Friday 16 October - Sangam's 43rd Birthday
this afternoon we celebrated Sangam's 43rd birthday on what is to become international Sangam day
we had a great time dressed in our sari's, getting mehendi, eating party food, sending birthday wishes to Sangam on the birthday wish tree and chatting with all the friends of Sangam from the local area
We had some nice speeches and presentations. Pune division of Bharat Scots and Guides presented a stunning Diwali lamp which is hanging proudly in front of the Hall
Getting to Goa from Pune involves an overnight bus leaving from Swargate which is the main bus area in Pune.
Swargate is about 30 mins away from Sangam via rickshaw and trying to get there on Diwali Friday night is a bit of a nightmare - also known as trying to rip the Westerners off ... and we had Mollie's "boyfriend" as our rickshaw driver who has also taken us to work that morning too so I said to him that he is always trying to rip us off and he laughed when I asked him how much he had made out of us today
The bus ride down to Goa was not too bad, we all managed to get some sleep and we were awake when we crossed the border into Goa ... and headed down to Mapsa
Mapsa is the town where all the buses stop for the beaches in North Goa and from here you can either catch a taxi, rickshaw or local bus to your final destination
We decided to catch the local bus to our Guesthouse in Anjuna as we like the adventure and also as we had to check in at 11am and it was close to 7am
We got to Anjuna and followed the instructions on how to reach our guesthouse ... but we got off the bus far too early (the directions are for car not walking!) and we found the right direction and then .... walked ... passing thankfully on the way the restaurant Sara wanted to try - Blue Tao - so we stopped there for a good long while had some breakfast and read our books
We got to our Guesthouse - Evershine Guesthouse http://www.evershine-guesthouse.hostel.com/
and we could relax - we were a tiny bit early but our host Sebastiana welcomed us, and we sat leisurely on the veranda until the current occupants of our room checked out and we could move in
Evershine is a great guesthouse, it is clean, easy to find, and the hosts are very friendly as well as their two dogs rosie and palu. If you need accommodation in Anjuna I recommend Evershine
After a quick sleep/shower/change into swimming costumes we headed down to the beach ......
Anjuna beach itself is very rocky and you can not really relax properly on it so we headed past all the stalls for South Anjuna which is a sandy beach
We found a posse on the beach and were swamped by hawkers trying to sell their wares ... I am not kidding you - imagine four girls being surrounded by 10 women or transvestites tryiing to ply their anklets, necklaces, and other crap because we are westerners - we were quite vexed by the situation and thankfully Mollie took control and got rid of all the ladies/men ... who also told us to never return to 'their beach'
It was really nice to be on the beach again although I had forgotten how sand gets everywhere!
The sea was so warm too and not too rough although there were rocks in the sea which you occassionally stumbled upon
It was really nice to see how excited the girls were to be in the sea in their bikinis and matching sunhats
I really do think that the conservativeness of Pune can get to you eventually - especially when you are more used to being able to wear tee shirts with your shoulders being uncovered
So we arrived on Saturday and in the Diwali festival this is the day of the Laxmi Puja, Laxmi is the goddess of wealth / finance / and good luck. we didn't puja laxmi but we did spend the evening playing a really compedative game of Ludo ... at our new fav Anjuna restaurant - the Blue Tao
Saturday is also the main day of fireworks ... and the home across the road from the had an amazing display
it was very loud, very bright and Mollie and Sara got hit in the face by residue from the firecrackers
poor Linnea
Saturday night Jane and Arielle joined us as they had to work Saturday day as we still had participants at Sangam who were all leaving for Agra and their other Indian exploration trips
It was really great to see Jane and Arielle outside of Sangam as we never have time to hang out together as we're all so busy with our Sangam work
Sunday we decided after a nice breakfast at none other than Blue Tao to head to Vagator beach
Vagator is approx 20 mins north of Anjuna and is very shallow and wide
There are two sides to Vagator - Vagator which is the main beach and is more for the Indian diaspora whereas South Vagator is smaller but is where the Westerners hang out mainly as there are toilets and cafes .... not that either were open when we were there
There were not as many hawkers on the beach either so we were left in relative peace apart from when Sara wrote her boyfriend's name in the sand ....
this is a pic of Jane and I
Saturday evening we were joined by Anders from Norway for dinner and Eszter and Einar who had come down for a couple of days. We went to the Sea Queen which also shows two films an evening as there is not much of a night scene during the off season in Goa
Monday we decided to have a day trip to see Old Goa and Panajim. Sara decided that she was sick so stayed behind in Anjuna with the promise of staying in the Guesthouse compound ... only to go to the beach ... the trust has gone! everyone else came with us to Old Goa
Old Goa is the old Portugese capital and it is very calm compared with other places in Goa and also Pune
Old Goa was once bigger than London, Lisbon and Rome but was quickly disbanded as there was bad malaria and dysentry outbreaks today it is a UNESCO world heritage site
In Old Goa there are a lot of very large churches and Cathedrals - Se Catherdral, St Francis of Assisi monastry and Bom Jesus (where the remains of St Francis of Assisi are held)
St Francis of Assisi Monastry
St Catherine's Chapel
Se Catherdal
Bom Jesus where St Francis of Assisi is entombed
There is also this beautiful arch - the Viceroy's arch
The girls decided that it was too hot to sightsee so they headed back to Anjuna so Mollie and I went to Panajim - Goa's current capital and also the murder capital of Goa at the moment - there has been a spate of murders in Panajim of Foreigners ....
Pamajim is inland on a river - it reminds me a lot of Istanbul being on both shores of a river and having a lot of bridges spanning the river
river activities
an example of the Portugese influence
me looking hot and tired after a long day sightseeing
Mollie and I brought these fans as it was so hot to help cool us
in 36+ degrees they just blow hot air at us! but we have fun with them!
Tuesday 20 October was our last day in Goa and we decided to just laze around until our bus at 5.30pm
We just hung round Anjuna, had breakfast at a new cafe, and browsed all the beach stalls for fun things to purchase and then sat at a cliff cafe over looking Anjuna and had lunch .....
We got to Mapasa in time for our 5.30 bus only to find out that ..... it went at 7.30 so we have 2 hours to waste around the bus station .... luckily baskin robins had AC and ice cream
Our bus ride was not as good as the way down, the bus had a lot of turns and bumps so we could not sleep as much. Once we arrived at Swargate it was an effort getting a rickshaw to Alandi Rd ..... and somehow Sara and Mollie's bags got covered in Fishwater from being in the hold - mine seemed to be ok :)
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