Spring Break!!!
Saturday night we left i Pondy to go to Goa for spring break. We took 2 trains. The first one left at 10pm and was 10 hours. We were in 3rd AC class which means the cars were closed in and air conditioned and bunks were stacked 3 high. Each of us had a bunk. There was not enough room to sit up between them and it was rather cold. The bunks were basically brown vinyl padded benches, and were fairly comfortable. I read for a couple hours and slept most of the night.
Sunday we had a long layover in Bangalore, a city in the middle of India. We went out for breakfast, and spent most of the day looking around a shopping mall. It was fairly similar to malls at home. I went to the bookstore and bought some Indian novels to read. One was really trashy – about a bunch of kids just out of college figuring out their lives. It was entertaining. The other one has a little more substance. It’s about a guy in 1950s Calcutta who works at a giant hotel. I’m not done with it yet.
What we saw of Bangalore looked nice. It was very pretty. There were lots of the squarish sort of buildings with flat roofs like porches. It seemed cleaner than some other places. I didn’t see any really big buildings modern with lots of windows and stuff like we did in Chennai, but it was still definitely a city.
At 3pm our second train left. This train was pretty similar but only 2 bunks stacked and they were blue. It was nice to have room to sit, because we were awake for a long time. This ride was 14 hours. We got of the train at 5am, and then into cabs for an hour or 2 to get to where we were staying.
My original plan was to go trekking in the mountains with a small group, but we just couldn’t figure out how to plan it so we decided to be at the Baga beach in the north where most other people were going to be, for the first half of the week, and then go to the south for the other half. They told us North Goa would be very crowded and very tourist-y and south Goa would be more empty and calm.
We got to Baga around 7am. It was completely deserted. We checked into the hotel and went for a walk looking for breakfast. Nothing opened for at least an hour. Eventually we ate, then went to the beach. The beach was gorgeous. It got busy during the day, but never as busy as I expected. The people who told us it would be crowded should visit the Jersey Shore. The beach was lined with beach shacks that sell food and drinks. They were basically pavilions with palm thatched roofs with restaurants under them. During the day they put out lounge chairs that are free for anyone to sit in, with umbrellas. At night they move some tables out and you can sit and watch the sunset or eat dinner out there.
Monday we just hung out on the beach and relaxed after a long weekend of traveling. Tuesday was more beach. Nicole and I built a sand sea turtle on the beach. Zach said we could bury him if we bought him a beer, but he didn’t actually let us until later in the week.
We were supposed to leave and go to South Goa after that, but we decided not to. It was too nice having the whole group together. Only half of us had been planning on going. I would have liked to see it, but we had a lot of fun where we were.
Wednesday we went to the Anjuna market. It was really cool. There were aisles and aisles of stands selling clothes, figurines, jewelry, tapestries, and lot of other things. It was very touristy, but then everything in Baga was. It was different to not be around just Indian people all the time. There were a lot of European tourists - Austrians, Russians, British, Scandanavian, etc. There were not that many people our age there. It was mostly an older crowd. Probably closer to normal spring break time more college age people come in. But the market was really nice. Prices were pretty low. I bought a few things to take home either as souvenirs or as gifts.
The rest of the week was more beach. It was a lot of fun. I got very sunburned. It was nice to be with people who liked to go on walks and be in the water and stay active all day, although we all did a fair amount of just laying around in the sun. It was a true vacation.
Saturday we finally buried Zach. We made him into a beautiful mermaid. I took pictures. That night, as our last night, we had balloon pants night, where everyone wore the poofy pants they have bought in India. Someone else got pictures of that. They are very comfy, and very cheap. I got a pair of rainbow striped ones for 150 rupees - $3 or so. Chris and Eleanor had whole jumpsuits – stretchy tops that went down into balloon pants. They looked pretty awesome. We were going to go sing karaoke, but it turned out that karaoke night at the beach hut was Sunday instead. We just had a nice night out on the beach. There is a Saturday night market that we almost went to, but it didn’t start until 2:30am, and we just got too tired. Still, we had a good time.
Sunday, Nicole and Eleanor and I had a spa day. Spas are a whole lot cheaper here than at home, so we decided we might as well go. We all had manicures and I got a facial. Then they went for massages. It was a lot of fun, although there was no way of getting all the dirt out from my nails. That night we left for Karwar, where we are now, starting classes again. Couldn’t let our brains rot for too long.
