Down South in Goa

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Caught the 14 hour(was suppose to be 12) to Goa. Our intentions in Goa was to do absolutely nothing. We booked a spot in the second class A/c sleeper. It wasnt to bad at all apart from the hard bed but thats not a complaint, to be expected. The train systems seem to be brilliant in India and its the main form of transport. A bit of useless info here::: India railways is the biggest employer in the world with 1.7 million employees and it shows. Dozens of people on the trains offering food and loads waiting to help when your waiting on the platform. The train stations however(in the big cities) were horrible, thousands of people all the time and most of them homeless.

Got to Goa's main station which was an hour away from Palolem(wrong spelling im sure but im to lazy to look!!). Caught a bus with 4 swiss and 1 german girl we met in the station. The bus cost 16 rupees(30 cent). After a little searching we found some( very cheap) accommodation. The room was boiling and stank but was clean and for 6 euro i aint complaining. Finally got some decent food with the Natilie and then had a much deserved beer!!

The difference a day makes. When we were looking for accommodation the day before we had to walk down the beach and to be honest it looked a bit shitty. With the overcast weather, cows and dogs patrolling the beach, the people trying to flog crap to you it didnt look that nice at all. But the next day we woke up and the place was beautiful and came close to being as spectactular as Kao Tao(nearly). The cows and dogs were still there and the touts wouldnt piss off but it didnt dampen anything about it. So the next few days were literally eating(lovely grub!!), drinking and sleeping. Went out a few times with the Swiss crowd. The beach was great at night. They had a great bar that was open 24hours(hence the drunken cow photos) called Cleopatra's which was deadly. When your walking down the beach at night there are hundreds of crabs running by you all the time which i found pretty cool.

And that was it really for Goa, brilliant, so cheap(spend 8 euro not including drink 1 day on food and shelter etc), no rain and we didnt regret doing nothing. Job well done. Also found out malaria tablets and alchohol dont mix, hense puky puky one morning in a restaurant(lovely). Time to head back to Mumbai so the real back-packing could begin.

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