A Few Days In Paradise

Another straightforward flight and we arrived in Goa late in the afternoon. With Tom having some stomach issues and on a deadline to meet up again with Doug and Sasha at a prearranged point in Palolem the taxi option was chosen ahead of buses.


The taxi was fast but so the sunset was quicker and it was dark when we arrived. We found the others with no bother at all and set about finding a room.


Tom attempted an economy lesson with the chap where we stayed the first night but it fell on deaf ears. Despite having a hotel of mostly empty rooms he couldn't be persuaded that Rs1500 for four nights was a better bet than Rs400 for one. So after one we moved to where there was now space at the far more pleasant Pritam Cottages with the others.


By the beach we have reacquainted ourselves with alcohol which (Tripty's in Kolkata aside) has been mostly of the menu. It's difficult to think of better things to do between sitting enjoying the view, taking the occasional swim and sampling the freshly caught seafood.


Speaking of which, we hired a small boat to take us out on a fishing trip. With cocktails at stake, we were in competition to catch the most against another boat with some people we'd met the day before. We were victorious with a catch of only two fish, which later provided my evening meal at a nearby restaurant.


We also hired canoes and paddled to the nearby quieter Patnem beach, meeting the others for lunch, who had opted to get there by hired Enfield motorbike, which Doug became quite attached to and kept for two days.


It would have been very easy to stay longer than we have but the train booking to Mumbai won't move. It is nothing like any of the rest of India that we have seen, and after being the only white faces in Hyderabad it has been a change to be somewhere quite so touristy, but it's exceeded my expectations.


For now I'll call it paradise, when I've seen the beaches of Thailand and around maybe I'll give it a ranking. I can't help doing that sort of thing.

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