Goa

I was desperate for the beach!  Kamini and a bunch of her teacher friends from school were going to Goa to go to a family temple to say some prayers and make an offering because one of the teachers sons had done well in his exams - this is an Indian thing to do for sure!  The temple was located more than an hour from the beach but I knew I could escape to the sand if I went with them.  It took a 12 hour train journey from Pune...

...but it was worth it!  Too long between beaches is not good for the soul and even though there were plenty of people around I loved the experience of being in the water and having my toes on the hot sand!

We hired some beach chairs at a beach hut -as you do in Goa...

There were lots of cows on the beach so I made Kamini pretend to be one too...

 

We joined everyone else on the beach for sunset - once they had finished their prayers at the temple.  It was warm and beautiful!

 
We were there long enough for the moon to come out to play with Kirti...

The next day we visited four temples in the morning and I saw cashew nuts growing for the first time in my life...

The train journey back through the beautiful Konkan Coast forest with water falls and monkeys was awesome!  We arrived back into Pune station at 4am in plenty of time to get organised and head to work a little weary and sun burnt but it was so worth it!