Week 2- Goa- Day 3

Today has been a really busy but amazing day. After speaking to the ladies on the beach yesterday we decided to take their advice and hire a cab for the whole day and explore more of Goa. We planned to go to Dudhsagar waterfall and then to the spice plantation which also had elephants. We went with two other girls from our hostel (Beth and Ellie) who are lovely. We were out for about 8 hours in total and while we were visiting places our driver sat outside and waited for us. This cost us a grand total of £6.25 each!!! You wouldn't get up the road for that price at home!

We woke up at 7.30 and quickly got ready for the day and had our breakfast at the hostel. Our cab driver picked us up at 9 and it was about a 2 hour journey to the waterfall, but it was completely worth it. On arrival we all had to hire life jackets so we were a bit concerned what we had signed ourselves up for. We had to get a Jeep from the entrance up through the jungle to the waterfall. This took about 45 minutes and was SO bumpy. We even drove straight through rivers a couple of times, this was loads of fun. Once we got to the waterfall we had to walk through the jungle for about 15 minutes and it was fall of monkeys! This was one our favourite parts, the monkeys were very friendly and came up to us really close. There was even some tiny tiny monkeys running around after their mums that I wanted to bring home in my pocket!

Eventually we made it to the waterfall. It was a stunning view, it started right at the top of the mountain. There was even a train line that ran right through it and we saw a train go past. We were allowed to go into the water so we had a swim and went right under the waterfall. As we got out we realised there were huge fish, if we had spotted them before I don't think we would have got in the water.

As we made our way back to the Jeep I decided it would be funny to get a selfie with a monkey.. This was a massive mistake haha! The monkey soon made it very clear that I was getting too close and it made me run a mile! Although, I do have some incredible photos of the monkeys and some film of the family of monkeys altogether. Once back in the jeep the driver stopped off and showed us a temple and also the only house in the whole entire jungle. It was crazy to think about the daily life of the family that lived there.

We then made our way to the Spice plantation. We were welcomed with a blessing, symbolised with red paint on your forehead and a fresh flower necklace put around your neck by one of the local women. You can see this in our picture. We then had a 45 minute tour around the garden. It was really fascinating hearing and seeing where different spices come from and also hearing about the process it takes to make the actual spices we use in our food. We learnt that there are different types of pineapple; male and female. The female pineapples are yellow and sweet which are the pineapples we eat and male pineapples are white and sour tasting so are used when making juices. We also learnt that really hot chillies grow facing upwards and the ones that are less hot grow towards the earth. At the end of the tour we watched 'Tarzan' this was a man who could climb right to the treetops within minutes he would then jump from tree to tree and slide down the trunks with seconds, it was pretty amazing to watch. We were provided with a free buffet lunch at the spice plantation. This tasted really nice and we drank lemon grass tea which was also surprisingly yummy!

We saw two elephants in the car park, they were both stunning. Unfortunately we didn't get to see them being washed by the keepers. Our driver then drove us back to Vagator where are hostel is. We drove through Old Goa which was pretty cool to see. Once back to the hostel we had a shower and headed over to the communal area. We started planning our first month in Asia. We plan to do Cambodia and Vietnam, then fly to Bangkok from Hanoi to meet Brad and Maffo for 10 days. We will be going to the Thai Islands for Betty birthday antics.

We had dinner in the Mango Tree next door to our hostel. India was in the final of the cricket so there was a lot of people cheering. We both then Facetimed home which is always nice, keeping them up to date with our escapades. We eventually went to bed at about 11pm ready for our beach day tomorrow.