Palolem.

So Palolem; Palolem is an idyllic yet touristic paradise. The sea is blue and warm like a bath, the sand is soft and gets stuck between your toes. The atmosphere is that of a festival: people you've just met treat you like you've known them forever, you can drink with them, smoke with them or in our case discuss the Jewish religion in depth.
As I have already mentioned we met two Israeli people named Maor and Michelle at the beginning of our time in Palolem. They, as our neighbours introduced us to the lively social scene of the town. I've come back (out of Palolem) with a slight Israeli style accent, the trick is to roll the 'r' in your throat, which sounds like you're coughing up phlegm but in a sexy way.
So we were introduced to Eda, Rama and Slava to name a few along with Maor and Michelle we found that they were all incredibly friendly and all exceptionally stoned. They taught me two things; you can roll an unpatriotic spliff (the how I don't know- it's a spliff with a paper coming out of it like a flag, you then burn the flag voila- the defiance of patrioism) and that the Israeli song 'Disco Disco Partizani' is Aymayzing. In my opinion it's the soundtrack to three weeks in Palolem.
We stayed there for so long because of everything that we experienced. Our typical routine being breakfast, swim, sunbathe, dinner and then alcohol (or alcohol throughout the day whilst doing all of the other things!) We both learnt how to relax in a way we never have before, all of the stresses from my previous life disintegrated with the sound of the ocean and the rays of the sun. I have honestly never felt so good.
We stayed in a rickety old beach hut with no hot water, frequent power cuts and many visits from various amphibians/ cockroaches. It was liberating, we had no mirror apart from a tiny compact so body image for the both of us managed to be less precedent than usual.
The owner of our beach hut was never seen, instead, Niall a 15 year old 'badass' took care of us. He called me darling and constantly stole cigarettes. He was nice though, and funny. Dil - one of the boys who worked for the other huts became our friend, he called me sister and brought me flowers that he stolen from a garden. Very cute. There was also Karnataka, the little old man in the shop and 'Papaya, banana, coconut' man. All lovely, all very accepting of our British ways.
We have come out of Palolem as a typical traveller does. Tanned, wearing lots of jewellery (sandalwood especially and trinkets bought off a girl on the beach named Singhitta), henna on our wrists and ankles and a little bit more in touch with ourselves.
Palolem is definitely my favourite place that I have been to so far in my life. So I carry on with my journey with a fond sadness, ready for new experiences but sad to leave this amazing place.

लीर्निंग कर्वे

This is what I have discovered whilst in India;

1. Be prepared for people to stare at you- constantly. Prepare to feel like a celebrity, prepare for large groups of little children and middle class families to ask for pictures with you. Prepare for young teenage boys to try to take a picture with you whilst you're in a bikini.
2. Boys cannot handle hard mattresses.
3. Cows will approach you whereever you are. Keep an eye out for angry cows when you are relaxing on the beach. Three will be upon you before you know it.
4. Mosquitoes love eating.
5. Hebrew to English translated jokes just aren't funny.
6. Reptiles love beach huts. Frogs and lizards especially.
7. Generally, Indian people are quite small.
8. You will get hassled continuously by numerous people. If you say a ridiculously low price they will generally go away.

9. If you are invited into a yoga teachers bedroom do not go. If you go into the bedroom you will be forced to answer a questionnaire in silence about your philosophies of life. If you do happen to do this avoid the yoga teacher in question for the rest of your trip.

10. Avoid dogs.

11. If you are a meat eater expect to see your dinner wandering the streets, cows, pigs and chickens live an organic free life - eating anything they can find anywhere they can find it.

12. You will get fed up of Indian food after a week. This is a dire circumstance.

13. Taking public transport is like going on an Alton Towers rollercoaster without the safety apparatus.

14. I have always been able to roll cigarettes.

15. Indian cigarettes hurt your body like no others.

16. Indian beer makes your stomach go a little bit funny.

17. Power cuts are always going to happen when you're trying to do something important. Shaving your legs is difficult in the dark.

18. Indian people love fireworks. Far too much.

19. You are never too old for Pokemon or Mario. (There is now a pokemon called Finneon much to my amusement. My strongest Pokemon is level 37 and I have four gym badges)

20. When you feel a little bit sad there's nothing better than ringing your family and friends for a few brief words.

Goan Delight

I haven't posted in a while as I have turned into a lazy slob in Goa. It is literally paradise, the sun is always shining, it's so hot and the people are so nice. We arrived in Goa around a week and a half ago and began in a little place called Colva, it was nice but not really our scene- Indian families and middle aged Brits on tour. Pretty dull, our one bright spark in the light (apart from the heat, beach and everything!) was a lovely beach hut restaurant called Domnicks. I ate literally the best tuna of my life, Finn was incredibly jealous and I was incredibly happy and full of fish. We ate there for nearly every meal, trying a variety of seafood. One particularly memorable moment was sharing a very large Pomfret, very tasty and very fresh. Not as good as the tuna though! There's not much else in Colva so we left after four days and took a bus to Margao and then another bus to Palolem.

Now I have already talked about the crazy Indian road system by taxi/ rickshaw but the Indian road system by bus in different entirely. The journey from Colva to Margao was an eye opener, the bus from Margoa to Palolem was absolutely terrifying. Picture this; we get on the bus and put our heavy backpacks in the front with the driver, so far so good. Whilst waiting for the bus to leave we notice the bus conductor getting weed from the bus to deal on the side. So we're in a bus/ drug dealers lair. Strange. We waited for a good while for the entire bus to fill up, and then we began our epic journey to Palolem. Indian buses try to fit as many people on as possible. If you think you've been on a busy bus from your magic bus experience then you are mistaken. Every time we stopped they let more people on the bus. It was three to some seats, Finn had a very large mans crotch shoved in his face for the majority of the journey as there was literally no space for it to go anywhere else. So business aside, this packed bus starts to go at around 80 mph, tilting to the side every time it turned a corner, I was praying, I thought that this bus drive would be the end of me. On the upside the bus driver decided to play some banging Bollywood tunes blaring continuously out of the speakers (probably to cover up the peoples screams). Altogether fun, altogether terrifying!

We arrived in Palolem relatively unscathed- that was over a week ago. We're still here. I find it difficult to describe the wonders of Palolem. It is a beautiful beach, golden sands, palm trees and everything else that you'd expect. I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe listening to Bob Marley, whilst mosquitoes buzz around looking for blood. (they don't seem to have any of mine yet) Palolem is perfect, we're staying in a rickety beach hut that birds and coconuts seem to flock to when we're trying to sleep. I've never heard birds chirp so loud, they like to run across the straw and be a noisy as possible. There's also the pigs that just wander around like they own the place munching on any left over food, crisps packets etc that they can find. There's so many cute little piglets around, it's very strange! The hut has a shower that has four dribbles of icy cold water trickling out of it and nowhere for the water/dirt to go, therefore we have a little sandpit at the bottom of our bathroom. This probably sounds pretty shit, but it has the same atmosphere as a festival. Everybody is so nice and friendly, we're all in the same boat after all. It's like having your own tent pitched for you at a beach style Glastonbury. We've sat most nights with our neighbours, a couple from Israel, Maor and Michelle. They are very friendly and we've learnt a lot about their life and their religion. Israel sounds like a beautifully frightening country.

I hope this description helps you imagine our time, I would try to describe what we've been doing but it'd be one sentence- sitting in the sun all day, drinking at night, and this is all we've been doing in this beautiful, relaxing place in Paradise. I will try to update soon, you know when we've actually done something :) love to you all xxxx