I'm in Gokarna at the moment, which is in Karnataka, so I have finally left Goa. I like it a lot! It's a mad little place. It's considered very holy by the hindus. It's packed full of indians at the mo cos its some festival. We arrived last night only to find that ALL the rooms in gokarna were fully booked!! So we got the last boat to Om Beach just as the sun was setting, and went to namaste cafe (the only guesthouse), but they were also fully booked! Then they said "hang on..." and took us round the back to a shed and said "here, have this..."! No lights, no beds, just a mud hut with a mud floor covered in ants. We were just like mary and joseph in the nativity!.... except Danell's not pregnant, just constipated.... ;) So anyway, in the end we slept on the beach, and it looks like we'll be doing the same tonight, cos everythings still booked, even on om beach! I wish I had a hammmock. Most ppl have hammocks and just sleep outside between two trees.... When we went to choose a spot on the beach, it was pitch black, and we couldn't figure out where the tide came up to or whether it was going in or out. The beach isn't very wide, so the sea came almost up to the edge of the sand..... In the end we decided to risk it and camped on a tongue of sand that stuck out into the bay. When I woke up this morning I realised that we had waves coming towards up from both dierections! Luckily for us the tide was going out all night...... :)

Gokarna is very cool. It feels like "proper" india. Just very different from anywhere else I've been yet. It's quite funny being surrounded by hundreds of tourists but them all being indian. Most of the hawkers here don't bother me at all, because everything they want to sell is aimed at the indian tourists: plastic wind up dogs that spin on the spot, multicoloured powders, slippers (which i just bought...) and so on..... :)

Om beach is pretty nice. It's mainly Israelis and British ppl smoking lots of Chillums and lying around doing nothing at all... It would be nice to have a room or a hammock tho. Sleeping on the sand is all very well, but it's a bit lame when you go to wipe your mouth in the night and realise your hand's covered in sand, and that come to think of it, so is your mouth..... But it was amazing to wake up and watch the sunrise..... :)


posted by Billy at 8:08 AM