Travelling is unpredictable, so your emotional response is whimsical. We now know this is fact.
After getting into Gokarna, an isolated town just south of the Goan state border, we thought the tribulations of sweaty Cochin we at an end. It began well enough with a simple taxi journey to a hotel which provided us with a three bedroom room (though not a/c). We thought we'd take it easy on ourselves, get dinner and go to bed. This was another opportunity for my 'South India Rough Guide' to really foul things up with it's out of date information. We had a bit of trouble finding the Green Gate cafe to begin with and our patience wore down in line with our blood sugar level. After wandering around the local bus station, we found a shoddily constructed hut, lit by a single base light bulb. After being put off by the table-hopping stray cats and straining our eyes in vain to read the menu, we decided to take another piece of dubious advice from the 'Rough Guide to being worng', as James calls it. The Sea Green restaurant was at the end of a dimly lit path, and consisted of a deserted picnic site with two idle waiters picking their nails next to a service hut. Jaz and I were hungry enough to go along with it, but the snarling dog put James off entirely. By the time we got to the Prema Cafe and belated sustenance the mood was dour. Sleep deprived James was (understandably) grouchy, Jaz was paranoid that she was responsible (I've no idea why) and I was trying to please everyone and consequently pleasing no-one at all. We got back to a stuffy room after being hounded by an unwanted tour guide and struggling our way through a procession of several hundred people (Gokarna has abundant medieval holy temples).
James was seriously thinking about packing up and heading straight for Goa the next morning, but we managed to persuade him to give Gokarna a stay of execution. Good bleeding job as well. Gokarna was absolutely fabulous in the light. Built along a single main road - 'Car Street' , it still had a strong Indian identity, aided by the fact we were out of the tourist season. The fine temple and halls were holding varying rituals and gatherings and the place had a great buzz from all the traders and Indian pilgrims-come-holiday-makers here for the week long festival we'd stumbled across unaware. Down by the pretty beaches cows and dogs lay asleep in the shade or frolicked in the surf next to the sunbathers. Everybody chilled out and cheered right up. In our hotel the Indian pilgrims had hired out small rooms but fitted scores of people inside by dossing down on the floors. I felt a bit guilty about our new spacious three bedroom a/c room.
The most serene place we visited was Om beach, a few kilometers south of Gokarna. Om is a secluded cove in the shape of Om symbol. It was the perfect place to swim, drink and relax.
Time is moving on swiftly now, and we'll be leaving India in under a week. We are in Palolem, Goa now. It is pretty, and has great amenities, but it's really touristy. Now we've found some nice beach huts James will get some time to catch up on sleep, Jaz gets her sun tan time and I'll do some swimming. We're not going to learn much from the place, though. I still feel like we could have got more out of India, even though a month was too paltry to do much. We've got our train tickets to Mumbai booked for the 17th. James and I have found our feet with travelling now, so it's time to knuckle down when we get to Hong Kong. To the left is a pictue of Jaz and me mucking about.
Great news about Chirac/Villepain having to remove the CPE in France, this has cheered me up no end! Now if we could only learn the lesson and do the same thing with ID cards in the UK...
Elsewhere, United have got rid of Cornforth and are relying on Ian Atkins, which is a sensible move. Let hope it's not too late. Come on you Gulls!
Congratulations to Ms. Dorman on successful application to the Civil Service fast stream. Well done, I knew you'd do it. Now you just have a to hand in your personality and political conscience to fit in, and be just like me :( Still you can always look forward to your bowler hat and endless cups of tea if you go along with Michael Howard's view of Civil Servants. If you have any CS questions just drop me a line.
As we are now on the last leg of our time in India, I probably won't have an update for a week or so until we get to Hong Kong. Thanks to Isaac, Sue and Mr. Jagger for all their advice, we are now well prepared!
1 comment:
Can't guarantee that Steve, but we have founded a Stereophonics theme bar in Palolem.
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