Beaches, Breezes, and Beauty

This is the hotel that May I and I stayed at in South Goa for the first of our three night adventure. It was a very charming little place that was quiet and relaxing. We stayed in a private bungalow that was very nice with an attached bathroom. Not all hotels have private baths so this was a nice little perk. The food was delicious and the ambiance was very enjoyable. The Goan cuisine has a lot of fish in it, so May and I took advantage of this and ate quite a bit of local caught fish such as Kingfish and Pomfret - all very tasty. The beach was also nice a relaxing. To get to the beach you had to take a canoe powered by a man and a stick. It sort of reminded me of gondolas in Venice or at least what I've seen in movies and things. The water was very polluted up by the small village but on the beach where we were it wasn't too bad. The level of pollution in India is staggering I've found. There aren't trashcans anywhere, people just litter left and right, which gets pretty bad in places. After a night in South Goa, we moved to the more touristy North. We again had a quiet little bungalow but this time with a shared bathroom. We got lucky with the hotel because a lot of the places we looked at were very run down and dirty. The place we stayed was run by a French woman who was very nice and kept the place in very good condition, clean, and well kept. In North Goa we did a bit of shopping but I learned that I don't like haggling prices. I'm no good at it and I always convert back to USD and then everything seems like a good deal even if I could have gotten it cheaper. On the plus side I've learned to not be too impulsive because it is amazing how quickly your rupees go when you start buying everything that is a good deal.

Oh and on a side note - I've developed an alter ego to deal with pushy shop owners and overly aggressive men. I am now Emily from Canada (just south of Toronto) and I have friends in Bombay which explains my visiting India, and I'm always leaving tomorrow so I can't meet up later.

Over all we had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves completely. The only downside was missing one day of classes and the bus rides down and back (13 hours without a bathroom on board!) But that just made the experience even more exciting.

*miss the States*