This is my first trip to India and I’m eagerly waiting for the first impressions.

Air France has served us well so far, and the very first trip as a married couple has gone beautifully. This is of course saying less than 24 hours into the trip, we’ll see what happens later on.

They say all sorts of things about travelling with your loved ones, but this time I think it’s pretty easy.

At this phase I’m just watching the third movie for the flight, sipping on some white wine (Couleurs du Sud Chardonnay 2007) and waiting for what’s yet to come. Bring it on…

Tags: drink, flying, previsit, travel

Somehow I’m having a deja vu feeling here. Again I find myself in a plane somewhere over Middle East, waiting to land in India and politely discussing with stewardesses if sir would like another beer or not. At this rate it will only take until end of the century and every airline will have me banned for abusing free beverages.

The difference is that this time I’m here with my darling wife. We’re some two hours from Bangalore and it’s been about 13 hours since we left Oulu airport. The total duration of the transit from door to door should be somewhere around 16 to 18 hours, depending on conditions upon our arrival. I’ll be really surprised if our luggage survived not one, but two really short transfers in Helsinki and especially in Paris. I now understand why Charles de Gaulle airport has been nominated as one of the worst international ones in the world. Somehow the frenchies manage to make simple transfers so complicated I would rather solve differential equations instead of doing hasty transfers in CDG.

I hate the fact that I will have to post this only when I get back to Finland, but I really don’t have much choice. My server update went horribly wrong just a couple of days before departure, so this post will be hopelessly late. I’m seriously considering a move to a web hotel.

Tags: drink, flying, technical stuff, time, travel

My advanced course is now also behind and I like diving more and more every time I surface. The fun is much more there now that I don’t have to train skills or go right behind the instructors all the time. I’m already looking forward to my next dive, no matter if it happens in Thailand, Bali or Vuohijärvi.

Otherwise today was not that great, especially with the locals. I am struggling to put my thougts out nicely since I want to avoid generalizations, stereotypes and the term “complete jackasses”. Take a simple example of a small car crash with no injuries and minor damage to the cars involved. You would think the first course of action would be to drive the cars to the roadside and see what happened and why, but unfortunately that was not the case. Instead there was a crowd of severals dozens of people in the middle of the road, blocking the traffic both ways and pissing everyone off. How hard can it be to move to the side?

Apparent road rage idiots aside, the second irritation relates to the way of living around here. Every second person I come by wants my money and nothing else (the other 50% are tourists), and they will surely try every trick in the book. Although I knew it beforehand, I still couldn’t prepare to being treated as a stupid object with excess money in his pockets (which I may be, but still). I am sick and tired of the millions of junk sellers all around the place, but avoiding them is a bit difficult in here.

Seems like I’m too misanthropic to write right now, so I’ll be off to one of the nice places I have found, a restaurant called Casandré close to Calangute beach. I need a cold beer or two as well as something to eat.

Oh, just BTW: the third dive was indeed wreck diving, followed by navigation and underwater photography exercises today.

Tags: diving, drink, food, holiday, oh bugger, people in india, tourism, traffic

I have now been in Goa for a little more than 24 hours, and already I find myself in the middle of a lot of things. I didn’t get a Bullet this time, but instead I have a lightweight and agile 150-cc Bajaj Pulsar for moving around. A bike is definitely the best choice of transportation here, so if you have the least bit of courage and preferably a license for MB, I suggest you go for it. The traffic isn’t even remotely as bad as in Bangalore, so you should be doing fine.

The open water diver course started today with a bunch of theory lessons followed by a good hour and a half in the pool for practical training. The theoretical part was easy for me, as usual, but surprisingly the practice went brilliantly as well. According to the instructor, I am “a natural” with SCUBA skills. No wonder it felt so easy! I had some concerns about breathing underwater without a mask, but I cleared even that without extra effort. All well for now, more diving practice tomorrow!

Goa seems like a nice place, but there are a couple of catches: first of all, you should have a friend or two with you. Second, be prepared to see a lot of western tourists, and even more locals who want every penny the tourists (yourself included) have. Go see an elephant in the side of the road and the people next to it will surely figure out a way to charge you some money for just looking at it. Walk a hundred meters and you will see half a dozen of taxi drivers offering a ride. These people live out of us.

I’m not saying that Goa is a bad place, [insert entity] forbid! It can be the ultimate mix of relaxing on the beach, having a good time with your loved ones and experiencing something new like SCUBA diving. My views are obscured by the fact that I am here alone, which in turn makes chilling out in the beach rather unattractive. That leaves me with only the third aspect, which I’m going to concentrate on as much as possible. The rest of the time I will be roaming around the area on a bike, eating in different places and consuming alcoholic drinks in various environments.

Speaking of alcoholic drinks, I am currently sipping my test portion of McDowell’s Single Malt, the only non-blended Indian whisky I could get my hands on. I was looking for a bottle of Amrut, but half a dozen liquor shops later gave up and bought a 50-rupee (80 cents orso), less-than-a-centiliter bottle of McDowell’s to see if it’s any good. After half a glass I am pleasantly surprised to say that this stuff is no bad at all: yes, I’ve had better, but I’ve definitely had worse also. Put a reasonable price tag on it in Finland and I’ll be definitely adding this to my home bar.

Tags: diving, drink, holiday, motorbikes, people in india, practical stuff, tourism, transportation, travel