Ker to go to Kerala?

My post titles get cheesier by the day.



Anyway, see photos. Notice how I have cleverly uploaded picture of self with face turned away?

The Kumarakom (Snum spelt it Kumaaroakurm, try getting your tongue around that) trip was a lot of fun. Very revelatory. I learnt a great deal. Also, since I've gotten into documenting things here at Leaves, I should talk a bit about the people I met there.

Swedish Couple Next Door. Rather ahead in their years. Maybe in their late 40s or so. They still seemed quite adoring of each other. Surprisingly, it wasnt sickening. It was very sweet. I got on with them better than I would most Indian families I think. Would you believe my luck? The husband was working for a radio station and the lady was a psychologist! I had a nice long chat with them about their professions. They told us about the former half of their trip to India, and about how poor old Sweden gets virtually no sunlight. They were a breath of fresh air. That, is apparently abundant in Sweden.

The Two Babies. Very cute. I dont know why I have this sudden liking for tiny tots. Very adorable.

Younger Baby's Mum. She'd done the same course as Im doing now! In Bangalore, but at MCC. She did wonders for me, really. My dad is now slightly more convinced that I will be able to support myself once I finish studying. She works as a technical writer, and her work sounded pretty interesting.

Hotel Owner, who told me "Dont worry ma, all deds are like this. My daaghter will also have to cop in the same way if she takes me and my wife for a holyday."

We went boating a lot- hoseboat, mawter boat, cundry boat. And I lazed on the hammock to my hearts content. Lot of egrets here also. Crows as well, but not as troublesome as some Ive encountered before.

Its a really beautiful place though. I was greatly reminded of The God of Small Things. Really enjoyed myself. Nice memories.

Goa Odyssey About

I havent immortalised the Goa trip, I realise, here on my blog. And so even though its all ancient history and all, Im writing about it now, and classifying it under reminisces.

I want to be sure to remember:

How jubilant we were when Snum's uncle gave us the thumbs up.

How we planned the whole thing, in Osh's hostel on the comp downstairs... laughing ourselves silly and getting confused over the scale in the faulty map we got off the net.

How we almost missed the bus getting there.

How very motion sick Osho got.

How cute Shahid Kapoor was on the bus, even though I didnt understand what the hell he was saying.

How limited my choice was at The National Restaurant where we stopped for dinner at 11.30pm, just as we were getting off to sleep.

Goan Mum and Son in Black Leather Jacket, and the Throwup Kids.

How the AC bus felt like an aircraft when they gave us the blankets and water bottles. And how the curves felt like turbulance.

"Yella ok, Cool drink yake?" Rajnikanth ad for beer. Gag me.

Heavy rains in Karwar that put us four hours behind schedule.

Empty quarters and the egrets Snum's dad put there to spy on us. Silly birds, they dont move at ALL. We thought they were statues until we saw them moving on the third day. "Oh look, how nice! They've made a little park with little life-like statuettes of birds in them!" said Snum foolishly when we arrived. Well, no actually, she didnt. I just like teasing Snum.

How our little cottage thing was called Colva.

How we caught the rickety bus from Verrem and got to Panjim in 5 rupees and 15 excrutiating minutes.

The TORTURE of finding that the bloody camera was not working, and having to buy that disposable one at Panjim.
The JOY of having it repaired on the third day, even though it made us almost miss the cruise.

Taking 114 pictures of ourselves in 2 and a half days.

Dominoes pizza.

How good it felt to be roomies, ordering in. The closeness. Having long talks in front of the TV at night.

How all of us were dead to the world until 9am on the second morning, even though the previous night we had vowed and sweared we would be up and about early.

Aguada fort and the death of Snum's broze chappals. Yes, it was here that they finally snapped. For the last time. Muttering as she held the remains in her hands, tottering about on the hot sand, Snum agreed it was all for the best.

The burial in the cupboard.

How concerned we were that Abhishek Bachchan was brushing off Aishwarya in a very obvious manner as she looked on with puppy dog eyes.

Anwar, the sweetheart (Snum's to be precise). Our blessed means of transport.

The Ferry Boat, Osh's unfortunate seating arrangement, the cool couple with the grandparents and kids.

How amazing those dolphins looked, if only for that split second.

Lime soda- heaven in a cup. Between the three of us, I think we consumed 70 of those cups during our entire trip.

How Snum kept dropping straws.

How frickin hot it was, and how grateful I was that I lived in Bangalore.

The Daily Cycle Thing. Hilarious. I'm glad we found it hilarious, so soon.

The sun umbrella not being big enough at lunchtime on Calangute beach.

Snum and Osh on the water scooter and me parasailing. Woo hoo! (See right: me.)

How we wanted to go again.

The IT couple who took pictures.

Bargaining at Anjuna beach and getting things for less than half the original price. Which Im sure the items were still not worth.

Getting caught in that throng of people carrying candles and singing prayers. Eerie.

Lovely looking restaurant. Ghastly tasting wine which burnt hole in pockets.

Dona Paula beach, cowboy hats.

Miramar beach- the absolute most best one of them all!! :) :) :) (see left)

Old Goa, the hot and horribly boring museum that Snum enjoyed.

Numerous ATM visits that I would actually wait for, because we got to stand in the AC for a bit.

Candolim beach in the afternoon on the recliners, with the cute dog. Now I dont go around stroking strange dogs, having had no experience with canines before, but Snum does. The second she placed her hand behind his ears, he shut his eyes, lay right down and fell straight asleep. Like clockwork. :D

Night cruise, weird drunk Hindi MC.

Suffocating the next morning.

The Bodgeshwara temple. Somehow temples dont mean much to me. Anything to me.

Deciding we'd been spending too much on food, and hence stopping at Mapusa town, buying 3 vada pavs for 6 rupees each and ketchup packets (1 rupee each) for that day's lunch.

Patting ourselves on the back, and talking about how clever and sensible we were, the entire journey to Vagathur beach.

THEN having it get ATTACKED and HACKED open by those VICIOUS crows that were there, when we left it unattended for a bleeding SPLIT second.
(See above: One of the culprit crows. Do not let its mild demenour fool you. Vicious, utterly vicious.)

Huge amounts of shopping at Vagathur and Anjuna. Being stunned speechless by the shop people's accents. We just looked at each other's expressions and snorted from restrained laughter I think, the first time. They werent too nice to us after that.

Coming back home and video-ing our many splendiferous purchases.

The Midnight Beach Sting Ray Incident. *grin* Titos.

The last day, hitching a ride, shopping at Panjim for the necessary and the unnecessary, ATM crawling, Osh career advising. Eating at a special place Snum recommended which we'd been saving for the last day. Laughing ourselves silly there.

Being very frustrated that that particular day was a dry day.

Settling bills, frenzied packing, frenzied video taking and being horrifically late for the bus again, which gave me several more mini heart attacks.

Reaching there, finding it still hadnt arrived and hence trying to amuse ourselves at random shops nearby.

All of us being at the bus stop in the hysterical mad moods I do so love, laughing ourselves silly, and scandalising several of the people there who were waiting for their buses.
I shocked the wits out of a couple of three year olds and Snum somehow managed to cause an old couple to get up and move two benches away from us, much to Osh's approval.

Me being livid with the stupid jerky bus and the fat man snoring loudly next to me the whole goshdarned night.

Wanting to cry about it all being over the next morning, as we bid each other a tearful, dramatic and very filmi goodbye at Majestic.