19-21/mar arambol & future plans
Fast shower, just in time to take the bus to got to mapusa, and after that straight to arambol, one of the last beaches of the norther goa, and my last beach for the next few months... I met a finish and a british girls, that were also going to arambol. They are both doing one of those wonderful north/european, mosly scandinavian things, spend a year on another country, switzerland, just learning the language, and getting sponsored for it!! great, isn't it!!
It was nice because I could speak a little bit swedish, since heidi, the one from finland, was living on the swedish speaking area, western finland.
Once in arambol, one of the first person I saw was chani, the israeli girls I met in gokarna. To meet known people, is happening very often, more than I would never thought!
The place looked nice so far. It was a touristic place, that's a fact, with the bars by the beach... but there's another atmosphere, something that one can smell while being there. The bars are more discreet, made with wood and palm leaves, no sun beds on the beach, no umbrellas... though in the northern part of the beach there were concrete buildings, not too high. But here, as the beach was wider, was less annoying. People seem to be here on a chill out mood, less showing off, less appearances... more normal. Even in the shops, or in the town itself the tempo is lower.
The beach is very long, with a few fishing boats, and quite many people looking for shells, reading, walking on their hands, playing freesbee... I stay with the 2 girls on the beach for a while, but I was feeling like moving, and they just wanted to lay down and cook themselves! So I went up north, and I discovered a very nice beach, surrounded by rocks, but quite big at the same time, and facing the west. So that was great because it was the sunset time. In that beach, with very very few people, there was only one bar, so it was nice and peaceful.
The day after, I had breakfast at a bar where the waiter was from dharamsala, headquarters of the tibetan government in exile, and where the dalai lama lives. I think he spend the coldest part of the winter in bodhgaya, place where budha was enlightened under a tree. So, we spoke quite a lot about the area, about kashmir, ladack... all these places where I wanna go.
(so here I decided a kind of possible route. My indian visa expires the 7th of July, but I wanna spend the summer in the himalayas (dharamsala, manali, leh, srinagar...) doing trekings (that I've never done before) and enjoying nature. So, in order to get a new visa, I was thinking about going to pakistan at the end of April spend a month there (I think it must be an amazing place, with very few tourism, and I think that now is quite safe, since the indo-pakistanian relations are in a good moment now), and comeback to india (with a new visa, 6 more moths) in June spend a couple of weeks in punjab, with chandigarh as a capital, famous because the city was entirely designed by le corbusier, the most influent architect of the 20th century. And then, 2 or 3 months in the mountains. After that would be cool enough to go to rajastan, desert area, gujarat, and then towards varanasi, where there are suppose to be festivals in autumn or early winter. Let's see! fortunately, plans are changing every day!!!)
I spent the day thinking about possible routes, swimming walking on the beach, and when I went back to the secluded beach, I met a guy from holland, whom I had lunch with. He had been traveling a lot, and was a very pleasant company. We played chess, he destroyed me, and talked about lots of things.
The day after, I finally left towards mumbai. For the first time ever, I felt sleep before starting a trip! the good thing is that the train came late, so I took it without problems. I was very lucky. And now again, another train trip. 10 more hours in the best transport system, the best place to be with yourself or to meet people. And of course, enjoy the landscape!!! And after that, mumbai, the city I studied in the university, and one of the only indian cities I've known since I was a child. I was very excited!
3/4/05
It was nice because I could speak a little bit swedish, since heidi, the one from finland, was living on the swedish speaking area, western finland.
Once in arambol, one of the first person I saw was chani, the israeli girls I met in gokarna. To meet known people, is happening very often, more than I would never thought!
The place looked nice so far. It was a touristic place, that's a fact, with the bars by the beach... but there's another atmosphere, something that one can smell while being there. The bars are more discreet, made with wood and palm leaves, no sun beds on the beach, no umbrellas... though in the northern part of the beach there were concrete buildings, not too high. But here, as the beach was wider, was less annoying. People seem to be here on a chill out mood, less showing off, less appearances... more normal. Even in the shops, or in the town itself the tempo is lower.
The beach is very long, with a few fishing boats, and quite many people looking for shells, reading, walking on their hands, playing freesbee... I stay with the 2 girls on the beach for a while, but I was feeling like moving, and they just wanted to lay down and cook themselves! So I went up north, and I discovered a very nice beach, surrounded by rocks, but quite big at the same time, and facing the west. So that was great because it was the sunset time. In that beach, with very very few people, there was only one bar, so it was nice and peaceful.
The day after, I had breakfast at a bar where the waiter was from dharamsala, headquarters of the tibetan government in exile, and where the dalai lama lives. I think he spend the coldest part of the winter in bodhgaya, place where budha was enlightened under a tree. So, we spoke quite a lot about the area, about kashmir, ladack... all these places where I wanna go.
(so here I decided a kind of possible route. My indian visa expires the 7th of July, but I wanna spend the summer in the himalayas (dharamsala, manali, leh, srinagar...) doing trekings (that I've never done before) and enjoying nature. So, in order to get a new visa, I was thinking about going to pakistan at the end of April spend a month there (I think it must be an amazing place, with very few tourism, and I think that now is quite safe, since the indo-pakistanian relations are in a good moment now), and comeback to india (with a new visa, 6 more moths) in June spend a couple of weeks in punjab, with chandigarh as a capital, famous because the city was entirely designed by le corbusier, the most influent architect of the 20th century. And then, 2 or 3 months in the mountains. After that would be cool enough to go to rajastan, desert area, gujarat, and then towards varanasi, where there are suppose to be festivals in autumn or early winter. Let's see! fortunately, plans are changing every day!!!)
I spent the day thinking about possible routes, swimming walking on the beach, and when I went back to the secluded beach, I met a guy from holland, whom I had lunch with. He had been traveling a lot, and was a very pleasant company. We played chess, he destroyed me, and talked about lots of things.
The day after, I finally left towards mumbai. For the first time ever, I felt sleep before starting a trip! the good thing is that the train came late, so I took it without problems. I was very lucky. And now again, another train trip. 10 more hours in the best transport system, the best place to be with yourself or to meet people. And of course, enjoy the landscape!!! And after that, mumbai, the city I studied in the university, and one of the only indian cities I've known since I was a child. I was very excited!
3/4/05
posted by Unknown at 15:51
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