Golden Goa

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Thursday 24th – Tuesday 29th November

After seeing the Taj Mahal, it was time for us to move further south to Goa. After having some breakfast we were faced with re-packing our backpacks for the first time…not an easy job! It took forever for us both to get everything back in the backpacks and we hadn’t even unpacked properly. We ended up with a lot more belongings in our hand luggage & were completely exhausted by the time our taxi picked us up to take us to the airport…I would definitely have to get better at this!

The roads in Delhi never got any easier…we knew what to expect by now, but it certainly didn’t make the journey any less tense!

Everything is segregated by gender in India…I learnt this after having people shouting and waving their hands at me whilst standing in the security queue at the airport. It turns out that I was in the male queue & was very promptly directed to the corresponding female queue! This did nothing to help the constant and curious attention that we were already receiving!

We arrived safely at our hotel in Panjim, Goa, and immediately noticed the differences between Goa and Delhi – everything was calmer. The madness of Delhi was gone – there seemed to be structure to the roads, the journey was amazingly quiet with only the occasional horn and the volume of people had diminished astoundingly. It is not until you leave Delhi, that the complete chaos of the City really hits. Whilst there, you become completely submerged in the hustle & bustle of the local’s lives, there is no let-up in the constant buzz of noise and activity and it very quickly becomes the norm.

The 42nd film festival of Panjim was taking place whilst we were there, so we spent our first evening strolling around the stalls that had been set up in it’s honour and trying to find somewhere to eat dinner. Entering a new City is always a challenge, it took us ages to find a restaurant, but I had my first curry in the form of a chicken Mughla when we eventually found somewhere. It was delicious! We also found Panjim Market – an indoor mall full of stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish. There were hundreds of stalls piled high with fresh produce filling the mall with amazing colours and smells, with the local people selling their produce by squatting in amongst the food – it was certainly a sight like no other!

We spent our next day in Goa on the beach, we decided to head to Ajunja. Lauren’s cousin who lived in Goa had arranged his friend to drive us around Goa during our stay, which meant we didn’t need to worry about getting taxis all the time. The tide was completely in so we ended up on ‘Curlies’ beach which was just down the road & was a lovely quiet spot – very picturesque. We spent the day on the beach which was lovely and provided a good opportunity to relax for the first time in a while! We bought some fruit from a local lady who waggled her head for the duration of our purchase. I absolutely loved this Indian custom, the head waggling of the local people when greeting people or saying thank you. I spent a good while watching the lovely little Indian lady selling her fresh fruit with a smile and a head waggle – it was captivating, it made me smile and I found myself waggling my head along with her, it’s a very endearing quality! That evening we went to the Baga night bazaar which Mohammad (our driver) informed us was only small by Goan standards. The traffic getting to the bazaar was ridiculous, we were sat still in solid traffic most of the way there, I think traffic in London is bad – but compared to India, London roads are almost deserted! We eventually managed to get into the bazaar and I was amazed by how large it was. Stall after stall of trinkets, rugs, bags, clothes and artwork lined every inch of space around us. Mohammed, taught us the word ‘makanaka’, the Goan word for ‘I do not want’ We wandered around taking in the atmosphere and found a couple of items that we bartered for! Being accompanied by a local helped the bartering process even more and we got our purchases for about one fifth of the original price!

While in Goa we also visited the spice plantation where we were greeted with a red spot on the forehead and a flower garland. We were shown around the plantation with our guide explaining about the hundreds of varieties of spice & fruit grown there, including the most expensive spices in the world. The tour ended with the traditional ‘monkey without a tail’, which is a man who climbs the trees, jumping from one to the other, pulling off the tropical fruits in the process. He then slides the whole way back down the tree. It was like watching something from a cartoon! We went for our buffet lunch, (all of which was very spicy) and then tried the local liquor made from cashew-nuts which has over 40% volume. After lunch we had an elephant shower… we sat on an elephant while he sprayed us with water. It was brilliant! It was my first time on an elephant & he felt really soft & leathery! It was a great experience! That evening we went to Lauren’s cousin’s house and experienced some true Indian home cooking with all the family.

Baga, which is one of Goa’s most famous beaches was beautiful. We spent a day here in the blazing Indian heat. It’s a long beach of soft sand, and although there were a lot of Western people on the beach in this more tourist area of Goa, we still attracted an awful lot of attention. At one point we went to write messages in the sand and within minutes were surrounded by about 25 Indian men. They watched us intently, trying to copy us by drawing lines in the sand with their shoes! As funny as this was, it was still intimidating as we were soon being asked to pose for pictures and were completely surrounded by local people. We retreated back to the safety of our sunbeds to find a street dog had managed to get a bottle of water from or sunbed onto, unscrewed the lid with his mouth & was pumping the water out with his paw while drinking what he could before it hit the sand!!! Nothing in this country surprises me anymore – amazing and very amusing!

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Photos

Fruit Seller
The lovely lady with the amazing head waggle!

Baga Beach
The crowd that appeared around us