Goan adventures

Our friends Adam and Tim arrived on the Thursday morning after the housewarming. We started on Thursday afternoon with a trip to Bangalore palace, and then spent the evening cooking up a storm in the kitchen! We had a celebratory dinner as it was Adam's birthday that day, and had been Tim's the day before.

Friday we headed to Lalbagh gardens and the bull temple South of the city centre and had lunch at a local veg restaurant. In the afternoon we went to the ISKCON temple which was quite an experience. ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness, also known as the Hare Krishna movement). Apparently the temple in Bangalore is one of the largest in the world. As temples go it is quite impressive, the experience was sort of more impressive!

I wasn't really quick enough at the entrance to say we didn't want the most expensive Darshan (which kind of means audience with the gods). After going through security (Adam having to leave his camera there, no pictures) we were waved past the queue which was probably about 45 mins long (this is what we had paid for!) and ended up at the first idol. The way we were directed came in through a sort of side door and we ended up the idol side of the barrier past which everyone else was filing slowly. It was pretty awkward, but I think we provided some amusement to everyone else. This continued with the next idol and then we reached the main shrine. At least there were other white people looking as awkward as us at the front of this one! Everyone in the premium ticket bit was asked their name and had to do a little chant over some flowers. These were then offered to the gods and a sort of prayer made for us all. And that was it. Apart from getting our goodie bag on the way out (our money had bought offerings of dried fruit and nuts for the gods, but they were given to us. Along with CDs and posters etc.). It took us some time to find our way through the numerous large gift shops to actually get out. So, no pictures I'm afraid, but quite an experience.

We headed off on our slightly round about trip to Goa on Friday night. We started with an overnight train from Bangalore to Talguppa. This is the nearest station to Jog Falls, which are the highest falls in India. The train was good, this time we decided to go for the first class sleeper carriage, which although expensive (at a whole £15 per person!) was worth it. In first class you get a bed very similar to the 2nd class sleeper that I took with my parents, but this time in a little compartment, just for 4 people. The train arrived, pretty much on time (which was a first for me I think, although it was starting Bangalore!) but then the frustrations started. Being naive about these things and thinking the train would leave shortly we started looking for our carriage, only it wasn't there. We asked several people who said it would be at the front, which it wasn't. Eventually we found a vaguely official looking man who said it was at the front and waved us away! Several other people were having the same trouble! Finally, on going back to the front of the train a large group of people sitting on the platform told us that they were just waiting for the extra carriages to arrive, and ours would indeed be at the front, they just needed to attach it! Well, if they have said that at the start it would have saved a lot of stress! What were we thinking though, the train would leave on time!
Anyway, we made it...

Arrived, bright eyed and bushy tailed...kind of!

We had hired a car and driver to pick us up from the station and take us to Jog Falls, the train got in at 8am, so we had breakfast at the cafe by the falls. They certainly are pretty tall falls. Although not currently particularly impressive as it is not rainy season. Hopefully you can make it out OK in the photos, the sun was at a really awkward angle for photography!

Jog falls

From there we headed for the coast, to Murudeshwar where I want to see a temple I had seen one of our guidebooks. I'm really glad we went, it was so impressive. The temple itself is an ancient Shiva temple complex, but the Shiva statue, the 2nd tallest in the world, was built about 25 years ago. Then in 2008 the Gopuram (the monumental tower at the temple entrance that is standard in South Indian temples) was inaugurated, said to be the tallest in the world. It was really, really hot (particularly with no shoes on!), but we finally persuaded Tim that we should go to the top of the Gopuram where we could see people looking down, to our delight we found there was a lift!

Well, I'll just let you see for yourselves!

The 249ft Gopuram

The Shiva statue from the top of the Gopuram (he is 123ft tall!)

It was well worth a visit, but we didn't hang around too long, it was just too hot! So we hopped back into our air conditioned car and headed to Gokarna where we were staying for the night.

Gokarna is a small temple town by the sea in northern Karnataka, not far from the Goan state boarder. It is famous for a nice beach nearby, Om beach. It is believed that Shiva emerged from the ear of a cow here, so it is also a pilgrimage centre. The beach was our reason for going though, it is one of the must see places in Karnataka in my guide book! The town is pretty filthy and unexciting to be honest. Well, unless you call the pile of rubbish and a purple river exciting. The cows were happily munching though! It is by all accounts something of a hippy destination since Goa has become more of a mainstream tourist destination and pushed them out. Despite the dirt and lack of much in the town we had a lovely afternoon on Om beach and an exciting auto ride there and back!

Outside our guesthouse in Gokarna!

The view across Om beach from our post beach beer spot

Next morning on to Goa. First stop, 2 nights at Agonda Cottages in Agonda (funnily enough!), south Goa. I would certainly recommend a stay there. Unlike some of the other places, we didn't look straight out onto the beach, but it meant there was a lovely bar looking onto the beach instead, and it was only a 20m walk so we could cope with that!

The view from our beach hut with the beach at the end

We got settled and had a wander around town (a strip of small beach side resorts and restaurants really!) before getting a taxi to the next beach down in search of sailing boats to hire that Adam had found online. Unfortunately sailing boats were not to be found, it turns out it was an English guy who had set up a company hiring out boats but he had been run out of town by the locals. What a shame. We settled on a boat trip instead, which took us to Butterfly island, a remote little beach via a bit of dolphin spotting. We had paid a bit extra for them to drop us off for a bit of snorkeling. Not that there was anything to see, sandy water and rocks! For another small fee they dropped us back at the Agonda beach, as we were half way there anyway. A lovely afternoon trip, followed by a swim in the sea, a bit of bat and ball on the beach, a shower, some cocktails and an excellent meal at the bar. Nice!

The next day we had a fairly lazy day on the beach, we walked to the Northern end and saw a sign to bar up on the cliff. So off we went up a stoney path that, without shoes was ridiculously hot, sharp and painful! We did of course persevere for the drink at the top, and an excellent view, but by the time we finally made it back to our resort we all had very sore feet!  

About to embark on our climb to the bar

It was a good view!

 A bit more lazing around and beach fun finished off with a lovely sunset and another excellent dinner.

Some general messing about!

The following day we moved an hour or so up the coast to the Taj Exotica Benaulim to fulfill Adam's wish to stay in a 5 star resort while it was affordable! We hired a taxi for the day deciding to make the most of it with a detour to Old Goa for a bit of culture (and another UNESCO world heritage site ticked off my list!). We couldn't check in until 2pm anyway.

Old Goa was the capital of Portuguese India and subsequently served as the centre for the Christianisation of the East. A huge number of religious orders set up their headquarters there. Then a plague hit in the 17th century when it was largely abandoned and the capital moved. Since then it has become known as Old Goa. So, basically, it is full of churches (and not much else), full of really big, impressive churches. I don't know how many there were, but I think we made it to about 4 or 5 before the heat got too much for us. The most notable there is the Basilica of Bom Jesus which holds the remains of St. Francis Xavier.

Inside Bom Jesus and another Church in Old Goa

Basilica of Bom Jesus

At St. Augustine's, Old Goa 

We arrived at the Taj Exotica at about 2pm, making the most of it! It was really very smart and huge! They made a huge fuss of the fact that it had been Tim and Adam's birthdays a few days before and gave them flowers and had the welcome people sing them happy birthday! A little embarrassing, but it was really empty, so it was fun. It was coming towards the end of the season as it was starting to get pretty hot. So we both got upgraded, Ben and I to a luxury suite (the biggest hotel room I have ever seen!) and Adam and Tim to a fancier cottage. We spent the afternoon making the most of some of the facilities, then had a lovely dinner at the traditional Goan restaurant option at the resort. The only thing that was missing was a lovely cocktail before dinner. It turned out that we had arrived on election day for the Goan state elections. Election days, and counting days (which included the following day) are dry days in India (stops people buying your vote so easily apparently!). We did have a little raid of the minibar before dinner though! Dinner was pretty spicy, but we got to try the pork vindaloo, I couldn't eat more than a mouthful, but the others thought it was good.

A little croquet while waiting for the sunset

Another lovely sunset

Entertainment over dinner

 Ben and I unfortunately had to leave at 6am to get a flight back to Bangalore so Ben could work, but Tim and Adam had 1 more night in there and headed back to Bangalore on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday Tim, Adam and I went to the vineyard (well, wine making place actually) that Ben and I went to before for a tour. It is a reasonable little tour with a tasting and a very nice lunch afterwards. From there we headed to the Nandi hills for a little wander and to admire the views before it got too hot for us and we headed back home. Our very indulgent couple of weeks was finished off perfectly with another trip to Caperberry, the restaurant inspired by Heston Blumenthal. Ben and I were slightly concerned the tasting menu wouldn't be quite as good the second time around as it was the same, but it was still excellent and we really enjoyed it.

We had a really lovely time with Tim and Adam (not great for our waistlines, but nevermind!) and can certainly recommend Goa to anyone.