GOA weekend

We had an early start on Saturday morning and it was amazing to see the difference between busy road traffic (ie all the honking and the full buses and the truck load of people <-- im not kidding!!! its truly a truck with an attached wagon like thing. so the women and children will sit in the back of the truck, whilst the many men will be standing in the back wagon! travelling fow hundreds of kilometres!!! Scary yo!) and the relaxing morning when u just have pedestrians having a morning stroll and enjoying each other's company, holding hands (<-- they are big at holding hands here! even the men do it! and the funniest was when we saw two teenager boys holding hands whilst they were cycling on their individual bicycles! I was assured that they weren't gay... Apparently it is illegal to be gay here in India..)

Anyway.. had breakfast in Belgaam! it was interestingly called an omlette, but it contained NO eggs... nyaman lah... and by 11.30 we were in Goa.. and it is different!!! pretty lah the place... Very peaceful and also very very hot!!!

For lunch, i had pomfret fish (that is ikan bawal!) and it was yummy!!! I definitely can NOT live as a vegetarian!!! Even just having the fish made me so happy!!! I finished it in record time!!! Hwhwhw...

Went to a bazaar like thing in the Kala Academy, and the architecture of the building is very pretty! Hope it turns out well in pictures!!! Had GOOD coffee at Coffee Day (just another one of them chains where u get good real coffee.. none of what we have every morning.. a bit of coffee powder drained it sweet hot milk ;p).... I had a choco frappe which had ice cream in it!!! And of course Sharab Uncle knew nothing about the ice-cream! he would have gotten my head chopped off if he knew...

We are on 'strict' rules whilst we are in India.. We can't have just any water.. only mineral water or filtered tap government water. No ice cream and no ice! No salad and nothing which is not piping hot!! But of course, Charlotte and I aren't going to adhere to that! We bent the rules and made our own logical 'safety' rules ;p

Went on a cruise on the Mandovi River! I don't normally enjoy cruises but this was insteresting! indians LOVE dancing and they aren't ashamed or afraid to show it!!! Apparently May/June months aren't a good time for European tourists, because they can't stand the heat... So these months are mainly for the Indian tourists and OH MY GOD!!! there are a lot of them!!!

At one point, Char and I were engaged in a conversation.. And as we looked up, we saw an actual SWARM of MEN just walking towards us crossing the road!!! It was a SCARY feeling! these people didn't do anything of course, they were trying to catch the night cruise... but having to see them WALKING towards us in a phenomenal number was scary!!!

Sunday... lots of churches visiting and museums to visit! it was all good!!! And we even saw our first accidents in India!!! First, a guy fell off his bike and was actually bleeding.. The second accident, I didn't quite see the damage done on the vehicles or the passengers.. But they stopped, had a verbal argument, and the honking done by the traffic created was phenomenally loud and typically Indian!!! It was funny!!! We've got a video clip of it!!! Hwhwhw...

In short, my GOA trip was very relaxing and very touristy!!! It feels good to be out of SDM college and to do something relaxing and very nice!!! Goa is not typically Indian... and the food we had in Goa have been the BEST so far (in my opinion!!!)

Facts: Goa is the only state in India where it is mandatory to wear seat belts in cars and for motorcyclists to wear helmets!