Goa, Bollywood and the Great Muppet Caper

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We arrived in Goa about 830 am, we chose the early flight to get the most our of our day but arrived at the airport about 4:30 to catch at 6:15 flight. We were able to get some sleep on the flight, incidentally we flew King Fisher Airlines, who is also the largest beer producer in India. We did not however have beer with breakfast but were served a nice vegetarian sandwich, which was nice of them.

We spoke with a local on how to best get to our hotel and opted for a prepaid taxi, which is the best way to go, for about $15 we were taken directly to our hotel with no hassle, which was more than 60 km away. We were to meet one of my closest friends, Brian at the hotel. Brian is working towards his doctorate in Archeology at the University of Chicago and was on a dig in southern India for about 2 months. So Brian was looking very forward to meeting us as we were to catch up with him and also for some R&R. We got to our room which was super nice, 3rd floor, with a balcony view of the surrounding hills and even the ocean. We immediately headed for the pool. It was a great feeling to jump in the water and get some more sunshine.

Brian arrived around 10, he too was very impressed with the hotel and his room. He headed to the pool and then we decided to try to recharge our credit on our Indian prepaid phones. We had to make a few attempts but were successful. We actually had to go into the town of Vagator a bit, which was cool, very local, with fruit stands and small restaurants etc. The one interesting part was all of the techno hippies that were about. long dreadlocks with shaved sides. Yellow sunglasses and the oh so popular hippie scort that everyone was wearing. Brian and I immediately nicknamed them the muppets. Everyone seemed to have an air about them that they were a bit above the rest so that is why we allowed the name to stick. So along with the muppets that were roaming around town and about on motor bikes pretty much everywhere, we also decided that we were audience members in the muppet show, the late 70's Jim Henson weekly puppet variety.

We headed back to the hotel as Steve was waiting for us, and gave it till just about noon, before putting in an order for a few King Fishers. We pretty much basked in the sun till about 2:30 before decided to go check out the beach in the town.

We went to Vagator beach on foot, when we arrived we saw palm trees, sand, beautiful ocean and an old Portuguese fort which overlooked it all. I ran into the water, which was so warm, then headed back to lay on the beach. Immediately local vendors started to come over and want to know if I needed to buy anything. I bought a coconut, usually the coconut water is really good but this time it was bitter.

The next girl started to lay out jewelry and sarongs, after acting as if I were not interested for while I did make a couple of purchases. Steve in the mean time fled the coop as he did not want to be bothered. We headed back to the hotel and had a bite to eat on the way, some pretty good seafood I must say.

We headed back for more sun and a bit of a nap.

We decided for dinner to go to muppet ville and found the choice of food to be sub par but did settle on place that had some decent Indian. We had one drink to follow at a local muppet watering hole. One guy was so far gone, that he could not keep his head up. We decide to head back shortly there after...



Day 2

Today we slept in that headed to the pool. As there were elections today and it was a 'dry day', no alcohol for sale in the entire state, we bought a few things the day before. One item was McDowels whisky, so cheap about $3.50, for a 750 ML and pretty decent stuff as the imported stuff was not really available. So we had a couple whisky and cokes, a nice lunch, some sun, then decided to get a taxi to go see old Portuguese Goa.

We found a taxi driver by the name of Santana, cool guy but had quite the stache and mullet. He got us there in about 45 minutes, showed us the back roads, complete with rice fields, mango orchards and old Goan homes.

Brian took us on a tour of the Old Goan churches that dated back to the 1500's, one of which was in complete ruin but fantastic site to wander around. One church we went to had a mass going on. From here we decided to take the local bus into the main town of Panaji. I love taking buses in foreign countries, you really get to experience local life and the arrival at the bus terminal was true to this. There were vendors selling everything from vegetables to shrimp, although that shrimp would have you ill for days.

We wandered around Panaji, taking in the site of old colonial buildings a pretty spectacular church on a hill. We had a fresh lime soda and then headed to an old heritage Goan home which had a traditional Goan restaurant. We had a great meal and decided to head back.

Day 3 Goa

It was our last day in Goa and we wanted to go to a local flea market in Anjuna and also check out some of the other beaches. After talking to each other and some negotiation we managed to rent 2 motor bikes at a good price $7 for the day. We basically went to someones house which resembled more of a hut got the bikes and headed to the gas station to get them topped off.

We got directions and headed to what we would discover to be the hippie market of Anjuna.

We arrived in Anjuna, Steve and I on one motor bike, I was the driver, and Brian on another. Once we were in town and started to ask for directions we had to traverse sand and dirt roads until we finally reached this huge assembally of bamboo sticks and tarps which was the market.

There were all kinds of things being sold from Incense, to fresh fruit juices, tapestries, scarves, bongs, you name it, it was on sale. We wandered around, Steve and I both found some really cool Indian silver bracelets and a few other nick knacks.

We headed back towards the hotel via motor bike after to jump in the pool.

It was another lazy day but we decided to head back to the beach after to use the motor bikes we rented and to attempt to climb up to the old Portuguese fort. Brian got directions and we headed towards the port. There were quite a few wooden fishing boats and a fantastic
view of the harbor.

We found what looked like an old gate and headed through and up quite a steep hill until we found the fort. It was a cool fort but a bit in a state of disrepair but the views from the walls of the fort were spectacular.

We headed back to the bikes and headed down to the main beach in Vagator, we wanted to grab a bit to eat so we found a restaurant right on the water.

We heard quite a bit of music like there was a beach club party going on. In fact it turned out to be the filming of a Bollywood movie where they were using the muppets as extras. It was a scene from a beach rave where Indian cops were chasing away the muppets. We watched three takes it was pretty interesting and funny too because the stoners kept running far off on the beach after they called 'cut'.

After that we headed to another beach to watch the sunset. The beach was great, nothing commercial, just a few huts and vendors. We did hear that good beat of electronic music and of course I had to be curious and we found the place I was hoping to find for a sunset drink called 'Nine'. We had the local drink called Feni, which was rocket fuel with a hint of coconut. We wanted to head back though before it was pitch black, as the muppets on bikes and drunk are no fun. So had a bite to eat and then called it a night as we were leaving Goa the next Morning!

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