Thank You Goa

Travel in India can be really hard. Everyone has stories to tell. We had three glorious weeks in dharamkot followed by a week of difficulty. Without needing to recount in detail - I will just summarize quickly. Trust me, I am not complaining. Itay and I understand that it is part of the experience here.

* Vashist was beautiful - a village tucked into Kullu valley but Itay, Naia, and Avigail were sick.

* The 15-hour bus ride to Delhi was hard- the "express" bus stopped a dozen times to pick up more people and Naia spent a good part of it sick and vomitting. While standing in the aisle to help Naia- the bus screeched to a stop and I flew 10 feet in the air- landed on the dashboard and fell to the ground. Good news- my heavily bruised body healed fast! 

* Delhi was 2 days. It is fine but crowded, polluted, dirty - and crowded.

Frolicking

We took a flight to Goa and nearly cried for joy- it is really paradise here. Goa - a state on the Southwest part of India is famous for its beaches, Portugese architecture, and laid back lifestyle. As far as beaches go- it is 200km of choices. There are North Goan beaches and South Goan ones. We chose South for its more quiet ambience. We've heard North Goa is very developed and a party scene. 

Our beach

Goa seems like a completely different country- it is clean, the architecture is Spanish style, people are relaxed and the scenery is postcard perfect- coconut, banana and mango jungle all around, small villages with colorful houses, long beaches surrounded by the jungle. No traffic, incredible food, colorful markets. 

Beach Path

The Village

The village we initially stayed in- Agonda- is quite special. Peaceful, small, and stunning. However- after finding out that there are two schools for the girls 10km away- we moved to Patnem. Riding on the motorbike each way was difficult and all three would fall asleep on the way home! Alas, we found Patnem to be another beautiful beach with many yoga options! We have a lovely, spacious 2 bedroom apartment, a chai shop across the road, the schools are great (alternative and progressive), and there is a very welcoming community of people here (yes, a lot if Israeli families).

Our House- Left side 2nd Floor

Cows Like The Beach Too

Our Favorite Thali- 2 dollars

There is a sizable community of people  who stay here year round as well as many who come year after year for high season (November-April). A lot of the foreigners who own restaurants and beach huts come for just the high season and close during Monsoon. We have met great people and feel very much at home here. We love the time to ourselves while the girls are at school and look forward to the next three months here.

So Sweet

Playing In the Front Yard

Starfish Everywhere!

Chai

Seven Earthquakes Later

When we had arrived in Dharamshala, we met a nice German woman, RIa, who has lived in the area for 25 years. Somewhere during the conversation, she mentioned that all the recent building was against the earthquake building code. She went on to mention that Dharamshala is sitting on a major fault and is expecting some sort of a huge quake in the future. Um okay. Glad we are on the 3rd floor of a 4th floor building over the side of a mountain. Ria also warned us that our hotel was NOT looking so safe to her. Great. 

Waterfall fun

In the Hills

Waterfall Fun

We had a magical three weeks in Dharamkot. We loved our guest house, our neighborhood friends, familiar faces, great restaurants and we LOVED going to the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (who by the way stopped to say hi to Amit!). We also loved the waterfall, the monks washing their robes and blankets in the small pools of the falls, the momo's (Tibetan dumplings) we bought on the road, the long walks up and down the mountains, the amazing eagles that graced us with their constant presence, the baby donkeys, cows and puppies, and all the goats and even the greedy monkeys. We loved the Chai Shop at the top of the hill that sells yummy cashew cookies and good chai and on and on. Life was really enjoyable in Dharamkot.  

Amit LOVES cows. Babies especially

Waterfall

Momos on the Road

One afternoon while Itay and the girls were napping- I was actually trying to write a blog post - I felt the room shake. At first I though it was construction from a nearby guesthouse but I then realized it was an earthquake. I woke Itay and the girls and rushed everyone outside. Turns out it was a 4.8 on the Richter Scale. It freaked me out. We later found out that there had been another one that day. 5 more followed over the next 2 days. Small ones. Other friends with kids made plans to leave and another family that we connected with contacted us and asked if we wanted to go with them to Manali area. We decided the time had come. Best to err on the side of caution. The girls and I took a walk down and then up the mountains for last minute errands- bid our amazing place goodbye and had a ceremony to thank and say good bye to all the people and animals we had met.

Walk to the Waterfall

Henna Tattoos

We took an 8 hour private taxi with our friends to  Vashist, near Manali- a beautiful and picturesque  village tucked into Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh. The driver seemed very intent to get us to Vashist as dangerously as he could.  He drove like a maniac around hair-raising turns on super steep mountains, overtaking everything in sight and veering sharply around blind corners at really high speeds. Playing chicken with massive trucks was did not seem to bother him the least. At some point I just stopped looking. Needless to say, we needed to stop multiple times to allow our friends' son to vomit. And no, we do not have car seats and backseat buckles do not exist here. We have become quite relaxed about the whole car thing though. 

LEECHES!

Vashist is lovely. The views are spectacular, exaggerated and peaceful. Snow-capped mountains loom all around us, the air is cold and crisp morning and night and warm sun blesses us during the day. There are wonderful hot springs right down the road from us and Amit and I already had our evening bath there with the Indian, Tibetan and local tribal women. It was really a lovely experience and we look forward to bath time at the springs tomorrow night. 

We will stay here 4 more nights and then begin our journey south, stopping at the Taj Mahal- bien sur. 

Waterfall

Bucket Bath