Need a plan

Trying to sort out where I wanna be in the next months, thought it might be easier to sort out my thoughts if I try to write it down.  First and most important point to consider is of course the health of my grandparents, especially my grandfather.  I'm trying to help around the house and give them my attention whenever I can.  The month of March is already a writeoff as I'm accompanying my mom to Australia and New Zealand for vacation.  I'm still planning to backpack asia for a good 3-4 months at least.  My brother will be in Hong Kong visiting starting May.  We will have a family gathering around mid June.  So where does that leave me during the month of April?  Right now i'm just trying to be everywhere at once. 

Stopover at Hong Kong

Left Mumbai with the same friends on Feb 11th for Hong Kong, showed them around for a week or so.  I've never been back for Chinese New Years since I left when I was 5 and kicking myself for not coming back more often.  Was happy to meet relatives that I have never met and catch up with ones I have long since talked to.  Stuffing myself full to the brim everyday with good food and snacks.  Decided to go on a 2 week trip to Australia/New Zealand with my mom.  Need to plan where I am going to next.  I'm thinking living in Shanghai for a month or so, do some volunteer work and soak up as much language and culture as I can there before traveling the rest of Asia.  Whether all this will materialize or not we'll see in the next couple weeks.

India

After kissing Europe goodbye I proceeded to fly from Amsterdam to London, Istanbul, Mumbai, then finally to Goa, where I was to meet up with a close friend of mine along with his girlfriend and family.  Just, never take Turkish airlines or go through Turkey as a stopover.  I suffered a delayed flight (weather) and lost baggage, the staff never gave a sheet and never seem to get it together.  I'm not the one to normally complain about these things, but you need a ton of patience and wit to deal with these...peoples.  Anyway enough of the complaints, here is a taste of paradise under the Indian sun, and eventually a dark Indian sunburn.

 

I was fortunate enough to have my friend and his gracious family take care of me through the entire trip.  It's experiences like these that don't come often enough whether it's cuz of timing or money or lack of interest and motivation.  They owned a large property about 50 meters from the beach, with about 8-10 guestrooms excluding their own living quarters.  The tourists that mainly stay here are retired Europeans generally from England and Germany.  We Canadians like to call them snowbirds since they migrate here during the winter for 3-5 months at a time.  But recently the Indian tourist visa only limits them to a 3 months stay.  Another group of tourists that has recently dominated the area are the Russians.  The place is mostly overrun by Russian families and couples making the winter escape.  So much in fact that the menus and signs are written in Russian and catered especially for them.  There are flights connecting Goa directly to Moscow and obtaining a visa in advance is not required.  

All in all it was two weeks of pure sun, swim, sand.  Eat, beach, drink, sleep.  It was also living amongst the locals, which was my favorite point of the trip.  Although very conservative people their humility allows one to  "peek" into their daily lives and integrate into their culture and religion.  Beautiful.

Again thanks for the family for showing us around and facilitating this trip.