Photo - Univited house guest - Fred the frog

We have lots of wee frogs in the house, but again, we don't mind them as they also kill insects. Not a barrel of laughs though when you are taking a boiling pan of pasta off the cooker and 1 lands on your bare shoulder! This photo brings a new meaning to 'frogs legs by candle-light'.

Photo - Uninvited house guests, Gary the Gecko

These little lizards are indigenous in hot climates. They are totally harmless and quite cute. Also they are fun to watch when the telly is rubbish! They are known as house gekos and we have loads of them in the house. These ones are about 4-8 inches long, but they can grow a lot bigger. They lie on the wall, often near the light, waiting  to catch prey. They kill insects and mosquitos so are good to have around. This one is lying flat against the wall above the window and, as you can see, has earned it's keep and caught a moth.

Photo - Collecting the chickens

Bike now fully loaded and being driven by our house. Poor things are squalking like mad. They must be happy to be out of the but not tied up, upside down, a scarey bike ride and then heads lobbed off.

Photo - Collecting the chickens

These are the chickens being collected from the farm to be taken to the house to be killed on collection. What you see on the right handlebar on the scooter are 6 chickens tied by one leg each with a piece of string. There will also be another 6 tied to the left handlebar. The man in the photo works for the guy who owns the chicken farm. Also employed are his wife and 4 children who are 16 years, 14, 10 and 8. Children don't know how lucky they are in the UK.

Buying our first chicken

After being in the house for about a week we decided to buy a chicken as we hadn't ate much meat since being in India . Despite my abhorance to the chicken farm I assured Colin that I could eat the chicken as long as he prepared it for cooking. So off Colin went to the guy's house to get the chicken. As I said before this is where the chickens are killed. When Colin came back with a plastic bag dripping with blood I did not want (but had to know) the gory details.
When he arrived at the guy's house all the chickens were running around in a pen.  He was asked 'what chicken do you want'? He selected a chicken and the next thing it was placed in a box and the head lobbed off. The chicken continued to run around headless for a few seconds until it collapsed. He re-assured the guy that we really didn't want the neck so he put this aside as Indians do eat this part of the chicken.
He then just ripped the skin off and cut the chicken into 4 pieces. When we opened the bag that Colin brought home there was indeed 4 pieces, but also all the inards. The mixture of the smell in the kitchen of fresh blood and slimey chicken inards was overpowering and I couldn't go near it. Even Colin, who can stomach anything, wasn't feeling too great about the whole thing. Anyway the chicken got prepared and cooked thanks to Colin. The sauce he cooked it in was great but the chicken was as tough as it gets. I think it is because the poor wee things are so stressed about their living conditions. So that was the end of chicken dinners.
This was before I had Lucy the cat to give the leftover inards to. I stupidly took these over to Pamela my neighbour as I had seen a wee cat in her garden one day. When I offered her these for her cat she looked at me like I was absolutely bonkers. She couldn't understand why I thought someone would have a cat as a pet and wanted to know why I was giving ;good parts of a chicken away and not cooking them'. Chastised I went back to our house and threw them out in the back garden for whatever creatures live there -they were gone in the morning.
We found out thet there was a good butchers in Chaudi (Sopiea's Butchers), which is our nearest town, it also has a 'supermarket'. The butchers sells beef, Goan sausages, bacon, pork, and ready prepared chicken breasts among other things so we decided that next time we needed a meat feast we would go there. Oh dear, that was an experience for another day, for me it was worse than just hearing about Colin's chicken experience. I found myself in the thick of it.
Will sign off now as it it time for dinner. Colin is watching the Liverpool v Blackburn game on TV. Nothing Like English Premier League football on Boxing Day.

Photo - Another view from the fort

Asimilar view from the fort without zooming in with the camera. The beach in the previous picture is the cream coloured speck to the right side of this picture.

Photo - View from the fort

This was the view from the fort looking North. The beach was only a speck in the distance so Colin zoomed in with the camera. We don't know the name of this beach but it looks like there is a wee shack on it., so we might have to investigate it one day.

Photo - Boxing day greetings

Hope you all had a great Xmas and Orra best for the New Year. We went out to an Italian restaurant for Xmas dinner, run by an Italian couple. Nothing like pasta and pizza at Xmas. Today we headed out for a drive on the scooter to an old ruined fort at the cliff edge. The photo is us sitting in the walls of the fort. The views from there were spectacular.

Photo - A busy day on Agonda beach

Looking towards the South end of the beach on a busy day busy day, but more cows than people! The structures you see in the trees are different wee resorts to stay in. Tina Beach Resort, where we hang about on days at the beach is further down to the South end of the beach.

Photo - Walking on Agonda beach

Walking towards the North end of the beach. I don't think the lifeguard walking in front of us (dressed in red) is going to get much business today.

Goa and lazy days in Agonda Beach

Goa lies half way down India, on the West Coast. The locals here are different from other nationals as Goa was previously under Portugese rule. The locals are really friendly and most speak a good amount of English. When we drive from the house to the end of the village our jaws are sore with constantly smiling and replying hello to just about everyone we pass. I think we are seen as the mad westerners who stay in the village.
Down the length of the Goan coast there are numerous different beaches. In the North the beaches are very busy. There are high-rise hotels, English and Irish pubs, and the beaches are busy. It's party party. The South is much quieter. Agonda is known as 'The Gem Of The South'. It only gets a small mention in the guide books so a lot of people coming to India don't think about coming here. This allows it to remain a relatively untouched place. The local community is very strong and although they want tourism for their economy, they do not want it spoiled. Nothing on the beach front is more than 2 stories high and even then, there is only a few of these and they tend to be locals houses.
The beach is stunning. It is about 2Kms long and, on a busy day, you will only pass another few people when walking along it, Oh, and a herd of cows! The tourist accommodation is small shacks/resorts along the beach. Some of the shacks have sunbeds on the beach. A day at the beach for us means heading to Tina Beach Resort. They have sunbeds on the beach with shade. Tina and Ragu who own it are a lovely young Indian couple who go the extra mile to make sure their guests have a wonderful stay. As I said previously we became good friends with them when we stayed in the resort March/April this year.
I go to the beach more than Colin but he still has to take me there on the scooter because I wouldn't drive on the Indian roads. Colin though is driving once again like a local - pump your horn at every other piece of traffic on the road, turn into corners on the wrong side of the road and don't look for other traffic as they should be pumping their horn at you to let you know they are there and don't brake too hard when a dog monkey pig cow or a large 4-wheel drive pulls out in front of you.
So a typical day at the beach for us would be, Colin drops me off at the beach and then returns home. I chat to a few other tourists that we have got to know and catch some rays, read a book or listen to the i-pod while Colin heads back home, reads the paper, catches up on the football news on the internet or prepares one of his Goan food delights for dinner,(his Goan-style cooking is now really good). He comes down the beach about 3pm when the sun is not so fierce. About 4pm we have a walk along the length of the beach and then a wee play in the sea. A gin and tonic while the sun is setting and then back home befor 6.30pm. The bun man (bread rolls) comes at 6.30. He comes on a push bike, blowing a wee horn to let you know he is coming. The buns are still hot from just being freshly baked. It is 12pence for 4 buns. What is the profit margin there. Someone to buy the ingredients, someone to bake the buns and someone to go around in a bike for 2 hours selling them! Life is hard here for some people.
Have to head off now. Heading down to the beach to meet some friends for dinner. We normally do most of our cooking at home, well Colin does most of it, so going out for dinner is a wee treat just like at home.

Photo - Lucy, very much at home, on the balcony

We often hear her at night on the balcony eating something. It is usually a wee mouse, so she is earning her keep. Well, that's what I tell Colin.

Mickey the mouse

 As I wrote previously, the house is an old Goan style house. It is not an airtight house that we have in the UK. The walls of the house are lower than the orange slated roof, which is held up in place by beams. Therefore you have a substantial gap between the top of the wall and the roof, allowing airflow to keep cool. Unfortunately this also allows uninvited animals to enter.
After a few days we noticed that, in the morning, there were small bits of rubble on the floor. We surmised that it was probably a wee field mouse running along the beams as, after all, the area behind us is just hills and forrest. We decided that we could live with a wee pet Mickey. Well, that was a mistake, I finally got a glimpse of Mickey. He was not a wee field mouse but a huge rat. Could we live with a huge rat? Probably not, but I didn't want to set a trap to kill it because I've become a bit OTT about the treatment of animals. We decided that the next time we went into town for food supplies, we would get a humane trap, catch it then set it free elsewhere in the village. What were we thinking about?
In the meantime we be-friended a wee cat with the idea that, if we gave her a drink of milk at night (but not feed her so she remained hungry) she might hang around the front or back balcony of the house and catch the rat. This didn't seem as bad as us having to kill it in a trap. Also it was preferable to us catching it in a humane trap and then having to get on the scooter with a mad rat running around in a humane trap, to drop it somewhere else in the village. I was on a warning from Colin not to be-friend her too much as we would be leaving here at the end of February, so no petting her or feeding her or letting her in the house (yeah right). I called her Lucy. Colin and I know her name is Lucy, but Lucy doesn't!
We started to notice that things were going missing from the back room, which is beside the kitchen. We have a washing line in there where we hang our beach clothes and other small items. First thing was colin's underpants, then my knickers and bra and finally my bikini. We were scratching our heads in wonder and then Colin noticed something behind the fridge that looked very like his underpants. We pulled back the fridge and there was all the underwear and my bikini. At first we thought we had a rat with an underwear fettish but then realised that the reat was making a nest. The prospect of having a litter of baby rats running around was not good so we decided we would buy proper a trap the next day and just kill it.
Next morning there was a foul smell in the back room. Lying in the corner was a dead Mickey with it's head chewed off. It was absolutely stinking. I managed to get it out of the house and we thought that was the end of it. Unfortunatley we weren't that lucky when, the next day, the house was raining rats. We were in the sitting room and a baby rat fell off the ceiling beam. It was barely alive. Obviously Mickey had had her litter up on the beam and now they were hungry and dehydrated. Still not the end of it as we had another 2 fall down that day. Since then we have not had any other problems with rats or mice but that may be due to the fact that I am petting, feeding and letting Lucy in the house. I couldn't help it because she was just a wee cute cat and Colin has now given up trying to dissuade me. He secretly likes her also, just like Buttons.
Although we haven't had any more mice or rats, we have had some other uninvited guests...for another day.

Photo - Sitting on the balcony with friends

Had a few friends around for dinner. The 2 ladies on the left, Marg and Jenny are Aussies. They had been travelling around India for 3 months with their other friend Badra, finishing off their travels in Agonda. The other 2 are a married couple, Flo who is German and Tracey who is Canadian. They had been travelling around Asia since February and were also finishing off their travels in Agonda. Don't know why I look like Bessie Bunter in the photo. Colin seems to have a knack of making me look like this in photos. Goa is the only place in India that you can buy beef . Not many restaurants sell it, and when they do it is very expensive, even though it is very cheap to buy at the butchers (£2 a kilo). So if you like eating beef you can have a craving for it if you are travelling around India. Colin therefore cooked Goan beef Vindaloo which everyone really enjoyed. He also cooked a Goan sausage stew (they are made of pork and taste like chorizo). Thge Austrailian ladies were completely bonkers. We called them the bag ladies because every time you seen them they had bags of stuff that they had bought, clothes, household goods and anything else that they could buy. They were frequently at the post office sending boxes home. They left last week and are sorely missed at Tina Beach Resort.

Photo - Our house in Agonda

The structure to the far right of our house is a battery chicken farm, owned by the guy who we rent the house from. It is about 20 times the length of what you can see and has thousands and thousands of chickens in it. Colin warned me not to go and look inside but of course I had to and ended up upset. Poor things are squashed together and are only being fed to be killed. Even though they are close to the house you don't smell them, maybe because they are not killed here. They are taken down to the Guy's house to be killed. You don't hear them either unless there is a power cut at night and the lecky goes off. Then they squalk because they are stressed. Luckily that only happens infrequently and doesn't last for long. Despite this we decided to buy some chicken from the guy, as we hadn't been eating meat,  but that's a story for another day!  

Photo - Our house in Agonda

Getting a house in Agonda

We settled on a house in the village. We had looked at places on the beach but we liked the idea of living in the village. It is only 2kms from the beach front so we have hired a scooter to get around. It is an old Goan style house with a lovely big balcony to sit out in. Behind the house is just woods and hills. In all the surrounding houses are local Goan families.
Our nearest neighbours are Pamela, James and their 2 children (soon to be 3 as Pamela is pregnant). She invited us over on the first day for a cup of tea. I went but, of course, Colin declined. Goa is predominately catholic so she asked me 'do you believe in the Holy Virgin Mary'. A bit shell shocked I told her 'of course I do'. Obviously the wrong answer as she then invited us to join her on Sunday to go to chapel. Whatever floats your boat, but not my idea of how to spend a Sunday morning and certainly not Prody Colins! When leaving she made me promise to return soon and I told her that she was welcome to come over to me. She advised me that this was not possible as her husband has a carpenter business at the back of the hose and she is very busy cooking for their '6 slave workers'!
It was great to be in the house on the first night as it felt more like a home than a hotel. We have cable TV with English channels so Coiln can watch the football, Scottish and English, the news, national geographic, animal planet and several English movie channels. So we will be back to watching the horrendous 9pm movie. We really have watched some crackers!
Disaster struck. Got up in the morning and I was covered, head to toe, in bed bug bites. We were really disappointed because we loved the house but knew we couldn't stay there if we were going to have night-time nibblers every night in bed. We checked on the internet and discovered that bed bug bites can take a few days to show up on your skin and also that some people do not get bitten, hence Colin was bite free. We decided that the only way to find out if I got the bites from the bed in the house was to sleep in it for another few nights. I tell you, I wasn't happy getting into bed the next night. I hardly slept and jumped when I thought anything touched me. Luckily I didn't get any more bites so the bed bugs must have bitten me in somewhere I stayed before we moved into the house. Thought that was then end of the disasters but there were others to come!

Train from Delhi to Goa

The train station in Delhi is big but we managed to find the correct platform as Colin is very familiar with the station. If I had been on my own I would still be wandering around the station today! We had got tickets in three tier air con class i.e. 6 people sharing a compartment on the train. You enter the compartment through a curtain. on the left are 3 beds protruding from the wall, almost like bunk beds and the same on the right. During the day only the bottom beds are down and the middle and top bunks are stored up against the walls. Therefore, during the day the bottom bunks serve as a seat and you have three people facing three people. We found our compartment and was sharing it with a young Canadian couple and 2 Norweigan females, about ages with us. We chained up and padlocked our bags under the seat to prevent wandering fingers stealing them when we were asleep. Metal hooks are provided under the seats for this purpose.
Colin had learned his lesson about not leaving your bag unattended, several years ago. He was travelling with a friend, Struan. They were not travelling in a compartment but just in the regular class of the train and were the only Westerners there. When the train stopped at a station, as usual all the sellers run on board selling tea, snacks, hair combs etc. An old man came through the train selling tea. He had the tea in a metal urn and when he passed Struan the metal urn burned his leg. Colin and Struan were shouting at the man and all the other passengers joined in. During the commotion Colin suddenly realised what was happening. He looked around and his bag was gone. It was a complete scam and it was impossible to know who was involoved.
We left at 11.30 hours. The six of us all got talking. The young Canadians were going to the North of Goa (the party end) and the Norweigans, Urid and Ranti, were going South like us but unsure which part they were going to. The Norweigans were a gas. They had turned up with a water bottle full of red wine and a very healthy supply of spirits.
The Rajdhani train provides food, served in your compartment, which is included in the price of the ticket. So on this journey you get lunch and dinner on the first day and breakfast and lunch on the next day, so you never go hungry. The seats/ beds are comfortable and the train staff give you bedding in the evening. We got a good sleep although I had got up in the night to go to the loo. I forgot to count how many compartments we were from the loo so on the way back I didn't know what compartment was mine. I was wandering around in the dark looking in everyone's curtains!
Poor Ranti took the trots on the train. It started at 4am and went on until we left the train. She was running to the toilet every 15 minutes with that expression on her face, common in India which says, I HAVE TO GET TO THE TOILET. We had been telling Urid and Ranti how nice Agonda was and they decided to head there.
We all shared a taxi to Agonda and went to Tina Beach Resort  (click on Tina Beach Resort to access their web site and you can see how nice it is). Tina and Ragu are a young Indian couple who own this resort and we had became good friends with them in March/April when we had stayed there. It is a great place to stay and I will tell you about it in a future posting. Unfortunatley because it was Diwali (popularly known as the festival of lights) they were fully booked that night. They were delighted to see us though, and it was really nice to see them again, they weren't expecting to see us until next March.  Urid, Ranti and us booked in across the road. The next day they checked in to Tina Beach Resort but we just stayed were we were as our main aim was going to be looking for a house to rent. Ragu got Menin, one of the fishermen whom we knew from previos stays, to help us find a house. After a few days we found a house that was within our budget and that we liked. Off to have some food now, Colin has cooked beef vindaloo Goa style, so will tell you about the house in the next posting, about our good fortunes and misfortunes!

Frances Haggling with the cycle Rickshaw in Delhi

Bus Journey from Manali to Delhi

There were so many things that happened in Vashisht that I could have told you about but, as we are 2 months down the line, I thought I had better get into fast forward mode. I was leaving Vashisht half a stone heavier,  a mixture of eating too much of Champa's great cooking (which is very healthy on it's own) but also cakes, buiscuits and sweets from the German Bakery. I must be the only person to have been in India for 6 weeks and put ON weight! Oh well, Goa will sort that out after an episods of the s****.
We got on the bus in Manali at 5pm, after a sad farewell to Preetam and Champa with promises to return. The bus was a 'de-lux air con bus'. We had booked seats away from the front wheel arch as, due to the often terrible condition of the road, if you are sitting near the back of the bus you are thrown around and can feel like you are in a washing machine - not a good situation to be in for 14 hours! The bus looked quite comfortable and had recliner seats so we thought we might get a decent sleep, HA HA. Manali is a popualr place for Indian honeymooners so we were surrounded by young couples kisssing, holding hands and gazing into one anothers eyes.
We were only on the bus for about 30 minutes when we had to stop due to having a flat tyre - look on the bright side, it gave the smokers a wee chance to have a cigarette. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful by Indian standards. There was only a few times that we nearly had a head-on collision, that we overtook another bus an a completely blind bend and that the tyres of the bus were on the edge of a mountain cliff with a sheer drop to the side of us . Colin, I must say is oblivious to all this. I would shout 'bloody hell that was a near miss' and Colin's reply woud be 'what near miss'.
No chance of getting a good sleep. Despite not being near the back of the bus we were still thrown around. As usual parts of the road had been washed away in the monsoon rains in July/August and hadn't  been repaired so the bus had to manouver its way over rubble that used to be a road. We managed to close our eyes for short periods only to be jerked awake. Finally arrived in Delhi, surprisingly in one piece. Booked back into the hotel, Cottage Yes Please and Colin went to book train tickets to get to Goa and we got tickets for the next day. The journey was only going to be 26 hours because it was the Rajdhani Train (that's the fast train in India).

Photo - Renting a bike

Obviously the place to go if you want to rent a bike!

Photo - Old traditional wooden house

Traditionally the family would live upstairs and the animals would be downstairs. This kept everyone warm in the winter.

Photo - Old lady in traditional mountain clothes

The clothes are heavy woolen blankets, wrapped around in a certain way to look like this photo.

Photo - Religious Saddu giving offering for the Gods

Photo - The procession of the Gods

These big horns/trumpets make one heck of a noise, but it's all very festive!

Photo - The Gods

Photo - Vashisht Temple

The original temple is in the far, upper right hand side, surrounded by pink curtain. The newer Temple is the main picture and the entrance to the baths is the doorway at the far left hand side.

Photo - What will win today, the blue sky or approaching rain cloud

Photo - Zooming in on the previous picture of the Rhotang Pass

Photo - Looking up to the Rhotang Pass from Vashisht

Photo - The river flowing from Vashisht to Manali

Sitting at the base of a waterfall in Vashisht. This flows into the River Beas, down to Manali and onward to Khullu Valley. The water is very fresh and clean and can be drank from the tap. No need to boil or buy bottled water.

About Vashisht

As I wrote in a previous posting, Vashisht is a small village in the Indian Himalayan Mountains. It is very green with lots of plants, trees and apple orchards. It is surounded by the high mountain ranges, some of which are covered in snow all year. The village 'main street' is a mixture of shops selling carpets, clothing jewellery etc, eateries, mountaing trekking shops and household provision shops. Although shopkeepers stand in the street asking you to 'look in my shop' it is not pushy, like it is in Dheli. The people are much more chilled. It is also helpful being with Colin as many of the shopkeepers know him from previous stays in Vashisht and know he is not going to part with money for loud coloured travellers clothing or silver jewellery that possibly isn't silver.
In the village square the main feature is the Hindu Temple. It consists of three parts. The upper main temple that has been there for years. The lower temple has been there for about 10 years. This was built after a stone was found with some holy significance. The third part is the natural hot springs. Here hot water, rich in sulphur, flows out of the mountains. Villagers use it to take their daily bath, although tourists are also allowed to use it. Once you enter it, there are separate areas for men and women. In the women's area there are two parts. One has several taps where the water flows out freely, just as if you have turned on a tap full force. This is where the women wash their hair and bodies (you only wear pants so that you can get a good soaping!). Once you are rinsed off you go into the pool area and relax in the chest high water. The high sulphur content is very good for many medical complaints e.g arthritis and also makes your skin very soft. The temperature that the water comes out of the mountain is very hot, hotter than a bath that I would have in the UK, and I can't stay in the water too long. Despite this women take their young children and the children don't seem to be bothered by the temperature. I think in the UK a social worker might want to have a wee word with you if you bathed a child in water that hot!
Each village has it's own God. The Vashisht God resides in the temple. During holy ceremonies or festivals the God is removed from the Temple for everyone to see him. This is accompanied but much worship and celebration. During our stay there was a large festival in a place called Khullu, about 1.5 hours by taxi from Vashisht, where around 260 Gods from neighbouring villages congregated. The Gods are carried on poles by locals, who then WALK all the way to get to the festival. We didn't go to Khullu for this but we did join in the celebrations in Vashisht in the Temple square, where the god was on show.
There is loads of beautiful walking and trekking around the area. We stayed with the lower level walks to allow my back to get better. Despite the days in Vashisht remaining hot with clear blu skyes, the nights started becoming colder. The snow that had been covering the higher mountains when we arrived had started moving towards the lower mountains. We therefore decided it was time to head South to the Goa sunshine. We had been in Vashisht for 6 weeks and could have stayed much longer but come November/December it gets really cold. As my back had improved we booked a bus to Dheli on Monday 24th October. The journey takes 14 hours, longer if parts of the road are washed away following the monsoon rains in June-August. We weren't able to book our onward train journey (26 hour journey) from Delhi to Goa, in Vashisht, so we had to do that on arrival in Dehli. Meant we had to stay a night in Delhi but at least we would get a chance to buy a lemon squeezer so that we could enjoy our gin and tonics on the beach. Gin and tonic is purely medicinal as, because we don't take anti-malarial tables, we have convinced ourselves that the quinnine in the Indian tonic protects us from malaria. Some might think 'any excuse for a drink' but as long as we believe it, it's ok!
Colin drgging me down to the beach now for his daily, early evening walk, so will post photos of Vashisht soon.

Photo - View from balcony

Getting more dark and stormy. Because you are so high up you can sometimes get great storms and as the lightening below the level of the house, you can look down on it.