DISCOVER GOA
ALESSANDRA'S INDIA
Discover Goa, and through this small state, the rest of India, through the eyes of Alexandra.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
OF ECOLOGICAL TRAVELERS
WELCOME TO EASY TRAVEL HOSTING! CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHAT PUSHED YOU TOWARDS GOA?
As a young girl I read a book by Fallaci, "Useless Sex". It may sound strange but that's what sparked my passion for India for the first time.
Since then it has always been my secret dream, a dream that due to my work at the airport which lasted 22 years, I will realize many years later thanks to a long period of waiting.
India must be explored calmly, with a great spirit of adaptation and, in my opinion, preferably alone. I ended up in Goa during a monsoon to catch my breath after a long tour of Kerala and I fell in love with it. Green, very green, colourful, Portuguese. I returned the following year and every year since then until the final choice to live here.
It's always hot, I live in a village and therefore little traffic and few people around, unless you go looking for it and then between raves and trance parties you are spoiled for choice. Don't count on me in this case, I'm completely uninterested :))
I have been living with Ivan, from Mumbai but who has been working in Goa for 12 years, for almost four years and I couldn't be happier with the choice I made.
WE READ THAT YOU STOPPED IN LAOS IN THE 4000 ISLANDS. A PLACE THAT WE TOO LOVED! COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR TRIP TO LAOS?
Ah well, Fallaci was quickly replaced by Terzani, Laos has arrived like this. I landed in Luang Prabang from Thailand and it was love at first sight. Luang Prabang is beautiful. I was only supposed to stay three days but I stayed much longer.
I was staying in a rather cheap guest house, with a sink that leaked buckets of water and a bricked-up window. But the location was enviable for that price and the other guests were very nice. I had made friends with a Chinese girl who loved Italian espresso. It goes without saying that, as a good Sicilian, I always go around with the mocha.
Every morning I made coffee, she grabbed the coffee pot, ran to the market where they roasted the meat, placed it on the grill and walked back with small happy steps. It's one of my best memories.
In Vientiane, however, I spent the evenings with an Indian girl, also traveling alone, drinking disgusting white wine sitting along the illuminated river. The three things I know about Hindi were taught to me by her.
I toured Laos on a night bus, sleeping in those tiny bunks with kitsch upholstery to share with a stranger. I arrived in Pakse without having the slightest idea of how to get to the 4000 Islands but luckily it turned out to be easier than expected. I rented a bicycle and spent ten unforgettable days wandering from place to place regularly followed by dogs who are my favorite travel companions.
At the time I didn't know that I would quit my job, that I would start a blog and that I would move to Goa. I walked around with a notebook and sat on the floor to take notes. The notebook remained in Italy, who knows where.
WE SAW YOU DO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL: YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANIMAL RESCUE IN GOA. COULD YOU TALK ABOUT IT?
Speaking of dogs. One arrives in India with the romantic idea of a place where all animals are free and sacred. No, wrong, Indians also belong to the human race and are not free from evil and cruelty, like everywhere else in the world. I also witnessed two cow stabbings.
But the most mistreated are the dogs. Thousands of strays in packs on every street corner. Some in such conditions that you look around and wonder if all those people are blind.
I ended up by chance in a group of feeders, that is, those who feed the animals by dividing the areas. But not only this. There is the problem of sterilization, of mass anti-rabies vaccination, of saving those who have been run over and left to die for days. Gastro enteritis, distemper – none of these dogs are vaccinated – and worms. They call them maggots, a gruesome thing, they are the larvae of flies and they eat them alive.
I live near the animal rescue, known as WVS Worldwide Veterinary Service and it is a grace that has fallen from heaven. During the lockdown, when it was impossible to move from home, the WVS demanded feeder travel passes from the government. I got it after ten days and I assure you that it was heartbreaking to go out and find them skeletal. Luckily we have recovered many of them, the situation has returned to normal.
WHAT DO YOU DO TO MAKE YOUR LIFE GREENER?
The state of Goa has a high rate of education and is quite wealthy. It plans to become plastic free in a few years. In the residence where I live we do waste separation. I should think that after collection, the garbage will all go to the same place and be burned like they do in the neighboring village. But the guy who collects it, if he doesn't find glass and plastic well sorted, starts shouting epithets in Hindi so I tend to believe that he will actually do the recycling.
I do what I do everywhere, I don't leave anything lying around.
I buy drinking water in 20-litre bottles which I regularly bring back as soon as they are empty. I don't have a car despite the monsoon and I only shop with canvas bags.
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Alessandra so much for showing us her India.
If you want to find out more about her project, you can follow her on her website by clicking here. And on social media too!
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