Hello!
A change in format from my old blog posts. Since my last official post in 2015, I've never stopped writing. I've filled multiple diaries with my excursions, food consumption, poetry, emotions and daily thoughts. Although my pen-to-paper work has been pretty good, translating this online hasn't happened. I can't promise my organisation will improve, but here are a couple of emails from the last 15 months since I left the UK that I've written to keep everyone updated! I made a vow to myself that I would email once a month, I think I'm only a week late so not a bad start to the year! I spent the week of NYE in Anjuna and Vagator (north Goa) with lots of people, but mostly hung out with a Finnish girl called Saana. In true Goan style we really did party all night and sleep all day, until my tan started rubbing off and we decided to hit the beach)! We did a little bit of exploring including to a bigger, hippy beach in north Goa called Arambol, and a tiny fisherman's beach called Chapora, where we ended up sunbathing in our bike helmets to protect us from the hundreds of eagles dive bombing around us for the fish!! I then got a night bus inland to Hampi which is in a state called Karnataka. The bus was 3 hours late so I had time to make friends for room sharing when we got there, and I also bumped into an English guy I'd met in Nepal, so then met all of his group of friends too :). It was really busy in Hampi as everyone had come for post-nye Goan recovery, so we ended up spending a few nights sleeping on mattresses on a roof with just a mozzy net for cover which was an experience. It meant waking up to sunrise and in time for my two hour daily yoga class! I did Hatha Shivanada Power Yoga which was an awesome morning challenge and very enjoyable! I spent my days in Hampi eating, learning juggling and hula hooping, playing karem (a wooden board game with counters - also in Sri Lanka) and twirling a dopé (a hexagonal piece of this material Israelis twirl on their finger for entertainment)! There are over 2000 temples in Hampi and we had many debates about how the rocky landscape was formed, settling on the view that giants must have had a catapult fight. The nightly ritual was to climb some boulders for about 15 mins and hang out with 30 other people watching the most incredible sunset. One evening we had hula hoops, drums, guitars and poi and were dancing and singing on the rocks with travellers from all over the world as the sun went down which was truly magical. I deviated from my plan to start heading south, and went back to Anjuna to my 4th different hostel with some Hampi pals. We spent another two weeks partying our lives away and not seeing much sunlight! I did have a little holiday adventure south to Patnim and Palolem with a dutch girl called Amber and two boys from Bangalore. We had a long 3 and a half hours singing 90s pop songs on the back of the bikes to entertain the boys driving, arrived at 11:30pm on Indian Republic day with no accommodation, but then stumbled upon some cute little beach huts to stay in, and spent 2 days doing yoga and playing frisbee on the beach :). After almost a month of 'maxin and relaxin' I decided it was time to start doing something a bit more productive! By now I'm a bit more in with all the homies in Goa and seasoned travellers and expats about town so got a few job offers. I have ended up volunteering at the most amazing hostel in Vagator for the next few months. The hostel is only a year old and has been run solely by the owner and the odd volunteer, so I've committed to staying for a while to get all the admin organised and give him a bit of time off. I've been here 4 days and love it already! I have free rein to tie dye bedsheets, read in a hammock, check in and entertain travellers to my heart's content and play with the dogs Yogi and Boxer, so it already feels like home! There is a big Psytrance music festival here this weekend and we're completely full in the hostel, so lots of organising to do today but we'll get there! I hope you're all well and starting to see some spring :).
0 Comments
|
About meI enjoy writing and have had experience from my degree and through working on news posts. I hope to use this blog as a summary of extraordinary things I've discovered or witnessed in everyday life. Archives
March 2020
|