Okay we are officially hippies!

Our rickshaw driver took us to meet a monk who lived in this cave up on a hill. I can see why, it's lovely & cool & tranquil up there. We were given marks on our foreheads & weren't sure if it was polite to wipe them off.

Creatures we've encountered

Along with the ubiquitous cows, here are some of the other fellows we've seen. The centipede is modelled by our rickshaw driver's friend.

Hampi 2

Hampi 1

Hampi is the site of a 14th century royal palace & a place of special religious significance to Hindus (hence no booze). It also has a really unusual landscape which reminds me a bit of the North Yorkshire Moors & Paul a bit of Cesky Raj.

Last of Goa

Here are some photos of our last days in Goa. Paul helped the fishermen pull their boat in & we watched them sort the day's catch (tiddlers mostly).

Loved watching the cow study the restaurant menu.

A plea for comments

I hope you've been reading & enjoying the blog so far. Having a few camera problems but should be resolved by tomorrow. We can't help noticing that we've hardly had any comments posted yet. It'd be lovely when you have the time if you could let us know what you think of our pictures and posts so we know we're not just blogging into thin air. Thanks Everybody!

And we're leaving this???

Can see why some people never leave but we are the littlest hobos. You know how the song goes ...

Bhakti Kutir 'Eco Resort'

Paul had to do his Ray Mears impression, fighting his way through the coconut groves to find the 'Eco hut' that we stayed in on our first night in Palolem. We quickly discovered that even the huge mosquito net they provided for us didn't stop us being eaten alive so we wussed out and left before we got the chance to use the luxury bathroom.

Mooooo!

They look harmless enough but we spotted them chewing a woman's feet one afternoon.

Is it Burt Lancaster?

he's a dead ringer.

Ah! Pina Coladas!

On the seafront on Palolem beach. I never said I didn't love kitsch.

Kerry gets her oats (the Quaker kind)

Suffering a severe oatcake shortage (the booksellers' staple foodstuff) look how pleased I am after eating a bowl of banana porridge with honey in Martha's Breakfast Home. Mmmmm!

The Shore bar

This is the scene on the beachfront Shore bar before the nightly powercut & stumble back through the village with headtorches. Note the obligatory stray dog with the best view.

I like Goa!

Photos galore

Okay. We've finally managed to post some pictures and there are quite a lot of them so for those of you new to blogging, when you scroll down to the bottom of the page if you click on 'older posts' there will be more pictures coming.

Paul's feeling better. Hurrah!

Security Goa Style

Even the towels are in love

Socks and sandals

This is for Amber as promised - our fahionable new travel look.

St Catherine's church - Old Goa

Confession time.

Overnight train from Mumbai to Goa

There's no sign of the 6:57 crew.

Sunset in Anjuna

0 for 26 off one over

The Oval maiden in Mumbai was where I received another humbling - we only went to watch, but once the youths who weren't allowed to play in the proper games spied an English bowler in their midst, there was no respite until they had flayed my mix of slow and slower balls to every corner of the maiden. That is what Indian batsmen do, I was told. Time for a cup of tea I thought as I sloped off with my tail between my legs.

Further down is a plea for e-mail adresses which I forgot to add to my new address book before departing. If you want some kind of personal contact, please e-mail at paulnbarton@hotmail.co.uk

I miss my job

Nobody here seems to be interested in pensions.

If I look grumpy, its because I've been taken for ride by those four young (in under 10) stallholders at the flea market.

Anjuna beach

Here's the beach shack where we listened to some great rock classics.

Chowpatty beach sunset

Lots of people go to the beach here to watch the sunset. After that, its bhel poori time at fashionable Swati snacks. I'm looking for a little more orange in the sunsets to be fair.

As below

Kerry learns Satyagraha

With a full year with nobody but Paul for company, Kerry is going to need to draw on this man's teachings to come through sane.

Gandhi's room

Gandhi's room at Manu Bhaven - where he stayed when in Mumbai.

Flea market fleecing

Anjuna, an old hippy outpost on theNoth goa coast has a weekly flea market. Two green travellers turned up yesterday and were accosted on the beach by four young girls. This doesn't usually happen. We were unable to resist the charms of these persistent young ladies to such an extent that I have now fully engaged my femine side and am the not-so-proud owner of a sarong and Kerry has a variety of bits of stone to put round her neck and rings on her toes which were added as she was dressed-up by this badgering pack. Most of my offers of what I thought was a reasonable price met with an offended look and an 'Excuse Me!' This was more familiar. We eventually escaped once all four girls had helped themselves to a slice of the evening's beer budget. We recovered listening to an acid casualty in leopard skin trousers and a yellow ganesh t-shirt play Pink Floyd covers as the sun set over the Arabian Sea.

All of this mayhem followed three nights in Panjim looking around the town and the nearby churches of Old Goa. That should complete the culture quotient for the next couple of weeks and we can get on with watching the sunset and having a few refreshments.

The overnight train journey from Mumbai before that was most enjoyable and we got a good night's rest.

I think Kerry is about to add some pictures now, so I'll sign off. (She is the techncial brains as you know.

In the meantime, I have not added any e-mail addresses to the hotmail account that I set up before this trip, so if you would like to stay in touch, please e-mail me at: paulnbarton@hotmail.co.uk

PS: Many thanks to all those who made it to my work leaving do. I had a fabulous time and really enjoyed it as well as all your comments on the card. Fortunately, there are no pictures so as to protect the guilty.

Hello India

We have lots of lovely pictures to show you but after umpteen attempts in the internet cafe we just can't get them on the blog. Sorry. We'll try again later when we hit Goa. Anyway, Mumbai was fab! Having a great time & heading out to Goa tonight by train. More news soon ...