Goa

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If you Goa to San Francisco...you'll find less hippies than here.

The train to Madgaon was very comfortable. The few beers we had in the air conditioned bar across the road from Victoria Terminus helped...but actually, the trains are incredible. On an over night train, you can get AC1 (only on a few trains, and you share a cabin with one other person), AC2, where you share with 3 others, and AC3, in which you share with 5 others. Even in AC3, you can be quite comfortable - it's just a matter of headroom, and when you're sleeping it doesn't really matter. You get a pillow, sheet, light and heavy covers, and a little towel. Aww. Before bed time, the train boys walk up and down with chai (sweet tea with ginger, for the uninitiated), water and snacks. If you are on a slightly earlier train, you can get a very nice and cheap dinner on board too. Breakfasts and lunches are also available, if you're on a real long distance train. The food quality is surprisingly good, and wallet friendly - while a train from Sligo to Dublin costs around 44 Euro, and a tea on board costs almost 3, our train from Mumbai to Madgaon (770km), with a bed, with awesome service, with everything working (lights, fans, air cons, taps), cost a mere 12 Euro. Had we gone without air con, it would have been about 6 Euro. Oh, and tea costs about 7.5 CENTS. We are being ROBBED every day in Ireland. The only problem with India trains is that they are always booked out - at least 2 weeks in advance on popular routes. The reasons for this are: 1) It costs almost nothing to cancel, so people book 5 or 6 trains and cancel the others when they get a confirmation; 2) 1.2 billion people buy a lot of tickets; and 3) Indian train company sets aside a number of seats for police, military, politicians, etc., though these are given to others if not used. There is almost always a way to get on your train, and into your chosen class, as long as you don't just show up on the day with nothing booked. Many stations have a quota of tourist tickets, available only to foreign nationals, so even if the train appears booked you may get on that way.

So, Goa it was anyway. Madgaon is the commercial centre of the southern part of Goa, and the best place to catch a connecting bus. We arrived after a nice train-sleep, and looked for a cab from the train station to the bus stand. We were joined by Pip, an English girl with only a few days to visit Goa. As it turned out, the guy who stopped to give us a lift wasn't a cabbie, but very kindly brought us to town anyway. The bus stand was fairly chaotic; most of the buses are private, so there is no such thing as a schedule or information board. We managed to find the bus to Palolem - highly recommended beach resort - and it cost 30 Rupees (about 50 cents). The journey was...interesting, with plenty of blind-corner overtaking of other buses, near misses with cement lorries over large drops and near-homicides of motorbike riders. White knuckles slowly returned to a rosy pink, and we stepped into the coastal paradise of Palolem. This is the first time I have been in a real tropical coastal region, and it is just like you would imagine it to be. Palm and coconut trees, long beaches, coconut huts lining the shore, hot temperature, warm seas, isolation and long beaches. I said long beaches twice, but there are an awful lot of them. Palolem is a particularly good one. A tropical paradise, the beach is lined with palms and lapped by big, fun waves. No new concrete construction is allowed, so everything fits in and looks natural - the government went so far as to bulldoze illegal buildings a few years ago. Palolem is just far enough south that it is not swarmed with tourists like northern beaches (though it is still very busy in high season). The beach and water are clean, relatively speaking. This being India, there is still plenty of paper, cardboard and cigarette butts to be found. The water itself is uncontaminated though, and there is a big effort on to eliminate any glass waste on the beach. The waves at Palolem are not huge, and are perfect for body surfing. There is a slight motion along the beach - leave your sandals down and go for a swim for a bit, and then you notice they're 150 meters back up the beach from you. It's far from dangerous though, as the waves constantly push you towards the shore. We found a place called Janisha, which had a very good restaurant and bar. We opted to stay at another place, called Seagull, as it had cheap air conditioned rooms. My philosophy was to avoid air con rooms and get accustomed to the heat, but this doesn't really happen, so you may as well be comfortable in the night. Also, with air con, you can close the window to the mosquito menace (Goa is not a malaria zone, but the bites are very irritating).

From Seagull, it was about 60 seconds to the beach. The little street it was on also contained the best shops - stocked with everything from locally made bags to crack pipes. I shit you not, actual crack pipes. Goa is famed for its drugs. More than once, we were offered "hash, or anything you need". A lot more than once. It is not really safe to mess around with drugs here; plain clothes police roam the beach, and there are many scams where a seller will give you something, then tell a cop, who makes you pay a "special fine" and confiscates it - giving it back to the seller later to repeat the scam. Quite aside from that, there is no guarantee of purity; you could be buying just about anything. Robert befriended an English guy who claimed that he had a "feud" with the Goa police. He had gotten away, but the police then framed his friend and locked him up for 3 years. I reckon this guy was full of shit, but it is the kind of thing that can happen. As to why Robert befriended him, I can't really say. Politely. Many Russians and Israelis come to Goa and take vast quantities of drugs; so much so that Israel has now made it law that their citizens can visit only once in 3 years. The drug pushers don't force it on you though, just say no firmly and walk away and it's not a problem. The people trying to sell jewellery are another story; you need to be quite forceful to get them to leave. I threatened to throw one guys merchandise into the ocean, and still he sat there until I actually grabbed it. Indians deal with each other very harshly, so we can appear soft to them by being polite.

This is not to detract from wonderful Goa though. We spent so much of our time lounging in the sun, taking a dip when we were warm, catching up on our books, drinking beers and cocktails and eating lovely food - and it just feels RIGHT here, like there is nothing else that you should be doing. I think being in Goa extends your life by making you forget how stress feels. We rented scooters to explore the area around Palolem (scooters cost about 2-4 Euro per day). Zooming around at 70kph in the heat was beyond pleasant, though the lack of helmets and the aforementioned Indian driving skills called for a significant amount of attention and pant-wetting. After seeing some incredible scenery from hilltops, and exploring little villages and back roads, we returned to the beach and pretty much sat and swam for a couple of days. When this became simply too exhausting, we headed south to get away from the hectic pace. Goukarna is in Karnataka state, just below Goa, and is somewhat off the tourist radar. We took the train down from Canacona, next to Palolem. We only had a general ticket, so seats were out of the question. I dropped my bag on a muslim ladies head while trying to put it away - she barely blinked. Locals are way more used to crowds on the train. Goukarna is a medium sized town with a not very pleasant beach. It is crowded and dirty; there is one good restaurant there however, the Prema. A doctor recommended it as clean when Robert was feeling a little unwell. The Goukarna market was quite interesting, filled with Indian women bickering over the price of ginger. All kinds of fruit and veg were on sale, though hygiene was not brilliant. Goats and cows plucked from the stands wilfully. We rented some proper motorbikes - 125cc only, but better than scooters - and drove the 9km to Om beach. Om is incredible. Only Kudleh beach, next to Om, was more deserted. And Om was much more fun, with constant waves in the left bay and calm waters to the right. We stayed at a little place near the end of the beach furthest from the road, and hung out at a place nearby called Dolphin Café. Our place was cool; restaurant and bar out front, completely rustic, and huts in the back. We actually stayed in a concrete building, but there was a scorpion and several frogs and gecko in the room when we showed up, so it felt pretty jungle-y. As a matter of fact, Om beach is about as far off the grid as I have been - except for the Okavango Delta maybe. Its savage, uncomplicated beauty is complimented by the fact that you are un-disturbable. No mobile signals, no landline, no hassle. We used our bikes well for a couple of days and had a good look around, especially when descending the rocky, dusty road to Kudleh beach for a dip on a deserted shore. After dropping the bikes off, we returned to Om for our last night in Karnataka. We headed back to Palolem, and rented scooters again. This time, we were more adventurous, heading a good way up the coast to see Agonda (savage waves) and the Cabo de Rama fort. Cabo de Rama is a leftover from Portugese occupation; the walls are crumbling and overgrown, but it is a magical area. Brimming with archaeological interest, the only anachronism at the fort is a more recent Catholic church built in the grounds. It, too, is quite old though, and while it seems to be in use, it was abandoned when we got there. We rang the bell, which had a rope hanging down to the front door. No answer, though maybe people showed up for prayers early that day. The walls of the fort made for a nice, if virtigo-inducing, walk, with truly magical views of the coastline and wooded hills.

During the bike tour, we got a little sunburned on the legs. Sitting still in the sun was too much, even though I used sunscreen. We decided to chill out the next day in the shade; that turned into 3 days. We did absolutely nothing, and for perhaps the first time since I was a child, I had the feeling that there was nothing else in the world I should be doing. Sit, read, drink, swim, read, drink...repeat as desired. We slept long hours, and mulled the options for moving on. In the end, we settled on Benaulim. A busier beach in season, Benaulim was mercifully quiet when we arrived - well, there were a lot of Indian tourists, but they stuck only to the first restaurant on the beach. We took lodgings at a place called L'Amour, staffed by some fairly ineffectual individuals, including the man with the single worst wig in history. A flap stuck up at the front where it should have been glued, and a large gap at the back showed where his bald spot had grown since he bought it. Still, the room was clean and cool, and the food was good. It was also about a two minute walk to the beach. In truth, we were somewhat lucky to get there when we wanted to. The day before we left Palolem, some local tribes in Balli (10km from Palolem) took umbridge at the goverments total disregard for their existence and torched 15 police and army vehicles, blocking the road; they also ripped up a section of rail. When we passed through the area, it was all pacified again, though some soldiers were standing around. We met two German blokes, Joe and Krystof, and decided to make a day trip with them. We rented 4 scooters, and set off on a loop around the area. We passed through Ponda, a medium sized town, and headed for Old Goa. Between these two towns, there are three major temples; we visited two that were near the road, taking in the size and complexity of these wonderful spaces. Each has rooms for pilgrims and vast water features, not to mention the wonderful, colourful sculptures and paintings that adorn a Hindu temple. In Old Goa, we visited a huge Catholic cathedral. Old Goa was the capital of Goa in Portugese occupation, and the cathedral was built in that time. A huge white edifice bears doors to the internal space; inside, the cathedral appears even larger. It was rich and gaudy, and kind of repulsive given the poverty of the locals. Outside, a tree seemed to share my opinions on religion (see picture). We had lunch in a small town further along the road, then headed south to Benaulim again. On the way south, we crossed an impressive bridge, perhaps 750m long. The river, bridge, railway bridge, forests and setting sun made for some lovely pictures. The German guys headed on in the morning, and we resolved to make plans to move on also...in a while. After some more relaxing. We formed another group with two new Germans and Two Fins, and an India bloke who had worked in Amsterdam. The Indians who have been abroad tend to be good company, as they have tasted western life for what it is and have a more realistic picture of us. We relaxed for a few days, going into Margao for to buy some food for a huge dinner. We bought a vast bag of vegetables and fruit for about 2 Euro; amazing. The dinner was also amazing, a tomato sauce containing every kind of exotic veg we could lay our hands on. We also had boiled spuds! Very Irish.

On the 29th of May, there was a little rain at 19:08; the next morning a ferocious rain at 6 in the morning. The first rains of Monsoon, as it turned out. We had a few clear days still, then moved up north on 1st June. Our train took us to Mumbai, leaving at 09:30 and arriving after 23:00. We crashed out for the night, then boarded a train to Ahmedabad...and immediately boarded another train, to Udaipur. The Rajasthan adventure began on 3rd of June.

Goa was beyond words. It is a strong competitor for my favourite place on this trip. The greatest band in the world, the Manic Street Preachers, had a member go missing in 1995. He - Richey Edwards - has not been seen since, though the band have always said they believe he is alive. The most reliable sighting of Richey was in Goa. It would be a perfect place to disappear; nobody would find you if you wanted to stay lost, and it is about as close to paradise on earth as I can imagine. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations are intense. There are just so many moments that will live in your memory forever. Like when I was floating in the water on Om beach and a hawk caught a thermal and stayed directly over me, just floating there and looking at me. Or when the sun set at Benaulim, then caught moisture on the horizon and the sky reignited. I cannot reccommend Goa highly enough, particularly during low season when obnoxious Russians and ubiquitous hippy wannabes with stinking, diseased dreadlocks are absent. I will return here one day, and perhaps many times after that.

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