Okay, yes, there are lots of things that are sadder but for a traveler that final day with the thought of "ugh - back to work tomorrow" in your head has a certain sadness to it. Especially when you are leaving a wonderful hotel with great staff and great guests. Alas, our final day in Goa came and we had to come back to the real world...but before our flight we still managed to fit in some sightseeing (and an early morning dip in the pool).
We were staying in North Goa and the airport is more Central Goa so I planned out a day of sightseeing that took us kind of sort of on a big loop to the airport. First up: temples. Two of my guidebooks had mentioned two of the same temples so I figured that they were the ones to visit so off we went. The first one we visited was very cute but had lots of construction going on around it which was a bummer. It was quite busy in the temple so we didn't stay too long because I was feeling a bit claustrophobic. I was actually more intrigued by two women that were working outside the temple. They were taking bricks and putting them in a bowl which they then put on their heads and then walked the bricks over to their new spot...about 20 feet away...seriously. I wondered - why are they moving a pile 20 feet and wouldn't it be faster to just walk them over one at a time? But they seemed content doing it their way so I'm sure there was a logic to it.
Then we asked the driver to take us to the second temple but he said he wanted to take us to a different one. Boy are we happy we listened to him. This second temple was similar in size to the first but was much quieter and also much prettier.
Prayer for Hindus is done very much at their own pace; they do have occasional group prayer services but for the most part people just go into temples in their own time and say their own prayers so temples are like living organisms with people always going in and out and saying their own prayers; quite different from what I'm used to. At times this means that a temple is teeming with people and is overwhelming but at other times, like at this temple where they were fewer people, there is a calm reverent feel to the place. We really enjoyed that temple quite bit. Super duper long name though which I don't remember.
One interesting thing about visiting temples in the heat...you have to take your shoes off outside all temples and they, for some odd reason, seem to always put the shoe place right on black pebbles which are blazing hot and also not comfy to walk on...so I did a fair amount of jumping to/from the shoe spot and the temple entrance. I was quite the spectacle with my jumping and my big floppy hat that protects me from the sun.
Anywho...I realized I've already written quite a bit so I'll save my final two Goa thoughts for tomorrow's post. For now a picture of the first temple. The second one was surrounded by a wall so I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing...and yes, that tower is actually leaning.
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