Calagute, Baga & Condelim, Goa

We found THE spot where locals go to vacation - on Calangute and Baga Beach. We were amazed by the number of Indian males (who were always either fully dressed or wearing only their underwear) that we saw marching up and down the shoreline amongst the hundreds of bikini clad Westerners. A little overwhelmed by the whole seen we decided to enjoy it from one of the many restaurants that lined the back of this beautiful and very long beach. We spent a lot of our day squirming at the site of the many parasailers that were seen being launched, even after sunset, and brought in right on the beach in between the masses of people - we're still baffled at how they managed to avoid the sunbathers.

It was in Calangute that we rented bikes and explored the surrounding beaches and forts. We enjoyed an amazing lunch at the Sunset Restaurant that overlooked Baga Beach from across the Baga River and sipped on beers at Condelim Beach where a huge oil tanker had run aground 10 years prior.

We would recommend these beaches to anyone looking to enjoy a bit of relaxation & culture and suggest that you shop around for hotels rather than settling for the first cheap room you come across.... the room we managed to find made our last stay like like a 5 star resort... but I suppose it was worth the 300 rupees (~$7) a night between the 4 of us.

Enjoy our pics and stay tuned!

A Slice of Paradise - Palolem Beach, Goa

If you're looking for a place away from the rest of the world where you can seriously relax, I would recommend that you head straight for Southern India...


Click for more pics from Palolem

Palolem beach is one of the most serene places I have ever encountered. With yoga, massage and meditation facilities lining the beach, we had no problem blowing off the little stress that we had accumulated in the first week or so of our travels... Rach and I let our inner child take over and lost ourselves on a desolate island at the end of the beach surrounded by huge stone boulders perfect for hopping along, and cliffs perfect for scaling across. We wound up having to fight our way through the mozzy infested overgrowth to avoid tumbling down the cliff side (Mom, you may have had a heart attack if you'd seen them)... but we made it out ok... and only half eaten & scarred (emotionally & physically).

The rest of the time we spent enjoying the market, the sun and a Silent Disco which we found to be a very interesting experience! There is nothing like standing amongst a crowd of people dancing to a beat that only they could hear - ear phones were worn with 3 live dj's blasting different music through each channel. It took a while, but a couple of us were able to join in on the dancing with reckless abandon, while the others quietly stood in awe of the fire spinners and trapeze acrobats... Not really sure if Bermy is ready for this sort of thing... yet.

We were sad to leave our little slice of paradise (nutella pancakes and all), but knew that there was much more to see in the North... and reluctantly hopped on a plane to Dehli.

Enjoy our pics from Goa - and stay tuned for our stories from the North!

Beach hoppin in GOA

Thanks for the prayers - we survived renting mopeds and had a blast! There's nothing more exhilarating than riding on the streets in India; it definitely beats rush hour traffic on Front Street! Project Ride prepared us well!

Click for more pics

We started out our adventure with a nice beach vacation. After a lovely 14 hour bus ride from Mumbai, we arrived in Goa and started our trip in Arambol at the northern end of Goa. We Bermudians are well equipped for the beach life, but this is different. The cows and wild dogs sunbathing caught us a little off guard. There are no reservations here - you just show up and see what beach hut colony or guest house has availability and it's all about luck getting a good one. We didn't have the best of luck... but it was somewhere to sleep. We explored the markets and beaches to find freshwater lagoons and endless cliff side views. We enjoyed many curries and Nutella pancakes while soaking in serene and spectacular sunsets alongside the countless hippies. We made a day trip to Anjuna beach where we made friends with a dog we named Shakira. She followed us around and sat with us on the rocks and even ran to us for protection when two male dogs started harassing her (we didn't offer much protection as we ran from them too!).

Next stop - Calangute

Click to view the full set of pics.

UK & MUMBAI pics on BermyNET

Mumbai from our hotel window...


Click here to view our full set of pics from the UK & Mumbai.

Mumbai - a few teaser pics

The Blufrog Bar


Rach & The Gateway of India


Cows in Mumbai

Honk if you love MUMBAI!

After a long flight to Mumbai we were still very excited and slightly numbed by not having had much sleep. We, thankfully, had a car arranged to take us to our hotel and managed to skip the potential chaos of having to find transportation.

We spent 2 days in Mumbai walking the streets and taking in the sites around us... easing ourselves into the culture slowly. We hung around at The Gateway to India but couldn't stay long before the vendors selling things became too much for us. A few of us enjoyed our first curries at Cafe Leopalds on Coloba Causeway, where we also browsed the many stalls set up with trinkets and very enticing jewelry. We found it very hard to hold back our excitement when we found a store of gorgeous vividly coloured Sari's. The store was decorated with very extravagant silver furniture that we were tempted to send home. :p It was hard to pull ourselves away from this refreshing gem in the rough... At night we enjoyed some live music at the swanky Bluefrog bar and later some lounge music at AIR, an open roof bar on the top of the 4 Seasons Hotel... these were by far the nicest bars I think we will see in quite a while!

The thing that struck us the hardest were the many terrifying experiences in a taxi on the streets of Mumbai. There were no actual lanes or kind of control and everyone felt the need to honk at each other to let them know that they were behind them, overtaking them, mad at them, just any reason to honk really. It's a shock that we didn't see any accidents. Blood pressure rose as we sat in our taxis with other cars, motorbikes, bicycles, animals and pedestrians coming at us from all directions. We came within inches of crashing into something many many times. But we made it out unscathed....

...And on that note we are off to rent some bikes in Goa! Pray for us!!!

(pics will be uploaded very soon... well as soon as it takes to find decent internet connection anyway!)

1 DAY LEFT

Happy New Year - from the UK!
Heading to MUMBAI tomorrow after a few days of walking up and down Oxford Street in LONDON getting some last minute shopping done with Jessie (whos been here for 3 weeks) including a quick lunch with Sarah, followed by a short stay in Crowborough and a stroll down the Brighton Boardwalk with our friends Lindsay, Henry & Russell. Having met up wth Rachel, in Berkhamsted at her Aunt & Uncle's country home, who arrived today I think we're all about ready, and extremely excited, to get out of the cold streets of the UK and into the very crowded streets of Mumbai...

Will let you know how our first glimpse of India goes in a few!
Ash x