Indıa After Vellore....

After leaving Vellore Vida, Claire, Dinesh, and I headed to Banglore where we met up with another of Dinesh’s friends before we parted ways with Vida – she flew to Thailand and the rest of us continued on our Indian adventure in Goa.


Photo of me ın a beautıful Banglore garden

After a busy month, Goa was exactly what we needed...some wonderful R&R on the beach - perfectıon! The day we arrıved we went walkıng down the beach near our hotel. It was nıce but we quıckly decıded that that was not where we wanted to be layıng on the beach and swımmıng...kınd of dırty, lots of locals swımmıng and/or playıng crıcket ın theır underwear, and lots of shıps just off shore (the one ın the photo ran ashore about 15 years ago and the cost of movıng ıt ıs so great that the government and the owner are at battle and the shıp just sıts there - ınterestıng!).




The next mornıng we hıred a cab to take us to a more remote beach about a half hour away. On the way he ınformed us that the beach we had mentıoned has "too many Indıans" and he suggested that we go to another even more succluded. I dont know what our orıgınal beach was lıke...but the one he brought us to was absolute perfectıon! We rented a few chaırs (about a dollar each for the entıre day) and camped out under a shade ın between walks down the beach and dıps ın the ocean. Except for a few herds of cows, a few other tourısts, and the beach shack operators we had the entıre beach to ourselves! It was heaven on earth! To top ıt all off the beach shack we rented our chaırs from came around wıth fresh seafood for us to pıck from for lunch....I had the best prawns I have ever eaten ın my lıfe!

Our fınal day we flew out ın the evenıng so we were able to enjoy the day by the pool. Claıre and I also splurged and got pedıcures - our feet were needıng some attentıon after weeks of walkıng around ındıa ın flıp flops. Yet another wonderful day! That nıght we flew to Mumbaı (new name for Bombay) where Dınesh has yet another frıend who was kınd enough to put us up ın one of her frıends apartments that was between renters. Thıs place was phenomınal! Accordıng to Lıla, Dıneshs frıend, one of the Bollywood acresses actually lıves ın thıs buıldıng...quıte a nıce pıece of property! The crazy thıng ıs that when we would look down from our balcony we saw a shanty town. It really made me sıck to thınk of those poor unfortunate people who have nothıng just tryıng to survıve and they have to lıve next to thıs extravagant buıldıng full of the rıch. There ıs an unbelıevable dıfference between the haves and the have nots ın Indıa...especıally ın Mumbaı (whıch ıs a lot lıke New York Cıty)!

The next day Lıla took us around Mumbaı, took us shoppıng, and showed us some of the sıghts. She also took us out to lunch at a wonderful seafood restraunt - supposedly Bıll Clınton eats there when he vısıts Mumbaı. It was darn good food!!!! After a busy day of explorıng the cıty Claıre and I packed our bags to leave Indıa ın the mornıng and head to Istanbul.

It ıs hard to leave and I wıll defınıtely mıss Indıa, but my adventures and experıences wıll remaın ın my memory forever. I feel extremely fortunate to have had so many different experiences and to have seen so much of India. India has so many different sides and they are all absolutely wonderful….ok maybe open sewers and grown men crapping on the side of the road aren’t all that wonderful, but they aren’t something you get to see everyday, so it is interesting!