Day 9 - 11 - Goa
Well, arrived to Goa today and we discovered right away what December heat means. The most important thing for me was a clean air – proximity of the sea made a huge difference. Almost two hours drive to the hotel located in Calangute Bardez, North Goa gave us a good preview of this catholic area. Easily visible Portuguese influence (peoples’ names!) combined with tropical feeling made it worth seeing. Don’t want to compare it to Macau, however Azulejos, casinos and seafood seemed to be the linking point. We stayed at Casa De Goa which appeared to be so called “boutique” (western) style with a pool, Indian/Continental restaurant and big LCD TVs. Must admit that this was one of the cleanest places we’ve seen with a very nice and motivated team (reception. general manager, laundry service, especially folks in the restaurant). “Diet” food was not a problem, constant supply of nicely priced Kingfisher and black tea was not a problem, very late check-out (5PM) was not a problem neither.
Back 15 years ago I have discovered electronic sounds with a very hard beat – psychedelic trance (also called by some GOA). This was one of the main reasons of visiting this place. And I must admit that I was kind of disappointed – while this was very popular back in nineties – given the serious problems with drugs and organized crime beach rave parties have been forbidden by the government. Basically all music needs to be turned off at 10PM. So, unless you make a good research beforehand (which I failed to do) you won’t be able to experience it. I found one bar on the beach Pity.
What was even more surprising was the amount of tourists in Goa (and also other parts of India) – it was really low. When traveling around Goa I was vastly surprised by empty tourist spots, almost empty beaches with bars waiting for customers. Russians appeared to be a significant part of the tourism down here – many adverts, menus, etc were written in Cyrillic. Few hotel employees in many Indian places connected lack of tourists to the Mumbai events back in 2008. Just sad.
Day 12 - 15 - Kumarakom & Allepey, Kerala
Today we arrived by train to Kumarakom (Kerala), it was a little sleepless night and an interesting experience but we managed to charge our batteries in Goa, so it is not a problem really.
Why Kumarakom? Well, good friend of mine has decided to marry an Indian girl and to arrange the ceremony in Southern India. We spent three days in Zuri resort, which is an upscale prepared to handle well those kind of arrangements. Despite the fact that we come from Catholic background, Christian ceremony combined with Indian Customs (Sangeet, Barat, Mehdi) was soooo different.I also tend to think that gathering (caging?) whole group in one place, away from any bigger city for three days creates a very good atmosphere. After the first day you start talking to everyone, so you are all friends during the wedding day. Also attended my first cricket match
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Day after the wedding we have boarded a houseboat to travel around. I must admit that it was one of those items which raised my suspicions when looking at the itinerary. I’m an inland yacht skipper since I was 12 and the whole of sitting on a very slow motorboat idea sounded really boring. However I’m on a boat right now and after 6 hours of cruising I must admit that I was wrong. Vast space filled with water, palm trees on the horizon and not too many mosquitoes so far. Let’s see where it goes later.
OK, I was even more wrong than I thought, we have spent a marvelous evening being docked in the middle of nowhere, far away from the civilization. Our boat had an upper deck partially without a roof, so we spent over 4 hours there, in a complete silence, listening to “Lord Of The Rings” OST, sipping beer and watching a spectacular moon/stars/fireworks combination on the other side of the lake (several miles away). Gentle breeze kept all mosquitoes away – just loved that.
All I can say now is: try it by yourself!