So it’s been a while. Again. I never expected it to be so difficult to find good internet and wifi around here, but the latter is actually closer to impossible than difficult. I’m really happy I have my laptop so that I can backup my photos even if the humidity and the dust seems to kill all electronic devices. My phone is completely dead so don’t even bother texting me..

I’m in Goa now. Going around between beaches and little colourful villages on my motorbike, enjoying the sun and getting some things done.

A lot has happened since I last posted something here. I met two Italian Berlin-guys in Pushkar that I got stuck with for almost two weeks.

Me & Pietro in Jodhpur-Napoli.

They told people that I was adopted and they had exchanged me for an old iPod. It was a lot of fun and a lot of new Italian words, but as everything sucks in Napoli, the moment of separation came and I chose to stay in Goa while they went on with their super-strict german itinerary. Funny thing is we have the same flight back so I guess I will have to see them again.:P

After Pushkar we spent some days in Jodhpur, which was actually blue, not like the “pink” that Jaipur was supposed to be. It was blue and it was beautiful, and we got there just as they were celebrating a festival so I danced some traditional dance with some kids on a backyard and it was generally a kind and easy city.

Jaisalmer was different from the other places I have visited and it was nice to see some desert, sandstone and beautiful leather bags. We jumped onto some camels and they took us on a two day safari.

The desert was more of a big sand-dune than the Sahara-like desert I had imagined, and at one moment when we were laying down on blankets after riding the camels and visiting small villages the whole day, one in the group screamed “snake, snake!” which proved to be a very poisonous little fellow that the Indian cameldriver instantly killed with a stick. It had been crawling over poor Johnny’s legs and the cameldriver was pointing out all the good karma that it meant that he hadn’t got bitten.. we got a bit paranoid over the fact that there were vipers around but looking up at the stars and trying to catch the shooting ones to the sound of the desert made me forget all the snakes and enjoy the moment.

I woke up in the middle of the night and spent some time looking at the moon as it was going down. I don’t think I have ever seen a moonset before, at least I’m sure I haven’t seen one on a perfectly black sky in the desert. The night was beautiful and in the morning we saw a lot of snake tracks around the blankets we had been sleeping on which was a bit creepy but too late to worry about.. haha

From Jaisalmer we went to Udaipur which by many is spoken about as the most romantic city in Rajasthan.. it was nice. Really nice. Quite touristy and photo-friendly. But nothing more than that.

After Udaipur we took a train to Mumbai which I liked quite a lot. We met a new travelbuddy, Roi, on the station and when the Italian guys chose to take an early train to Goa the next day I stayed
with him which was heaps of fun. Our day in Mumbai was filled with missions and a lot of local trains which are just like in the movies where there are no doors and people hang out and jump on and off while the train is in motion.

The day get quite chaotic in the end as I had left my lens in the Canon center and when I got there to collect it they just started working on it. It made me a bit annoyed but it was really interesting for me to watch through a window as they were taking the lens apart and my MacGyver cells were jumping around in excitement.. However “Wait a second, five minutes, we fix now” means more than 35 minutes and I had to leave it there as we were missing our bus to Goa.

We got to the local train station and got to know that it would take about an hour to get to where we were heading. Taxi was not an option, apparently it would take two hours. Rush hour at its beauty, there was no chance we would manage to catch our bus.

We changed our plan a bit and chose to take an earlier train to another close-by station where we could catch a cab and somehow maybe make it.. however that train wasn’t coming either and we were stuck waiting on our platform. Roi was amazingly positive and kept trying to point out positive aspects of being stuck in Mumbai, I was really happy that he wasn’t panicking as I know so many others would have.. instead, suddenly we spotted the name of our destination on a train.. but it was passing by on another platform on the other side of the tracks. “Let’s go!” was all I heard and we jumped down onto the tracks and ran over to the other side like I’ve seen the crazy locals do some times. We jumped up onto the right platform and into the open train that was already moving. My adrenaline kicked in and I was happier than ever, we got to our station, ran out and jumped into a cab, screamed “chello, chello, chello!”, and got to our bus the minute it was scheduled to leave. High five!

The Italian guys had chosen to skip the train as it was heavily delayed so we found ourselves on the same bus to Goa. Reunited! Happytimes. 16 hours ride. I watched the book of Eli, it was way too cheesy. Fail.

Goa is great. We found and danced at a crazy full-moon trance party. We’ve been hanging out on different beaches, watching sunsets and eating amazing sea-food. I’m going around on my motorbike and I get to wear shorts and my bikini. It’s not India the way I have gotten to know India. But it’s India enough at the moment, with a possibility to get a tan and relax. This is vacation. A well deserved one.

Yesterday I visited the children in the houses of El Shaddai which was a wonderful experience.

Apart from that, I was talked into doing a tattoo. I agreed under the condition that it would be my own special design.

Meet happy Prima, named after my 23 year old henna artist. It’s winter in Sweden at the moment so I get to wear socks when I come back. My giraffe is cool anyway, for about a month from now.

Bus to Hampi later, then probably back to Goa, more time at www.childrescue.net, and then Mumbai and the flight back home.

Time flies and I’m enjoying!