Travels :: Goa, INDIA {Part III}

CREDITS

Photo : M Studio Life
Location : Goa, India

Event : CIAS 2013

Reporting : Maggie Ng
Photo/Video : M Studio Life
Event : Canadian International Auto Show 2013

Travel : Goa, India {Part II}

This is a continuation of the last post for Goa, India — Grand Hyatt Goa.  Every Thursday evenings they have a “Seafood Night Market”.  So for an extra 800 rupees, you can enjoy some fresh seafood for dinner, such as lobster, shrimps, etc.  There is also an outdoor market that sells jewelry, umbrellas, artwork, spices, etc. There are even drummers performing intermittingly — it’s quite festive!

Words + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Goa, India {Part I}

This post features the Grand Hyatt Goa, a 5-Star hotel, which was our accommodations while staying in Goa, India.  We mostly ate at the buffet restaurant, which had a nice selection of food.  Some spicy and some non-spicy, which was perfect for me, since I’m a wimp and can’t handle the spice! They had tons of dessert too, YUM!  I was trying to be good with my eating, since I totally pigged out on the cruise trip recently, but nope, I was tempted by all this delicious food again!  Go figure!  I really enjoyed our stay, as the suite we got was really luxurious.  The bed was so comfy and they had complimentary slippers, shoe shine, and a rain spa shower head.  We also had a spacious balcony, which overlooked the beautiful pool.  And only a few minutes walk away, was a private beach.  A really relaxing and serene place to be.  After having traveled to New Delhi the year before and seeing how chaotic it can be there, you really appreciate the beauty of Goa.

CREDITS
Words + Photos : M Studio Life

Travel : Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe

Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe was another interesting port of call via Royal Caribbean “Brilliance of the Seas”.  It was highly recommended by the Cruise Director to book a tour via the cruise, as there wasn’t as much to do near the dock and not many local tours available.  So we decided to book the Hindu Temple/Waterfall tour.  I’m generally not that big of a fan of booking excursions through the cruise, as you’re usually packed into a big air conditioned bus with 40 other people.  Usually if you book a local tour, it’s only 8-10 people and they let you take photos out the window and/or they stop more often at different sites.  And usually the guide has more character and is typically really funny. 

Never-the-less, we tried to make the most of it.  Kind of disappointed, but when our cruise tour bus took us to the Hindu Temple, we were not allowed in because it was closed.  So we could only take photos from the outside.  Our 2nd stop was Carbet Falls, which was really nice.  We trekked through the rainforest until we got to the end of the trail and saw one of the main waterfalls — although there was a big tree in the way…oh well.  A cool thing about Gaudeloupe is the shape of the island — looks like a butterfly.  After our tour, we walked around town to check out some of the local shops.  Surprisingly, pharmacy drug prices were relatively cheap, you can get a 30 pk of ibuprofen for approx $3.50 USD.  I guess we should’ve stocked up!

CREDITS

Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Basseterre, St. Kitts

Basseterre, St. Kitts was another interesting port via Royal Caribbean “Brilliance of the Seas” Cruise.  All the shops are pretty much at the port once you get off the ship.  We were greeted by many locals with monkeys wearing diapers asking if we wanted to take a picture with it — we politely declined. We were tempted to rent a scooter and just ride around the island on our own, but thought it might be too tiring, so we opted to do a local bus tour. 

There was a cool “Rum Tree”, where people could hang their empty rum bottles to the tree.  Close by was an example of Carib Petroglyph Rock Drawings. On a side note : those that are interested in becoming doctors, there are many medical schools in St. Kitts ; people often fly in from India, US, etc to study here.  Continuing with the tour, we stopped off at Romney Manor, where we saw the Saman Tree and Lipstick Plant. There were also demos of batik-making in the shop.  Later we stopped off to see the volcanic black sand beach.  To quench our thirst, we got some fresh coconut juice — which was sooo good!

CREDITS
Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]