Varkala Hampi and Goa

Our next destination was Varkala, a pleasant village on a cliff near the sea. We got there and went straight to the hard task of eating 3 times a day fish and other "luxuries".



















Yonti was busy with his toys. Cars and Tractors which he usually breaks quite quick and then he says "Oy Bar" - meaning oy nishbar and "Aba, aba" and then everybody thinks that Aba had broke the cars but what he really means that Aba will Fix it...
We sat in a restaurant and local guys were fixing something and he was very determined to help them...


he is getting big...



but cute.

After 4 days in Varkala we went by Flight and train to Hampi. Hampi was beautiful and for the first time we saw many Backpackers almost all Israelis. We stayed there for a week and maybe would have stayed more if not for the bed bugs.

So after enjoying Hampi and the food and the nice company there we were off to Goa. we came to Agonda beach which is very beautiful and we are again in the task of eating and resting and enjoying the water.

A cow at the beach.
Three of us.

Whats that on the Horizon? is it a Kopter? (helicopter)















Yonti is playing a lot in the sand and with everyone who makes the mistake and start playing with him and then finds himself fetching toys and balls as Yonti throws them at him/her.
He is also aware of his environment so most of the time when we take him in the trolley or by foot he says "tata oo, tata ha-hah, tata how-how" - meaning Cows shit, goats shit and dog shit...

Tali took him to eat and told him shes getting him Of (chicken) and chips came with it and since then he calls chips "of" and that's what he wants to eat all the time...

We have a flight to Mumbai on the 31st. till then we are in Agonda in a beautiful place with live music every night. We eat and play and watch the beautiful sunsets.

Back Water experience- The Report

So, After more than a week in Munnar ans its perfect weather we were ready to roll down to the warm humid planes of kerala, well not exactly planes because it's mostly water. it's called Backwaters . We headed to a town called Alappuzha (Alleppy), some call it Venice of the east, if you've ever wondered around Venice in the heat of the Italian summer you won't forget how romantic is the mixture of humid air and the smell of rotten fish, that's the only thing that resembles Venice. ah that and the 3 canals going through the town. We stayed out of town in a beautiful place in front of a lake( canal) covered with plants you wouldn't imagine it's actually water.

The main thing I want to get to and the headline of this post is the Houseboat report.
We read in the Lonely Planet guide book and it was mentioned in other places that it's among the 50 things to see before you die ( i haven't found any reference to that) . The houseboat is a big wooden boat with a room or two that take you for an overnight or more trip through the Canals and lakes of the backwater.

It is an expensive treat, 4000 Rs a night but we decided that we will do it despite some worries on how Yonti will be feeling on a boat for a whole day and would it be safe enough for him.
We were in Alleppy for 3 nights already.We went to the beach a couple of times during the muslim "Eed Festival" as they call it here which was celebrated together with the Birthday of Ghandi ji. The beach was packed with people and we "enjoyed" (again) the feeling of celebraties.
I already took a small rowing boat cruise around the canals which was very nice. It is an amazing thing, hard to capture in still photos. There is vibrant life on those water, full with fish and ducks and snakes and plants and villagers using small boats as the only mean of transport to school and market etc.
Our guide was a local guy called Tangu, I did the trip for 4 hours and the next day we all did it for two hours. Tangu was very informative and explained a lot of details . He also explained about the houseboats, some were only one bedroom boat, some were two and some were even three bedroom boats.
When we finally got to our boat we were very pleased to find out there was plenty of space for Yonti to run around and play with his cars, truck tors and dog.
The boat took a route to the open lake and we were feeling great. There were other houseboats on our route, many boats. Some were two bedrooms boat, some had ac some had satellite dish. Many boats.
After an hour or so We stopped for lunch. More boats stopped near us. We stopped for 2 hours or more and the crew. oh the crew, I forgot to tell all about the crew. There is a a cook a driver and a captain on each boat. It's not sure who does what but that's the crew. They were really cute. They played with Yonti and even let him drive the boat for a while, but he wanted to accelerate all the time.
So the crew went to sleep during the lunch break and so did Yonti. We gazed at the other boats, some had upper decks and balconies some were really big. It was getting hot.
Finally the crew woke up we continued sailing among other houseboats, some boats were faster than our boat.


Finally after a few hours we stopped near a village. The cook whistled to a friend of his who came on a small canoe and the cook went to the barber.
















We relaxed and waited for the sunset. Meanwhile other houseboats anchored near our boat.
We had dinner and went to sleep in a bed that was to small to take all three of us. One of us had to go and it was me who slept on a mattress, if you can call it sleep...
The next morning after breakfast we haded back in a convoy of houseboats all eager to end their shift, it was crowded and horns were hared quite often...
The ride was over. We saw a lot of houseboats, some had 2 bedrooms, some 3, some had upper decks, some had full a/c.
After indulging weather it was worth it the whole trip we decided to write the Report.
So here it is .

the three of us

Yonti is a Riksha Driver

us with good good friends

miss understanding of the term "Tata" z

First post from India

ok,
so after almost a week here in India I finally get the chance to spend some "quality time" on the Internet...
We spent 3 lovely nights in Cochin or as it is called Kochi (there is a national trend to change names of places from English to Native Indian Languages hence Bombay-Mumbai Madras-Chennai Cochin-Kochi etc) we stayed at a home stay called Beena's home stay owned by a beautiful couple Beena and Sudhi they made our landing in India softer then i could have dreamt off. Beena and Yonti fell in Love with each other, She really spoiled him and let him play all over the place putting dolls to sleep in their beds and so forth (ill upload pictures later).
Kochi was nice, we went to see elephants bath in the river and we got really close to them, me and Tali were both chickens (ill upload pics later) and that was fun.
the next day we took a 4 hours taxi ride to Munnar, a hill station surrounded with tea plantations, this is quite a unique landscape (i up pic late) so now we are spending time taking walks, resting eating and just being.
it is quite surprising how quick one adjusts to a different state of being, Israel seems so far away after just 5 days..
Almost everywhere we go Yonti is like a celebrity, ofcorse every one here smiles at him. People here are extremely friendly and polite with naive big smiles. Yonti feels safe to play with the kids and with waiters in restaurants. Last night we went to a local restaurant packed with locals and worried how well manage to eat but soon after we sat down the waiters came and played with yonti and even bought him a sevivon so he was fully occupied with them with me and tali having more space to eat then we can remember. anyway we sat there for a while and the place got empty and 7 people were playing with him (pic later) and suddenly he has to poo and he says "tata" cause he doesn't say kaka and he bends in an effort and doing so theres a huge crowd for him thinking he means "tata" in the sense of bye bye and they are answering him "tata"... it was hilarious...
So here i am sitting in the back of a little stall that sells drinks and snacks, in front of 19 inch wide screen lcd on India.
Kisses to all
Sharon and Tali and Yonti

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