Goa fun and games

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January 16th 2011

Published: January 16th 2011

The journey down to Goa on the night bus wasn't too bad. Our very friendly yet expensive travel agent guy told us that it'd be a nightmre for us on the cheaper bus and we should book the even more expensive sleeper option but our budget wouldn't allow that so we persisted and got the cheap seats. About half way along the road we stopped for a break at a roadside dhaba, the place seamed clean enough but a little too expensive for my stomach so we munched on the crisps we'd brought with us and relaxed in an empty bus for a while. Soon enough the bus filled back up and we were moving once again.

Arrival in goa was a little bit of a round and about mission of sorts as we went straight through Mapusa to Panjim and got off the bus, we were then told that the bus to Anjuna left from Mapusa! We got a bus for 10Rs each back to Mapusa then another, also 10Rs each from Mapusa to Anjuna. Anjuna itself was pretty empty after the christmas and new year fun but when we arrived, there was still some things going on. We walked down the road and it was difficult to hide the fact that we were new to the area with our bags so we got swarmed by everyone that was in the street:

"you see my shop!"
"You need room?"
"You want good smoke? manali cream..."
"Ali baba, you want? t-shirt?"
"Taxi? tuk-tuk?"

We'd just spent 14 hours on a bus at this point so the answers to all these questions, interesting and tempting as they all were to someone on a very tight budget, was "no, thank you." but that very rarely works here. I ended up with a small army of indians following me down the road haggling with each other in hindi while trying to drag me off down alleys to see rooms for rent or charace or little shops in closets in family homes. After most of these first wave of guys got bored and walked off so we used our time wisely and found a place to stay for 200Rs. a night, it was nice enough; bed, table, fan and an outside loo. Thats about all we really wanted was a bed, a roof and a lockable door so we had somewhere to store our bags.

Goa was everything i'd expected it would be and nothing like i'd heard. Sunbeds up and down the whole beach with hundreds of pastey people tanning themselves in the sun or flirting with one another, dozens of indians walking up and down the beach selling everything from fruit to dvds, massages and henna to laser pointers. The odd cow or two turned up and had a stroll down the beach too, which was a little... well, odd. The party scene seams to be dead and long since buried in Goa now, all that remains is cafe's, shops, a few bars and a dwindling reputation.

One morning, there came a knock at my room, upon opening the door i discovered a very slim and curvy blonde girl... which was nice... then around the corner came our aussie friend with morning greetings! We sat and chilled out in the room, made a couple of chillums and had breakfast then the two girls left and went to the beach on their own personal missions to get laid! Both, i'm happy to report, were a raging success! The blonde it turned out worked in the porn industry and ended up havin a threeway encounter with the aussie and a swedish guy one day, not long after getting evicted from two seperate hotels in one night!... 'Extravagant Delights'... Jill came back and we got washed and changed before heading to the beach ourselves. A lot of time was spent on Anjuna beach just lounging around and drinking, theres not much else to do there really...

A txt came through from my mate back home reminding me that he still owed me some money which was a most welcome thing as we were completely broke at this point, a little arranging and it was in the bank and all of a sudden, we didn't have to rush off back home anymore... we toyed with the idea and changing the flights again, back and forth until one day i said "sod it, lets just go home." the next day, we booked a train to Delhi then went shopping for the last time in india.

The last night in goa was supposed to be a party till the early hours, but it never came out like that. we all headed off down the beach and went in search of a party, we stopped at a bar for drinks and along came the russian couple we met in Diu so on we went further down the beach, nine of us at this point. At about midnight, the only place with music on stopped the music and closed, we'd been there for around 5 minutes... so much for a party! we went our on to the beach, found a place to sit and had a smoke. hovering around us were 2 little street kids, both boys who were loitering and generally being suspiscious for a while, we all got up and started to make our way home and these little rascals dissapeared. thinking nothing of it i collect up my bits and head off myself. At the far end of the beach, we're all walking a few minutes apart and heading up the same way. The first two go up... nothing. Our aussie bird... nothing. the russians... no-one about. We head up and straight in fron us appears two guys in 'Goa Police' hi-vis jackets wtih torches who were just stood there waiting for us, they stopped us in the narowest bit of the path and went to search us, they opened jills bag and shone a torch at it then turned to me and stripped mine out. Thankfully i was out and it was my last day but that didn't stop them finding something that i am almost 100% sure wasn't there for him to find so they confiscated my tin and the contents of my wallet and left saying 'don't tell anyone about this!' - Now i really am not sure whether these guys were police officers... They weren't wearing khaki, they had no i.d. of any sort, the words they used didn't sound right and they were skittish, as if they were selling pills in another dealers club. Plus the fact that they left on a scooter and were only interested in me says that they were oportunists in cahoots with the street kids. I asked the main one as he left if i could have my baccy tin back and said "i take this to show" at which point i thought to myself 'show'? show who? you've taken a bribe you dick, who you gonna show?! but hey-ho...

A word of warning... if you see street kids around you on Anjuna beach at night, your probably gonna get busted. Just incase, heres a description of the guys in question:

ones about 6 feet tall, short hair, the other was about 5'6" and wearing a cap, the taller of the two was quite calm and collected, the shorter was running around being very dodgy, early to mid twenties, no facial hair, wearing jackets down to the knee with Hi-Vis stripes on with 'GOA POLICE' written inside the stripes at the bottom. Very very shifty characters, seen next to 'San Fransisco's' at the end of the beach.

Everything about said they were anything but police... has anyone called these guys bluffs before? would like to hear about it.

Anyway... off to Delhi in the morning so bed for me... good night.

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