Boats,Beaches,Vindaloo and Fenni

Hello. Currently in Goa, on a beach...................Nothing much to report as far as that goes, apart from the seas warm, the beers cold and the vindaloo is spicy!!!! To be honest, I'm not much of a beach bum, sitting on a beach all day is kinda boring, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it:)
In a place called Amarol, which is one of the more chilled out hippy beaches, rather than the rave/rape/murdering beaches further south. India has been in a frenzy over the whole British teenager murder, so there are police everywhere in Goa. The place has a reputation of being a bit druggie, but theres not much of that going on at the moment. For the first time in 5 months I actually got pulled at the boarder crossing and had to show my docs!!!! God damn fuzz.
Anyway, apart from the police overkill, Goa is a pleasant place. You see the Portuguese influence in the State capital,Panji, in terms of the architecture, food and Port wine. Pork Vindaloo is a famous Goan dish, not as hot as the UK version, but much, much tastier:P The locally produced white spirit- Fenni, made from either cashrew or coconut, is pretty lethal as well. At 10p a shot it would be rude not to!

Next stop: Mumbai (formally Bombay)




Man overboard in the Keralan backwaters, Kollam, Kerala. Most of the coastal region of Kerala is covered in a network of canals, rivers and lakes, where fishing, prawn farming and toddy taping are the main industries.

Chinese fishing nets in Fort Kochi, Kerala. Loads of these fishing nets on big canti-levered wooden structures line the coast around Kochi.

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Panji, Goa. Goa is an old Portuguese colony, so has loads of Catholic Churches, Cathedrals and monasteries dotted around the place. A more useful Portuguese after-effect is the amount of Port wine that is available in the state, mmmmmmmmmm.

View from my beach shack, Amarol, Goa.

Cows on the beach, a uniquely Indian sight. Amarol, Goa.

For all you geography students out there.....

I thought I might as well let you know where I've been for the past 4 months or so! Below is a map marked out of the route taken so far. Starting off in Delhi in November, I've travelled about 10,000km on my trusty old Enfield, in varying road conditions, and managed to get to the southern tip of India, hurrah. Well, 'The Plan' now is to go up the west coast and visit along the way - Goa, Mumbai and Udipur and be back in Delhi by 28th April to catch a flight to Nepal:) Obviously 'The Plan' is quite fluid, so we'll see what happens!

Temples & Tigers

Roadkill.


Scaffholders working on the Sri Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, Tamil Nadu.


Close up of one of the gopurams , most of the temples in the south are painted up like this in Dravidian style.


Me in the jungle. The gaiters are to stop leeches getting in! Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala.



Spot the elephants.


Hi there!!!! Since my last post I've been doing plenty of temple spotting in Tamil Nadu. Down here in the south the temples are completely different to up north. North= Ayran (not the blonde, blue eyed type) South= Dravidian, therefore completely different language, culture, temple design, etc. I visited the three biggest temple towns of Tanjour, Trichy and most famously Madurai. To be honest, the Temples all looked pretty similar, although the complex at Trichy was bloody massive- about 60 hectares according to Book of Lies. All were very impressive and colourful.
After all that cultural stuff, I've crossed the border into Kerala and am now at a small town called Kumily, in the Cardomom Hills. The whole place is surrounded by tea and spice plantations. For the past few days Iv'e been living off cinnamon and cardomom tea hmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, right next to Kumily is the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Yesterday I went on a jungle walk and saw lots birds, butterflies, monkeys, elephants and buffalo. No Tigers though, with only 40 tiggers in a 700km sq reserve it was always going to be a long shot. After seeing some of their paw prints as big as your hand, in retrospect it was probably for the best.
Well I'm knackered after all this running around, so tomorrow I'm heading for a Keralan beach. Laters....