Goa IN

After a couple of weeks in India, some standard pictures I had had, simply vanished. Some were confirmed.
The mosquitoes are not that big trouble makers. For now, I haven't even used any repellent. ;-)

Food is amazing, however. The diversity is huge, the use of spices so wide, the number of cereals, beans, peas, lentils, nuts, vegetables and fruits is stunning, so much that I don't know. I keep experimenting! My gutt is safe for now.
I was kind of disappointed. Bicycles are not as used as I thought. The cities are full of scooters and motorbikes. 

Yes, India is crowded, but not as much as I would expect. First, I can deal with it. :-) I really thought that I couldn't. Furthermore, the streets are not that full of people... I mean, you can walk, like anywhere on this planet! The dimensions, the figures are just bigger than elsewhere. There are much more buses, the cities are gigantic, wide, much more spread, like markets or slums. 1 million people is a small city! A normal city is 3 millions. You have traffic jams, but equal to Paris, Teheran or Istanbul. Something new I must deal with: you don't wash your hair because of natural dirtiness, you wash them because they get dark, sticky and dry because of dust and smog. Is it like this in Paris? It's been a while I haven't been there. hehe...

After Mumbai and Poona, Goa is different, not like I described before.

Goa is one of the most touristic places in India. Like the Diois region, when you are there, you understand why. Green, nature everywhere, small hills, small paths, nice beaches, relax people... Fortunately, I was there just after the moonsoon and just before the touristic season. And yet, there were 3 westerners out of 5 Indian people: crazy! West invaded the area at hippy time, when the land was almost empty. An old hippy tradition remains. White people come to take a bath, and then stay for 3 years! It is the cheapest area in India, too. That helps.
I was hosted by Christopher a film maker, who notably made, for a great TV production, documentaries about society issues: female foeticide, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, dowry, alcoholism, chemical based farming, disability... Thanks to him, I had a upper class Beethoven performance the 1rst day, then a beachy afternoon with muslim children from slums, the day after. And every morning, fresh French bread and croissant from the French bakery around the corner. :-)

le bout de plage surveillée : 150m, et que des petits ingés indiens en maillots

Opération beach cleaning

Green Goa

Christopher

Une mosquée

Maharashtra IN

India! Another mystic destination that I am able to experiment. I am a lucky one.

Mumbai is not the Indian capital, but known to be BIG anyway! I don't know... I did not stay there. I escaped. I didn't want something to happen to any of my ankles again ;-)

Pune or Poona, the second largest city in Maharashtra, was on the way south Do you remember, I go to Sri Lanka. Getting closer every day! Aviram allowed me to rest, having quiet time, in quiet places. In his lovely neighbourhood, in the magnificent new mall, or in a concept city. A city in the city. Where everything is clean, peaceful, everyone is well educated, has a good job IT engineer is the best, my dear, is polite and respectful. The city is surrounded by walls, entry is controled, or not. The poor people stay outside, anyway. In this environment, I bought a nice Indian novel, had massages, got a Swirls ice cream, listened to Queen, the Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson, watched Friends. Easy life.

Aviram was the perfect introducer for Indian culture. He drew the link I missed between Iran and India: Pakistan, the country I couldn't go (No Pak visa is given outside your home country. You've done the right thing, Nathalie). He is Punjabi. Punjab was split up while creating Pakistan. I am still trying to figure out whether Muslim people fit well in the Indian society, whether they are welcome. :-/ "But the Chistian people, they build school here, they bring something to the society!". By the way, I have seen my first Montessori school in India. I don't know if there are more here than elsewhere.

Thanks Aviram!

Oh, and of course, I missed THE Osho (the sex guru) center, 20€ to enter and probably again 5€ for a bottle of water. Sorry Amélie, I haven’t done that... Shame on me.

J'essaie de me recoiffer. Merci Jacek d'immortaliser ce dur moment d'intimité !

Tel un dieu grec (!!), Aviram

Cocotiers et cannes à sucre

Dans un hotel, je prends soin de moi

Dubai

No, it's not as bad as expected. Be careful of a priori. Yes there are many skyscrapers, an amazing number, for sure! And life is expensive, but not as much as Europe. And besides the fact that United Arab Emirates is mostly big buildings, highways and awesome metros, the place is safe and surprisingly quiet. People are relax and tourists hang around in peace.

To avoid the 50€ hotel, Jacek and I stayed mostly in Sharjah, the cheap dormytory of Dubai, still nice but less bling. Sand as matress! And we have seen bikinis again! People drinking, laughing loudly, playing volleyball and music the entire night... We have seen happiness. I know it can appear quite superficial, but it was nice to live lighter. Iran's situation was too heavy to carry for me.

The purpose of going to Dubai was to try to get a ferry or boat hitchhike to India. From the last big attack in Mumbai, no ferry has made this road anymore. No private boat sails to India neither. And about the dhow boat (see below), there was no easy way to get one. We could have stayed there 2 weeks to try more. But Dubai wasn't the place of our dreams to stay. So... I cheated again... I flew to Mumbai.

On ne t'a pas vu beaucoup, Walid, mais Merci pour le bel accueil ! La prochaine fois, on essaie de passer plus d'une heure et 2 chansons ensemble ;-)

 

Voilà le 1er test du mode "retardateur". On nous voit quand même un peu !

Boutres (dhow boat in English). Bateaux indiens, petits chargements commerciaux, vieux, faits en bois, qui traversent les océans, non sans risques...

Une plage tranquille de Sharjah, Jacek et la power plant behind

La vue du 33 ème étage, les tutures sont t'te pitites !