Gokarna

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Trip Start Mar 08, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 22, 2010 Next
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  Gokarna, Karnataka, India
Sunday, April 4, 2010

4th April
we decided to go to Gokarna just south of Goa. it only took us 1 and a half hours to get there and the train trip was not to bad. We had the normal hassle of getting on the train, as this was the first time we got tickets for ourself and we found it hard to find our train but got there in the end. We still cant get use to the people just throwing rubbish out of the train window on to the track, this is followed by the young boys (7-10 years old) picking up plastic putting it in to their string bags. On the train we had men dressed up as women, in Sharai's clapping there hand, many people gave them money we thought this was very strange as Indians dont really except gay and lesbians.
We arrived and got a tuk-tuk to OM beach it seemed very nice. We stayed at the dolphin cafe, it was only 100 rs a night. We stayed in Little huts that were made of palm leaves, the shared toilet was a hole in the floor and the shower consist of a bucket of cold dirty water. There was lots of hippies there that all sat in a circle playing their instruments and smoking a suspicious substance (lol).

5th April
We went to Kudly beach, we know it was just over the mountain and that it was only meant to be a 20 min walk, but we got a little lost and this took us over two hours to find. We found our self's looking over the steep rock face a few times, but all fun. Kudly beach seemed very nice, even nicer then OM beach. Ad was not feeling to good, it made it worse that we had the long walk back. Ad got a bit desbrate and needed the toilet, there was a choice of about four restaurants and dont think we picked the right one. Ad rushed to the toilet... he came back not looking very happy, it was a hole in the floor and the door was half missing. To make thing worse there was no toilet roll only a bucket of water, so he had to take up the Indian tradition. In India they dont use toilet roll they use a bucket of water and their left hand, this is way they never eat with their left hand they never shake hands with this hand and it is an insult to give or receive any thing from this hand so now ad can be a true Indian. We left the hand sanitizer at the hostel so we had to rush back to a luxurious hut which also made ad feel better another hole in the floor. We decided to check in to another hostel with a Western toilet.
 
6th April
Ad did not have a good night, being sick for most of it. about lunch time he felt a bit better so we headed into town. On the way back we realized that i left my camera on the back of the tuk-tuk grrrrrrrrrrrrrr not happy. We went back and asked some of the tuk-tuk drivers and they were real nice and said they would ask around

7th - 12th April
no luck with camera  =+(  we got our back packs and treked over to kudly beach check-in to another hostal seemed real nice. we finaly tracked down the tuk-tuk driver that took us and he said that he had not seen it. spent most of our time on kudly beach.

13th April 
We decided to get hostel in the town as alot of the places are closing down, not sure if this was because it was coming to the end of the season and monsoon season was on its way. My mum has sent us a camera so will be easier to get it from the town. We booked in to a place called kamat, it was quit nice. The balcany over looked the road and we could sit and watch the locals, but still got the odd stare! The electricity in this area was really bad we would get about 3-4 power cuts a day for an hour each time. At the night it would be too hot to stay in the room so would have to sit outside but every thing was pitch black. Almost every night the sky would flash there was no thunder just the sky would light up. On the wednesday night one of the over head cables was buzing and flashing from the rain, this was next to a tree and looked like it was going to catch fire. 

17th April
We think today was bin day. There was piles of rubbish and plastice every couple of meters down the road and they were set on fire. 
We expereanced our first indian bar, we both really felt out of our comfort zone. I was the only female in the bar and we were the only white people in there, but everyone seemed nice but shocked to see white people in there. We then found another bar but this one was a little tent attached to a alcohol shop. ad asked were the toilets were and the man pointed out to the street and said no public toilet so go on side of the road! lol We got very drank, the worst so far, and Adam was in the toilet being sick for bout 30 mins when we got back, not sure if it was cos he had not eaten any tea, or the indian dirty glasses!!! ;-)
The Next day Adam was not feeling to good, him saying it must of been the ice even though he did have any!!! Bonnie had a meal called a Raita today which was real good, yoghurt with tomato, onion, cucumber and different spices :-o Still waiting for the camera to arrive. 

The next Few day we were just chilling in Gokarna, on one night while on the balcony we saw a man being carried through the street on a stretcher. The man looked dead, all his body was covered except his head, lots of men stood round him and were shouting different things. Later that night about 1 in the morning, the same thing happened again but this time he was totally covered and we presumed he was going to be burnt or however they do things here. 
We have started to appriate indian food more while here, Masala Dosa is our favourite and the Talies here are very nice. One night while coming back from a lovely Tali, a storm started to come over us. Bonnie had a great idea to walk to the beach, which was only bout 10 mins walk away, so we could watch the storm. It was probably one of the scariest moments of the trip so far!!!!! The lighting bolts were so big they seemed that some were flashing in front of us!! We eventually, got back ok but it was a crazy storm. 

The Camera still hadnt come after 3 weeks in Gokarna, but we managed to find out it was in hubli, which is a town bout 5 hours away, so we decided to go on the great Indian state bus to get it. We had been on a few state buses before this one, but this was certainly the craziest!! It seemed he was in a great hurry, and we had a front seat view (sat just behind the driver as there was a bit of room in front of the seats to put our backpacks). Some of the time the driver wasnt even looking at the road as he was chatting to his mate!! The best bit was he only seemed to overtake on corners, mostly when big trucks were coming towards us!!! This was close to the storm for scaryness. We got to Hubli just about, and just after getting off the bus we were greated by a massive Elephant, we were walking up some stairs and his truck come up and touched Adams hand!! We then eventually found where our camera was. We then returned to Gokarna for 2 more days to get some pickes as it was a great place to visit. 

We then returned to Benualim for a few days cos we didnt have any photos of it and it was on the way up to north Goa, where we were catching our train to Mumbai. The train journey from Gokarna to be to Benualim was crazy, the train we caught was only stoping at the station we were at for bout 10 secends it seemed so we had to just jump on the train. There seems to be bout 20 carriages on the trains and we seemed to be as far away from our seats as we could be! This ment going between carriages which was scary as there were just a little thin strip of metal we had to walk over to the next carriage. This was another occasion when we were both fairly scared!! 

 We then decided to go to a place called Arambol in North Goa for a few days.

 

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