Advertisement
Goa
Sunset Having finished our 20 month "vacation" six months ago we felt it was time to properly finish our trip by updating the website to reflect our status, why we haven't done it before now I don't know, but here goes.....
We checked out of Singapore finally after dashing through the border here on a few occasions,we were the only westerners on our flight with cheap Tiger Airways in Singapore's low cost terminal,
unsurprisingly we found no Swimming Pools, wireless Internet or Rolex Watches unlike our last flight from this financial city, what we did find was a plane full of Indian passengers checking in 40 to 50 kilos each, every other passenger checking in Televisions or washing machines, obviously a few folk had been on a shopping trip in Singapore!
One plump chap in front of us in the Queue when told his bags were slightly over, patted his little pot belly exclaiming that he didn't weigh much and he shouldn't have to pay excess baggage!!!
We Landed in Chennai/Madras with the intention to spend 2 to 3 months in India, eventually we spent 3 weeks.
once we had passed through immigration and went through the usual scanning machines
Cows and Rickshaw
Typical Round-about that bleep every time (although your never checked!), we stepped into the Sweaty Indian air, even at 1AM the air was humid, and the terminal busy, tuk tuks and taxis buzzing around as if it was 1PM, we hired a ride into town and to our utter non surprise everywhere was closed,
we found one place open, a 24 hour hotel of sorts, being tired and weary we accepted the price without looking at the room, ( we haven't done this once on our trip until now) and boy did we pay for it, we had just checked into the worst room of our trip,
Myself and Rebecca aren't too fussy, a clean basic room is the usual requirement, we don't need satelitte TV or power showers, but this was poor beyond words.
We got ourselves a few hours shut eye, and decided the next morning to leave Chennai fairly quickly, we had plans to see other parts of India and this city was just a cheap entry point for us. finding quickly a weekly train to Goa was going that day we packed our bags, left the cockroaches behind and headed to the beaches.
The journey itself
Surrounded
"no really, I don't want anything..." Beckys words fall on deaf ears again. took 24 hours, sweeping from East to West coast, we plumped for the cheaper Hard sleeper category (take a pillow case and stuff it with clothes!),
The journey was an absolute steal for the equivalent of £3 each, the train was slow and stopped frequently, but the entertainment was fantastic, people jumping on and off, offering food and Chai for next to nothing, and we met people on the trip that after a few hours were your best friends! although it's sensible to be careful with your belongings on the trains, we both found it a good way to travel, and a welcome change from buses.
Having visited Goa about 15 times between us from our trolley dolly days, this was familiar ground and there was no need to become accustomed to our surroundings, we headed from Margao train station to Colva & Benaulim in South Goa, and found a delightful little spot on Sernabatim Beach, 1km south from Colva.
A few things have changed here despite our last visit being just 3 years ago, The most obvious is the amount of Russians that have decided this is their winter escape from freezing Moscow, not all of them
friendly, and not to castigate all Russians out there but we heard many stories from the locals that we knew so well, they will put on a smile and welcome for the new tourists but in reality, they weren't happy with the attitude of some.
Also, the introduction of Australian style flags to swim between for the locals. There had been a spate of drownings in Goa in recent years, many of them Indian tourists, that upon the rare sight of water, run in fully clothed, and get dragged under the surf.
To combat this, The Goan government have started employing famous Australian surfers to patrol the beaches and train locals to be lifeguards, hence in true Indian style, you have now a 50 yard section between the flags of about 400 Indians splashing each other with lifeguards watching intently,and about 10 miles of empty water either side.
Drownings are down so gladly this scheme is working....
Goa is still a great destination, if a little more toursity than how we remember it 5 years ago, this is the original hippy getaway, so a trip to Anjuna market to see wanabee hippies, and the real ones that never
Sleep
Throughout our Asian adventure we have been amazed at the capability of locals to sleep just about anywhere.... left, is interesting to say the least.
Prices have increased but it's still a bargain to anyone holding a euro, a dollar or a ruble.
Fresh Fish, top curries and cheap beer is all here for a bargain price, accommodation is generally cheap, and the trains although slow, are a snip.
Like I said earlier we had big plans for our Indian odyssey, in the end we sat on the beach and think in the end... just ran out of steam a little, nearly 2 years on the road and we had started to wane, other factors came into it, but when you start to lose the buzz of seeing something new and different, it's probably time to stop and recharge.
We headed to Bombay, and boarded our flight to London via Bahrain, there was a moment whilst boarding the connecting flight from Bahrain where we looked at each other for a moment, as if to say should we skip this? but it was time to go home.
Once in London and we were greeted with that oh so familiar scene of driving rain, and that annoying grey cloud that seems to hover above our head like a
cartoon sketch.
England hasn't changed a great deal, you now can't smoke in a bar, (great for us we don't smoke), we have a new primeminister with a head like a potato who seems to do the same as all the others, The EU has expanded and we now have another few million eastern Europeans to squeeze onto our tiny island, indeed the introduction everywhere of Polski Sklep (literally Polish Shop) is a sign of our multicultural times...
one thing that hasn't changed is the weather, better get booking a flight..........
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 17; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0514s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb