Sunbirds

Kieran:

Since arriving in Goa, we've been taking it nice and slow. Yesterday we took Sasha (the name given to our pink moped) up the coast to a place called Mandrem (hailed as the best beach in Northern Goa). It took about an hour to get there, following the coastal roads (some tarmac, some dirt) over headlands, bridges, through paddy fields, small villages, seeing numerous small white churches and Hindu temples along the way, hidden in amongst the lush green landscape. The ride alone was worth the trip but when we got to the beach, we were amazed. The beach was annoyingly difficult to get to, but almost made the discovery onto the beach even more rewarding.

The beach was a vast, gentle strip of golden sands, dotted with palms and backed by small dunes, hemmed in by a lagoon. To get to the beach we had walk across a long wooden bridge over the lagoon. When we reached the other side, I realised one amazing thing, there was not another person in sight, we had the entire beach to ourselves... Soon enough though, a boy trying to sell stuff appeared, almost out of nowhere, but after no luck in convincing us to see his wares, defeated, he turned and went back the way he came.

The water was the clearest and the warmest we had seen so far, and we could wade out quite far and only be up to our knees. Walking further along the beach, we discovered something completely bizarre and a little creepy. From afar they looked like bits of drift wood, but as we got closer they turned into something altogether different. At first I though it could be the severed torso of a man. It wasn't until we were almost looking down onto what was lying in the sand that we realised what it was.

It was two dead dogs, both bloated, one with its hind legs tied, still intact (that Nick wanted to believe was a polar bear...) and the other missing everything except its main body (the one I thought looked like a mans severed torso, which I thought was an easy mistake to make). They were both in various states of decay and lying on the far end of this beach in the middle of nowhere, we could only assume (after much discussion and imaginative fabrication) that the dogs washed up onto the shore after drowning in the sea and one had its head bitten off by a shark.... yeah that's right. Why the hind legs bound? I have no idea, I guess for some reason, someone threw it out to sea?...

Anyway, over the past few day's we've spent a lot of our time exploring the area on Sasha, relaxing on beaches and taking long time out's for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For our final day in Anjuna today, we plan to visit the flea market and maybe relax on the beach in nearby Baga.

Tomorrow we leave for Palolem in south Goa where we'll stay for the remaining five nights in the state. A nice change of scenery before continuing south by train to Cochin!

Nick:

We're off on a bike trip to Mandrem beach today, supposed to be a bit nice an undiscovered up there. Last night we tried some of the bars in Vagator, was quite a nice evening. The bar staff next to our guest house (Shore Bar) spotted me drawing some of the dogs on the beach, and flicked through my sketch book. When we came back later they gave me the back of a scrabble box and asked me to make them a no smoking sign! I made it a bit arty and took a picture of it nailed on the wall, was very proud.

During the day there are Kingfishers all over the wires, and then at night lesser spotted owls replace them all, as do the odd firefly. We also had a humming bird (we think!?) flying around us at breakfast. It flew just like one and had a long beak. It was larger than a ruby throated and didn't make a humming sound. It was sort of greeny brown on the back with a cream belly and dark beak. (It was a sunbird. Ed.)

Oh and Kieran's got two tickets to see Regina Spektor in Birmingham, hopefully I'll get to use the other one. But you guys should seriously see if you can do like you did for James Taylor, and see her in London or join us in Birmingham! Might have to be quick on tickets though. You sure deserve it!

Okay we're off on the road!

(next day) Mandrem yesterday was amazing, it was a beautiful drive up there through back roads, and when we eventually found it, there was no one else there! Big stretch of sandy beach all ours. We had to cross a little marshy river over a cool rickety bridge to get on to the beach, it's one of my best photos.

Despite being the only people, a kid selling sarongs managed to spot us from miles off and gave us the usual, "Hi, How're you? Where you from? you want to look at my things?" They're everywhere on the beaches and very persistent, but we're good at shaking them off, haha. Even in deserted Mandrem...

A little way along we stumbled across some (we think) dead dogs, with their legs bound, obviously washed up. They were a bit bloated, one looked like a Polar Bear at first! it was a very Lost moment... Pretty mysterious, they might make it into a story.

We ate lunch there also and had my first seafood here, some garlic fried calamari, which was probably not the best ever, but good all the same.

Wish I could see river dolphins, that last Chance to See show sounds awesome!

Today we're off to the Flea Market, and perhaps Baga for dinner in the evening. We've also been asked by the guy in shore bar to paint Che on the wall! I guess we'll do it after the Flea Market, he's providing paints for us, and we'll just need to print off a picture to work from at this Internet cafe... Should be fun!

Tomorrow we'll take a Taxi to Palolem, and stay there a couple of nights, then maybe move to Patnem or elsewhere, depending on how things look in the south!

We looked in to Hampi, there are trains here most days of the week, and that's the best way to get there. However Kieran and I read up on it in our guides, and we couldn't actually bear the thought of more temples and tourism! The descriptions were all too familiar, and while I'm sure it's pretty cool, we didn't want to go all that way for another temples with entrance fees and metal detectors experience, they're not all that spiritual!

I think Kochi might live up to Goa, if we get on a good backwaters tour and Bangalore is only one evening, so we'll see it and dash. Goa is really nice, free and relaxing, but it's not so "real" as Rajastan was, we even passed a Dominoes Pizza last night! The moped driving has got to be one of the best things about this holiday so far though...

The dominoes pizza was legit, they have the real signs uniforms and everything, there is also Baskin and Robin's and a Subway... It's odd here, in one way it's not real India, and in another it's more real, because it's modern India, while Rajastan has remained so firmly stuck in the past! It's a lot cleaner safer and modern than anywhere we've been in Rajastan.

The Che mural was interesting... I just did what they asked, and added the words "FULL POWER" in big silver paint across the wall. I'm not sure I really like it, but they seem pleased and gave us all our drinks and chips free for the evening! I've got photos of Kieran and I painting what became the two Che's, and of course the final product, will show you when I get back!

On to today, Palolem is awesome! We taxi shared with a guy from London and a girl from Ireland we met in Shore Bar painting last night, so that cut our costs a lot! They're very nice and we're hanging out with them this evening too. Our hotel is cleaner than Anjuna, and we've got some English TV channels too, absurd! The beach is stunning here, scattered with hermit crabs and dead cuttle-fish... Cows all over it! Hopefully we'll get a new bike tomorrow, and explore again. Would have been nice to hit the shell beach, but it's quite out of the way, too far by bike! Agonda and Patnem are certainly on the cards, and maybe Colva.

Had best food yet today, Goan Chicken Chilli Fry, with Naan, yummmmmmm! In retrospect it tasted sort of like a really extra good Mexican fajita. I had it on the beach front as the sun set. There's tons of beach side restaurants with good atmosphere.