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I came for a couple of days and then…..ahhh just couldn't seem to leave. That pretty much sums up my time here in Palolem. Left Agra, got to Delhi with Carrie – we decided to hire a car for the journey as we thought we were going to have some running around to do – attempting to find Paul in a City of 35 million – I had left my good beach books in Delhi thinking I would see them again when we hooked up at his place in the north, maybe meet up with Ramankant, would have loved to have some time with Bandeep, the Time photographer, and then there was the ongoing issue of Carries gigantic bag…..so, we finally left Lucky and the great folks at the Arayans Hotel and we hit the road. The highway between Agra and Delhi is a 4 lane, divided (thank God), toll road so the crazy passing and the cows on the road dangers etc was less of an issue. It did take us about an hour to get to the highway as Agra roads have every possible animal, creature, bus, truck, rickshaw, tuk, tuk, goat herd, camels, water buffalos – it takes a long time to go anywhere in India!!!
Memories of the journey – seemed like hundreds of brand new engineering colleges, universities and campuses, either recently built or nearing completion. Carrie and I wonder where all these Indian engineering grads can possibly work. Every educated male Indian seems to either have an engineering degree or is expected to get one sometime. Just coming in at a little fewer on this stretch of highway were pharmacy colleges and universities. Third were management universities. What an industry education is. All private – all in the middle of nowhere, all huge and sparkling new. The Asian Tiger has eaten the American Armadillo. Just that obvious.
So we pulled into Delhi around 4 pm after a stop at a shopping mall – love the private driver thing where we could just say – hey – pull over…..the mall we picked sucked, but we still had fun at the dollar store….one weird thing is their dollar store has exactly the stuff our dollar stores have except their dollar store charges $2 for what we pay $1. What???? It is all made here or next door in China and then packaged and shipped and we pay half price for it??? And, comparatively, with the wages here it just doesn’t make sense…. There are sooo many things I need to investigate when I get old…….
By the time we found our guesthouse……..yikes…….who the hell were the folks that gave this place a good review…can’t imagine how crappy their travels have been if this place was a highlight…….s***hole with a negative Muslim vibe – the women were terrified of the husband/father/man of the house. He was fake nice; the neighborhood was not into faking it – very negative towards us. Perhaps that is why the guesthouse remains completely unmarked….no name – not so easy to find…..
Anyway, Carrie was leaving at 4:30 in the morning or something like that – I was flying out at 10 so I stayed in bed and just got up long enough to help her haul that big stuffed bag (ok, with a fair bit of my stuff in it) down a few flights of stairs and say goodbye. She really really did not want to go home. We had such a good time together. We were completely compatible as travelers and that is special. We didn’t really know each other well before this trip. We met volunteering over the years with The Power Within and then again with the Red Cross Refugee project this summer. We knew we had similar values but you really don’t know how the travel styles will match until you do it. My thought going in was I could survive anything for three weeks if it was bad and if it turned out to be really bad I would have had to ditch her and ride off on a faster camel. It was so fortuitous that she wanted to come to India with me or I think I would have probably been in Central America right now. And so, I was sad to see her go. Mostly because I knew how much she would have enjoyed the diversity of the areas I was yet to explore. She too is a very experienced traveler. She has been on every continent except Antarctica, has done lots of volunteering all over the world and is a very kind, smart woman with an incredible personal story of overcoming adversity, being a hardworking survivor and truly putting family first. She is amazing and I hope many of you will have the opportunity to get to know her. Plus she was going home to winter and she hadn’t really had the chance to have any beach time and I was headed to the beach…..
And so she headed home to work and snow and decisions that invariably arise after you have tasted a life so different than the one you are living. Let’s be serious – my concept of living simply and in the moment does not appeal to everyone, but for those who it does – like Carrie, it is real catalyst for change after you have tried it and liked it and know it is easily done.
And so I flew from Delhi to Mumbai and then on to Goa. My friends Richard and Deb, who we missed by mere hours in Agra, recommended Patnem Beach in Goa and so that is where I decided to go. I decided to figure out how to get there once I was on the plane – no need to plan ahead more than a few hours before arriving!!!! I started to read how far this small town was from the airport and how many buses to how many towns I would have to take and then I tried to figure out how far I might get before dark as it was to be my first foray on my own……when…… …..we landed in Mumbai…..didn’t know if the plane was continuing to Goa (a state) or if I needed to change planes….we were already over one hour late as we had sat on the runway in Delhi for an extra hour waiting for traffic (not sure if in was holy cow traffic!) to subside. Indian time…..relax, have a chai tea……do some yogic breathing……chill ….when…….being the luckiest person in the world.....the woman in the seat in front of me started freaking out a bit because no one would answer her question about deplaning. I asked her where she was going and she said Goa. Ahhhh, me too. I told her I was staying on until they told me to get off – frankly I didn’t really care where the plane was going – that is the beauty of not having reservations anywhere – the Patnem plan was looking rather complicated and tedious. I asked her where in Goa she was headed and she said Palolem which I thought was Patnem and I said ohh….how are you getting there??? She said she had a driver picking her up – she was booked in at a resort there. Well that certainly sounded better than a night near a bus stop and then multitown stops so I asked if I could hitch a ride as I was going to exactly the place she was going…..it was true at that point because I was going to where ever her car was going. Horseshoes up my ass again!!! No need to read the guidebook any further – I was going to Palolem.
Turns out she is an Italian Language professor at the University of Delhi, is from Rome, rather tightly wound and although she had been living in Delhi for over a year, was still struggling with the Indian time concept. We chatted a bit and met again in the airport once the plane landed. Her driver was there and I hopped in….she sweated, didn’t have much to say and I was just happy for a ride somewhere. I am pretty easy to please it seems. I had no idea that Palolem was like an hour and a half from the airport. We just kept going and going and going, through towns, through the countryside and it was apparent the minute we walked out of the airport that Goa doesn’t look anything like Rajasthan. It looks just like Bali Indonesia. Obviously the plane was flying quite fast and quite long to get to a whole other world. Green and lush: the people look completely different, far darker and smaller – maybe it is the Portuguese gene pool. Goa was a Portuguese colony up until a few (50???) years back. Apparently I know nothing about the country I am visiting – I meet people who know their routes, have the hours of travel calculated, know the history, individual yogis and swamis from different Ashrams, and I stand around saying…..oh……yeah…..that sounds nice. I have become one of those European tourists I have met in Canada and the US who ask if you can see Hollywood and Miami in the same day. I shall be nicer to them next time…..or if Vancouver is part of Toronto…..yeah, you get it and I am now in that 'short bus’ category and am fine with it. How can you be disappointed with no expectations???? Debbie Harper- Poliet – if you are reading this remember what I said about keeping the bar low???? Yup.
And so we arrived In Palolem – she suggested I could stay where she was staying if they had room. Somehow I thought Palolem was Patnem – blonde moment and went off to find the place Richard and Deb had suggested – Bonkers on the Beach.
So here I was asking everybody, in the brutal heat of the day, traipsing up and down one of the most beautiful, peaceful beaches I have seen, where I could find Bonkers. Nope, no one had heard of it and lots of places were full so I decided to grab a place and hope for a trade up when I had more time and energy to find Bonkers. Whatever I was to find, I knew right away that I loved this place. Seems I love every place. Thank you advisers for the advice. No need for guidebooks if you are as chatty and as easy to please as I am.
- comments
Barbara Deb, you are just TOO funny...I apparently have the habit of not reading guidebooks...in early March I took the kids to Costa Rica...bought the Lonely Planet bible a few weeks before we left. I was sure I would have time at night to read it...then I thought well, it's a long flight....I'll catch up there. Truth is I never really had a chance the entire holiday AND really just couldn't be bothered anyway so brought it home, almost pristine. I was feeling very sheepish about the whole thing until now...THANK YOU! Anyone need a guide book going cheap?Love your journal...Barbara