Palolem, New Year and Gokarna

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Palolem was pretty similar to other Goa beaches. It was a stretch of sand, lined with bars and Restaurants selling the same type of food and drinks as everywhere I'd been so far. There were cows, dogs and boats everywhere, but was busier than other beaches, possibly due to it being so close to New Year. It was a bit like a mixture of Big and Little Vagator with Indian tourists in large groups, swimming in the sea next to tourists from other countries such as Russia, France and England. There were also the usual sellers which got quite annoying towards the end of the week.

Kelly and I arrived by bus and made our way to the hotel I'd booked months before where Will, Maddy, Lara, Kate and other friends of theirs had also booked rooms. Dreamcatcher resort was like stepping into a little dream world behind a palm leaf screen. There were lots of little wooden bungalow huts, slightly raised from the ground and with palm rooves, each one a different and almost pastel colour and named with names such as 'Moon Beam' and 'Pluto'. At first, I thought about laughing, as this was obviously some hippy yoga hide away, but we were greeted very warmly, found ourselves in a wifi internet zone and took an instant liking to the man in charge - Hari - A rotund Indian man with grey hair that had been dyed with henna, so was actually bright orange! Our bungalow didn't have its own toilet, which was slightly unfortunate considering the price (1000rs per night) and the toilet-cum-shower rooms for everyone to use were in a below average condition with wet, sandy floors and mosquitoes waiting to make their move on uncovered flesh. There was also supposed to be hot water... there wasn't. The place was decked out in Christmas decorations, slightly weird because we were on a beach with palm trees and hot, hot sun, but the tinsel had a familiar feel to it and the barbies dressed as fairies only made us smile.

For weeks, I'd been eagerely awaiting Wilski's arrival and that evening, it happened! It was great to see everyone, I got a bit emotional to see familiar faces and that was it, for the next four weeks - our new group. A woman called Georgina with a ten year old son called Alex was the brains of the operation and she'd arranged for everyone to meet up in this paticular place. There were loads of people who had come from all over the world - Indonesia, America, Pakistan, England - and they all knew each other in some way, so it was nice to see their reunion taking place before my eyes, but some of them weren't really people I would have chosen to soend time with, so there were a few sub-groups within the group which worked out quite well. One of the group was a guy called Agus, who was from Indonesia and an exceptionally nice guy. He was very well-educated and we talked, with kelly about books, religion and different cultures anumber of times whilst waiting for coffee or breakfast etc. One excellent place we found in Palolem, was a cafe calle Cafe Inn which served the most amazing proper coffee and an almond croissant for 90rs! A favourite of mine and I frequented the place often!

Dreamcatcher's restaurant was pretty expensive, so we found a different place to eat each night on the beach. It was easy. All the food was good and some places did buy one get on free cocktails. One place Kelly and I found was called Cressida and we were tempted in by the BOGOF offer by a waiter there called oy. He was a handsome guy with slim but strong features and we chatted to him for most of the night as he was trying to drum up more business from people passing by. He told us of a girl he fell in love with from a different religion to his own and whilst trying to get his head around the fact that he probably couldn't have her, destroyed his phone to save himself the problems if being in touch with her. We contemplated whether she might have given up her life for him if he'd have stayed in touch with her, but he'd already cried all his tears for her by then. His mate was the first Indian man I'd heard swear in English. I congratulated him that he knew how to say 'F*ckin' hell'...

The beach itself was very easy-on-the-eye. The north end of the beach allowed a small river to appear and disappear with the tides and I took the walk through it's shallows to a small island and lots of rock pools. One of the larger and semi-permanent pools along the beach was home to the residend we affectionately named 'Water dog'. He was a clean brown colour with a bushy tail and inquisitive eyes that stood or lay down in the pool for most of the day. It was hot in Palolem; hotter than it had been in North Goa, so this dog had found that by lying in the pool, he'd cool down and possibly have a bite to eat from the tiny fishes in it. He was a cute character and we laughed about him a lot! 'Just 'avin a little look around'!

New Year's eve was what we were all in Palolem for. There was a party on a Neptune Point - an outcrop of rocks where there was a bar/club. After our dinner with everyone which took about two hours to arrive, we took a rickshaw to Neptune Point. It was crazy! There was a huge queue, people getting irate and people pushing in. We pushed in with some Indian men who said they'd get a discount if they went in with a girl... not sure if that was true or not, but they seemed harmless. Kelly and I managed to fight our way in (me for free for some reason) and were followed by the rest soon after. We tried to have a great night. The music was good, but quiet on their massive sound system and evey time someone tried to dance, they were swiftly apprehended by some Indian guy asking the usual 'where you from?', 'what's your name?', 'are you married?' which really took its toll on me in the end and I got a bit annoyed with the general letchiness of the crowd.
It was also a night to nurse some random English guy who called himself 'Splodge' who'd had too much and was lying in awasted daze on the floor. He was very grateful when he started feeling more normal, so he repayed us kindly with drinks etc ;-)

The end of the night was a weird one and came to a bit of a downer. I was swept along with the others I was with and felt like I hadn't had a lot of fun during the evening - possibly all NYEs are like that though - and ended up thinking about Aidan... quite a lot. My missing him was taking over my thoughts quite often and I had to make a conscious decision to 'deal with it!!', for my own sanity at least.

New year's day consisted of a horrible breakfast at The Banyan Tree cafe on the beach followed by a beautiful boat trip out to a tiny, secluded beach called Butterfly Beach and on the way, spotting Dolphins!
Palolem was just another beach I thought. It was nice, but crowded, possibly due to NYE, but there was no escaping the sellers and men gawping and the usual. I made use of the internet while I was there. There was a nice beach next to Palolem called Patnem which was unusually quiet and pretty nice, but without a scooter, it was a rickshaw ride away and I only went there once. The main attraction of Palolem was being with my English friends. I felt so happy to be with people I recognised and could have a laugh with and it was great to have Kelly there as well.

After NYE we took a train to Gokarna Road station from Canacona. It was my first train ride in India and went exceptionally smoothly. I'd heard nightmare stories about trying to buy tickets and getting on the wrong train, but with Ed, Will's friend, there was no going wrong. He'd been to India before lots of times and was very organised at sorting out, routes and tickets, which was great for us! The train station was pretty non-descript and had a few people waiting around in it. Eventually, the train turned up, a little late but it didn't matter as we were in high spirits for our journey. We travelled in the seated class with lots of other Indian people quite squashed in. We decided to sit by the doors of the carriage we were in and I had no idea that the train doors would be open all the way! It was great! I sat by the door, looking out onto green fields, huge rivers, palm trees, hills and got really excited. As I sat in that doorway, feeling the wind and looking down, sometimes into nothing but water under whatever bridge we were going over at the time, my exhilaration told me that I was actually travelling!! I was in India and this was just one of the hundreds of memorable experiences I was going to have.
That memorable moment was soon replaced with another one as a very stinky man boarded the train and sat right near me. I tried to move, but the train was full, so I had to endure it until he got off at the next stop. Another man was obviously trying to impress me with the selection of music he had on his phone by going through it all, so I turned my head away from him with my hand over my ear and he soon got the message - his music was rubbish.

When we arrived at Gokarna station, I watered a tiny puppy that was looking forlorn, lost my padlock from inside my bag as it was on the roof of the car, and took in the amazing views from the taxi window as we arrived on the cliff near to Kudle beach. Our home for the next two weeks. Kudle was quite empty and very quiet. No banging music and tourists. It was a haven for the yoga-doers and dreadlocked jugglers. Kashy's place (Ganga cafe) was very basic and with rather hard beds which did my back in EVERY NIGHT! The food was good though and Will and Ed had been going there for years, so we stuck it out. There were three squat toilets on the cliffside at the back of the place, which were usually full of poo that people hadn't flushed away properly, there were two cold-water showers to share and there were hammocks everywhere. There was a Mummy dog (who we later herd had been poisoned as she kept having puppies... there's this thing called neutering!!!) with six puppies who were very cute and cows came to eat on the rocks nearby, sometimes getting stranded by the sea when the tide came in! It was relaxed. Everything about Kudle was relaxed. There were hardly any sellers apart from a guy called Shere who sold drums and became my friend after I gave him a piece of eyebrow jewellery (which he lost the next day) and a small peanut seller who was very cheery.

A few times i walked into Gokarna town. It was a bit of a climb up the cliff to get to the top and the walk across the cliff to the other side was HOT, but the town was quite pretty. A sacred town with a huge bathing tank, massive Juggonauts used in religious worship at certain times of year and some lovely food/shops/people. Naturally, there were cows and dogs everywhere also.
Ou group had shrunk and largened within a few days. Many of the people I didn't really know in Palolem had either stayed there or gone home, and some came with us. Our Gokarna group went from around six (kelly, will, maddy, ed, sarah and me) to nine (Dick, Annabelle and Kim turned up from England who were lovely and had known Will and Ed for years!) and then to fifteen or so (Georgina, Alex, Lara, Kate, another Ed and his mate). Soon after, Georgina, Alex, Lara, Kate, the other Ed and his mate left Gokarna and that's when the travels-of-the-nine began.

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