Beaches and Trance - The Goan Experience

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Hello people.

So, off we went from Kochi to Goa. The overnight train was pretty good except that it arrived at our destination at 5 am and that we realised when we had to get off a little to late so had to jump off as the train statred to move. We were all uninjured but three other backpacker all fell over.

Now arriving at 5 am might sound bad but we soon got a tuk tuk to the

beach at Palolem, found a disused lifegaurds plaform and sat on it

until the sun came up. This was actually really quite fun.

Palolem is beautiful. A stretch of white sand ( about 10mins walk form

end to end) in a seltered bay with palm trees all the way along the

beach as well as beach huts and bars/resturaunt. It was actually fairly

quiet all the time we were there and the beach was by no means crowded.

We found ourselves some nice little 'co-co'huts that we could see the

sea from, all be it though the bar. We spent three days doing what

sound be done on a beach. Getting up late, walking 10 meters to the

resturant, reading and eating musli and fresh fruit, going for a swim,

showering, walking 100 meters for lunch, reading some more, walking

into town for tea.

On our last day we decided to be really active so we went on a dolphin

spotting trip at 7am. This was great as the sun only rises about 7 so

so got to watch a beautiful goan sunrise from our tinyfishing boat. We

also saw some dolphins! I've never seen them before and it was great.

We saw them playing in the water and several of them jumped right out

and did back flips. The sightings of them were pretty fleeting but it

was great all the same. The boat then took us to a tiny beach on a rock

island. We were the only people there and the swiming was amazing. It

was more like being in a salt swiming pool than the sea.

To continue our action packed day we went for massarge. Here this

involves being platered in oil head to foot. It was pretty good but i

definatly prefer the thai massage, mainly because you get to keep you

clothes on.

Now no trip to Goa is complete without experiencing the goan pay secne.

So, we headed north to Vagator, which is know for it's trance scene. On

arrival Sam got the runs so Racheal and I went to the Saturday night

market. This is a slightly strange affair as is is run almost entirly

but westerners for westerners. It's basically lots of expats selling

stuff that you could get in the UK but for slightly less than UK

prices. It's a fun place to go as there are lots of food stalls and

live music too. I ended up spending my christmas money (thank you mummy

and Daddy) on a neclace and braclet, which are the most expensive

jewelry i have ever bought but are very nice (don't worryi don have a

recipe incase they get lost/stollen). However my 'most expensive

jewelry i have ever bought' was actually 50 quid so i still have lots

of money left.

Westerners in Goa are a big buntch of wierdos (in a good way) who all

seem to wear as little as possible and of the most flurescnet colour

possible. Dose anyoe know why thong bikinis are in fashion?

Sam managed to recover byt our second evening so we got dressed up (put

on something clean) and went out to nine bar. This is a megga cool club

in Vagator. It has a DJ who plays trance music, mch like clubs at

home...BUT, the dance floor is open air and surrounded by palm trees.

You can dance in UV light while lookin up at the stars. This is f***ing

awesome!!!!! The only trouble is that it closes at 10pm. Going home at

10 after clubbing just doesn't feel right but probably benifitted us

this morning as the stingy guest house had 10am check out.

This afternoon we visited a charity called 'childern walking tall'.

They do some pretty cool work with kids in the slums and are british

run. It was interesting being shown around and seeing what they are up

to.

Now we are in the arse end of nowhere AKA Vasco - da - Gamma. We have a

very early train from here to Hampi. After that sam and I are heading

north and Racheal is going to Bangkok (this wasn't planned, she just

turned up at the beach hut one day and anounced she had bought a plane

ticket).

So thats about all for now folkes. Take care and keep in touch.

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Comments

[Joss]

Hi from cold Slavinia!
Hi Jen. great to hear you're still having a good time! Im in Ljubljana (capital of Slavina) for a couple of days with some uni friends. its really beautiful. weve bee nwalking around all day and tomorrow we're gonna go see some cavesthen a band called terrorfolk in the evening. last night was a large one invololving way too much beer, wine, tequila, rum, vodka and quite a bit of absinthe. eeeeeeeeeergh. had a good time but i wont be drinking that much for a while! say hi to sam for me and tell him to get his arse in gear and do some blogging! its not like he doesnt have time! anyway im off. keep having a good time, try not to dwell on your return too much. cya! XXX