Amritsar Girl

The third of my Postcards from Amritsar.

People arrive in Amritsar in all manners of transport. This girl was travelling in a double decker truck, the type which in Europe would mainly carry animals but here was neatly packed with people dressed for the occassion.

Amritsar, lady at well

A second postcard from Amritsar.

Early morning, sunrise, the light is lovely and Golden Temple gradually becoming more active. Behind this woman were volunteers preparing vegetables for lunch, further behind them the food hall were thousands of free meals are served to pilgrims and visitors. At this time in the morning you're served a bowl of tea and a rusk, very, very good tea.

School Bus

I had a long weekend break in Amritsar in the Punjab. The main attractions were the Golden Temple and the Wagah Indian/Pakistan border ceremony but there was plenty of other things to keep me interested too. Not least of these was a school "bus" which parked down the alley from the hotel we stayed in.

I'm very impressed how it's decked out in school colours, I never had the luck to see it fully laden but maybe if I go back...

Busy doing nothing

The first trip to Goa left me feeling a bit ambivalent. It took a bit of effort to enjoy Calangute but there were more positives than negatives. The effects of mass tourism were a little too evident although it brought with it all the comforts and conveniences required. Still, not one to be put off the search for the perfect beach holiday off we ventured again, this time more south and less populated. This time I was convinced, Goa is bloody brilliant!

Not a hawker or massage vendor in sight, not a one the entire time. A few cows, a few dogs and very few tourists.

Guest bedroom

This is the guest bedroom, all plumped up with fancy cushions and pillows. This is not the type of guest I envisioned.

There were two of them, I didn't photograph the second one because it only strutted out from under the cushions when I started shooing away the first one. From the gifts left I could tell they'd been there for quite some time. Lesson learned: leave windows open by all means but check the soft furnishings for stowaways before closing up for the night.

Beach time

Agonda Beach, South Goa, India


Simrose Shacks, quite upmarket beach huts with a lovely garden restaurant attached.

There's not a lot to do. Accommodation is very simple, mainly just huts. Seafood is served in shacks. There's minimum shopping or entertainment. The beach is quiet, barely a soul in sight. Take a pile of books and prepare to relax.

Not Winnie the Pooh

I do love a bit of copyright violation and when I saw this I grinned like a loonie and wanted to rush out to the nearest stationery shop to snag my own.

OK, I'm slightly concerned about having "wine", "violation" and "pooh" in the same posting as they sound suspiciously spamalicious but I need to share.

Thorn Tree

I see these around the place, not so many of them in towns but there's one near my flat. They are not the trees to lean against or do anything else against for that matter.

I haven't found out the correct name for this yet so for the moment it's the Ouch Tree.

Seasonal changes

It's getting hotter, the cool days are gone for another year and it's getting more humid. The skies are becoming greyer and the nights hotter. I've seen a few banks of clouds rolling in from time to time but none as spectacular as these seen at sunrise two weeks ago:

Monsoon is still a good way off but this looked as though it was going to be a storm of epic proportions. It was just a freak of the light and conditions and in a few moments it had gone and the skies were clear. Still, it was pretty dramatic looking.

Beach time

I wasn't sure about how I would take to Goa. For sure I was up for a bit of in-your-face tourism with all the cocktails, beach loungers and eating places geared to the international beach bum. I wasn't too keen on the by product of all that, lots and lots of other people looking for the same thing but as it turned out I struck lucky. A guesthouse backing onto a busy beach at a part of the beach that wasn't too busy so if I angled my book right the place looked almost deserted.

I had a hammock at my beck and call

Visitors were few and very cute

Beach vendors were photogenic and not not too pushy


with just the right amount of creative framing the beach looked lovely

I've just realised, I didn't have one cocktail! Just as well I'm going back to explore another part of Goa in a week.