First week in India: starting the adventure

Elephant Island

It was actually weird, I did not feel such a big chock as expected when I arrived in Mumbai. I was even a bit disappointed, thinking that maybe I would never see again a new place with “children eyes” like the first time I arrived in Mexico (my first travel in a far and developping country). This is the most wonderful feeling when you travel. Nevertheless, the more you travel, the less you have a chance to have this sensation. I had great expectations with India after all the stories I heard from other travellers.

I also have to recognize that we did not see much in Mumbai. We stayed in Colaba, the tourist area. And even if we slept in the Salvation Army, the place was very decent, clean and full of foreign travellers (so nothing to do with what you would have found in Europe). We actually wanted to escape this too huge and polluated city as soon as possible, so we only visited Elephant Island ( a small island near Mumbai with temples) and straight away we booked train tickets for Goa. The night train experience was nice, we felt really confortable so we had time to rest, refocus and start to plan the trip.

In Goa we stayed in the village of Calangute, close to the beach, in the house of an Indian guy called Suresh. It was my first Couchsurfing experience out of Europe and we had a very nice stay there. I knew Goa was a foreign touristic place but I did not expected so many Indian tourists (because of bank holidays). So I loved the atmosphere, just completly different of all the beaches I had seen before. In Goa there is no paradise spot like in postcards, except for the sunsets which were the nicest ever. Every afternoon, the light startds to get in an fascinating orange tone, which makes the landscapes absolutly amazing.

Goa (Candolim)

Nevertheless this is not the right place to lay down in bikini and take the sun all day long… We had to adopt a decent dress style and stayed in shorts and Tshirts like the locals, otherwise they would star at us and keep on taking pictures… Then the atmosphere is not the most appropriate to chill with your mojito, some of the beaches being populated by cows and scary wandering dogs (We even saw one full of blood in the face…). In the end, you had to change the chip if you want to enjoy the beach.
At that time, night life was not so vibrating for 2 main reasons: the low season (the high beginning around december) and the rules established because of many problems caused by the madness of the party people in the recent years. Let’s say that the gold time for party in Goa has died but it still remains a place visited by young foreign travellers. As far as we were concerned, we had fun just as we would have had in Spain and we enjoyed much more the food, the sunsets and this indian beach atmosphere.

Guillaume & Graziella

There we met many travellers but we stayed most of the time with Guillaume (France) and Graziella ( Italian German) who were couchsurfing at Judy’s place ( a friend of Suresh). Guillaume is travelling alone for 3 months in India. It’s his first big trip far away from France and its first Couchsurfing experiences, so he is really brave! He actually got 30 this year, a “re-analizing” age for many people, and wanted to do something completly new in his life. Graziella is 20 and she has been travelling and working for 2 years in Oceania annd South East Asia. She is ending her very long trip in India and Nepal. We had really good times with them, we rented motorbikes one day and visited all the northern coast of Goa and villages alongside.

We were quite lucky with the weather even though it was the moonsoon period. Rain started the last day before we left. The next step was Hampi, a small village with ruins lost in the jungle (300 km far from Goa). This is when India started to show its real face and the real adventure began…

To see all the pictures, check the albums of Mumbai and Goa.

When I wrote this, I was listening the album Kruder & Dorfmeister from DJ Kicks.