The events described in this post took place on or about Dec 25th-31st, 2010 in Goa, located on the NW side of the sub-continent of India. For those of you viewing this through Facebook 'Notes', the original post is available on www.henrickatlarge.blogspot.com. It will enable you access to photo galleries and other multi-media material which don't transfer into 'Notes'
Well now I really know why you should 'strike while the iron is hot'. I can honestly say that 'retro-writing' my blog is getting to be a pain in the but, and the more time elapses between the event and the post makes it all the more annoying and arduous a task. So please forgive me in advance for the brevity of the following posts as I try to catch up to the present.
When we last left hour intrepid adventurers, they were in Goa having a great time. In the midst of having a blast on Baga and Anjuna beach, they journeyed out to Panjim to look at the churches of old Goa...
During that time, our two eager world travellers took a perilous journey from Panjim to Ponda. They delved into the verdant depths of the lush Goan jungle to see what was to be seen. 'What did they find'? you ask. Well, they discovered the origin of the source of all the 'Hullabaloo' about India. It was there in the Sahakari plantation that they discovered... SPICE!!!
We ended up going to a spice-farm in the 'hinterland' of Goa. It was really great to experience the point of origin of all these great spices that I have been cooking with and tasting since arriving here. Learned a lot about spices and nuts as well. Saw a guy climb straight up a coconut tree and play 'Tarzan' about 20 meters in the air jumping from tree to tree. The only thing I really regret was not trying some of the Fenny. Feni is an alcoholic beverage made from either Cahews or Coconut. They had some of this on the plantation, seeing as they grew both of the aforementioned fruit on premises. I also got to fulfill a life-long goal, as well as check something off my bucket list . I RODE AN ELEPHANT!!!! Yes, totally did that!!! This took place right outside the spice plantation. It was completely frightening... but AWESOME. For a brief moment I felt like Hannibal. It was totally too cool. The Elephant was so awesome. Her name was 'Lucky' and she was a very sweet girl. It was one of the things I will remember the rest of life... One of the really great things was that they had the elephants trained to curl their trunks up in a kind of salute. This was really pretty impressive and cool. The handlers have them trained to do it in response to a hand command. This makes for great photo opportunities for the tourist... which I couldn't have been happier about! Great time all around!
On the way out of town, we managed to swing by some hidu temples. They were pretty great. My favorite was one that had a black statue of Hanuman in fromt of it. The people in and around the shrines were really nice as well. I actually left my Iphone in one of the temples by accident. I realized it and ran back inside, they had grabbed it and returned it to me. I was really pleased. Those of you who know how cut-throat India can be in terms of possessions and money can appreciate what I'm saying. But all worked out well in the end. After a great day, we returned back to Baga! A great day-trip indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment