hail!

ahh yes the indian head wiggle. i was going to mention it before but it slipped my mind. it does seem to mean any number of things, and i have imployed it regulaly in my comunications with the natives.

not got to hampi yet, but no doubt we will in the near future. i swam out to geoffs rock but the tide must have been higher when you were here as there was a thick layer of barnicles which sliced my hands and feet to ribbons in my attempts to clamber up. we went all the way to the right of the beach though and swam across to the fantastically named “monkey island” (it looked like the one in the game aswell!) and leapt from boulder to boulder for ages. great fun!

just heading back to mumbai today. the mumbai-goa train journey has now become as familiar as the barnham- chichester route and just as tedious.

julio

so, we are on the way back to goa. a mere ten hours seems like a walk in the park in comparison to our last journey. twenty six hours from kochi to mumbai, not to bad i think to myself, reasoning that i would be asleep most of the time nestled in the complimentary blanket and pillow that came with our seats on the previous train journey. but no. leaping onto the train we discover no blankets, just the bare seat to huddle on. as it was around afternoon, i assumed that they would supply the blankets later. food was plentifull and meals supplied on order. these proved to be fairly turgid watery slurry with rice. the somosas and bajis sold by the shrieking train minions were much nicer. in a pinch im sure one could survive on chai alone what with it being mainly comprised of suger. night arrived and the blankets didn’t. a blasted cold gripped us and we lay shivering most of the night. i managed to work work how to switch of the fans that were coursing the wind chill factor, but some cretins on a nearby bunk couldn’t work out the simple mechanism of closing the windows so we pretty much froze huddling under out thin sheets. in the many hours we had to kill, flo read an intire book and i drained the battery on my gameboy playing for 8 hours strait. after a scinterlating 26 hours or so, i asked a train minion when we would be arriving. “five!” he gestured wildly and cackled at some private joke. as it was around 4.00pm i was pleaseantly surprised, only an hour late was good time on an indian train. come six i asked a different person. “five o’clock” he said. “umm?” i said, looking at my watch. “in the morning” he added as an afterthought. and so the long day wore on. after forty hours on the train it felt like our limbs had atrophied to the point that we had trouble walking. pretty grim all in all.

after that, me finding a hotel that was assentually a collectioin of airless little boxes was a poor tactical decision, and led to flo and i contracting cabin fever.

 we collected lucy and are heading down to goa as i type. it isn’t the first time and i doubt it will be our last. as we have vague plans of comiing here for christmas.

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in palolam again. just as nice as last time but a bit cooler. really like it here. nothing quite like waking up and leaping into the cooling waters.

liv can you send me a card exporter for the palm? the trail i have has nearly run out and i think i need it to put a new one one the palm as nothing has bluetooth here.

well thats a much better time!

 the reason i got it wrong was when i checked the email you sent me when you bought your ticket lu, it had 00.40 enscribed in it.

anyhoo, no worries ill see you at the airport. after you have picked up your baggage just walk strait out. ill meet you where the taxi’s are.

 my mobile is working now that i am in mumbai, so text any queries.

see you anon.

ahoy there. at present i am sitting and typing in the rather pretenscious art cafe in kochi. classical music plays in the background and travellers simper in their saris.not that this is a bad cafe, having just sampled the food, i am forced to admit that i like it here. its a little slice of home, more accuratly according to flo, like totness. this bit of kochi called fort coshin is really relaxed and pleasent, the bit we are staying in is about 20 minutes away and is noisy and a bit crap. too late to move though, we are heading back to mumbai on the morrow to pick up lucy on the 5th.

im looking forward to this train journey especially as it stands at 26hours non-stop it will rival the tan-goeff kashmer experiance as the most hellish journey of the year. the trains have been a fun experiance, and a really good way of speaking to lots of cool idian chaps who are not after your money. the last train trip, from mangalore to kochi (a mere 10 hours) was a bit grim becouse straped for time we had to stump for second class. this means one has to huddle on a seat made of wooden slats with the great unwashed. you can’t move of course as soome fiend will leap into your seat in a blink. it turned out not to be too bad as we made friends with our section of the coach. this included two it students traveling back from taking an exam. a young kid coming back from school, a wierd lecherous man who i had to physically distance from flo, and and intire football team including coach, who were to a man, deaf and dum. so, on paper our compartment could seat 8. on our seat comfortable for 3, sat 6. same for oposite us. above our heads perched in the luggage racks, limbs dangling like some perculiour plant, were another 6 or so people also crowded the aisles, fill the compartment with a humid fug composed mainly of sweat. it was an alright journey though. chattering away as most spoke very good english. we only struggled when it came to my inept attempts at sign language.

my phone apparently ambarassed at it’s inability to get a signal, committed sepeku the other day, its screen dimming in a most tragic manner. somehow i managed to resurrect it today but i am considering getting a new phone when i get a sim. right im off to head around the town.

see you later.

julio

some picsin no perticular order:

the kerelan back waters complete with bathing elephants

small beady eyes!

a nausiating couple

flo on mumbai station with our light luggage

believe it or not this is a sea slug

gokarn in all its melevolent glory

kerelan kathakali dance

so, in gokarn killing time till four o’clock when we can catch a train out of this pesthole.

not that we have had a perticulaly bad time here, but there is a strange atmosphere of depresion gripping the town and we cant wait to move on. the people are in turn really friendly and really bleak. the other travelers are a strange lot, they try and avoid meeting your eye, prefering to pretend that they are the sole westerner who thought of coming to gokarn. they look as though they are trying desperatly to fit in. decking themselves in various foux indian raiment as if this in itself will distill them with some sort of spiritual significance. this wierd behaviour looks like it cant be much fun as we have noticed a distinct lack of smiling or any kind of lightheartedness. after walking around the town for a bit we returned to the hotel depressed only to find in our own company our spirits rising. it felt really good to laugh after seeing so many grim faces. bit odd. i think most of them are just annoyed becouse after buying what apeared to be trousers, it turned out on closer inspection to be some sort of sack with two feet holes in them. must be agravating.

 

 forgot to mention the train journeys. i shall scribe them into my palm later and blog em. this place doesn’t have a usb. all in all travel by train is pretty good fun.

 

i also forgot to mention my epic travel pants. they have proven themselves invaluable, practicaly drying as soon as they are exposed to air and aiding the drying process of other clothing within a mile radius. also i wear my rohan trousers at all times, seemingly they require no cleaning. 🙂

 heading to mangalore, then verkala i think. we don’t have much time to go to far south. any places you would recomend in the north of india tom? when in newzealand i would avoid the big cities like aukland and wellington as they were soul draining. nelson was pretty cool, and be sure to do the abel tazman trail.

 might buy a indian sim card at some point. is it worth my trying to ring home from a payphone or something?

 see you!

julio

hello!

sorry, if you have texted me at some point but for some reason my virgin sim card isn’t working or getting any signel although flo’s contract is working fine.

 just spent the last few days in palolem. very nice. much better then benoulem. planning to come back here with lucy, a more gentle intro to india methinks. going to the contraversial gokarn tomorrow to check it out. then onwards to kerela were there is exotic dancing to be had. time seems to be nipping past rather quickly as the days are filled to the brim with eating and relaxing by the sea. flo and i went for a stroll along the left hand side of the beach yesterday and finding ourselves at the end decided to clamber over the boulders that abutted the sea and continue our route to the other bay. much fun and reminiscent of our respective childhood scamperings.

in one of the rockpools inbetween the rocks i spotted what looked like a perticulaly wierd bit of seaweed. on closer examination it was a sea slug! i plucked it from the pool dispit its efforts to twitch away. realy odd creature. like a sock filled with liquid, it wibbled in my hands like a water baloon, every now and then ejecting water in confusion. rather neat.

have yet to be seriously ill yet. this may have something to do with the insane amount of health giving pilules and whatnot we are ingesting everyday. food so far is very hit and miss. the best was in mumbai. need to be a bit more careful with the food here as the electricity keeps on cutting out all over palolem. some of the bars bbq fresh caught fish, and last night i had calamari which was very tasty.

christine seemed to remember you mama, though didn’t mention much fish gutting. 🙂

 people in goa seem remarkably friendly, hopefully this is true for the rest of india.

will blog from gokarn next.

julio