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Published: October 6th 2008
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August 17, 2008 The day of hassle begins at the Mumbai Airport. We arrived at 4 am, my bag cover now has a rip in it, a Chinese student latched on to us and began talking our ear off! We needed a place to sleep for the day and hopefully grab a train that night to Goa. I called a place and we were going to get a taxi in to stay there.
But I thought I would make a new friend at the AirTel counter! He seemed very happy and helpful and went out of his way to help us. Martin dragged us to a different area where he had a van waiting and he even came with us to a hotel that he knew. (TROUBLE!!) Well he was just feeding us info the entire time to make us trust him more. Saying it just wouldn’t be possible for us to get a train that night, it would be best to take a bus.
Once we got to the hotel, he outlined what it would be that we’d be getting, a room for the day, breakfast, drinks, transport to the bus, the bus and
“everything”! (I am still wondering what “everything” includes seeing as he already listed what would be in our package)
For only 90$each we could get all this!
We did not like the sounds of this price, nor feel comfortable! So we told our new found friend Martin we’d be on our way, without the amazing package. He seemed to think that we were really missing out on the best deal around and we’d be hard pressed to find better!
We took a rickshaw back to the airport so that we could get a pre-paid taxi to the hotel that I’d originally planned on going to. The driver and I agreed on 50Rs ( about a dollar) to get to the airport, once we arrive, he starts saying 20Rs more! I just walked away and let Dale deal with it! Dale was like 50Rs or 0Rs. The driver took the 50.
My favourite part of the whole hassle was that Martin told us he was on his way home for the day and it really wasn’t out of his way to take us to this hotel- we saw him back at the airport when we were waiting
for our taxi.
Checked into the Hotel New Bengal to find a VERY tiny room, with a shared bathroom for maybe 15$. It was steep, but we really had to rest. It was easy for us to get train tickets… oh Martin and your con like ways. Our train left the station that was right next to the hotel at about 11pm and we arrived in sunny Goa at 12:30 the next day!
August 18, 2008- August 25, 2008 We are here in the off-season, and it has been pretty great! It had been raining for 15 days straight and since we’ve arrived we’ve had nothing but beautiful blue sunny skies!
Could not have been any luckier!
Stayed at Anjuna Beach, and definitely feel like it was the right choice. We are about a kilometer from the beach, but it has been no problem, 4 of the 7 days here we had a scooter! Our hotel name was the Orange House and it has been fantastic (minus a couple cockroaches).
This area was settled by Catholics, so there is a huge Christian feel here. There are many churches and little candles in
front of crosses on the side of the road.
We took lots of little trips to other beaches and towns nearby. Went to Mapusa, the main town near here for the ATM and had some ice cream. Also hit up Vagator beach, right next to Anjuna. While we were there, started talking to the girls that sell jewelry and sarongs, most of them around 16 years old, can speak fluent English but have never been inside a school. All of a sudden the police pull up and they all ran down the cliff to hide! The lady at our hotel told us that the police have been cracking down on the sellers- that they have to have a license.
One day we went to Baga and Calagute Beach, really nice beach and had a busier town than Anjuna. Ate some lunch there and bought a purse and a shirt. I think if we weren’t staying in Anjuna, Baga would be a great place to stay.
Drove out to Maglim beach… it was nothing like we were hoping! It was completely deserted, no development along the beach, and quite dirty. Didn’t spend too much time there.
Ended
up taking a whole day to try and book our train tickets out of Goa! We were hoping to leave on Saturday, but the train we wanted to Jaipur was only leaving on Monday. Gosh, I guess we’ll just have to stay in this tropical paradise for another 3 days, it’s going to be rough! We did have to take the scooter about 45 minutes to the nearest train station so that we could buy these train tickets!
We also organized the rest of our time in India, and it seems that we don’t have quite as much time as we thought that we had! We cut out an area we were hoping to get to, but I’m not worried about it!
Saturday was our best day in Goa, didn’t take the scooter that day, and walked to the beach. Lounged on the beach for a few hours and walked to the other end of the beach to a restaurant called Curlies. It was a super chill bar with an amazing view of the ocean and great music. We spent another few hours there hanging out. Over dinner we listened to a French guy explain to a Kiwi
couple his adventures of being in an Indian police station for the night because he got into a fight with a couple Indian guys.
We are sad to say good bye to Goa, but we must move on sometime! So we are off on a 30+ hour train ride to Jaipur. I’ll make sure that my iPod and Nintendo DS are all charged up to ensure entertainment for the majority of the ride!
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