Goa, Christmas

Season's Greetings!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

We are settled into enjoying hot sunny days and lots of relaxation. We arrived in Goa, a beach area popular with Europeans, about 10 days ago and we plan to stay until after the New Year. We should know that it is Christmas this year as we are in an area that has a lot of Catholics due to the Portuguese influence. Then we plan to travel slowly south and a little inland ending up in Chennai or Madras to fly back on Feb. l6.
We have an apartment and enjoying staying in one spot for a while. We enjoyed a scooter ride down the coast yesterday and visited a beach up the coast on a bus the other day. We have a wonderful beach 300m from the apartment. Beautiful fine sand and just perfect ocean temperature. The sea here is clear and green (not the clear turquoise of the Caribbean or Australia though). You can sit on sun chairs with umbrellas and the restaurant looks after you - with drinks or food. There are a few beach hawkers to pester you but after a while they ignore you and of course, lots of sleeping dogs near the restaurants. There are miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches so of course one can go off to be all alone if that is your choice. Interesting that the sky at night seems to have so few stars - there is obviously something in the air such that the star show is not great. It is wonderful to eat dinner on the beach with your bare feet in the sand, a candle on the table and the sea in front of you and the stars overhead. Sometimes there is a gentle breeze and some nights there is entertainment at the restaurants. Pretty laid back and comfortable. Who ever thought that we would while away the days and nights like this? Stopping work sure does let one slow down!

Take care, Wishing you all a safe and joyous festive season

Susan and Clive
We plan to rent bikes (pedal type) in the next day or two and do a bit of cycling either on the beach or amongst the rice paddies and Portuguese homes (rather like mansions).
Clive has just managed to get enough reading material - we look everywhere for books - seems that he can just find enough. Me - well, I have two books in hand and the Lonely Planet keeps me busy. We will do some planning before we leave here.

Rajastan

We have spent the past month travelling in the area of Rajastan, south of Delhi, the land of the kings is the translation. It has been a time to see massive forts and palaces and a land of many colors and contrasts. In my initial planning, I thought a month up north and a month in Rajastan. Well, that is how it has worked out! When we left Rishikesh, I had had enough of yoga for awhile (ready to try again though) and now I think that we have seen just about enough in Rajastan. So we are just about ready to visit the beaches of Goa and chill out there. Imagine we can then order beer and meat or fiish - mind you I am really liking trying out being vegetarian. Clive is looking forward to more fish or meat. Neither of us has missed alcohol - imagine that - though we have enjoyed the odd beer and it may have caused some stomach upset (though mild). We have oded on Indian food a bit - we are now into boiled egg or scrambled egg for breakfast. Indian food three times a day is too much spice for us these days. We will ring the changes when we get to Goa. I still very much love not cooking, cleaning or shopping. There are so many nice spots to sit and eat or drink - lots of rooftop restaurants and quaint places. I reallly do enjoy Indian food but we sure don't need to order too much. The yogurt drinks with banana mixed in are tasty and give us a bit more protein.

We have recently enjoyed two days out on the desert on camels. I seemed to enjoy it more than everyone else in our group of six. I love to be in the great outdoors. We saw sand, scrub, deer, birds and just the open countryside and the odd poor village. Slept under the stars on the sand and kept warm with a bunch of blankets. Riding a camel is much like sitting on a horse except for the getting up and down - those long legs need to stretch on the way up and fold on the way down (feels like a bronco in slow motion). The best part for me was doing the 'beer run'. The camel boy of ten years of age was sent off to get beer (in case the guests want to buy). So I trotted off with him to his village. He bought the beer and put it in a sack with camel feed. Whilst he got the beer, I sat with his sister and her 6 kids in the mud hut. I explored and saw the hut for cooking and the one for sleeping. Then we trotted back to the dunes! It was fun to trot on the camel - I couln't have done that without some camel man (boy) in the saddle withme.
We have enjoyed wandering and seeing and relaxing - amazing how the time goes. What a land of contrasts this is - from the very poor to the very well heeled. We saw the people in the desert just subsisting and then today in the palace grounds we are seeing massive preparations and building for a threed day wedding that is going hhappen within the next few days - and wow are the palace grounds magnificent. So it goes.