Arrival in Goa....

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Hello again everyone,

I think where I last left off we were still in Pune. So just very quickly on our last day we visited this yoga resort where Alice's aunt has been visiting the last 20 years. We met this guy who is very very big in the yoga world and is about 100 years old. We walked into this little room where we were told to bow and namaste and we told him of our connection to the place. He was extremely unphased and then send 'bless you goodbye' and that was it!

We then travelled back up to Mumbai to meet the wife of the man we were staying with. Her name is Minaxi and she was the most lovely women and they were so generous to us, giving us these little bags on our arrival and taking us for lunch and to the theatre. That night we went to the theatre to see a comedy version of hamlet which I have to say was the most fantastic piece of theatre I have ever seen. There wasn't any stage where my belly wasn't aching from laughing so hard - I was really impressed. I met one of the actresses afterwards and had a little chat with her which made me really excited about the subject I love so much! We then spent a day or two with Minaxi going for lunch and coffees, meeting her other son Kapeer who is also very nice.

We then took a 14 hour bus ride down the coast to Goa to a beach called Baga which is next to a place called Anjuna beach. The coach was actually lovely, it was a sleeper coach so we got a bed to ourselves with a little curtain so we sat and ate the dinner Minaxi had packed for us and fell asleep untill our arrival in the morning.

To say Goa (or north Goa at least) was not what we expected would be a complete understatement. We felt we had arrived in downtown Benidorm with the massive swarm of white brits, russians and germans. If you walk down the street and close your eyes, apart from the heat we could have been in liverpool. The beach is also really hectic, with people jammed across the entire stretch as people scramble for spare sunbeds and speed boats fill the shores so there is not much room for swimming. Around every 50 yards you walk down the beach you get approached to buy something off someone about 10 times. So its not to great to hang out during the day. The nightlife is quite good and we've been out the last couple of nights but again you cannot escape the tourists wherever you go. I've tried to spot '8 fingered eddie' and Alice 'Goa Gill' who feature in the guide books as some of those ancient hippies who roam the beaches and practice yoga as the sun comes up - we are yet to locate either.

Goa is also jam packed with hippies who have arrived here in the 70's and never returned. I have never seen so many bearded men in one area in my entire life. It's quite comic to see them walking round in their long tatted t'shirts and grey hair down to their bums. There are alot of dreadlocked quite obviously rich London boys as well who have come to 'find themselves'.

Taxi's from Baga to Anjuna beach are quite expensive for the short 15 minute ride so Alice and I, thinking we're really cool, hired a little scooter for 3 pounds a day including petrol. So we've been bombing around on that which has been nice as we've been more free in going where we want where we want.

We're still booked into our hotel untill tomorrow but then I think we shall make a swift move towards the south in hope of finding somewhere less crowded and more what we are looking for. Will keep you updated!

Lots of love xx

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