OH India

Part of Agonda Beach @ Sunset

As I write I am currently enjoying a beautiful view of a Goan Beach- Agonda Beach, Canacona, Goa to be exact-on the Western coast of India bordering the ...can you guess? The Indian Ocean. Palm trees, white sand-its amazing.  Why blogging while on a 4 day excursion to the beautiful beach? 3 reasons really A) We have free wi-fi in our cheap Beach hut and Nilesh the 23 year old guy who runs it was so excited to give us the password that I feel I MUST use the internet and B) I burned myself so badly today on the beach that I can only compare it to the time in Myrtle Beach when I fell asleep for 4 hours on my stomach (and nobody woke me up) so I am taking a break.C)Also: to appease my brother-in-law who told us we had to write a minimum of 1 blog entry per week or he wouldn't support us (sorry Brad but KC doesn't believe in blogging on the beach)
                         It is actually KC's turn to catch up on blogging of our trip to India, so I will make this short. And I must make it short as KC demands daily that we go swimming during the afternoon high tide to catch some pretty huge waves, and that is coming up pretty soon.  We took a 32 hour train trip to get here, 20 hours to Mumbai and 12 hours from there to Goa, but I would say it was worth it. Goa is beautiful. The beach KC found is very private, with several very laid back restaurants and beach huts along the sand. The ocean is much like the Atlantic or Pacific (not blue like the Caribbean but some pretty amazing waves) and the beach is actually pretty white. The weather is hot hot hot, but in the evening feels amazing. It has been a great way to take a break from Dhamtari, and we wish it didn't cost so much to fly to India or this would be a new vacationing spot  :). Tomorrow we leave on an early train back to Mumbai, then are staying the night and exploring Mumbai for a day-then its off to Raipur on an overnight train and back to Dhamtari for teaching and helping in the hospital. It has been an amazing week.

Our mantra for this trip has been "ooooh India" and here are some examples of when we have had to use said mantra:
1. Our first train from Raipur to Mumbai was 3.5 hours late. We left at 10:30pm.
2. In the middle of the night in the sleeper car I awoke to something crawling on my face- a large cockroach, and KC informed me later that yes he saw one the moment we stepped onto the train but thought it better not to mention it
3. On arriving to Mumbai we found out that our OTHER train to Goa departed from a station 1.5 hours away in traffic....a $60 (in US dollars) taxi trip-oops
4. When the taxi driver tried to sneakily change out the 500's for 100's in the rupees that KC gave him and tell us that we didn't pay enough (KC informed him we did in fact give him the right amount)
5. After coming to Goa, when the guy with the beach huts had told us he had a vacancy when we called...and he really didn't, but as with all Indians he was SO nice about it that he made his friend take us in his huts for the night (at a cheaper rate)
6. Renting a scooter from a kid- (at the equivalent of $5 US a day) that was completely empty of Petrol causing us to run out of gas and having to have a nice Indian man push us with his foot- and also who forgot to mention that it was illegal to drive without a helmet on the national highways.
7. Getting pulled over and given a TICKET by an Indian policeman for not having the required helmet
8. Driving 3 hours north on the scooter (getting lost and getting the ticket)  to find a spice plantation that isn't really a working spice plantation at all but a tourist trap where they take all of your money and try to get you to ride an elephant and smoke a banana leaf cigarette (yeah KC was realllll happy with my spice plantation choice) and yes I bought many souvenirs from here.
9. A running shower in the hut with WARM WATER!!! YESSS!

Colomb Bay- a beautiful spot we found on a scooter ride

10. And finally, a GORGEOUS beach, with fantastic people from all over Europe mainly and Indians who own all the restaurants and huts who are unbelievably friendly and you can sit in their restaurants with bare feet and your swimsuit playing scrabble all day long and they won't ever check to see if you are ready for the bill (really. Never. You have to go ask them for it. We have played a whole game of scrabble AND rummy)

It has been an awesome week :) Hope our trip home is just as adventurous!!!

Raina (and KC)