The road to Goa from Mumbai was really good. Beautiful landscapes, good roads… On the roads there are always some signs that saying to slow down etc… But sometimes they put some phrases that are so funny! For exemple:

"Safety on road is a safe tea at home" or

"This is a highway not a dieway"

"Think about your wife"

First we arrived to the North of Goa, in Vagator. The place is known for its trance parties, but nowadays it' full of Russians and there's less parties…

It was nice place anyway, beach was ok, but the guesthouses were expensive because it was so small place.

For Christmas we went to Arambol, more up to North. It was really nice place, more tourist place, but a lot of choice for the hotels. We negotiated the room rate so that we could pay the same rate the whole week, because the rates get really high for Christmas. The beach was the best one we've seen: big waves and always space.

We met some friends there also; it was like everybody came to Arambol for Christmas!

The Christmas evening we ate good sea food at the beach. But it didn't really feel like Christmas, because we were not with our families! And there was no snow! Not that I miss the snow…

After Christmas we left Arambol to Palolem, in the South of Goa. We stayed there until 02/01/2011. When we arrived we were really surprised about the ridiculously high room rates. It was almost the triple price comparing the normal rate. Finally we found one guesthouse that had some beach huts for 400 Rs. It was a young boy who helped us to find the place so he said we could stay there for 400Rs until the New Years. When we arrived with our bags, the people at the reception were like they never said it was 400 Rs, now it was 800 Rs…and it continued to chance always when a new person came. Finally the boss was ok for 400 Rs till 29th of Dec and then 500Rs. We got a hut at the beach. It was nice to be so close to the beach, but the problem with the huts is that you can hear everything the neighbors do and say. And unfortunately our neighbors were some Indian guys partied and drunk and make a lot of noise. So the next morning we changed our hut to a room behind the huts but still at the beach. The room was next to where the Goan families lived with their chickens, dogs, cats and pigs! It was like a farm!

So everyday we woke up, had breakfast, get to the beach, had lunch, get a shower, drank a cocktail, had dinner…

So now it really feels like a real vacation, far from the big polluted cities… I know, it's so hard to us these days. The biggest problem we have had was to choose which beach to go to! So difficult!

Well, we did have one thing to take car; we had to find a buyer to our motorbike. And it wasn't easy in Arambol, because there were other tourists like us who wanted to sell their bikes too! And they had much recent models, ours was 1990!

But the advantage we had was that the bike was registered in Goa, it was I think the only one we saw. So it should be easier to sell the bike. We saw naby Indians who were interested but they could pay only 25000 Rs and we wanted 35 000 Rs. In Mumbai there were people who could have bought it for 45000 Rs but we needed the bike until Goa…

We finally did found a buyer for the bike. The guy lived in Margao, Goa, where is the Goan Railway Station. So he was Ok for 35000Rs. He wanted to have the bike right away, but we said that we still need it until the day we leave Goa. So we decided we would meet him at the train station the day we leave and take the train to Kerala.

The night before New Years' we went to a Silent Disco Party. It is a club where everybody wears headphones and there are 2 Dj's playing live and you can choose which channel you listen and dance to. It was so funny! You see people dancing and screaming when they talk… It's really a good idea for a party!

The New Years' Eve we decided to go to a party which cost 500 Rs before 11.00 PM then after that 1000Rs. So it was expensive but we thought that for New Years it was ok to spend… But at 10.30 pm we were still at the restaurant eating so it was too late for the entrance of 500Rs. So we stayed at the beach when it was midnight. And it was crazy! People everywhere and fireworks everywhere! It was really amazing! We had some great photos, but of course, my camera is broken and it deleted all the photos!!

So the day we left Palolem we met the buyer as planned at the railway station. David was crying and didn't want to leave his bike! (I'm joking…)When we arrived at the station we waited to see that our train appears at the screen. And when it did, it said that the train is 3 hours late!! So in staid of 10.30 pm it arrives at 01.30. Am! We were so tired and angry but we didn't have any options than to wait. We didn't have anymore our bike and anyway all the trains were full so we didn't want to risk that we could not take another train. Finally, at 4.00 am, after 6 hours late, the train finally arrived! And it was empty! The station was its first station and we had waited an empty train to arrive for 6 hours!! We were so tired that we just went straight to bed.

The trip took about 8hours to Calicut where we wanted to go first, but we found out that the train continues to Kochi, more to the South of Kerale. So we stayed in the train. Anyway, we had heard from a Finnish guy that Calicut is not a good place to go. They didn't want foreign tourists in their hotels. So I knew already how it feels and didn't want to go that through again!

When we arrived to Kochi and got out of the train, we could feel that we were in the South of India now; the climate had changed totally. It was so hot and humid, just the walk from the train station to get a bus and we were all wet.

We took the bus to Fort Cochin, an almost like an island. It's really a tourist trap, nothing else. I didn't like it. The restaurants were expensive and very bad. Even the restaurants for Indians were not good.

Anyway, the first 2 days I was sick (a flu I did get already in Goa after Christmas that cane back after having stayed in the rail way station all night). Also, it was too hot to do anything.

The last day we rented bicycles and went for sightseeing but nothing special…

So we decided to go to the inland of Kerala. We left the next morning, to have a bus to Thekkady. There's a wildlife sanctuary we wanted to see. But when we arrived to the bus stand, they said we just missed the bus and the next one is in 2 hours. So we took the next bus there was and it was to Munnar. It's a village in the mountains, where many Indian newlyweds come for their honeymoon. It's also known for the tea plantations. So 4-5 hour trip by bus through the mountains. Again we just hoped that the driver will not get us killed. But the landscapes were so beautiful; the hills were full of tea plantations mixed with trees, jungle, rivers, waterfalls…

We were surprised how expensive the hotels there were. Finally we found one for 500 Rs, but it was very humid in the room. And it was much colder outside than in Kochi. We were in 1400meters high so in the daytime it was ok with sunshine but during the night it was freezing. David got sick (flu also) the knight before because of the fans, so we just watched TV and slept. Always when we have a TV in the room, David is very happy!! In India there are 3 good english-speaking movie channels, HBO for exemple. So it's nice to watch films so;eti;es and not read books!!that's what we do a lot!

So the next day in Munnar we went on a walk through the tea-plantations. Again the landscapes were amazing! The tea- plantation is owned by TATA enterprises. It's THE biggest company in India. They make everything from cars to airplanes, from pharmaceutics to electronics…They even have hotels, and they actually own the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai.

The next day we went back to Kochi, in Ernakulom. It's less a tourist place than Fort Kochi.

So here we are now! Just waiting our flight to Thailand! We leave the 13/01 to Phuket, we change flights 3 times. In Phuket we'll meet David's parents and then I'll meet Katriiiiii!!!jeee!

So we're exited but also sad to leave India.

It's been now 3 months that we are here and we've seen so much; the North, the West, the South, big cities like Delhi and Mumbai, some awful places like Jammu and Vapu… We have met some beautiful people, saw amazing landscapes and a lot of cows and dogs, and ate a lot of thali…

We did not have time to go to the South and East of India. Also we missed Varanasi. But maybe next time!!

My favorite places in India were: Dharamsala, Rishikesh, Goa, Rajasthan. It's really all the places that are the less Indian! But the real Indian cities are just horrible… That's just the way it is.

David's favorite places: Where ever his Enfield went! Rajasthan, Goa…