bombaybound

Day 14 & 15 - Calangute and Baga Beach, Goa

Catch flight from Mumbai to Goa. Tropical paradise. Hotel with pool and palm trees. Have last group dinner at amazing seafood restaurant. Discuss how amazing past two weeks have been and celebrate ith more Limca and more Kingfishers. Spend next whole day drinking coconut flavoured ice coffee and cold Kingfishers on the beach. Kids performing for money. People selling souvenirs on the beach. ‘No, no, no’. Cause a commotion in bikinis. Photos and videos while walk back to towel. Another amazing dinner. Head to ‘disco’ for dancing until 3am. Wake up and don’t want to leave this amazing place.

so… with the lack of reliable internet and my traveling pace - bombay bound has suffered what i thought would be the worst. a lack of information!

i am home on tuesday and promise to post photos and videos here. stay tuned!

am in calangute, goa today. it’s hot hot hot and beautiful!

i had my first dose of tummy sickness last night and thought i might die because of the pain. i am currently living off of bread and white rice. in goa of all places!

update!!

i don’t have a TON of time on this internet here….but i’m here!

chris - this is a repeat, sorry!

hi!

just a quick hello from agra - i’m running on 1/2 an hour of internet for $1.50.

after a 14 hour flight into delhi, i found my driver and had a precarious drive to my hotel. it is beautiful here - a real culture shock though. you have never seen so much filth and mass of humans in your life. just driving down a street is tough, as people will drive into oncoming traffic, and about 5 vehicles across 3 lanes. the people are nice - besides the ones who are always trying to sell you overpriced souvenirs, or are in dire need to drive you somewhere in their rickshaw, or the little children who will pat you on the arm and walk with you begging for food or money.

i spent the day touring around delhi yesterday with a couple from australia, most of the people on the trip are either canadian, aussies, or brits, with one norweigen.

it is SO loud, horns are used at every opportunity, there are cows, and stray dogs, and elephants wandering the streets on their own. it is SO filthy - i think i will cough up a black gob of something when i get back. i’ve been cleaning my feet, ears and nose nonstop. smog!!!!

the food is AMAZING. i could literally live off of this stuff forever.

we took a train ride this morning from delhi to agra - today we saw the taj mahal!! it’s really fascinating up close and amazingly beautiful. if i was a fancy rich indian back in the day i would build something like that too! riding in the tuk tuks is an experience in itself, so many of the cars here have dents from driving so closely together and running into each other.

we are off my local bus (6 hours) to jaipur tomorrow, the pink city.

hoping to get internet access again - it’s harder to come by than you might think. it’s always broken (same with atms) or the power just cuts out.

update again soon!

NEW JERSEY TO NEW DELHI!

that’s right!

my flight leaves toronto tomorrow at 1pm, and i have a lovely 4.5 hours at newark. gross! i’m going to see if i can swing a quick trip back and forth via the train to penn station to meet ali for a coffee.  then - 14 hours on an airplane. i didn’t even know that was possible.  i arrive in delhi at 8:15pm on sunday night, local time. i’ll be 10.5 hours ahead for the next 15 days. update from over there!

INR.

i’m planning on starting out with 12,000 rupees - that’s about $300 CAD. the exchange rate today shows 43 rupees for every CAD dollar. some average costs i’m planning for:

• 4 rupees = banana
• 40 rupees = incredible veggie lunch/dinner
• 750 rupees = taj mahal
• 550 rupees = elephant ride in jaipur
• 500 rupees = cooking class in udaipur
• 10 - 15 rupees = bottled water

we’ll see if i need a top up later in my trip.