From the desert to the beach: a lot of sand

Hi there, it has been a while. A week and a half, I think.
As the title may suggest, have we been traveling to the sea side! But I think I wrote my last story right before we went with the night bus to the desert. That was in Thursday night.

We traveled with a sleeper bus: a vehicle that definitely would not pas the European safety laws, but hey, what is life without risks? (furthermore, I haven't seen a seat belt since the airplane, so...) After a ten hour bus drive we arrived in Jaisalmer, a town with a very big ford. In the middle of the desert, only 150 km from the border to Pakistan. We arrived around 9 AM and after freshing up in the hotel and brunch, we went to see the Fort that still houses 5000 people. Afterwards we got ready for the desert safari which started with a two hour jeep drive including stops at an oasis and a ruin and ended at the camel point. There we got on camels for a two hour ride to the sand dunes where we would spend the night. We arrived just before sunset. While watching the sunset on de dunes in an averagely flat area, with some windmills on the background it almost felt like the Netherlands. :) The Indian people from the organisation made us a fire and cooked us dinner and chai (really sweet tea with milk). We ate, talked and laughed until it was getting cold (which was quite early) and went to bed. We slept under a lot of blankets, with a lot of clothes and hats, watching the sky filled with stars and an (almost) full moon. At sunrise we woke up and got warm at the fire. After a healthy breakfast with fruits and toast we rode on the camels back to the jeeps that brought us back to the city. I'll try to upload a foto of the camel ride. After a hot shower we went for more sightseeing including a lake and an old building with a lot of details. After dinner we got on the night bus back to Udaipur.

We were "free" on Sunday and I spent my day doing laundry and going to the city centre with three other roadtrippers and Zoscha (a Dutch girl who volunteered in Udaipur) to do some shopping. After lunch we went to the cinema to catch a Bollywood movie, Tamasha. Since it was in Hindi we couldn't understand the conversation, but the story was quite easy to follow anyway.

On Monday we also had a lot of time to ourselves. We had a 16 hour night bus planned from Udaipur to Mumbai, leaving at 5 PM. The Green Lion (organisation) organises a trip to the zoo every Monday for children of the school for the hearing and speaking impaired. Since Zoscha was volunteering at the project she was going to go, but she was the only volunteer this week, so I joined her. That was a really valuable experience. There were 5 boys and 5 girls approximately aged between 5 and 9. It was really nice to notice that these kids are very creative in finding a way to communicate with you and it really works. I learned the alphabet in sign language beforehand, but only used it to spell my name. :) After dropping the kids of at school again and celebrating Zoscha's birthday it was time to go to the busstation.

We arrived really early in Mumbai and therefore had time to sleep a little more and take a nap before breakfast and sightseeing. We went with cars first to a mosque at the end of a dock and afterwards to a really big temple. We continued to an art gallery to see some paintings and a photography exhibition. We ended the day in a nice walk and a fancy dinner. I didn't really like Mumbai, to be honest: it has a very western appearance, there are a lot of slums and it stinks. Furthermore, it is very hot and there is a lot of smog. Luckily on the next day (Wednesday) we went to see the gate of India where the naval police was preparing for some kind of ceremony, followed by a boat trip to Elephant Island. There a guide was waiting for us to show us the elephant caves. The biggest one is a very old temple with a lot of altars. Sadly most of the statues were destroyed by the Portugees and only two statues remained unharmed. After looking around we had lunch on the island and left for the 12 hour night bus to Goa.

On Thursday morning we arrived in Goa quite early and we were brought to the volunteer house of the Green Lion. After lunch we went to the beach where we had a relaxing afternoon. Well, actually not that relaxing, because every 5 minutes there is an Indian lady standing or sitting next to you trying to sell you stuff. And if you just wake up from a little nap, you think that you are still dreaming, because there are cows walking by. But they were real and also chilling at the beach.

Yesterday we went on a sightseeing tour. We started at a some small caves, followed by a nice waterfall. After that we went to a huge spice garden where we got a tour and lunch. They explaned a lot about the different spices and showed us how the cashew fruits were harvested.

This morning (Saturday) we went with the car to a Fort at the seaside built by the Portugees. After that we say an old church (St Augustine church) that was almost completely destroyed. (by itself) We visited another church (still in function) and walked around the archaeological museum in Old Goa. In the afternoon I've been reading and napping and I just returned from the night market. The market was not a big success for me. It didn't feel like we were in India any more. It was filled with tourists, mostly Russians.

Tomorrow morning some other girls and me will visit another market and in de evening we will watch the sunset at the beach. Next week (Mo-fri) we will be volunteering. I'm not quite sure what I will do in the morning, but every afternoon I will be working in the slums. After school the kids can go to extra school where there are 45 minutes of lessons followed by some drinks and sweets and playing games. I'm really looking forward to that.

I'll keep you posted!