Exploring Goa – XXV – Sunny Palolem Once Again

Flashback – Kartik’s in Sunny Palolem so far and the adventure begins now. To read his other articles on what to explore in Goa, Click here.

When the sun comes out, you are the best judge to decide, whether you douse yourself in oil and layback on a beach bed, or to explore where the curve of the beach takes you to! I loved the hills in the background, and decided to walk along!

I walked along the curve of the beach, and increased my pace by walking along the wetter part of the beach. It’s a good base for your crocs to make you walk a tad faster.

Never Far away from the constant chatter of the boatmen and their plans to get a load of people to see Dolphins.

Given the heat building up, we mid way decided to walk inside the forest in the shade of the trees. The Blue and Green looked lovely.

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• Exploring Goa – XXII – The Palolem Beach (missionsharingknowledge.wordpress.com)
• Exploring Goa – XX – The Idyllic Palolem (missionsharingknowledge.wordpress.com)
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Exploring Goa – XXIV – The Palolem Beach Journey Continues

By Kartik Kannan

As you set out to walk further, The morning rays are just making its inroads into the sands, and the filtered light through the trees is just slowly neutralizing the morning haze and chill.

And if you thought you could head straight into the sea for a morning dunk, you’d have to brave a little chill in the Arabian Sea!

And you’d also realize that while the Sun is out, the Bikinis are yet to come on!

It takes a little more than a couple of hours of the sun, to inject life into Palolem, to get the Lifeguards at their position!

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A Look Inside Myanmar’s First Real Year Of Democracy – 2

Second part of Jack Hoyle’s pictorial blog on democracy in Myanmar. Here’s his work behind the lens as Myanmar completes a year of democracy. 

Two boys hanging out at Yangon’s main bus station. A poor diet and lack of access to basic healthcare could be reasons for the smaller boys unhealed wounds.

The daughter of the charcoal shop owner in her Sunday best.

A drizzly day in Pyin Oo Lwin, the former British hill station, now a popular summertime retreat for the wealthy.

A sand carrier sprints to dump his heavy load. Sand is dredged from the Irrawaddy River and used for ever increasing construction projects around the country.

A family of rubbish collectors in Yangon, stand amongst what they have scooped out of the blocked storm drains. They use little more than a wicker basket and their bare hands.

The sun goes down over Ubein Bridge, on the outskirts of Mandalay. Dozens of fishermen line the bridge during the rainy season, when the waters are high enough and the fish are in abundance.

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A Look Inside Myanmar’s First Real Year Of Democracy – 1

A Look Inside Myanmar’s First Real Year Of Democracy – 1

Jack Hoyle comes back with his second pictorial blog. From cricket, he makes a move to politics and democracy in Myanmar. Here’s his work behind the lens as Myanmar completes a year of democracy.

Monks await the arrival of The Lady, Aung San Suu Kyi. A reported 100,000 people flocked to hear her give a speech. It was the first time she had visited Mandalay since her release from house arrest.

Aung San Suu Kyi was over six hours late, due to the huge numbers of people in the streets cheering along her motorcade. Monks huddle together to keep warm, while another spectator shields himself from the rain with a poster of The Lady.

A monk sewing.

Workers load a boat in Mandalay, shored on the banks of the Irrawaddy River.

A boy holds up a captured bird. This particular bird is often sold as street food along the roadside.

Myanmar youths have found a new sense of confidence since the democratic reforms. Previously people, particularly the young, would have been persecuted for wearing such ‘daring’ attire, where as these days it’s a common sight.

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Exploring Goa – XXIII – It’s About the Palolem Beach-lings Now!

By Kartik Kannan

It’s tough to  not notice the colorful cottages along the beach stretch. While you catch a beer with the folks who run the shacks,  they will tell you that it costs them about 100,000 INR to set up 4 shacks. Since Goa has a rule of no permanent structures on the beach, these shacks are built every year in October, and are pulled out and stored in a nearby warehouse in April-before the monsoons. So the shacks that have a median price of 300-1000 normally, peaks upto 2500-4000 closer to the Christmas/New Year season.

When you sleep over, and wake up the next morning, you would realize that mornings make for some nice peaceful walks to explore Palolem, in all the colour and splendour of the Goan boats, when the rest of the beach is yet to wake up!

The Goan shack owners obviously care for their higher revenue segment customers from the west, so they adequately instruct early birds, to not disturb ‘the sleepy people’.

While you wander early in the morning, there are no cafes open to serve breakfast. Once I’ve had my bath, I usually start feeling ravenously hungry, and I realize I have very few options. The best option is to get into town on your 2 wheeler, and get some Misaal Paav’s for breakfast!

Sometimes, when a café is open, you’d have to just set your gaze on the Salt and Pepper bottles on the table, or the sea that’s out of focus in the background, since your Omlette or Tea is being prepared in the Sussegaad Goan way. But one of the special mentions I’d have is for ‘Ma-Rita’ café, whose French Toast and Potato Cheese Soup are brilliant!

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Indian Street Cricket From The Eyes Of Jack Hoyle – 3

The final part of the three-part series on Street Cricket in India from Jack Hoyle. Watching these pics and his travel, one thing is sure, he definitely has a good book in his camera. Looking forward to much more from him. 

A young boy shows off his cricket ball as a game gets underway in a temple courtyard, New Delhi.

A youngster waits in the wings as the older boys show him how it’s done.

Next man in.

It’s not just boys who are mad about cricket, plenty of girls are too. A group of boys and girls play in the shadow India Gate, Delhi.

A young boy takes a large stride as the ball goes past the bat and towards India Gate, Delhi.

The ball goes flying over the keepers head and towards the government buildings.

Keep watching this space because Jack is going to give us his presentation on Myanmar next, his last place of stay. 

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The Road to Hana and Haleakala – III

The third and last part of the Hana series by Kartik Kannan 

I had time to drive by a beautiful ‘Greekish’ sunset by the beach, and now proceeded to drive to the best part of the journey after a short rest and dinner- The drive to Haleakala crater was a 150 mile distance again, and this started at 1 30 in the morning, driving on the mountain roads with no street lights. As you meander along the curves of the mountains overlooking the clouds, the chill in the air went up every curve until you reached the summit at 10,000 feet. It was beautiful looking at the how the clouds go orange from dark blue, as the sun comes up to take over from the moon, on its celestial duties! What started off as ‘Chala Jaata Hoon’ ended with a Bryan Adams number-‘ Those were the best days of my life’ as the morning sun rays became stronger!

 The Meandering Roads to the Volcano Summit

Pausing the sunset

Yoohoo! “I survived the Road Trip to Hana”

Those were the best days of my life, and This was the Best Drive of My Life! The complete pictureset can be viewed here.

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Indian Street Cricket From The Eyes Of Jack Hoyle – 2

Here’s presenting the second part of the three-part series on Street Cricket in India from Jack Hoyle. Watching these pics and his travel, one thing is sure, he definitely has a good book in his camera. 

The batsman makes a dash for it and picks up a quick single.

Any patch of land will do. A recently ploughed field hosts an impromptu game.

The ball gets lost down a rabbit hole

A young batsman takes a swing.

That’s what mostly happens in the ultra-short format on the streets. A big swing and a miss.

No space is free from cricket. Local common ground in Khajuraho is taken over by a group of cricket players.

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The Road to Hana and Haleakala – II

Kartik Kannan continues talking about his experience on road to Hana and shares some photographs.

Once I went to the hotel, I decided to keep only what was essential for the road trip, and kept the rest of my baggage at the hotel. The drive restarted with some wonderful vistas of the Pacific ocean by the side.. The agenda for the drive was a 300 mile stretch to Hana, through mountains and a rain forest, and back, followed by another drive to a 10,000 feet-above sea level volcano, before sunrise.

The drive started with the contrast of the grey roads, and the ensuing scenery of the blues of the Pacific Ocean in the background, which changed to a green and grey contrast, as soon as I entered the rainforest region. I stopped over a quick lunch, in a ramshackle caravan that was serving lunch in the rainforest, and proceeded on my drive to Hana. The interesting part during the drive at a point was to sea sunshine on side with the sea on the left and sees rains on the other side with clouds and mist building up, and I was driving exactly between these 2 weather patterns. I found time to explore Hana,trek to a nearby volcanic red sand beach and have some lovely ‘me’ time peace, that I had not found in the chaos of work.

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The Road to Hana and Haleakala – I

By Kartik Kannan

Not having much time on a 3-day break in the US, I decided I would take the plunge and do a road trip instead of signing up with a tour operator in the city. The challenge, however, was to drive on the right as they do in the US, in contrast to driving on the left in India.

I rented a Lucerne Buick, a luxury sedan and slowly set off from the airport, rambling about slowly for about 20 minutes, trying to din it in my head about driving on the right. As the rubber met the road and the GPS were starting to make me feel comfortable, I started to turn the music on to the yesteryear Kishore da road trip number ‘Chala Jaata Hoon’, humming my way along the expanse of the 60 mile ride to my hotel.

I am sharing some photographs of the trip:

The contrast of the grey roads, with the Blues and Greens is noteworthy

Caravan lunch by the road!