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Halfway around the world in 1 year
Welcome to Sotje62 ! My blog intends to make the world a smaller place. Automatically and real-time, the blog traces Beatriz and myself's whereabouts, it might just tell you a thing or 2 that interests me - therefore not you, that's the privilege of having a blog - but read new blogs on the top and click on the pictures in the side bar to see older blogs, the blog,and Beatriz and I hope you grow a good 'travel' appetite. Sotje62 travel blog is in Vlaams (donker gekleurd) and in English (light coloured). So read what you understand and again what you like.
18-04-2009
What they say about Goa (English)
Goa part 1
What they say about Arambol :
Arambol attracts backpackers, and gracefully ageing hippies. It has some of the cheapest accomodation in Goa and lots of long timers.
Very appealing for us cause we are backpackers and we love cheap accoms (and many thanks to Isabelle).
The hippies are here, the rasta-men are here, the beach is completely drenged by chill ambiance. Our hippy neighbour in the hut-complex is Dutch, 50 years, father of 2 kids, and more tanned than any local Indian. He arrived in January (it is April now) and is gonna buy a motorbike for 400 pounds to go to Nepal. When he arrives, he will re-sell the motorbike and do the next yet unknown thing.
Our Italian rasta-neighbour works on his dad's farm not far away from Milano and takes 3 weeks out to re-think his priorities. And loves the local grass too. Que cazzoo !!
An absolutely fantastic beach is what Arambol has to offer. We are loving the pineapple and mango juices, the Goan fish, the huts where we stayed, the relaxed ambiance. When it starts to get more and more windy, when we have a (small) rat in on our bed, when we start to know the ladies who sell jewelry on the beach by name, when we realize that more and more people are leaving Arambol and the place starts to look more and more empty, we decide to go the recommended (Thanks Ultan) Baga beach.
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What they say about Calangute and Baga beach:
Compared to the further north, this Baga beach has a more upbeat atmosphere, that travellers prefer more often. The beach can be dirty and women in bikinis won't get a second's peace.
The upbeat atmosphere is absolutely true, on the beach you have chiringuitos playing Indian hardcore music and gasolina gasolina, here there is waterskiing, sunbeds, people selling peanuts and crisps on the beach. Here you have all that. Completely different !!
Not 5 minutes go by without someone asking you for food, drinks, fruit, they even want to clean your ears, make you a tattoo, paint genna on your hands, do your nails (more Bea's cup of tea). Whether women in bikini get no second's peace, a lot of people have asked Bea whether they can give a massage, I wonder who's paying who then.
It is 3 oclock now and I still want to go to the beach today, I hope you guys like to read the blog and are interested in more. More to come on Monday or Tuesday !!
16.09.09. Half-Round the world in 1 year / Kick off. 9th of April 2009, Mumbai, India’s biggest city, is our best destination to take the train south to Goa, Kerala and Bangalore. From there we go 4,000 km by train back to north India, see Karnataka, Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal, Varanasi and Nepal. In Nepal we do small treks in the Himalayas and visit Kathmandu. Over de friendship highway, the route goes from Kathmandu to Lhasa by jeep, maximum altitude 5250m and we get to see the Mount Everest. In Lhasa we take the train through China, see the Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, and go 3,500m north to enter Mongolia and arrive in Ulan Bator. In Mongolia we camp in the Khovsgol area near the Russian Siberia, and renew the Chinese Visa to go back south. The clock says 4 months when we trained through China and see Yunnan, South China with its wonderful terraced rice fields. We enter the tropics and after 6 months travels we are in Vietnam. 2 months after that, we should have seen Angkor, the beaches in Thailand & Maleysia ...<e.d. 25.10.09. There is a change of plan after Angkor: we fly from Bangkok to Manila, we go to the Philippines!!> and on a ferry to Indonesia. From either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, we find our way to Sydney and work for 3 months. We will have traveled for 1 year when we are in Oz and ... and ... and ... that is how far we planned. But we were supposed to come back in 1 year but we are only half around the world. Beatriz and myself love Asia!! So much for planning ahead and scheduling. Let's just see how we get on and the more exciting our trip will be. Wish us good luck on the trip!!
