph and I have developed a swimming routine for exercise and yesterday we almost made it the length of the entire beach (about 1.2 miles long). It's amazing Steph is still getting in the water after seeing a shark swimming 30 yards off the beach one night while waiting for dinner. I watched it for awhile and it turned out that the shark was actually a dolphin. Steph is still skeptical. One luxury we've had in Palolem is that one of the restaurants plays a movie at 8pm everynight. We've enjoyed having dinner and a movie a couple of times. The only other excitement here was last night when I locked the hut key in the hut. We ended up having to saw off the lock to get in.
We'll leave Goa soon and keep heading south, eventually to Chennai (on the eastern coast) to catch our flight to Sri Lanka. That's all for now.
We were convinced to stay in Udaipur until the end of the Mewar Festival and we were very happy we stayed. We watched parades of women in the streets heading to the lake only a block from our hotel. There must've been a couple hundred thousand people, all dressed in their finest, crammed into a lakeside ghat which would comfortably only accommodate a few thousand. The next night we watched several traditional Rajasthani music and dance performances.
Mt. Abu was the next stop on our Indian journey and we had our new friend Kristen with us. We chose it because it has one of the highest elevations in the state of Rajasthan and we were looking to escape the heat. It turns out that a lot of Indians had the same idea. It seemed to be the vacation spot for Indians from Rajasthan and the neighboring state of Gujarat. Almost all of the hotels in the town were DISGUSTING and we ended up staying in 3 different hotels out of the 4 nights we were there. With their standards, it was obvious that the hotels were catering to the Indian vacation crowd and not foreign tourists.
I now have a slight appreciation for how celebrities feel on a daily basis. We seemed to gather crowds of young Indian men everywhere we went in town. While sitting on a park bench one day, we had several different groups of guys taking pictures of us and with us (some asking, some not), asking us every detail of our lives in the U.S., and LOTS and LOTS of blatant staring.
Mt. Abu was a perfect place for doing some day hikes and we took advantage. We were persuaded that a guide was necessary because of certain dangers in the hills (bears and mountain tribesmen were known to attack people in the area). We found a guide that was volunteering for a girls shelter and decided to use him because all of the $$ we paid him went directly to helping educate the girls at the shelter. I REALLY wanted to see a bear, but no luck. We saw beautiful views and a magnificent sunset.
After trading north/south information with Kristen (she was heading north from the south and we were doing the opposite), we parted ways and were headed on an overnight train to Mumbai. After arriving in Mumbai, we headed straight for the Gateway to India which is an arch built on the coast near the southern tip of the city. It was blisteringly HOT in Mumbai, so we decided to cool off by taking a boat ride to Elephanta Island which houses some caves. On the boat back from the island, we saw the most amazing sunset over Mumbai. We decided we didn't want to spend a lot of time in Mumbai, so we bought overnight train tickets to paradise.
Goa is a beach paradise and we've deemed it a vacation from our vacation. Goa is a small state on the western coast of India and it is lined with beaches, on the Arabian Sea, from north to south. We started in the north at a beach called Anjuna and were lucky enough to catch the last "Wednesday Market" of the season. The market was filled with shops of crafts, spices, clothing, etc. Next we hopped over to Vagator Beach and stayed a few nights relaxing and eating good food. While in Vagator, we rented a scooter so we could explore Goa and check out some of the other beaches. After a full day of exploring, we found a wonderfully quiet beach (Mandrem) and a great place to stay. Our room was a beach hut and was a two minute walk from the Arabian Sea. The restaurant was in between our hut and the sea and was a great place to watch the sunset. We left Mandrem after several nights and headed for south Goa to a place Kristen recommended called Palolem. It's a beautiful crescent shaped beach lined with huts and restaurants. The hut we're staying in is so close to the sea that the waves crashing on the coast kept me awake the first night we were here. Most of the restaurants on the beach specialize in seafood and will display their fresh catches every night for customers to choose. I saw a shark displayed one night and had to have it. It was cooked tandoori style and was really good.
While in Palolem, Steph and I have developed a swimming routine for exercise and yesterday we almost made it the length of the entire beach (about 1.2 miles long). It's amazing Steph is still getting in the water after seeing a shark swimming 30 yards off the beach one night while waiting for dinner. I watched it for awhile and it turned out that the shark was actually a dolphin. Steph is still skeptical. One luxury we've had in Palolem is that one of the restaurants plays a movie at 8pm everynight. We've enjoyed having dinner and a movie a couple of times. The only other excitement here was last night when I locked the hut key in the hut. We ended up having to saw off the lock to get in.
We'll leave Goa soon and keep heading south, eventually to Chennai (on the eastern coast) to catch our flight to Sri Lanka. That's all for now.
thanks for the update, friends! miss you lots, love you lots! stay safe! stephie-call me!
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