Over and out!

Our last days in Delhi were spent shopping and visiting Akshardham, the largest Hindu temple in the world and built in 2005. Unfortunately no electronic devices are allowed so we have no photographic evidence of what was a strangely unmoving experience, in sharp contrast to almost all of the other places of worship we have visited on our trip. Although the craftsmanship was tremendously skilled and the scale gigantic, the Delhi version of the Neasden temple did not do it for the Goodwins.

Christmas preparations have started in Delhi although the decorations look somewhat incongruous with daytime temperatures around 23 degrees, although the evenings at an unseasonably 12 degrees have given us a hint of what we will experience at Heathrow this evening!

Free range turkey in blissful ignorance in Goa!

And so, goodbye until South America ........

On the beach: Patnem

Well the pictures give the game away so we may as well confess, we have enjoyed a very lazy week in the Palonem area of South Goa! The beaches are glorious, and Patnem in particular is very unspoilt. Lucy deigned to join us again for a few days to enjoy the luxuries of hot water and the odd lobster and it was great to see her and catch up with what she has been doing in Kerala. We have very little else to report. Indeed, aside from gastronomic and cocktail highlights, the headlines have been the score of 483 achieved at bat and ball, yoga classes and camera shy dolphins. 

Revitalised, Lucy departed a couple of days ago heading for 'Prison Hostel' in the hippie capital Anjuna! Nic and Carolyn meanwhile are about to head off to Delhi for their final couple of days. So soon.....!

Panaji and beyond

From the beaches of the North we next headed for Panaji, which became the state capital of Goa in 1843 after Old Goa port had silted up and the residents fled the plague. We stayed in a lovely Portuguese style guesthouse in the colourful old Quarter of Fontainhas. The main sight nearby is the church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception which dominates the centre of the town and is beautifully illuminated at night, meriting two pictures! We also enjoyed the local (sophisticated or what ?) graffiti……..

We managed to have scheduled our visit to Old Goa itself to coincide with the annual festival to commemorate St Francis Xavier so we had a crazy bus journey crammed under peoples' armpits as the entire local Catholic population made the pilgrimage. 

The next day, having enjoyed our first scooter experience, we decided to repeat it with a more ambitious project, the flea market in Anjuna. Recipients of Christmas presents from us may be grateful that we resisted any purchases, perhaps because it was just so hot! The roads were a bit of a nightmare to navigate, particularly the one way streets around the city so were relieved to get back to enjoy a fish curry.

We then treated ourselves to a night at the Leela hotel in Cavelossim before meeting up with Lucy again. Most memorable were the fabulous 75 acre grounds with superb flowers including the largest species of orchids we have ever seen, and a praying mantis that was not small either….

Glamping in North Goa

 Our first accommodation was in one of four rather posh tents, although the first night was rather marred by a plague of insects above Nic's side of the bed which, after spraying with repellant, proceeded to drop dead and fall on him all night! In the morning all was forgotten as we were served a fab breakfast in the sunshine whilst the locals shinned up the  palm trees in the garden to ensure that coconuts didn't rain down on us too. A lazy day on the beach followed, Nic managing to sit still for almost a whole day. So that was Carolyn's one restful day of 80 ticked off…….



The next day we moved down the road a few kilometres to a brand new tented resort run by the same group. All went reasonably well until it unexpectedly started to pour down that evening and water started to flood into the tents. Other problems became apparent the next day with the aircon and hot water, resulting in the manager deciding that he would have to close the resort and get everything sorted out. In the meantime 
we were asking if we could stay another night!

 The location is by a great beach where we have been doing some body boarding, there are some fantastic restaurants (including one serving our first beef for 10 weeks as well as the expected fish) and we had a brilliant day out exploring on a hired scooter, not quite the vintage Royal Enfield 500cc Bullet Nic has been fantasising about but hell……we passed paddy fields, ruined Portuguese forts and churches and deserted golden beaches.

 
On our last morning we got up early to witness the impressive teamwork that is bringing in the nets. Sadly the haul was rather disappointing for the effort expended.

Diu: Locals on the beach

Our first glimpse of the sea after eight weeks in India! Diu is a small island about 12 km long, a former Portuguese enclave at the far south of Gujarat. The availability of alcohol and meat in an otherwise dry and veggie state probably accounts for its popularity as a holiday destination with domestic tourists. Carolyn was also seeking (but failed to find) an explanation as to why her brother had seriously considered buying a house there many years ago……???

Everyone did seem to be having a good time with watersports on the beach and tightrope walking also seemed to be very popular. And of course asking the rare Westerners to pose in your family photographs.You couldn't miss our hotel at night because of the illuminations and the whole resort area had lots of gaudy statues that reminded us of Blackpool in the 60s! 

The old town with its fishing boats strewn with drying fish and the remains of a 16th century fort had a certain charm. Interestingly siestas, which we haven't encountered elsewhere in India, still feature heavily here as a relic from European influence and we had a lovely peaceful meander around through the quiet streets in the late afternoon sunshine.

Onwards to Goa via Mumbai in a prop plane…..

Gir National Park: Back to nature again!

We arrived at Junagadh station and set off for the Gir national park, only stopping at the Maqbara tomb with spiral minarets pictured above and which also impressed the goat!

Gir is the last haven in the world for the Asiatic lion in the wild and there are currently just over 400 of them in 1150 square km. The Asiatic lion is actually pretty similar to the African lion for most intents and purposes but slightly smaller and paler. Access to the park is rather limited but we were lucky enough to get two permits for early morning safaris when we there, the fact that the very few Westerners around had to pay a premium rate may have been more than a coincidence!

As you can see from above our outings were successful and we saw a total of four lionesses and three beautiful cubs. But no lion king! We also got a brief glimpse of a camera-shy leopard, plus later an excellent nature walk by the river next to the hotel at sunset. We were lucky enough to have a complete anorak as a guide and he was particularly good at identifying birds and fooling them with recordings of their species on his mobile phone!

 

The only downside to our stay here was they we both came down with Delhi belly! Ironic that this happened, as often seems to be the case in our general experience, at one of the most expensive hotels of our trip! Now off to the seaside......

Update from Lucy!

Well, it has now been almost two weeks since Lucy left us at Ajmer station! She successfully navigated her way around Delhi and has been enjoying herself far too much in Kerala but keeping in touch regularly with local phones at 1 rupee a call. We were a little surprised to receive the photo below yesterday though.....

Fortunately an explanation followed soon afterwards! She and some fellow travellers were approached and asked to be extras in a Bollywood film that was being shot at the beach. Herself was only asked to be the bride! Note the banana.......

Swingers in Ahmedabad

Ok,when we saw the full size. upholstered swing in our (upgraded) hotel room we did raise our eyebrows. However, as you can see from the photo above, such swings are standard in Gujarati homes, even at a low housing level. Family members sit there, swinging backwards and forwards holding a cup of chai with unconscious ease.

On the way to Ahmedebad,we stopped off at the 11th century Modhera Sun temple, which included some, ahem, interesting carvings. Now, they could really swing !

 On a different note on one of our two heritage walking tours of the old city Nic saw (women not being allowed in) Sidi Saiyad's mosque with beautiful carved stone jalis (screens).The pictured Tree of Life was one of a pair until Queen Victoria took a fancy to them and removed one which remains in the British Musuem to this day. 



 We had our most stressful train moment to date when leaving Ahmedabad for Junagadh. We were beginning to think we were old hands until when the train was due they switched the train arrival platform three times times which left us running between platforms, before  they actually removed the train off the board completely so that we thought we had missed it altogether. It was not until we them went to the "Superintendent's" office that we were cheerfully told that the train had not yet arrived! No further information ever appeared on the board regarding it,which may explain why it was almost empty.To reduce our stress levels in the ensuing 7 hour rail journey we watched an episode of Downton Abbey. Quite surreal!

 

Off the beaten track: Mount Abu

Rajastan's only hill station is a destination for Gujerati honeymooners and those desperate for alcohol (Gujerat, where we are next headed is dry). It being the height of the wedding season the town had a particularly festive atmosphere reminiscent of British seaside towns from our childhood, even having an amusement arcade and candy floss. On our first evening we took a 'romantic stroll' to Sunset Point, along with the chattering hordes! The last stretch was uphill and push me-pull me handcarts were available. As everyone was staring and photographing us as the only westerners anyway, we decided to take a lift! We were immediately surrounded……and caused a sensation as we progressed downhill!

The next day we went for a hike with a guide, it being deemed unsafe for tourists to walk alone. Mahendra, also answering to Charles," reassured" us within the first five minutes by telling us how a French tourist he was with last year was attacked by a sloth bear and needed 25 stitches. In reality we had a great walk and the only large animal we saw was a crocodile! The views were fantastic and we also enjoyed cooking lunch over an open fire. Our walk finished at the Dilwara Jain temples, the carved marble interiors which were even more beautiful than those at Ranekpur, but photos were not allowed.

A new threat to your marigolds!

And then there were two: Jaisalmer

 We said goodbye to Lucy in classic style on the railway platform at Ajmer as she set off for Kerala via Dehli (not a dry eye in the house) ! Nic endured a strange incident when an unprovoked furious crippled man threw his rubber peg leg at him! He had mistaken Nic for a westerner who had insulted him with a 10 rupee note. We left rapidly for Jodphur!

                                 
The following day we got the slowest train imaginable to Jaisalmer, near the North Western border with Pakistan. The golden city boasts a 12th century fort rather reminiscent of a giant sandcastle and a number of spectacular havelis, wealthy merchants' houses from the 19th century.

But the main attraction was a camel safari! Carolyn was definitely on the nervous side about this, given that she had compared the pain arising from her previous camel experience in Egypt to that of childbirth. In the event, by the second day she was trotting most happily. We were accompanied by three young Punjabi's, their whiskey and mutton (not the ones pictured) and some long discussions over the campfire about our different lives. Night was spent literally under the stars on bedrolls which we insisted were raised above the ground (dung beetles….). Nic's camel, Al Capone, is pictured below at the end of the second morning's ride. We feel pretty similar….but in a great way!

l