Cockroach feast

The other night I saw a pretty big (4 cm) cockroach on the floor. It was lying on its back, wiggling its feet. I really do not like these creatures, so I dropped my shoe on it. Im sorry if this sounds cruel. Since I didn't want to touch it, I just swept it as far under the bed as I could. A few hours later I suddenly noticed the cockroach on the other side of the room? I didn't understand how it had gotten there, since I was so sure that I had killed it.

So I went to have a closer look. It was slowly moving, being carried by an army of a few hundred tiny ants. Yuck! But it was really amazing to watch how they managed to move it, they had at least transported it 2 meters! The next morning hardly anything was left of the cockroach, so apparently the ants must have had a massive feast that night.

Today I went to the beach for a while, but after a few hours it got too hot, so I thought I would go and have a look at Chapora fort. Itt is perched on the top of a hill just above the beach. Don't ask me what I was thinking going up there is the maddest heat of the day. Halfway there I thought I was going to have a sunstroke, but I managed to get to the top and find a small shadow to rest in.

The views from there was fantastic, but it really was too hot to enjoy it for very long.
I decided to go down on the other side of the fort, since it wasn't as steep as where I went up. This was good, but when I got down on the other side I had no clue where I was and my brain was frying.

I saw an Indian couple and asked if they knew the way back to Vagator. They were very friendly (newly married) and offered me a lift on their motorbike back to Vagator main road. 3 people on one bike was no problem - normally Indian style is 5 people on one bike, even on a small scooter!

On Sunday Nishant, the friend from Delhi came down. We celebrated my birthday together which was very good. We also rented a scooter and went to all the beach places around here. Anjuna, Baga, Calangute, Candolim, it was fun! We also met up with soem other friends of his from Delhi. We went to some of the party places, Primrose, Nine Bar and some other places. Techno and drugs seems to be the thing here. It was pretty cool, but felt a little left out at times when not on drugs myself.

Vagator

I arrived here this afternoon. I went to visit Erwin, that German guy I met on the beach in Agonda. I stayed at his lovely house in Goa - Vehla for 2 days. It was very nice. An old Portugese style house with a beautiful garden. He also got 4 dogs and 2 cats. We drove around on his bike and he showed me different places around his area and we visited his Indian friends too.

Anyway, this morning I took the bus up to Vagator and found a room with a family. Tomorrow Im meeting Nishant, one of my friends from Delhi.

Stalked by cows?

I think the cows have it in for me? One night at Om Beach I woke up by the sound of breaking branches outside my room. My the room was kind of in the bush. I got a bit terrified, my imagination started to run wild. I thought someone was staring in the window at me! It was not a real window, just a lot of holes in the concrete - a very basic room you see and the lock was sooo flimsy too! After looking more closely, I realized someone was actually staring at me, but it was just a cow- haha. I did get pretty scared though.

Last night, almost the same thing happend again. Although this time I couldn't see anything, I just heard a lot of noises outside my door. I needed to pee very badly, but the toilet was in another building 15 meters away. Due to the scary noises I didn't dare go outside until daylight appeared!

Maybe I am easily frightened, but when you are on your own things often seem more scary. When I told the owner about the sounds this morning she was like: "Ah..yes it is the stupid cow". Apparently one particular cow keeps jumping their fence and comes and makes a mess in their garbage.

In any case I decided to move down to another guesthouse closer to the beach. After having done that I went to the beach again. However, although it is very nice and peaceful here, 2 days of beach life is more than enough. Im getting bored out of my mind now. Its only old people and couples here. I have talked to some of them, really nice people, but it isn't really too much happening if you are a single traveller. It is very good for a few days though.

Yesterday on the beach I met a German guy who lives in Goa. He was on a day trip with some Indian friends and they invited me to drop by when I head north. Since their house is on the way to North Goa I will try to go and see them.

Peaceful Agonda Beach

Im definitely on the beach track now. I came here from Gokarna yesterday. It was just a few hours travelling with the train and an autorickshaw. It is amazingly peaceful here, no development at all, only a few palm thatched restaurants and guest houses and a long nice beach.
Im staying at a guesthouse on a little hill. The views from there are fantastic and so is the sunset! The place is run by a really friendly family too. There is not much to do here apart from relaxing on the beach and reading, but for a few days I think it is great. Gokarna was a bit too much of a drug scene and when I go to Vagator next week I bet it will be pretty hectic there too, so Im really gonna enjoy the peace here while I can.

Kudlee Beach and staring men

Today I went for a walk to the neighbour beach, Kudlee, with a guy from the guesthouse Im staying at and a stray dog they take care of. Tomorrow I will probably move on again to South Goa.

Ah, a "funny" thing happens on Om beach. Every weekend, especially Sundays there are busloads of Indian men coming down to eye the girls on the beach. It is very akward! They parade along the beach in their best clothes "staring" at any women in a bikini. Its better to go to halfmoon, there you can stay in peace.

Om, Halfmoon and Paradise

Still on the beach, having a great time so far. Yesterday I went for a walk with Ruben (the Dutch guy) to "Halfmoon beach" & "Paradise Beach". Each is about 20 minutes walks away from each other.



We were sooooo hot when we reached halfmoon and the beach was beautiful and hardly any people, so we went swimming. We stayed a long while on halfmoon and after a while Karsten, a German guy I met in Auroville came walking past. He was on his way to Paradise Beach to find Tal, one of the American guys. We also went there a bit later and found them both there. I Keep running into the same people all the time now. Everyone have more or less the same route.



Today most of the Israelis left, because there is supposed to be a party in Goa. Hehe, it looks like all they do down here is smoke and party?

Om Beach - Gokarna

I changed my mind about Karwar and jumped off on Gokarna instead. I met a Dutch guy on the train and we got a minibus out to Om beach. Not sure how clever that was though, as the place is almost like Rishikesh, swarming with Israelis. Might leave in a few days. Lets see. It looks amazing here though :)

Mangalore - Coorg - Coffee Estate

Hey, I have been away from civilization for a week, so haven't been able to update the diary for a while.

I left Ernakulam last Tuesday night. Mike & Tal, the 2 Americans, where also leaving on the same train with their bikes, they were a bit sick of riding it now. However we were not in the same compartment, so once again I travelled alone.

It didn't really matter though, as it was 11.30 pm and everyone where going to sleep anyway. I reached Mangalore the next morning about 10 am and checked into a hotel. Then I went to call these people that I kind of accidentally got in touch with through a travel web site. First I got some info from Nithya, an Indian girl living in Canada. She had mailed me general info since I was in India, telling me that she had family in Karnataka. So when I told her I was on my way to Mangalore, she organized everything. Called her parents to let them now I was coming. So when I called her parents they were all so friendly. They invited me over for both tea and dinner.

Their nephew Alex took me for a drive to the beach as well. Next morning I left with Alex and his mum, Lilian (Diddi),which is Nithyas aunt. Ok sorry if this is getting too complicated, its not really very important. I just wanted to try and explain it all. The whole thing was really depending on soo many coincidences! It was pure luck that they were in town, just when I came. They have a coffee estate up in Coorg (the hills east of Mangalore).

So next morning I got a ride with them to their Estate. I stayed with them for about 5-6 days. It was very nice. Far away from everything. Not a single tourist in sight, no people at all in fact, apart from a few neighbouring estates. Had a very peaceful time there.

They showed me the coffee plantation and how they harvest the coffee and treat it before roasting. They also grow some pepper, papaya, cardamom, oranges, bananas and lime. I learned a lot about how these things work. We also went for walks around the estate. It is about 60-70 acres. I have no idea what this is on square meters, but it was BIG! At least I thought it was big.

Their house was on the very top of a hill. The road up their looked almost impossible for a car to climb, but I then realized why everyone in this place have 4-wheel jeeps! They had another jeep from the 2nd world war too and one day we went for a drive on the estate with it, really good fun. It could drive uo anything.

Another day we went to a Tibetan settlement and Monastery not too far from Mysore. They have built a huge temple and a lot of the sculptures inside are massive and all plated with gold!

The rest of the time we spendt doing everyday things. Lilian taught me how to make a few Indian dishes, like Dosai. One evening we even had a tiny party with some of their friends from the neighbouring estate. It was really funny. Drinking and driving is pretty normal here, but they were all soo worried about who was going to drive down when they had to go home. As they said, people either have to love you or hate you, to bother going up that road. They got down safely in the end though.

4 dogs also lived there, Sambo, Simba, Sheila & Sheeba. Yes, confusing I know. It took me about 4 days to get the hang of who was who. The dogs were so friendly, always hanging around together and very affectionate and cute. They were all street mix. I have a feeling that pure race is hard to come by down here. Especially all the stray dogs all look the same, most of them look kind of ugly and scary. Im always a bit worried when passing these packs of dogs at night, but so far so good!

Well, I guess this somehow sums up the last week. I got back here to Mangalore last evening. I took the bus from a village about 45 minutes from the estate. Halfway here the bus got a flat tyre. Everyone had to get off, but they were very efficient. I mean this is India, things usually takes ages, but after 1/2 hour the driver, conductor and a mechanic we came across on the side of the road, had changed the tyre.Wow!

Im staying with Nithya's grandmother now, a very sweet woman. She has a nice house here. Today I have been walking around town, fixing a few things and looking at a beautiful chapel covered with paintings on both ceiling and walls. There are a lot of Christians in this state, so there are churches scattered all over town. Just behind where Im staying there is another church about 300 years old. There is a kind of Portuguese feel to the place. Not so weird since it is very close to Goa (which was a Portuguese colony).

Tomorrow Il be going up to Karwar, just below Goa. It is supposed to be a good beach a few kilometres outside of this town, but no one knows anything about it, so I will have to check it out.

If it is not the case I'll go to Gokarna. Ssupposedly a laid back place too. I have no idea when i'll be online next time. It will depend on how isolated the places are I guess. Time is running out now, just about a month left of my trip. However Im really looking forward to go home as well. It will be Easter and spring when I get back home, the most perfect time to return!

Im still enjoying my time here too though. Phew, this entry must be a mile looong by now. I don't even know if it makes any sense, but it will have to do.

Vypeen Island and Cochin again

I just got back here this afternoon. Yesterday morning Magda and me went to Vypeen Island for a little excursion. We hadn't booked anything and didn't really know much about available accommodation, but we went to Cherai beach (it is about 1 hour horrendous bus ride from the ferry landing). After some discussion with a few locals we decided to go to a place called Seamen's Cottage.

It was a bit away from the main beach and it was really nice and quiet. They had only 4 rooms, the other people staying there were 2 British guys, an old French man and an Irish couple. They were all very nice, but we talked mostly with the Irish couple, because the others were mostly away. We spendt most og the time reading, talking and swimming. However it was cloudy both days, so no point in sunbathing.

This afternoon we took the "crazy" bus back to the ferry and went over to Fort Cochin, to have lunch at the Art Cafe, BUT it closed early on Sundays - buhuuuuu. I wanted to find a new room there, so we looked around a few places, but everything seemed full. Therefore we went to another cafe to have a drink and a think, but the service was sooooo slow, so after a while we decided to go elsewhere.

Just when we were leaving, we ran into Tal, one of the American guys I met in Auroville. He knew a few places and told me where to go. I got a really nice place in the end! After having a very late lunch with Magda, she went back to Ernakulam. I left a few things behind at her flat though, so I will meet her again on Tuesday, when Im taking the night train to Mangalore.