More Thailand and a Taste of India

 Three weeks of Vacation in Thailand and India

 Sunset at Railay Bay Resort

As seen in my previous post I was in Thailand following the end of my contract in Malaysia.  I stayed in two resorts while in Krabi.  Both were very nice and had their own good and bad points.  The first place I stayed had a nice pool.

Pool at Alisea Resort

I did a lot of walking while staying here.  This area is very touristy but has some nice looking scenery. 

The food was pretty good at both resorts in Krabi and I enjoyed my time there.

  At Alisea resort the staff were great and tried to help me with any of my needs.  About the only bad thing I have to say about this resort is the TV.  There was only one english channel and it repeated the same shows all day.  I think I watched an episode of millionaire dating club around 4 times in 2 days.  

Railay bay resort was my next stop and the scenery was beautiful.

Railay Bay Resort Pool view

 The only real problem I had here was that almost all the staff couldn't speak english which surprised me a lot.  But they all tried to do what they could and if you were patient then you got what you wanted.

After Krabi I was in Bangkok for a couple of days to meet my friend so we could go off to India.  Most people seem to love India, so I figured it should be a nice vacation and I could say I've been to India, which a lot of people can't say.

We took a bus, a shuttle and a taxi to get to our first resort in Anjuna Beach.  As you can see from the picture below, they had a nice pool.  It was very refreshing after a long day of sweating in the Indian heat and humidity.  That's about all I have to say about this place.  

 We walked along the beach in Anjuna and got completely harassed by the locals trying to sell their trinkets.  It was so bad that we decided to find a road to walk back to the resort.  I think if it had been high tourist season it might not have been so bad, as we were the only white people around so they all came to us.

We also, tried to do a sunrise at the fort near Anjuna but it didn't open until 9am.  We did 3 nights in Anjuna and then moved on to Calangute beach.

The hotel here was way nicer except the pool had a film on the surface because they didn't have the filter running.  I couldn't bring myself to go in even though I was boiling hot.  At least the air-con worked well.  The staff were really nice and helpful here, so that was good.

We hired a taxi to take us to Old Goa town church.  I can't remember the name of this church but it was nice.

inside the old Goa town church

nice trees outside the church

After the church we could see a ruined tower in the distance, so we asked our driver to take us there.

 

This place was pretty cool.  I really like walking around ruins.  This was St. Augustine's Church and Monastery.  I think there was a convent here too or maybe just a church and convent.  Can't remember.

After the churches we moved on to a spice plantation where we had a guided tour of a small part of the plantation.  There were some interesting trees to see.  I was a little surprised by how many spices grow on trees and not on smaller plants.

Looked like worms growing out of the tree

This is a vanila plant that grows on trees.  Made me think of a bug of some sort.

You could get spit on by an Elephant if you wanted.  The girl in front didn't want to, but her dad made her

Road to Calangute Beach

The waves were to big for me to go in the water

We rented a scooter and drove to this fort.  I think it was called Aguada Fort.  Nice view.  Wish there had been a little more to see.

St Anthony's Church in the middle of the road

A neat house along the road

After a couple of days in Calangute we decided to spend our final night in a five star hotel at Bogmalo Beach.  This was the view from our sixth floor balcony, not bad.

The view was amazing and so was the sunset (below) but as nice as this resort looked, it wasn't much better than the one and two star places we had stayed in earlier.  While my friend was showering the water turned brown and dirty, then I think the neighbors flushed the toilet and all we could smell was sewer for the next hour.  Thankfully the smell went away

watching the sun set and relaxing at Bogmalo Beach Resort

All in all I think India was worth doing, but I won't be going back.  Due to the off season my friend couldn't find a yoga class to take, they were all closed until November.  As I'm sure you know, cow's are sacred in India and they get to roam everywhere.  Cow pie's galore make for a very countryside smell, even in the cities.  

Something I really liked about India is that they don't cut down all the trees to build a house.  The greenery is everywhere and it was probably my favorite part of India.

I think I was expecting something very different from India than what I got.  There is a small part of me that can understand why people like it, but at the end of the day it wasn't really for me.  

I don't want to discourage people from going because it is a beautiful country, if you can see past the poorness of it all.  I never felt crowded while there despite there being over a billion people living in the country and I didn't get sick like almost everyone else I have ever heard about going to India.  Just stay away from the tap water.

Now I will stay in Canada and visit my family for couple of months. 

Bye bye.