Lots to love about Goa- by Liz

Ahhhhhh..... Goa.

Based on what we read in The Lonely Planet, we opted to visit Palolem Beach which is located in the southern part of Goa. By now we know ourselves pretty well and know we prefer the backpacker/yoga/ meditation vibe as opposed to the higher-end /package tour/ don't eat the meat in India vibe found more in the north. Here, all the huts on the beach are built and rebuilt every season to accommodate the throngs of tourists that visit from November- March. It's quite fascinating to watch the village morph as the days go on. We were here early enough and stayed long enough to notice the transition.

looking for the perfect place to play paddle ball

 Samson's kiosk was a daily ritual for our boys. They rented skim boards and sold beer! The huts in the background rent for about $20-$30/night

Our gangster house!

We quickly realized that we needed to spend more time in Palolem and that the beach hut scene would wear thin so we rented a big beautiful Mc Mansion! Our 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 4 verandah house was perfectly located in the quiet of the jungle yet just a 5 minute walk from the beach. 

All of this was just $37/night and Baby, our cleaning lady, charged a mere $4/ day to keep the place sparkling for us. She did our laundry as well which meant we had NOTHING!! to do all day except play and adventure with our boys, devour copious amounts of delicious and cheap Indian food and sip Old Monk rum at sunset. Now that I think about it...why did we ever leave?

Our spacious kitchen was lacking cupboards but had everything we needed including ice cube trays!

Fresh yogurt sold in tiny clay pots, chai and fruit and muesli on our verandah!

It doesn't seem to matter where we go we become the "tourist" attraction. We think it's pretty funny but the boys, especially Bowen, are a bit weirded out by it.

say cheese!

We are finding India to be our favourite place on the trip so far. It's easy to really live here because it is so inexpensive and the people and the landscape are incredibly beautiful. There is not much to do here Palolem in terms of tourist traps so we are happy to just hang out and get to know our surroundings.h

 Once you get over the obvious issues India has with how to dispose of it's waste, it's so intense,beautiful and exotic

beautiful spices

village life

I think this house is super cool

Just how does a big dog like that get up on the fence?

assorted tea for sale- dust from the road included!

One of my favourite flowers that grow here and in Mexico.

The Food
We made several friends in Palolem which made it feel even more like our home

This Nepalese guy sold us our weekly supply of Tibetan Yak Cheese which is a bit like Parmesan. Wheels of the stuff are loaded on the backs of the delivery guys in Nepal and brought to The German Bakery for sale. Now there is a delicious clash of cultures

Good cheese in India is hard to come by.

My Perspective on Goa India -By Hollis

So I was asked to write about my experiences and points of view on India so far. At first I had no idea what I could write about because there has been so much, and the days since we’ve moved from Kochi have all kind of blended into one. So I guess what you’ll be reading about is what we do on these blended days.

Our first place to stay

The extremely common Beach Cow

Personally one of my favourite things to do is go down to the chai shop called Little World. The owners now know us and its always a warm feeling when you first walk in and sit down. Most times we go there as a family to just talk and reflect on what we have all done during the day. As more days go on our activities become very much the same from the last day. Bowen does school with Dad, Mom talks about going to the beach early, but doesn’t make it there until much in the after noon most times, and I Skype home, or look in the shops. 

It’s a really different feeling lately having our own house. Each of us having our own beds and rooms that we can go to when we need time to ourselves is a really nice change. The first few months of this trip we’ve been living a lot like how the locals do, which is right on top of each other most times. 

I’ve found that being out here, and surrounded by traditional medicine practices, and getting my own experiences through them is extremely inspiring. Meeting the people who practice these medicines and meditations is really inspirational for me to continue learning about all the different healing practices there are in the world, and get more into natural medicine when I go back to school. All of the people who I have talked to who are these healer types are really supportive of my choice to start by studying acupuncture, which is a huge relief since I wasn’t sure if that was quite the right way to start my career. Most of them actually started theirs through acupuncture as well so its interesting when I get the chance to talk to them about their experiences. 

Anyways, enough about myself. I’m sure everyone also wants to hear about the rest of the Tompkins Family since we haven’t written here for quite a while. 

We’re finding that Wi-Fi in India is not nearly as well put together as it is in Asia. The connections that are advertised as “Hi Speed” are no where near what you would expect, and most times you can’t even load a website on the computer. The spotty connection on top of the extremely frequent power outages really make us realize how lucky we are at home, and how decent our own Wi-Fi really is. Its a weird thing to feel grateful for, but when you find somewhere with a solid connection, it can be a very calming feeling. 

Bowen being a beach goof

Bowen and I have gotten back into skim boarding that we used to do in Portland and Mexico. We’ve become friends with the one guy on the beach who rents them, and gives us a deal because we’ve given him so much business. With all the time we have on our hands with the boards we’ve learned how to actually ride waves on them! And the locals love to watch. They always come and ask to try, thinking it must be easy. Usually it ends in them falling into the surf, beer in hand with the accompanying polo shirt and jeans, only to laugh it off and say “it must not be my day”. The Indian tourists think we must be some kind of celebrity-surfers from California or something, because we are bombarded by them wanting to take photos with us and the boards. Some people come running down the beach, cell phone in hand, just to record us once as we go by. Thats got to be the weirdest thing for both of us, even though its been a month of it. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to sweaty indian men putting their hands all over me just for 1 picture. 

Palolem beach huts

Mom and Dad seem to have gotten very used to the life we’re now living, as they go out almost every day, getting groceries and anything else we might need. It feels now like we’re actually locals here. Some shop keepers know us by name, and visa-versa. It makes it feel more like home when you walk down the street and people say hello to you. It’s like Bolly-Inglewood. 

People love getting their photo taken

It’s become kind of a strange feeling though, I mean here, it feels like all the days have just been 1, and that I still have lots of time in India left, but when I look at it, its counting down quickly. So far it has been my absolute favourite country we’ve been to. The people have given me more than I could ever ask for or imagine, and I’m grateful for that. We might have to leave the comfort of this house before Christmas, which none of us really wants, but it might also open up another area for us to begin to feel at home at. I’m grateful for my time in India, and I can see myself coming back sometime in the future. Hopefully it won’t have changed too much in Goa, because I think this is where I’d like to come back to. 

Our next stop after a few more places in India is looking like it’s going to be Sri Lanka, which is another destination I’ve been personally looking forward to. After that it’s starting to look like were going to be meeting up with our Uncle Gordie in Thailand, and maybe Bali, and then my friend Connor is coming out to share in the adventure for a while. It’s weird to think of it all going by that quickly, but I’m looking forward to our next adventures in the countries I’ve listed.

One of the many beaches to choose from

Bringing in the boats every night

Do you think she's in school for that?

We think Bowen should've charged money for watching!

Our new friend, Robbie

My favourite meal

Our house had a TV! With English channels!

Our other friends from Switzerland and Germany, Sam and Sara

The Rat Story by Bowen

      It was a warm, dry, still evening in Cochin, India. Just a regular night, like all the others… OR SO MY MOM THOUGHT. We were walking across the common area at about 9:30 at night when suddenly, out of nowhere a dark shadow caught my eye. A massive blood sucking, rabies ridden, child eating rat from hell scurried out from behind a plank leaned up against the wall, My mother leaped off the ground, my best guess would be that she was actually trying to physically levitate off the floor to gain safety from this nasty creature. She very loudly whispered some choice words while further tightening the death grip she had on my arm, at this point we saw the rat make a run for my parents room, again she loudly whispered to my Dad to get the @#*&%$ rat out of the room. At this point, again out of the corner of my eye I think I saw my Mom levitate into her own room and quickly jump onto the bed, then immediately curl up into a ball and clench her pillow so hard, that I seem to remember it asking me to help it because it couldn't breath. By now I was on top of the bed along with my mom practically unable to breath from laughing so hard. My Dad and I had located the rat pressed up against the wall under their bed, My Dad had created a wall out of an extra mattress that they had in their room to ensure that the rat would stay in the half of the room that it already was in. My mom continued to say the same words over and over (which are not suitable to put in this story) until my Dad asked her if she wanted to leave the room, and with a very short-of-breath “yes” I saw her leap out of the room and run up another flight of stairs to the roof top patio type thing. All that was left to do now was get the rat out of the room, which we did very easily by scaring it out from under the bed until it reached the mattress wall, then scaring it along the wall and out of the room until it reached the common area where it hid for a second then ran outside and down the stairs all on its own. By the time my mom had made her way down stairs it was time to go to sleep… not that my mom would get any that night.

Written by Bowen

This is not the actual rat. Ours was nicer looking, very friendly actually.

From Tea to Sea - Touring the Ghats and Houseboating the Backwaters

Having given up our free will to the organizational genius of Doyal, we left the now-familiar and -familial environs of Jojie's Home Stay and Fort Cochin to explore the interior of Kerala. Remy looked forward to leaving the muggy climate of the coast for some cooler temperatures at altitude!

Farewell to our Fort Cochin family!

We were introduced to Anthony, our driver for the week. Dressed in what we would come to recognize as the driver's uniform (a white shirt and black pants), he patiently packed our luggage into the small trunk of his car, then patiently packed we four large Canadians into the passenger compartment. Poor Bowen, who had been suffering some gastrointestinal issues beginning the day before, was squeezed into the centre of the rear seat, atop the hump. The tight fit, at least, meant that he could sleep fully supported in the upright position for most of the trip, which became important once we hit the windy mountain roads.

Our trusty driver and his trusty, if cramped, car.

The first hour was spent leaving Cochin, then Ernakulum, then all the smaller satellite towns. We finally broke free of urban sprawl into more open country, where we stopped for a lunch break at a roadside rest stop. That is where we first recognized that that our mode of travel was far from unique! The rest stop restaurant was divided between separate areas for the tourists and drivers to eat. I am sure the menu and prices reflected this divide. There were dozens of white vehicles in the parking lot, with attendant drivers all dressed in the uniform described above. The drivers kept an eye on their charges, and made sure that when the passengers returned to the car they were there ahead of time to open the doors. Liz was tickled that Anthony called her "madam" the whole trip and held the door for her, a bit of chivalry to which she is never treated at home.

The gradient of the road increased, in inverse proportion to the width of the roadway. It became apparent early on that Anthony was a careful driver, for which we were extremely thankful. The narrow highway was crowded with buses, trucks, rickshaws and other tourist vehicles. The road itself was in good repair, though, in contrast to our experience so far in India.

There were a couple of waterfalls that crossed the highway along the way. They were pretty awesome to see, but there were two other features that captured our attention.

The waterfall.

Firstly, it was at the waterfalls that we became aware of our currency as trophies. We were approached by gangs of young men who wanted to have their photos taken with us. Initially, only one or two would approach us and ask us to pose in a photo with them,  which would then result in a stampede of all the other members of their group rushing over to join in. It was discomfiting at first, as they were not shy about removing the sunglasses from our faces and the hats from our heads and putting these items on themselves. As well, great gangs of people would seemingly come out of nowhere and suddenly be pressed up on all sides, prompting one to feel the sudden need to check the security of wallet and other valuables. But it turned out to be something done in all innocence, and it appears that our smiling white faces will be gracing the photo albums of dozens of people whom we shall never know.

Us taking a picture of them taking a picture of us.

Secondly, it was our first exposure to the phenomenon of the "waterfall monkey". Macaques concentrate around the waterfalls due to the the concentration of people and the subsequent concentration of garbage. They are quite inured to the company of humans, and we wore out the shutter button taking photos of the monkeys long after we had lost interest in the falls.

These are not as cute as they look.

We stopped at an Ayurvedic spice garden along the way and took the tour. Afterward, during the hard sell in the gift shop to buy spices (all of which promised miracle cures of ailments that seem to attack one's vanity, primarily), Bowen joined us from the car where he had been resting his sick belly. He was given a dose of Ayurvedic medicine which consisted of a handful of nutmeg mixed with honey that he was to lick off his palm. You can imagine how he enjoyed that!

Hollis is excited to learn about spices, which are actually weeds and parasites.

This will make your stomach feel better!

We also stopped at a roadside toddy stand for an authentic cultural experience. Toddy is a drink made of the sap of a species of palm which again is purported to have medicinal qualities. The drink ferments throughout the day, so it gains in intoxicating potency the later you drink it (though it never gets to be more alcoholic than beer). We entered the dank confines of the toddy shack, which is usually the unique domain of men (and generally the local layabouts and ne'er-do-wells, if our assessment of the denizens was accurate), so Liz created quite a buzz. A used liquor bottle of dubious origin, which had been refilled with toddy, was produced, along with a couple of worn glasses which had obviously just been washed in a manner that was equally as dubious. Remy put on a brave if foolhardy face and drank a couple of glasses, professing great admiration for the hooch as a means of beating a graceful retreat from this den of iniquity. Both eyesight and stomach were unaffected by this foray into the unregulated unknown, and Remy's curiosity about this aspect of South Indian culture was satisfied.

Time for a toddy!

Here's to not going blind!

We experienced our first mountain rainfall before pulling in to Munnar. The water came down in sheets so hard that the windshield wipers on Anthony's intrepid Tata car were overwhelmed. The air had noticeably cooled during our ascent of the highlands, which was a welcome relief from the muggy heat of Cochin, but now it was a damp cold. We were installed into our guest house which had been arranged by Doyal, our host in Cochin, who had called Anthony's cell phone en route to check that we were comfortable. The guest house was new, with a great view of the valley when it wasn't socked in with clouds. We were introduced to Joy Francis, the man managing the house for its owner, and Liz' reticence about staying in a house managed by a man proved to be well founded as the place could have been cleaner. Liz prefers to stay in places managed by women as they seem to appreciate a clean bathroom more than the men.

Breakfast on the roof of the guest house.

The following morning, we found ourselves paying the entrance fee to Dreamland, an Indian version of Disneyland. It is a lawyer's nightmare, combining many homemade, high-risk thrill rides in a muddy jungle setting. We had a lot of fun there.

Scooter race! They were upset we did not wear helmets - in India!

Riding the cable trolley.

Ropes course. No crocodiles, only fish in the water.

As you can see, Bowen's tummy was feeling better.

There are three humps in this photo.

Riding a camel, Indian style!

Next we drove to the Kavan Delan Tea factory, where we saw the process by which tea is prepared for consumption, followed by some of the best chai that we had in all of India, for 5 rupees a cup.

Tea toilers on their way to work.

Learning about tea.

Chai is served in small cups by small people.

That night we attended a demonstration of kalaripayattu, which is believed to be the progenitor of all other martial arts. While it is still practiced as a martial art by some, it is generally more of a performance art now, characterized by high-flying acrobatics and the clash of steel weapons.

Like professional wrestling, but with real weapons.

Swashbuckling!

Members of the audience trying to kiss their butts goodbye while some maniac leaps over them with a knife.

We spent the next day moving ourselves to the town of Thekkady, which is adjacent to the Periyar Tiger Preserve. The drive through the Western Ghat mountains was beautiful, winding through tea plantations and jungle where the pepper, cardamom and coffee grew right to the edge of the road. We now found ourselves in a guest house managed by a woman, and the place was spotless!

Street scene in Munnar.

The Gauntlet of rickshas in Munnar. Taxi? Taxi?

Eucalyptus forests planted as fuel for the tea factories.

The spices grow right up to the edge of the roads! Alternate caption - a rose amongst the horns.

Parents love to decorate their  kids in India.

The following day was spent taking the guided hike into the preserve. We all donned the highly fashionable "leech socks", which proved not to be very effective as Liz discovered a leech on her stomach before we had even left the ranger station. We walked through the jungle for a couple of hours, accompanied by a guide, who was silent for most of the walk, and an armed guard who slung a rusty old .303 rifle in case we were attacked by one of the alleged tigers. Other than some monkeys, the wildlife made itself scarce that day, and the closest we got to any of the preserve's marquee animals was a pile of elephant dung and some footprints of a tiger and of an elephant. The apogee of the trip was a float on a lake on a bamboo raft. The guide paddled us out and back, looking for elephants along the shore, while we all sat with our feet in the water due to the fact that the bamboo was waterlogged. Bowen missed this particular adventure due to his still-gamey tummy.

Apparently the leeches can leap to knee height in the jungle!

As close as we got to seeing a tiger.

As close as we got to an elephant.

Bamboo submarine.

A beautiful paddle on the lake, with a beautiful set of gams!

The final leg of our excellent road adventure had us descend from the mountains to the town of Alleppey, where we boarded a houseboat for an overnight trip on the backwaters of Kerala. 

Roadside chai!

A pimped-out bullock.

This was what had prompted our visit to India in the first place! With about 800 houseboats plying the waters in the area now, the experience was somewhat like a slow motion tuk tuk ride on water, with boats careening past each other, near-miss head-on collisions and the beeping of horns. But the food was good, Remy got to go for a paddle in a traditional dugout canoe, and when we tied up for the night and watched the sun set, to a soundtrack of Carnatic singing being piped out from an unseen speaker, things could not have been more exotic.

Rocking the lungi in Kerala!

Our house boat living room.

The boys chilling on the yacht.

A typical house boat.

Beautiful sunset in exotic Kerala!

Remy is happiest when in a canoe.

The following day we returned to Fort Cochin where we had some personal administration to take care of before beginning the next leg of our journey through India. We humped our bags through the muggy streets of Alleppey. We had ourselves steered to the bus station and climbed aboard one of the local buses. We were lucky to get seats, as the bus filled up quickly as we began to move, slowly, stopping wherever anyone waved it down. Buses are king of the road in India, passing on corners and forcing smaller vehicles to the shoulder with a bellow from their horn. The only thing the bus is afraid of is the garishly-painted 10 ton trucks that roar down the highways. Hollis had a close call with one when our bus was driving on the wrong side of the road, passing another vehicle, when a truck came head-on down the road and forcing our driver to swerve suddenly to the correct lane. We passed the truck so closely they Hollis' elbow, which he had outside his window, actually brushed the side of the truck as it went by! Needless to say, Hollis learned a lesson about travel in India and the danger of projecting any part of the body outside of a vehicle!

By the time we arrived in Fort Cochin, squeezed in like sardines and Hollis shaken by his close encounter, we felt that we had earned our bus-riding badge. We were glad to spot Biju, our tuk tuk driver, waiting at the road junction where we were to get down from the bus. He had been dispatched by Doyal, the owner of the home stay in Fort Cochin, to meet us and bring us in.We were happy to be taken back in by Doyal and Sophia, our family in Fort Cochin. It felt like a homecoming to settle back in to the familiarity of their guest house and to spend the next few days looking after mundane details in the town where we felt so comfortable. Once we were recharged and resupplied, we would be off to the state of Goa!