Dimanche nous partons pour Goa en avion (tellement plus facile) avec un arrêt sur Mumbai. Une fois arrivés au B&B nous partons explorer Panjim, le centre de Goa ancienne colonie portugaise avec de jolies églises et des maisons coloniales. Nous sommes agréablement surpris que nous poussions nous promener calmement dans les rues (propres) sans avoir peur de se faire écraser. L’Europe est bien quand même.
Lundi nous embarquons sur un tour organisé par une auberge de jeunesse pour visiter les plantations d'épices ainsi qu'une cascade, la 2ème plus grande en Inde (mais ils n'avaient pas précisé qu'elle était jolie). La plantation est très intéressante mais un peu courte, nous avons droit à toutes les explications sur la canelle, le piri-piri (Renaud tu aurais pu gouter ça), le poivre et l'alcool de noix de cajous ainsi qu'une démonstration de comment récolter les beetel (j'ai aussi essayé)
Après un repas frugal, direction la cascade où la route cahoteuse en bus puis en 4x4 ne nous permet pas de digérer. Mais nous pouvons nous baigner en bas de la cascade ce qui fait vraiment du bien avec cette chaleur. Nous sommes entourés de singes car certaines personnes stupides les nourrissent. Sur le retour nous voyons une mangouste attaquer un tapir, le résultat n'était pas très jolie à voir surtout que le tapir était toujours vivant...
On Sunday we took the plane to Goa - so simple! - with a very brief stop in Mumbai. Once we arrived at the B&B in Panjim, Guillaume had a nap and I read my book and then we set out to explore the old town. Panjim is the capital of Goa but has still kept its pretty churches and colonial buildings from the time of Portuguese rule. It's just like walking through a southern European town, but with more palm trees and banana trees. We were so surprised to be able to walk through clean streets without fearing being run over, choking on dust, etc... it's like being in a different country. Europe is lovely, really.
On Monday we went on a tour organized by a local youth hostel to a spice plantation and a waterfall (the second highest, but not necessarily the prettiest, in India). The spice plantation was interesting if the tour was a little on the short side. We learnt how red, green and black pepper are made, why beetel nuts are so popular among the teetotal Muslim population (chewing on one is the equivalent of about 5 whiskies) and that eating a piri-piri chilli straight from the tree is really not a good idea, even if you're trying to show off to a German girl... At the end of the tour, a man demonstrated how to harvest beetel nuts (see photo above) and Guillaume had a go too.
In the afternoon, going swimming in the basin at the foot of the waterfall was just what we needed to escape the heat, even if we had to go on a very bumpy ride to get there. I had a headache by the time we got to the falls from having banged my head so much, but that may just have been me. Despite signs saying not to feed the monkeys, someone again felt the need to impress the German girl and started throwing our packed snack at the monkeys, which attracted them all... I hope he managed to get the girl at the end after all his efforts.
We saw two sad things on our trip to the waterfalls:
1) a monkey recovered her baby's body from the pool and then just stood on the edge holding its limp form, seemingly at a loss of what to do next
2) a mongoose was attacking a baby tapir in the road as we drove up, which frightened it away to the verge where it stood staring at us with its mouth open showing nasty pointy teeth. The driver got out and saw that the tapir was still alive - but the mongoose had attacked its head around its eyes, leaving it bleeding and probably blind. The driver just put it on the wayside out of the road, there wasn't really anything else he could do.
Lundi nous embarquons sur un tour organisé par une auberge de jeunesse pour visiter les plantations d'épices ainsi qu'une cascade, la 2ème plus grande en Inde (mais ils n'avaient pas précisé qu'elle était jolie). La plantation est très intéressante mais un peu courte, nous avons droit à toutes les explications sur la canelle, le piri-piri (Renaud tu aurais pu gouter ça), le poivre et l'alcool de noix de cajous ainsi qu'une démonstration de comment récolter les beetel (j'ai aussi essayé)
Après un repas frugal, direction la cascade où la route cahoteuse en bus puis en 4x4 ne nous permet pas de digérer. Mais nous pouvons nous baigner en bas de la cascade ce qui fait vraiment du bien avec cette chaleur. Nous sommes entourés de singes car certaines personnes stupides les nourrissent. Sur le retour nous voyons une mangouste attaquer un tapir, le résultat n'était pas très jolie à voir surtout que le tapir était toujours vivant...
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| trial of Panning! |
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| J'ai fait la meme chose |
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| cet effet cascade... |
On Sunday we took the plane to Goa - so simple! - with a very brief stop in Mumbai. Once we arrived at the B&B in Panjim, Guillaume had a nap and I read my book and then we set out to explore the old town. Panjim is the capital of Goa but has still kept its pretty churches and colonial buildings from the time of Portuguese rule. It's just like walking through a southern European town, but with more palm trees and banana trees. We were so surprised to be able to walk through clean streets without fearing being run over, choking on dust, etc... it's like being in a different country. Europe is lovely, really.
On Monday we went on a tour organized by a local youth hostel to a spice plantation and a waterfall (the second highest, but not necessarily the prettiest, in India). The spice plantation was interesting if the tour was a little on the short side. We learnt how red, green and black pepper are made, why beetel nuts are so popular among the teetotal Muslim population (chewing on one is the equivalent of about 5 whiskies) and that eating a piri-piri chilli straight from the tree is really not a good idea, even if you're trying to show off to a German girl... At the end of the tour, a man demonstrated how to harvest beetel nuts (see photo above) and Guillaume had a go too.
In the afternoon, going swimming in the basin at the foot of the waterfall was just what we needed to escape the heat, even if we had to go on a very bumpy ride to get there. I had a headache by the time we got to the falls from having banged my head so much, but that may just have been me. Despite signs saying not to feed the monkeys, someone again felt the need to impress the German girl and started throwing our packed snack at the monkeys, which attracted them all... I hope he managed to get the girl at the end after all his efforts.
We saw two sad things on our trip to the waterfalls:
1) a monkey recovered her baby's body from the pool and then just stood on the edge holding its limp form, seemingly at a loss of what to do next
2) a mongoose was attacking a baby tapir in the road as we drove up, which frightened it away to the verge where it stood staring at us with its mouth open showing nasty pointy teeth. The driver got out and saw that the tapir was still alive - but the mongoose had attacked its head around its eyes, leaving it bleeding and probably blind. The driver just put it on the wayside out of the road, there wasn't really anything else he could do.
Je viens de taper "tapir" et "mangouste" sur internet car je visualisais pas bien ces petites bêtes...du coup j'ai maintenant en tête une image de l'attaque de la sournoise mangouste sur l'innocent tapir et je me demande comment elle a pu prendre le dessus...on est d'accord que le tapir est censé être plus imposant en taille? Ou pas... Bon en fait je sais pas bien mais ça devait pas être joli joli à voir!
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