Ok!!!so, have been a bit sloppy with the blog the last wee while, partly because we've mostly been relaxing and partly because I've been a wee bit ill but I'm better now so it's time for an update!!though first I must say that I'm going to skim over a few things as Jade has already done a brilliant blog explaining everything which is a great read and can be found at:

http://jadeharris146.blogspot.com/2010/04/still-goa-but-new-surroundind-ttfn.html?spref=fb

read there for the tale with the crazy old man with the rusty saw!!

So...

from where I left off, the next day we got up bright and early at 6.30am on easter Sunday to go on a dolphin boat trip with Cody, Juie and Gaby (a german girl and her mum who were also staying at Leela cottages with us and who we met the day we arrived). The other germans that had asked Julie to come on the trip and bring more people had decided to go out at 5am instead, but we managed to rope a few other german girls we found on the beach into coming on our boat and with 9 of us it cost just over a pound each which was pretty good!!It was lovely to be up early with a good strong breeze and not so much in the way of the stifling, disgusting whole body dripping sweat that this part of India brings out in all of us apparently!!We did see some dolphins, but they seemed a bit grumpy and wouldn't come up to the boat- we did feel a bit sorry for them as everytime the boat guy saw them he would power over to the spot where they were so fair enough they didn't want to frolic about the boat!!Jade was convinced that they were just indian guys in dolphin suits though as we didn't get to see most of their bodies hahah!

Anyway, the rest of the day we just spent chilling out, then we said goodbye to Julie and Gaby who were heading back to Dresden via Mumbai that evening (they left us loads of antibac, suncream and disinfectant and Gaby the mum worked for a swine flu lab so they were very cleanly!) and Cody, Jade and I headed up for some mexican food. We also hit baskin robbins on the way home for a tasty easter Sunday Sundae (!!), and they were amazing!!!Cody and Jade went crazy and got loads of ice-cream but I just stuck to a good old hot chocolate sundae which really hit the spot!Though I started to feel a bit woozy a couple of rounds into playing Uno before bed, which I put down to tiredness... little did I know I would spent the rest of the night pretty much lying awake covered in sweat and freaking out that I had a tropical disease because I had a temperature!!I woke Jade up at about 4am filled with panic but she was a wonderful nurse and very calm, getting me cool compresses and using one of our little thermometers to keep taking my temperature and reassuring me that it was only 38.5 degrees centigrade and not the 101 degrees it felt!!!She also lost out on a lot of sleep, but by about 9 my temperature had almost gone which was a blessing as if it'd still been there I would have gone straight to the hospital!!Turns out it must just have been that I'd gotten too much sun on Sunday and what with all the sweating has just given myself a pretty bad case of dehydration. Unfortunately even staying out of the sun all day Monday I was still really really week and so we made the decision to cancel our bus trip to Hampi as I probably couldn't have coped with the ten hour bus journey with the lack of a toilet as my tummy was a bit troubled too. Sad to miss what sounds like an amazing trip but it's been a good choice too as Cody has joined us on the journey from Palolem here to Arambol which has been lots of fun- our anthem has been a hilariously euphemistic song called 'big bamboo' which we heard in one of the cocktail places one night in Palolem (Jade has kindly posted the youtube of it on her blog!), it's just a treat for the ears!!

Anyway so after cancelling our hampi bus tickets (and losing an annoying 12 pounds out of 20 in the process), we left Palolem around midday on Tuesday and took 3 local buses (1 to Chaudi about ten mins away, one to Margao from there which was about 45mins and one from there to Panaji which was about an hour) to Panaji where we spent a chaotic half hour trying to find our way out of the station and to an area with hotels in it, before hopping in a rickshaw for the literally 2 minute journey across the bridge!I was still feeling pretty ropey that day and carrying my life on my back was so NOT helping, so after a couple of quick recky missions into various hostels, I was left in charge of the bags by the side of the road so I could have a breather and the other two negotiated a good place for us to stay (though the manager was pretty stern and the check out time was 8.30am, with a wake up call at 8!). After a spot of lunch (my first hot dog in india, it was good!) we went on a lovely sunset boat cruise around the bay, complete with traditional dancing that included people dancing with coconuts, ribbns and a kind of maypole, all very interesting!!There were also several interludes with an r'n'b and bangra soundtrack where the mc (complete with the Hawaaiian shirt) would call up the couples/kids/ladies/men onto the stage and get them to dance (none of us partook!), was definitely an interesting insight into indian culture (again read more on Jade's blog!)!!We also went on another boat restaurant, which I thought was static but turned out to be going on a 45min cruise about 20 mins after we sat down!!we were just going to get drinks but we got dinner in the end- yummy Kung Pao potatoes and okra and thai green vegetables.

After quite a bad night's sleep on what has to be the smallest and lumpiest double bed I've ever seen (it was really just a table with a really thin mattress on top...), we grabbed a quick breakfast on Wednesday night then headed off the Old Goa, what used to be the Goan state capital when the portugese were about (I only found out yesterday they only left in the 60s!!)and is now just basically a big ole nothing-ness except for churches. Cool churches though!!We went to the Basilica of Bom Jesus first, a massive big ole red structure which is very traditional on the inside, and also is the home of the remain of St Francis Xavier. It's a bit creepy but he's in a crystal coffin raised on a high platform in one of the enclaves and you can kind of just about make out that it's a person!!We also heard some very tuneful singing from the small congregation that were at the front as the priest was giving mass, lovely compared to the whiney, shouty singing we've heard all over india so far!

Next we went to St Catherine's which was pretty unremarkable but peaceful, as well as St Francis Assisi which has loads of murals of his life, and on the main wall of the church a scene depicting Jesus on the cross and what we think is St Francis hugging (or lifting) him, a bit odd really!!very interesting to see indian Catholicism in action, and I feel that they are quite keen on all the icons and saints maybe because with a lot of converts from Hinduism it's a cultural thing to have them everywhere like in cars and shops. For example when we got our Baskin Robbins on easter Sunday, there was a giant crucifix right above the counter!!

We got a bus from Old Goa to Ponda, and after considerable haggling managed to get a rickshaw to take us to the Tropical Spice Plantation for 50R (70p), and he worked for that money as there were lots of hills and some points where we didn't think we'd make it at some points!!! So we got to the spice plantation and the first thing that greeted us as we can in was an ELEPHANT!and a rather 'excited' elephant at that!!Cody and I first noticed the big guys bits, which quite frankly were massive, and the elephant keeper beckoned us over eagerly for a photo, little did Cody know that he would actually grab the elephant's penis and give it to him to hold for the picture!!it was so weird, but hilarious as well!!!

The spice plantation itself was really cool, the entry fee included an amazing buffet lunch on a banana leaf plate wih veg and chicken curries, poppadoms, rice and sweat rice and cabbage, so good!!After we'd filled our bellies (it didn't take much to fill mine as it was still small from the illness though I've been stuffing myself since yesterday!), we got a 45 minute tour of the plantation where we saw things such as black pepper (green white and red are apparently different stages of the same plant), cinnamon which smelt wonderful, all spice, piri piri chilli, pineapple (which we were amazed to discover grows near the ground and not on a tree!) and beetel nut, the main constituent of the paan that most indians chew and spit which makes the teeth red. I feel like I learned a lot of things about these plants that I certainly didn't know before!!We hitched a ride back into Ponda with a really kind guy who offered us a lift in his jeep (we were so glad that Cody was there as otherwise we probably wouldn't have done it and had to wait for what seemed like a non-existent bus back in!) then back on to Panaji to pick up our bags at the hotel and back to the bus station AGAIN to get two more buses to Arambol, where we are now.

The first bus was grand but the second bus we had to stand for the best part of an hour and they REALLY pack the people into these buses, it's crazy!!lots of fun though, and I do actually feel quite safe in the buses and they are the kings of the road so everyone gets out of their way!!we eventually got to Arambol just as the sun was setting last night, and discovered the beach was 1km away... again, weakness hit me but we all managed to stumble up the road to the beach and I played bag minder again while the other two found two great huts at a place with a really lovely owner who's very kind and softly spoken. the beach here is a fair bit quite than Palolem, mainly I think because a lot of the places are packing up for the end of season in the next couple of days and weeks (our places is getting de-constructed the day Jade and I leave on Sunday). Today we booked our coach back to Mumbai, we did want another train but unfortunately we left it too late to get seats so here's hoping both of us are well and don't need the loo except at the designated loo spots on the way!I'm excited about going on the bus overnight though, and also getting back to Mumbai and seeing a bit of the city before we head to our layover in Sri Lanka.

Unfortunately Cody has to leave tomorrow evening as he has to get back to LA for the 12th, and due to some stupid travel agent mess because he changed his flights he has to go Mumbai-bangkok-japan-LA and he's still on the waitlist for flights, eek!it's going to be really sad to see him go actually as we've had loads of fun hanging out together and travelling with a more experienced traveller has been really useful and interesting too.

Anyway... tomorrow Jade and I are planning to visit a children's charity called Children Walking Tall which is a respite centre for street kids so hopefully we'll have a good day and a positive experience of it.

More soon.

Lots of love from Arambol xxxxxx