Hello From Goa

Yes we are in Goa, finally...

how is every one ?

i still don't see as much comment as i would like to see so please comment, even if you don't have anything interesting to say, it is just nice to know that someone is reading this rubbish :)

I'll start with the technicalities and announce the winner of the great
"NAME THE GIBBON" contest. First a recap of the names that were suggested:

Tsumi - by Ruti with a good head start for being the first!!
urila - by Nira
Urila tzumi - by Julio with a bit of a twist
Divluli - by Tommy
Shush - by Julio with another try at the contest
Bobi or Tsu - by Yogi (indeed lo Mashehu ;)
Bubu - by Tommy and Yogi in a joint operation (I won't be bringing any Yogi ;)
Namitsu or Cookie or Motzart - By Neely & Shlomi, Clara & Suki.
Uzi or Bonney - with another try by Yogi
Mushu - an a last one By Neely & Shlomi, Clara & Suki.

and the winner is...... Tommy with Divluly!!!!!!
many thanks Tommy, Divluly is very happy with the new name, but alas things have changed... more info in the body of this post.

again thanks to everyone that has participated in the contest and we will think of condolance prizes and perhaps you will indeed receive one ;)

ok where were we?... well last we wrote we were in Trichy... we then moved on to Ooty.

Ooty is a hill station (it was the summer seating of the British government of Tamil Nadu durring the mandate) and is surrounded by lovely green Tea plantations. Originally the area is semi jungle like forests mixed with pine forests - its at 2400 meters, so you can still see the original greenery between the Tea plantations.
Verrrrry scenic and the weather is so non-india it was sunny warm during the day and freezing cold during the night. We took a walking tour of the area through the tea plantations and the dam. You will see the pics once we develop them, hopefully in Rajastan, becuase the facilities here arn't that swell... the internet here is also slow and shitty - and thats my excuse for not writing so much :)
We spent 5 days in Ooty mostly walking about and resting in the botanical gardens... We found a nice bakery (which is very rare in India, at least in the south) and had pickniks with bannana-walnut cakes at the lake. Sounds nice right, well it is if you take into account lots of Indian tourists around. We were looking to do some elephant treks in the jungle and we couldn't find any options in the standard activities provided by the guest house (we were staying at the YWCA which was a nice change from the normal Indian guest houses - they are christian), so the not so lonely planet suggested "Camtrek". We found an ad saying that the contact info in the guide book was wrong so we followed the address in the advert and arrived in a small house on a hill called "The Ooty Womens Club", probably some remanents from the British occupation... after knocking on the door an old English lady answered and requested that we return at 15:00 as her son (which runs "Camtrek") is not in.
So we returned at 3 and waited outside - we didn't want to bother the old lady.
After a few minutes an Indian guy dressed as "Crockadile Dundey" arrives on a heavy "Royal Enfield" moterbike (looks like a Harley).
You can get an impression of Royal Enfields here.
With a heavy English accent he asks us what are we doing... after a short explination he says "oh.. im sorry Mum isn't well" and invites us inside his house... which is messssssssy.. and that is an understatment. He sits us down while his mother asks in a squeeky high pitched royal british voice "Have you had your lunch yet?". He started talking about the posibilities of treking in the area and it boilded down to 2 options.. one was a jungle trek near ooty in what he described as "Wild Elephant territory". So if we were prepared to "get killed by a charging wild elephant" as he put it it was a nice walk. Hila immideatly shaked her head :)
So we were down to the other option. It was a private owned jungle that required a moter bike ride (again Hila shaked her head) or that we organise more people and rent a jeep which will be more cheaper. Now this guy was a bit weird.. he kept complaining that because the lonely planet wrote a mistaken address in the book that he gets no buisness.. and that he is "mesuchsach" with every guesthouse/tour operator/police in the area. We were starting to get our doubts... Again his mom says with her colonial accent "Would you like some Tea?". So trying to shake him off we said we would think about it and contact him in the evening (thinking we would just say on the telephone that we didn't find anyone to join the trek). So he walked us out again saying "mum isn't well" - while we were thinking that maybe he is slowly poisining her. The whole thing seemed a bit dodgy... Later that evening we called and only managed to speak to his "not well Mum". When we went out for dinner we found out that he came up to our guest house looking for us and was trying to organise more people for the trek we were trying to cancel... He just wouldn't let go. Then he came up with a weird story - He totaly forgot about an Indian army Major that was supposed to arrive the next day and he was to show him around the area, he offered us to join them for free... now i started to imagine him chasing us through the jungle with a machete screaming "MY MUM ISN'T WELL!!!" so we just politly said we wern't feeling well and that we will just have a relaxed day in town. Now guess what, the next day he catches us in the street saying the Major came but went to see the jungle on his own... we just knoded... and he insisted that he come to say fairwell that evening... (we were leaving the next day)... and indeed that evening he came over and harased some more tourists into joining him in jungle treks shook our hands with tears in his eyes saying "I won't forget your smiling faces when i drove to my house" and "God bless", we promissed to spread the word about his treking buisness and hastly left for dinner hopping that he won't find our room in the night...

The next day we started our journy towards Hampi. We took a 5 hour LOCAL bus ride back to Mysore where we had lunch and continued our journy on a 11 hour night LOCAL bus. Which was HELL. Imagine an old (very old) 50's bus crammed with locals slowly driving on bumpy durt roads. Slowly means 30kms, all the way. This bus was an "Express" which means that it stops all the fucking time, in such small hell hole towns that you couldn't even imagine. We made a vow never to take busses in India unless we really didn't have a choice.

Hampi - is a small town in central Karnataka that used to be capital of an ancient Hindu empire. The whole area is dry boulder covered hills with a few streams that support greeeeeeen rice paddy fields. Very nice, green and beutifull, and the town itself is in the middle of all the ancient buildings. Our guest house was in the middle of the fields, so it was just 10 paces from our door to the rice field. We spent 5 days walking around the ruins and relaxing in the scenery. Its kind of a mixture of Vang Vieng in Laos with Pagan in Burma (for those who have been there). very relaxed. the only problem was that we apperantly met up with the israeli "Gal" through India so it was packed with israelis everywhere. Restuarants had hebrew signes and food ("Anashim, yesh po glida LAPANIM!!" which took us a few days to understand...) after getting used to the lingo i think it wasnt too bad but Hila was getting tired of hearing Ehud Banai all day in the guest house (i agree there is indeed a limit to the number of times i can listen to "Eer Miklat").

One of the temples was also called "Monkey Temple" and this is where tragedy struck us and Divluli... Indian monkeys are "arsim". They walk around in packs harassing tourists and locals stealing food and anything else that seems attractive (water bottles, cameras etc.) from peoples hands. We were climbing the temple hill when we momentraraly got seperated from Divluli. Only when we heard him shouting did we realize what happened. The local monkeys tied him to a rock and spilled honey all over him to attract the flys, then they circled him, calling him names and laughing at him - because he didnt have a tail (Gibbons don't have tails). This is what finally broke him - the tail buisness... and even though we tried to pursuade him he insisted on returning to his home in Thailand. there was not much we could do and we intrusted him in the hands of a couple that was flying off to Thailand. So we are now left without a maskot and hopefully will find another furry friend on our future travells.

After this ordeal we decided to move on and catched a train to Goa. We were not able to book a train in advance (its a 10 hour day ride and we wanted the 3-tier A/C) so we just bought general tickets and planned on upgrading them on the train itself - its very common in India. So we found ourselves seats on the 3AC and waited for the conducter. When he arrived he said that it was not possible to upgrade because of a new rule that came out. We asked some locals on the train and they never heard of anything like this. He then said we need to buy a AC ticket at the next major stop and then upgrade it. Ok, we said. At the next stop (Hubly) we went to the ticket office and said we want to buy the AC ticket so we would be able to upgrade. They didn't know what we were talking about and said to upgrade on the train through the conductor. Luckily the conducter changed at the stop and the new one smiled and said "no problem, ill find you on the train and you can pay me then." 2-3 hours later he came by and asked us to pay the difference between the tickets we had and the ones we wanted - the standard procedure, but he didnt have change for the 500 rps notes we had so he said he would come back later. He came back later while i was sleeping and again told Hila "I'll come back later". 30 minutes before the end of the ride i met him again and payed him the money, again he didnt have change so he just took the 500 rps note (we needed to pay 750 rps) nodded his head and said "It's Ok" and left. So without knowing it we bribed a train conducter with a 500 rps note - which is a lot of money here, and endded up paying less than we needed to for the train ride :) India is indeed a wierd experience....

So it was a looong 10 days, we moved from mountain scenery to paddy fields and historical ruins to the lovely beach in Palolem Goa. We lost our monkey and bribed a conducter and are now going to catch a tan :)

On tuesday we will be boarding a 30 hours train ride up to Rajastan - and will post further from there. Destination Udaipur - see you there :)

Thanks again for all the participation in the contest, we heard from Divluly back in Thailand and he is very satisfied at the top of the trees back in Kao Sok and is helping in the rehabilitation of beach monkeys after the Tsunami.

I appoligize for the long post and the typos (spell shecking this is a bitch), hopefully internet will improve along this trip so we will be able to post more often, and post pics as well. Please post your comments, and for all those that are affraid to register here its just a minute of your time.

To Tommy we are gift wrapping your original Indian Cow (smell and all) and she will arrive at your doorstep in a few weeks - again MAZAL TOV on the new family memeber - i'm sure Yuka will be happy as well as Yoav - with the opertunity of riding on her back.

catch ya later,
the one the only Hila (at my side as allways giving her suggestions)
& Morphhh Sleazy