R & R, New Years Eve and more R&R

Today is our calm before the storm of New Years Eve.

It was our day of catching up on reading, swimming, chatting, eating and just chilling out and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

For breakfast we had the nicest Idli of our trip so far and for lunch Charlotte, Will and I shared a huge paneer salad, falafel and pasta.

The highlight of the day was when we sat and ate Gobi Manchurian, Paneer Dry Chilli and Chips for dinner haha Its been a simple day 😊

But... Then life got real and we had to sit down and plan our final country and... Dare I say it... Our flight home 😭 it's all booked and we will be back mid Feb up North and probably early March in Laandan so watch this space!!

It's New Years Eve! Today is a day of getting stuff done. We took a scenic coastal walk to town and it was so peaceful. We sat for a bit watching the sea and even spotted 2 gorgeous blue kingfishers.

On the way we spotted a library. I'm not sure why but 70% of the books were French! Upon leaving we had another Will moment... We'd heard quite a few stories from the expats about cops and them doing drug searches and sometimes demanding money even if you don't have anything. When they came towards us my guard was on and they stopped Will and said "empty your pockets". To which I replied we aren't going to give you money so we are leaving. Now... Will somehow interpreted my mention of money as "Run, they are going to Rob you". And so he suddenly started running! The cops grabbed him and the situation soon escalated. Luckily I kept my cool and yelled "hands off he's scared". They quickly released him and explained they are doing a drug search and didn't want our money, but only wanted to search Will. I allowed the search to happen but I explained they have stopped probably the only 3 people on this beach that have never done drugs in their lives and they soon realised they weren't getting anything from us and resumed pleasantries and let us on our way. Charlotte was with us and she just froze at the whole situation. Sometimes I do wonder how these situations might end if I wasn't here!

After that craziness we were in desperate need of food and a calm down. We went to Perma Restaurant and ate the biggest Thali I've ever had! I must admit I was pretty uncomfortably full by the end and I didn't even eat half!In town we loaded up on Old Monk, snacks, sorted our route to Hampi (our next destination). We finally rolled into a tuk tuk and got a lift back where we had to just sit and attempt to digest our food, before we went for our swim. Then it was time to refresh and get ready for the partaay!

First we sat in Hanumans enjoying a few Old Monks before heading over to Uma Garden where they were playing Tribal music. It was really good fun and we made sure that we always drank out of sealed coke bottles so that people couldn't put anything in our drinks this time. It's always a shame not to see any Indian women at thee parties but I guess it's just the way it is and so instead the men go a bit nuts. It was good fun though!!

Reflecting on 2018 I realised it was a year of not a single day of work, I was living my dream of travelling, I'd visited 12 countries, I'd seen two of our older friends get married, I'd lived out of the same 10kg bag for a whole year and I lived a simple life with my best friend. What an incredible year.

The next day was obviously a bit of a right off and we just chilled out, savouring and enjoying the incredible beach life before our big move to Hampi tomorrow.Read more