Something Fishy!

We did our obligatory walk along the beach and stumbled across these fishermen who had just landed with their catch.

Even the crows were getting in on the action.


Someone wasn't so interested though and we caught the fella in the last photo casually napping out of the sun, as all the fuss was going on.

Old Goa

We did a day trip out and visited Old Goa.

Goa used to be a Portugese colony, so un-surprisingly we found lots of old Portugese style buildings in the old part of town.

The Beach At Goa

So we caught a flight to Goa Airport and arrived to spend 4 days relaxing at India's equivalent to The Costa Del Sol.

Rather than just putting some more shots of beautiful beaches on the blog, we've decided to post photos which show the activities of people on the beach.

1st up you've got the usual suspects enjoying a deck chair on the beach.


The 2nd photo shows a group of guys hanging round looking at something or someone?

3rd photo shows what they're looking at.... She's in the right hand side of the photo. A favourite past-time for adolescents is to come to the beach and check out the women, quite unashamedly.


4th photo illustrates what Goans do on the beach. Which involves running into the sea fully clothed and just enjoying the waves.

Goodbye For Now

Of course those ladies made it across the road! They were clearly veterans.



A mum takes her daughter to get her shoes repaired by a street cobbler.....



School kids hang out of bus when they see we're taking their photo.....


The final photo is of our hosts in Bombay; the Shah Family. A big thank you goes to them, for giving us such a warm welcome and great introduction to India.
Although we now head South, we'll be returning to Bombay later.

Images Of Bombay

Here are a few of the photos we took along the way...

Some people have their hair cut in the strangest of places; like in the middle of some woodland... well why not?!

Has anyone seen my goat? Last time we saw him he was heading for the train station!

Crossing the road in Bombay, is like dicing with death. You have to pick the right time and make a run for it. See if these ladies made it across in the next post.

To escape all the madness, couples head to the tranquility of the park and engage in courting activities. The chap in the last photo is just at the point where he's deciding whether he'd like samosas or pakoras with his dinner tonight. Decisions, decisions.

A Day In Bombay (part 3)

We finished "Hanging Out" in The Hanging Gardens with the animal shaped hedges and went to a Mosque called Hariyali. Which is where a saint miraculously washed ashore and is now entombed here. It is a place of real significance because both Muslims and Hindus come to pay their respects and ask for blessings alongside one another. It is also an island during high tide and only accessible duriing the low tide via a long raised walkway. It was here that we got the photo of the fishermen working against the sunset.
With the light fading we went to see Dhobi Ghat - possible the worlds largest washing machine, but one powered by hand not electricity. Every day hundreds, maybe thousands of clothes come here to be washed by hand and we caught them after the gruelling work of beating the clothes had been done and they were hanging out to dry. This is the place where your whites become whiter than white - we think not!
We toasted a successful day of sightseeing in Bombay.

A Day In Bombay (part 2)

There were a lot of cheeky monkeys on the island and we're not referring to Uncle and Andrew, but our furry little friends you see in the photo.
Once back on the mainland we visited Marine Parade and The Hanging Gardens, where Andrew got to "Hang Out" with some of the senior citizens of Bombay, who were extremely welcoming and loved the attention of having their photo taken.

A Day In Bombay (part 1)

We spent a day sightseeing in Bombay and covered so much that we've had to split this post into parts, as it keeps crashing when we try to upload all the photos in one go.
We headed out with Ashok Uncle to Gateway Of India and The Taj hotel, which is the grand building you see behind Uncle and Shivani.
We then caught a ferry across to Elephanta Island and the famous caves with rock carvings, which made us feel like we were in ancient Egypt.
Check out the doorman at the Taj, who kindly agreed to pose with Andrew.

Bombay Dreams

We left Bali for Bombay, stopping in Singapore for a couple of nights.
As this was our 3rd visit to Singapore, we won't bore you with the details, but we stayed in Chinatown this time and had delicious Chinese food.,
We arrived in Bombay or Mumbai and stayed with family friends for 4 nights. Karan came to pick us up from the airport and Hetvi; his wife had a delicious, authentic meal waiting for us - yummy!
That evening we all went out to a Bharat Natyam, which is a South Indian dance show. Full of colours, expert dance moves and great live music. The next day we chilled Indian style with Karan's family next door and all had a big breakfast together. Karan then took us out to where the locals shop for an "experience", which was fantastic. Hustle and bustle, with a mix of smells including incense sticks and samosas cooking.
That evening Karan's parents returned from a short break and we all had a meal together, joined with Ashok Uncle from London (Shivani's Sister's Father-In-Law), who also happened to be visiting India at the same time as us.
The next morning we got up early (for us anyway) and took a stroll along Juhu Beach, just 5 mins by car/scooter from Karan's house. We then went and visited a beautiful and very peaceful temple, which is where the photo was taken. Stopped on the way home at the roadside for a coconut drink drink and carried on our day..... tbc......

McDonalds

Could this be the smallest McDonalds in the world ever?!
We had to post this photo of a McDonalds stand in Bali Airport.
Basically, you place your order and they then get it from the restaurant down the road outside, with a waiting time of 15 minutes.

Bali

After active Cambodia we had 5 days in Bali.
We arrived and went straight to Ubud; central Bali, where our hotel was situated in between rice fields and Palm trees. On our 1st night it sounded like we were in deepest jungle as the restaurant next door had a live performance of traditional Balinese dance, which was accompanied by jungle drums. Couple that with the noises of toads from the rice fields and other strange creatures, that we could not identify.
Ubud was beautiful - very green with a relaxed chilled out vibe. We stayed in The Monkey Forest and had the pleasure of walking through it into town everyday, which is where we met the little fella in the photo eating a banana. No we're not refering to Andrew in the local market!!
We then went and stayed at the beach in Seminyak, where we totally chilled; spending our days walking the beaches, watching sunsets and the American election - "Yes we can"

Check out some of the sunset photos we took........
A Balinese guy saw Shivani posing and showed her how to do it!