The Wandering Two: March 2012

After finishing up our first week back at Deep Griha, seeing old friends and going to all of our favorite spots in Pune we set out on probably our final journey within India. We went with our friend Kelly to Bombay to pick up my cousin Armand and Telia who had come to visit us. If you recall, Telia was our first visitor and original Wandering Three member in Zonkizizwe long ago. We spent a hectic day in Bombay, visited the UNESCO Heritage caves temples on Elephanta Island. It was an hour ferry from the Gateway of India and the cave temples were built in the 5^th centrury and were very impressive. The pictures speak for themselves. After that, we indulged in our favorite afternoon tea at the Taj Hotel. I had hyped it up quite a bit, of course, but everyone told me that it exceeded their expectations.

The next day we said goodbye to Kelly and headed to Goa with Armand and Telia. We stayed in beautiful Palolem Beach once again. One day Armand led us on an adventure to find the hidden and beautiful Turtle Beach. The journey was definitely better than the destination and included a ride in a stolen boat with two little boys and walking for what felt like hours trying to find our way back to Palolem only to be told by everyone we passed that it would take us hours. Thankfully we made a friend, Sonya, whose mom got us a taxi. That night Armand decided he wanted us to have a seafood feast. All the restaurants in town had fresh seafood out for you to select so we bargained with one and ended up with the biggest lobster Ive ever seen, a crab, a red snapper, 2 kingfish and a sable and 24 prawns, plus rice, chips and salad! It was amazing!

The following day we rented scooters and rode all around Goa, seeing beaches and riding through fields and enjoying the beautiful views. I may want a scooter of my own after that! By the end of the day we still pretty much had a full tank of gas and had to return it empty as we woldn’t be reimbursed for the extra fuel. We stopped at a few places offering to sell our fuel at half price to anyone who wanted to siphon it and take it. We met a nice lady who ran a shop who bought it from us at market cost and had a hilarious experience siphoning the gas out of the scooters into water bottles for her to sell to people. Only in India!

The next day was Holi, the festival in India where everyone throws coloured paint at each other. We had been hearing mixed responses when we asked about the Holi celebrations so when we saw two people covered in paint we quickly asked them where they had been, bought some cheap white outfits and some colored powder and ran to join the festivities. What we found was a large congregation of locals dancing and singing and playing drums and throwing colored powder and paint at each other. They moved through the streets and from house to house and welcomed us into the mix by smearing our faces and clothes with color and encouraging us to dance along with them. There were few foreigners in the crowd and it was definitely a unique and very special experience. Afterwards, Armand tried to shower and clean all the paint off to find he was left with a green back and paint speckled head so we decided to go for a midnight swim under the full moon. The water was so warm and with the help of rubbing sand all over ourselves, most of the Holi colors came off.

We were sad to say goodbye as Armand and Telia left to do some traveling in the north and we returned to Pune. We only have a week and a half left here as we’ve decided to return to Michigan earlier than planned to get jobs for the summer and save money for our new life. More news coming soon.

Love,

The Wandering Two