Go on Goa!

Having had our full of Mumbai, we decided to take a 12-hour bus trip south, and finally arrived in Palolem, south Goa on 6 April. Palolem is a picture-perfect beach with the warmest water ever courtesy of the Arabian Sea, and cute beach huts scattered right along the sand. Our home for the next week was to be Chattai, a group of bamboo huts on stilts 2 minutes walks from the beach. The rest of the Manchester Gang arrived later that day and the party had begun!!

(Palolem beach)

Everything you could want was to be found in Palolem - freshly caught fish, cold beers, cocktails and of course the best curry! We had a fun filled week with our Irish/Manchester/Polish/Greek buddies (take a look at the photos) and were delighted to be able to share this part of The Trip with them. The weather has been awesome and if the only complaint is "It's too hot!" then there's not really that much to complain about, is there!!

(Our boat trip in Palolem beach)

On Saturday 14 April we left the lads as they returned to Mumbai to catch their flight back home and we headed back north to catch a 2-day music festival, The Big Chill Goa (http://www.bigchillindia.in). This was a really cool event which seemed to bring together mainly UK-based acts and Indian performers, and proved its hard to beat listening to live music on a beach as the sun sets with a cold beer in your hand...
(Sunset at Arambol)

Since Sunday, we've been unwinding at another gorgeous beach in north Goa (Arambol) and plan to head a bit more inland tonight to Karnataka where we'll be staying in Hampi for a couple of nights to check out the ruins of the ancient city of Vijayanagar. After that, the plan is to move on to Bangalore (where the beautiful people congregate, apparently!!).

So over and out for now and don't forget to click on the picture links at the top right of the screen! XX

40 degrees and rising

Welcome to Mumbai!

Well, you can read all the books you like about a place but as we've learnt, there's nothing quite like arriving off a 9-hour (and at times, bumpy) flight to a manic city like Mumbai to give you a total culture shock! The first thing we noticed was the heat (goes without saying, we are from Ireland after all!) and then the mosquitoes, not to mention the erm, interesting rules of the road as seen from the back of a black and yellow Premier taxi cab.

What else - there is the poverty of course which is widespread and hits you like a smack on the face, along with the hardship of so many people, plus the relentless hawkers and touts and the inevitable rats ... (Susie is surprising herself and is no longer having a panic attack every time something small and black which moves faster than her jumps out from the undergrowth). The food is excellent (Rusholme in Manchester for a curry? You must be joking!) and we can't get enough of it! From bhelpuri to paneer masala to vege kulcha, experimentation is definately the key!



In the past 3 days we've done quite a bit - visited Mahalaxmi Hindu temple, viewed ancient rock carvings on Elephanta Island, taken in Mani Bhavan, Gandhi's residence when he stayed in Mumbai from 1917-1934, chilled on Chowpatty Beach and generally enjoyed getting to know this mad but amazing place.

(Me posing on Chowpatty Beach)

Next stop is Goa for some no-brainer relaxation on beaches and dining on freshly caught fish ... sounds like heaven after 4 days in hectic Munbai! But that said, we're meeting up tomorrow (Saturday) with my brother Conor 'Hasselhof' McC, his girlf Emma 'Legs' Halpenny, Steph 'Muffin' Sloan, Stavros 'The Greek' Karapakledis, Bal 'Innit' Sekhon and Phil 'I am the Prince of Wales' Flacke, so the relaxation might have to be sacrificed for a wee bit of partying...!

(Fishing boats, Elephantas Island)

Namaste for now! XX