You'd think it would be easy going 40km down the coast from one gorgeous beach to another - well it wasn't really. To be fair it wasn't too tricky to organise, but doing it in sauna heat made it a bit of a workout.
I caught a local bus, by doing as locals do, just wave the bus down whilst standing in the middle of the road - there weren't any official bus stops! The bus had great music blaring out of massive speakers and picked up more and more people till it was pretty crammed, but certainly better than walking the 5km.
Between buses I had a fresh coconut for breakfast. The guy opened the coconuts with a huge curved machete; I would say skillfully but he was missing 3 fingers!
(Joke). After drinking the water from within he chopped it in half so that I could eat the slimy soft flesh (a bit like soap in flavour and slimey soap in texture, but weirdly very lovely).
The very very local clapped out deathtrap of an inferno bus that took me onto the train station was only a short ride, but half of india seemed to want to get on board, which meant it was so so hot and sweaty and airless.
The photo shows when I got on. About 30 more people crammed on after that. I couldn't take another photo as my arms were pinned to my sides, held in place by many sweaty bodies pressed against me.
Huge relief when I was squished off the bus. The 35° heat outside the bus now felt like a cool autumn breeze!
The train that followed was luxury in comparison and was empty of people and whizzed along providing a lovely breeze.
Then a 2km walk to my beach cabin. I ripped all my clothes off and stood under the cold shower for ages. Then....as my room was just 50m from the beach I went for a massive swim. What a glorious bay in which Palolem beach sits.
No beer that night. Instead a litre of cold water sat at a beach restaurant table by the waters edge watching the sun go down. The sweat of the day quickly forgotten.
I'd booked my lovely air conditioned little cottage for 4 nights. It was far better than I'd expected.
Though the electrics for hot water were actually in the shower cubicle! Not sure about Indian health+safety.
Each day a tough exhausting routine of a long swim in the warm sea before then heading out for a massala dosa (sort of pancake filled with spicy mashed potato, for breakfast
Or a massala uttapam (sort of pancake with a spicy tomato onion mix topping)
Then the day sat reading on a sun bed (under the biggest umbrella I could find) drinking cold water and swimming in the sea whenever I needed to pee! (Maybe that's why the water was so warm)
Palolem beach to me was almost perfect.
I researched loads of different places to travel to down the south west coast of india, on the way to kochi. Nothing looked as good as where I was. I thought of many more hot travelling days getting from A to B and decided what I wanted was another week in paradise, so that's what I did.
I just moved to Patnem beach 3km south of Palolem which is also bloody lovely.
My hotel there was a 20 min walk to the beach, but I considered it worth stating there as the room was fantastic (I never thought I'd say that about an Indian room) and there is even a decent sized pool!
So I've spent 7 more very lazy days swimming and reading and eating great food.
Being india cows can go anywhere.
You'll be glad to read I did add some pain and suffering for 1 day, by hiring a bicycle. 34°heat is bad enough, but the bike had no gears and the front brake was permanently half on! So cycling 30km was pretty tough going. Cycling in wet sandy swim shorts also caused some "chaffing" in the buttocks region. As if the saddle had been made of sandpaper!
I cycled pass a family of water buffalo wandering up the road
Then on to a bridge Jack had recommended. Monkeys climbing all over it.
Onto Agonda beach further up the coast. A quick swim, a litre of much needed water and back on the road.
I passed some women working in the fields - how hot must they get doing that all day long, day after day?
So - all going well - till I found a cockroach in my chick pea curry!! Poor thing died in agony, though on the plus side, with a full stomach of delicious channa massala. Look at it's dinky little legs all shrivelled up; its antennae had already come off before I found it. Not very vegetarian!!
Turned out it was a massive black cardamom type spice pod. What an absolute twat Simon
A local digestif on the menu called "fenny" finished off my meal nicely. It definitely tasted much better than its name suggested!!
Distilled from coconuts I was told.
Tomorrow night I catch the 14 hour night train down to Kochi (though my ticket is still to be confirmed as I'm on a waiting list with 23 people ahead of me!) where I will be meeting Kate. 3 weeks together will be amazing. I'm so looking forward to our time together. Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.
This featured blog entry was written by simonstravels from the blog simonstravels.
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