educating rufus

Moving to a new home

The day Joe arrived we were woken by rain. Rain? coming in through the roof of our room! Before we knew it the bedroom was knee deep in water. We were surprised to find out that the water tank on top of the roof had split which caused our aquatic wake up call. It all got fixed and cleared away and Joe arrived that afternoon. I was very pleased to see him, I hadn’t seen him for a month and I’d missed him. I showed him the swimming pool with its basketball hoop and we played “Pool ball” until it got dark.

The next day Mum found a new place for us to stay in Vagator next to our new friend Lauren. I got my own room and bed with a T.V. to call my own (although I didn’t get to watch much of it as the next day we started our tour of the forts around North Goa).

Forts in North Goa

Joe and I decided to bike it around Goa together visit all the forts we could find.  As we quickly discovered, there are loads! We visited three forts in all that week, each one better then the last. The first, Chapora fort, was just down the road. The fort was in ruins but you could still see all the walls and the remains of a building in the centre. It was at the entrance of the Chapora river and you had a magnificent view of the coast line in both directions, perfect for spotting invading ships.

 

The second was Corjeum fort, this was nearly an hours’ drive on our moped. It was still intact and looked as if it had been built yesterday. This fort was much stronger than the first with higher and thicker walls, a well and what we thought were the remains of stone structured rooms. Big ramps and large gaps in the parapets where used for moving and positioning cannons. In the corners there were round booths, in one we found a sluice so the booth might of been used as a toilet, providing protection for the soldier while proving a nasty surprise for anyone attacking. I would have wanted to be in the fort rather then attacking it!

The last fort we visited, Reis Magos, was the most impressive fort I’ve ever seen. It had recently been renovated and I felt like I had stepped back 500 years. It had 31 cannons when it was built and seven were still there, even if a little rusty. It had a main citadel with buildings and a high wall, a “deck” lower down which was well armed and a gun loop underneath with eleven cannon posts. They also built  another smaller fort on the other side of the river to catch invading Dutch ships in the crossfire. My favourite bit was the “death hole” after breaching the main gate of the citadel, defenders could drop hot oil or explosives down the hole on to the attackers, pretty sneaky!

The Portugese first arrived in Goa in 1510 led by admiral Afonso de Albuquerque to secure their lucrative spice trade routes.

They built these forts to defend against attacks from the Muslim Bahamani kings from the north, the Maratha hourseman from the East and local chieftains all around. They lost control to the courageous Maratha ruler Sambahji in 1684 but then re-captured it 5 years later. They nearly lost it to the Dutch as well in 1603 and 1639. Portugal kept control of all, or some bits of Goa all the way until 1961, 16 years after Indian independence.

I think the Portuguese have influenced Goa in lots of ways: in the religion (there are lots of churches), the architecture (the colonial buildings that wouldn’t look out of place somewhere like Lisbon) and also in the food (they have the best bread rolls – pow bread – any where in India. But my favourite Portuguese influence has got to be the forts.  They’re pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anjuna market

Every Wednesday there is a big market in Anjuna.  We went there with some of mum’s new acupuncture friends, Brian and Lauren, for lunch.  We rode a crazy route but eventually found our way.  The market is massive, you could very easily get lost in it.  There were lots of beautiful things for sale like colourful fabrics and throws, carefully carved chess sets, lots of silver and sparkly jewellery.  The air smelt of incense, spices and tea.  It was so hot walking around so I was relieved to sit down for lunch.  As we were eating, some tight rope walkers performed on the beach balancing jugs on their heads and wearing pots on their feet.  I was really impressed so I made sure we gave them some rupees.  I bought myself some DVDs to watch later and the first in the series of the Twilight books.  I really got into reading after the first time I came to India.  Now, since long train journeys and living on the beach for weeks gives me loads of time to read, I can finish a book in 2 days.

 

 

The water park

While driving to Anjuna market we past a water park and with my persuasive tactics the next day we went. There were 3 main slides, my two favourites where a curving blue slide and a fast green slide.  On the blue slide we used rings, single or doubles. Singles for spinning, doubles for speed! The green slide was like a toboggan race where you raced down on foam mats hanging on for dear life.  On one run of the blue slide, me and Joe went too fast and flipped on the last corner, I bashed my head a bit and wasn’t sure wether to laugh or cry but after an ice-cream and a lemonade (for the shock) we were straight back on it again.  I met a nice Indian boy from Mumbai who was in Goa on holiday and we raced on the green slide. We were the same size and only one mat was fast enough to get us to the end without us getting stuck, so we took it in turns to share it. We stayed until it got dark.  It was a very good day.

 

Arambol

On the weekends mum is free as the acupuncture clinic is closed so last weekend we went to Arambol in the very north of Goa. It felt more relaxed and alive like south Goa. Everyone was very friendly and there were lots of families with small children.

At night we walked down the beach, we could hear drumming in the distance. As we walked closer there were lots of people on the beach selling all the goods under the sun from jewellery to art to cake. The drum circle and the little artisan market happens every night and it’s amazing.  We walked closer to the sound and saw a circle of drummers beating their drums and a gigantic mass of people dancing to their heart’s content.  We joined in and danced all night until we could dance no more.  Then we ate some sweetcorn, smoked on the barbecue, and rolled in lime and salt. Delicious.

The next morning we went to see the Baba, a spiritual man who lives in the jungle in the shelter of a banyan tree.  On the way we met some old friends and we chatted for a while before going on our long hike through the terrain to the tree where the Baba lives.  He sits under the tree and meditates all day long.  You can go along and sit with him, or chant with him.  And some people camp out in the jungle and stay with him. But when we got there we were told that he was actually at the police station. Wow, very spiritual haha! He was probably just renewing his Baba license 🙂 We then headed home, after stopping in the river to have a mud bath and catching a quick dip in the sweet lake. But I am really looking forward to going again and hopefully meeting the Baba this time.

Leaving the South

On our last day in South Goa I woke up excited because my friends were coming round to play for the last time before we left for the North. But first I had to get through the thing I’d been fearing for days…..the dreaded dentist’s don don dawww! There they jabbed me with the worst thing in the world (after needles and stitches) – a syringe! The dentist injected me four times, four pain-staking times, just so that they could take my baby tooth out and give my adult teeth some room to grow.  Even though it wasn’t any fun, at least I knew this dentist from last year, so I trusted her not to accidentally jab me in the face, but it still hurt. Mum took me to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream after as a treat as its my favourite. A little later my friends arrived surprised to see me smiling my now terrible gap-toothed smile. Nonetheless, I had a great last day with my friends before they went back home to Margao.

Packing to move to North Goa

When they had gone we tried to get all our packing done quickly as our train was leaving at 4 am the next day. Mum gave me some money to go to the shops and buy some things we needed, but I added two snickers to the shopping list hahaha! I thought i might get in trouble but mum actually liked my sneaky plan.

Even though we got up at 3.30 am , the train didn’t actually come until 5 am, an hour late. It was dark as we waited on the platform and the dogs came to sit by our feet.  We met an Dutch couple, waiting for the same train, who were travelling with their two year old (asleep in the pram). The mum was also 6 months pregnant with another!  I thought they were very brave and maybe a little crazy too.

When the train finally arrived it was totally packed. I mean not just on the seats but on the floor, on the roof, on the outside and on the every where! Finally we found a space to sit after navigating our way through a sea of sleeping bodies. We did better than the Dutch couple who didn’t manage to get a seat and who had to park their buggy, with their sleeping child in it, right next to the toilets.  It was the only space there was.  That’s a pretty bad spot – and I think you can guess why.

Even though it was totally crammed on the train, everyone was very nice to us.  Mum got some samosas to eat and we both drank some chai.  We watched the scenery change outside the window as we sped by.  It  took less than two hours to get to Thivim so we arrived really early at 7 am.  I was glad mum decided to take the train instead of a bus or a car as I get really car-sick but I never feel ill on trains, even when they are crowded.

Arrival in Assagao

We jumped in a taxi to Assagao, a little village near Anjuna. It was such a relief to arrive and just sit down, watch some T.V. on the laptop and get some sleep.  Our hotel had a swimming pool over looking some beautiful fields.  There were monkeys in the trees and butterflies on the tennis courts.  The housekeeper, Ranjita, was nice and her children took me to the pool so we could play.  It all felt very different from South Goa but it was also new and exciting.  Joe was going to arrive the next day and my mum would be helping to run a free acupuncture clinic locally.  I was excited to see what new adventures we would now have.

I have made some new friends. I met them a few days ago at The Space, which is a kind of hub in South Goa. It is a healing centre, a restaurant and a meeting place. We went there on a bike ride to do some work as there is a good Wi-Fi signal, but instead we met a lovely family who are also home-educating their kids.

My friends are called Maya and Surya and their parents are German. They have lived in Asia for the last six years. Maya is one year older than me (11yrs) – she was five when her family left Germany to travel and has not been back since. Surya is 6 years old and he was born down the road in Margao.   Although he was born in India and has never been to Germany he was not given an Indian passport and thinks of himself as German. Their father, Niel, is a yoga teacher and their mother does Thai massage. Maya and Surya are home educated like me and love to read just as much! They are thinking of going to an Indian school for a while – the same one I used to go to in Patnem. They spend a lot of time in Malaysia and also lived for a long time in Rishikesh at the foothills of the Himalayas. We are hoping to go to Rishikesh with Joe as it sounds really nice. It is where The Beatles went with the Maharishi to learn Transcendental Meditation (which I am now practicing too). It is also where the source of the Ganges is.

The last few days we have been hanging out a lot on the beach in Agonda. We’ve been swimming, played four in a row, top trumps, chess, stuck in the mud and hide and seek tag. We have also mastered the art of boogie boarding. They are lots of fun! We also took them on our motorbike so at one stage there were four of us on our bike like a real Indian family. Yesterday we all went to the dosa house and there was a cat with one green eye and one blue eye that leapt on to Maya’s lap. We fed her some rice.

My friends are living in Benaulim at the moment but hopefully they will move to Agonda soon. Then I will be able to play with them every day. Life is good.

Here are the highlights of what’s happened recently:

When we met up with Becki we all got motorbikes. Becki had only ever ridden one once in Thailand so first of all we biked around slowly so she could get used to it. But soon, we were all going fast, the way I like it! On our first ever ride to Palolem though, a snake jumped out at us – we missed it by a millimetre. We called “snake!” out to Becki who was behind us but it was too late. She got eaten! No, not really, but she thinks she might have ran over it…. We all stopped and went back to that spot but the snake had disappeared so perhaps it made it after all.

Just then our old friend Krishna, who owns the Butterfly bookshop and who taught us Indian cooking last year, came by on his bike and saw us all looking around in the road. He stopped to say hello and we told him about the snake. He said it sounded like a ratsnake as it was brown and very long (about 2 metres) and that they were very fast so it probably got away in time.  He then asked if we wanted to hang out with him and he took us to a nearby lake – a reservoir – on our bikes. It was very hot so we had a little swim but only in the shallows as there are monitor lizards around. Krishna picked some honeysuckle flowers for us and

showed us how to suck the nectar out. He also showed us ‘touch-me-nots’ – little plants whose leaves curl up when you touch them. After our swim he took us to Chaudi, an Indian village for a thaali.

But on the way there something really amazing happened. We were very high up – at the cliff-edge – and as we descended on the bike, an eagle flew with us and, for a few breathtaking seconds, was only about 3 meters away from our heads. It was an amazing moment and felt like a real welcome home to Goa, this place that we love.

Another day, one of the most funniest things that I saw was three dogs having a threesome!

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We spent all week with Becki and did lots of cool stuff. We visited Cola Beach and had a swim, though the lagoon as low at this time. The way there was pretty rocky and we had to drive through lots of puddles caused by the recent rains – the tail end of the monsoon – and once we fell off into a muddy puddle!

We also made some new friends at Cozy Nook in far north Palolem when we watched the football together at the bar (Goa vs Kerala). It was a raucous game – the Goans really love their football – the stadium was totally full. A warning message kept flashing up on the screen telling us our tv tax was overdue– and threatening to cut the tv off at any point – but we managed to make it to the end of the game! They invited us back the next day for lunch which was really nice. We made some new friends and they gave me a whole chicken to myself to eat!

One of our new friends – Dom, a Goan guy who has spent the last five years in Lewes with his British (now-ex) wife – offered to take us to Cola Beach the next day – not the one we knew but a

second ‘secret one’ which we hadn’t been to yet. It was where our friend Aggy had been trying to set up his business without much luck. We were in for a treat – it was a stunning little gem of a beach and we would never have discovered it without his help.

We rode with him early to Caba Rama first – the old hill fort built by the Portuguese when they colonized Goa. There is a lovely view from the top. Dom showed us the hole the Portuguese blew in the coastline when they were testing out the cannons.

Then he showed us Cola Beach number 2. It was a lovely walk down and the beach was stunning! We made a sandcastle and played in the surf and ate some samosa’s before riding back home.

Yesterday we got up early and did my work for the day, so we could spend the whole day out on the bike. We went to Palolem to get an ice-cream from Baskin Robbins (my treat) to make up for missing out the night before. (The previous night we went to see a homeopathic doctor in Margao. It was a two hour journey there and back and I wanted an ice cream but the shops were closed when we came out so mum bought me some Indian sweets instead).

After I finally got my ice-cream (Gold Medal Ribbon, my favourite) we played an epic game of chess and then took the scenic route out along Talpona river to Galgi Baga – the turtle beach. It is a lovely ride over the bridge and through the villages.

My mum and dad got married on Talpona beach two years ago. They had a Hindu ceremony and we all wore Indian clothes and travelled there in rickshaws. On the way we passed Franky’s Bar so we took a picture of my mum, whose also called Frankie.

When we got to Galgi Baga we went to see our friend Santosh who runs a fish restaurant there but it was not open yet as the licence had not come through. Last year we ate lots of crab here. You had to pick them live out of a bucket which felt a bit harsh and made me want to be a vegetarian but then they tasted so good when they came out, covered in garlic butter…!

Anyway this year there was not yet a restaurant but Santosh gave my mum beers and two plates of oysters and we sat in the garden with two other guys who we made friends with – one was called Adam from the UK and the other called Dude – because I cant remember his name – from Croatia. Dude told us he spent ages saving up to buy an amazing Mercedes car. He worked and worked to be able to afford it. It cost him $200,000 to buy but when he got it he described sitting in it and thinking, “Was it really worth it?’ He ended up selling it and travelling around Asia on the money for the next ten years.

We then talked about Santosh’s nephew – who died in a fishing accident on the day we met him last year – and how kind and welcoming Santosh had been to us despite the tragedy that had occurred that day. We had been amazed that he had kept his restaurant open and welcomed us in such a nice way.

The Dude told us that he had been here at the same time and had actually witnessed them burning his body, later that day, on the beach (a Hindu custom). He told us they took the bigger bones that would not burn out to sea and dropped them in the ocean.

We thought about this for a while.

Then we drove home.

It is good to be back in Goa. I especially love it when my mum drives fast – her “turbo speed” or her “BFG speed” I call it.

Before we knew it, we were on a train headed to Goa. It was a sleeper train and thankfully mum and I got our favoured top bunks – one in the booth and one in the alcove. Second class sleeper trains are laid out like this: there are rows of booths, each with a high bunk, a middle bunk and a low bunk. You can all sit together on the bottom bunk and chat until the person on the bottom bunk decides to go to bed. Then the middle bunk slides out and attaches to the high bunk by two chains. There are also further bunks in alcoves, lining the corridors– but only low and top bunks – no middle bunks.

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I was so excited to be on an Indian train again and also a bit frightened that my luggage might be stolen as I slept. In reality, this rarely happens in India, as Indians normally treat foreigners with a lot of respect, but just to be safe I dragged my luggage up to my top bunk in the alcove and slept with my feet on it. It was have been disastrous to have our stuff stolen in our first week away!

I love sleeping on the trains – it is exciting and yet soothing all at the same time. The fans on the ceiling constantly whir and keep you cool and the rhythmic sound of the train lulls you to sleep. During the day you can sit by the window and watch the countryside roll by. It is very green and lush with palm trees and there are water buffalo in the fields and monkeys in the trees. In second class, most people are friendly and talk to you and the chai wallahs come round with food and drink ALL the time. We buy different items wrapped up in newspaper for a few rupees – it is always a surprise. I don’t eat anything spicy though – I give it to my mum. The only thing I don’t like about the trains are the toilets – who would? They are unbelievably smelly – and they basically consist of an open hole so you do your business right on the railway lines. The trick therefore is to do it when the train is in motion or it stinks the place out! I don’t know what it’s like in first class – we never go there …. Maybe we should one day.

In any case I slept very well – straight through for ten hours in fact – and when I woke up we were an hour away from Margao (our stop and an hour’s taxi ride to Agonda, our final destination). But for some reason the train became very slow after that and it actually took about four hours to get to Margoa. The train kept stopping at stations for unknown reasons and we began to think there must’ve been an accident or something on the railway. Our friend Jitu had told us that many people die on the railways – an average of ten a day. This is because it is very crowded on the trains and to escape the heat – and avoid paying – many people ride on the roof, but this often leads to them being electrocuted by the wires. People also cross the lines all the time and it is a popular place to do drugs so often this ends up in accidents and to commit suicide. Anyway we don’t know if it was an accident or just that the train was running on India time, but it was very, very late.

Soon people started getting fed up and began leaving the train to walk the rest of the way to their stops, but we couldn’t do this because it would’ve been crazy to lug our stuff all that way in the heat. When we finally got to Margao we were thirsty and tired so we bought some chai (“chai, chai, chai”) and some samosas from the tea-stop. We took a rickshaw to Agonda (my favorite place in India – well, actually my FAVOURITE place is Baskin Robins, but Agonda is also pretty cool). l would really advise you to go to South Goa rather than North Goa – to Agonda or Talpona or Galgi Baga the turtle beach (if you ever come to Goa don’t go to Tripadvisor, come to this blog!) and if you’re really lucky and you come during the right season, you might see turtles hatching on the beach.

On arrival we debated going to find our friend Becki straight away or going for a swim. We decided the latter as we were so hot so we went straight to the sea – but guess who we found on the beach – Becki! We went for a quick swim and then caught up with Becky. She works for a shop that sells Indian items like clothes and jewellery – and she had the job of buying the merchandise this year for the first time, on her own. She had spent three weeks in Northern India – in Jaipur, Pushkar and Varanasi.

The next week we spent together mostly riding around the countryside on our motorbikes – in and around Agonda, Palolem, Chaudi, Talpona and Galgi Baga. I’ll tell you all about that soon. Talpona is where my mum and stepdad got married two years’ ago. My mum has since learnt how to ride a motorbike and now she’s bad ass/kick ass. In last few days my mum has introduced me to maths (or math as this annoying computer calls it), English and running on the beach.

*News flash! I’ve just found the spellchecker! Yes, yes and yes again!!!*

This is the routine we hope to achieve:

Time     Activities

7:00     Run (full length of beach 3km – mum runs it twice).

After that, a swim in the Indian Ocean

8:00     Meditation (10 mins for me; 20 mins for my mum)

8:30     Yoga ( For mum, on yoga days. I tried it but I don’t like it.)

9:00/

10:00     Breakfast, reading and workbooks – maths and English

Whatever we fancy – no work – yay!

2:00      Nap/Meditation again

4:00       Blog – every other day?

5:30       Run (if we fail to do it in the morning) Yoga/boxing

8:00       Dinner

9/10       Sleep

I’ll let you know how we get on…..

Today we went on a bike tour of Bombay.  We went early in the morning before there was too much traffic on the roads.  It was still busy though and it didn’t make me love Indian buses any more than when I started.  It took them a while to find me a bike that wasn’t either rusty or didn’t fit me but in the end they found me something I could ride.  My mum made me wear a helmet (annoyingly) and I had two “bodyguards” on the roads even though I didn’t need them but it was nice because I made friends with them.

We visited some of the major historical sites – Victoria rail station (CST) which was made famous in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, the very smelly Sassoon Docks – the main fishing docks run by the Kolis who are the original people of Mumbai – and Mumbadevi Temple after which Mumbai was named. At the Temple we sacrificed sweets to the gods ( and ate some ) and one of the temples dudes put a mark on our foreheads in red powder- the kumkuma – to open our third eye.  Here we are looking like  a pair of holy Cyclops’.

We also went to Bombay Panjrapole, which is where the holy cows are looked after and we fed the cows some grass and herbs.  Outisde my mum took a picture of a cow in the street (see above).

Then we rode down Marine Drive which is a beautiful 3km walkway alongside the Arabian sea and all went for breakfast together at a local South Indian eatery.  I ate my first ever dosa and drunk some masala chai.  I love chai as it is very sweet.

I enjoyed this morning and found it interesting but I am still getting used to the smell of India.

Today we went to Dhavari – the heart of Mumbai – and the biggest slum in the world. There were two other ladies on our tour and to be honest I don’t think they could handle it. They were a bit freaked out – we picked them up from The Trident, a really fancy hotel, and I think this was the first time they had been outside. But it’s called a slum tour not a picnic so I don’t know what they thought it was going to be like.

Our guide was called Jitu. He told us to help us remember how to say his name to think of “G2”.  He grew up in the slums himself and taught himself English so that he could be a tour guide. I really liked him and he gave us lots of good information.

On the way to the slums we stopped at Dhobi Ghat – the world’s largest open air laundromat – where the Dhobi’s, a certain caste of people, wash all the laundry of the city.  The laundry gets split up into different colours to be washed and then the orders get put back together at the end.

Jitu told us that the film based in Dhavari, “Slumdog Millionaire” made the slums out to be a horrible place when in fact it was a mostly kind and peaceful society where there was a good community and people would help each other.

 

Inside the slum we saw lots of businesses in production – people making bread, chapatis, poppodums, pottery, all sorts of leather goods and recycling all sorts of things especially soap and plastics.

 

Our tour was run by a company called Reality Tours (http://realitytoursandtravel.com) which was set up by a guy from UK.  It is run as an NGO and 80% of the profits go back into the community to fund education programmes like the school we saw inside the slums.  The school is very good as it teaches the people how to read and write and talk English so they can get better jobs in Mumbai.

 

At first I felt a little bit scared in the slum but after a while I grew to like it. Dhavari is an incredible place. It is massive. In Dhavari certain families have had certain jobs for generations like the pottery makers and bakers.  Most men go and melt plastic or collect it while the women look after the children and make poppadoms. They do not get paid very much – only a few rupees a day, but together the industries they work on make a turnover each year of $665 million (US dollars).

Some of the work like recycling plastic is very toxic and the men get sick when they get older – most of them do not live past 60 years old. The area where they made the leather goods was really smelly.  We saw lots of animal skins piled high ready for tanning.  Often goods from big brand names like Gucci are actually made here.  Business goes through a middle man so they can pretend they don’t know its actually made in Dhavari but they must know as it is so cheap.

The alleyways are very narrow in Dhavari. Even though people are poor they have tv’s and mobile phones but approximately 12,000 people share each toilet seat (there are only six in the block we saw).  Mostly people go to the toilet on the rubbish heap outside where all the children were playing. Jitu told us many children die before the age of one because of the dirty conditions.

The government is trying to move the people into blocks of flats.  We went up on a rooftop and saw where these flats are. They are very grubby looking. They are controversial because the people find it difficult to pay for the running costs of living in a flat once they move so are not better off and they cannot afford to properly maintain the building so the buildings become shabby very quickly. In contrast the better built flats for rich people still look good. The people also hate it because they lose their sense of community in the blocks and they don’t like living there.

From the roof we could take a few pictures.  Apart from this time, Jitu asked us not to take photos in the slum as it was not respectful.  Instead he gave us some pictures he had taken (below).

 

FACTS I’VE LEARNT ABOUT MUMBAI 

1. The hotel we stayed in is the nicest place to stay in Mumbai that I’ve seen apart from the Trident which is too swanky!
2. Never swim in the sea in Mumbai as they dump waste there.
3. When you cross the road in Mumbai you need three things: good timing, good eyesight and good luck!
4. I am so lucky to be born in the UK.  In an instant if the gods changed their minds I could have been born an orphan in India in the slums. I must remember to cherish who I am and help others who are not so lucky.
5. If you want to go on a sleeper train book it well in advance.  We left it too late and got ripped off.
6. Never eat fish or meat unless in a nice restaurant as they’ve  probably come from the fish markets {ooh}.
7. Don’t go to the slums by yourself even if you bring a rope and a samurai sword – it’s like a maze.
8. Just by going on good tours you can help the people here as the money goes directly to the community.
9. From Jitu’s joke I know that there are three things on the planet you find everywhere: water, earth and Indians.
10. If you look from the other side of the city towards Marine Drive at night, it is all lit up and it looks like a pearl necklace .