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Published: March 24th 2006
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Hello everyone.
Seems a bit strange to be writing a blog about an Indian beach when sitting in a traffic jam on the M25 (Lou's driving), but that's the wonder of technology eh? One hour and two junctions! Welcome back to the real world.
We've just finished our final leg (the British bit), which will follow in a blog sometime soon, and which has been great fun - so we had a bit of time to chose some photo’s from Goa.
Now…what can we remember...
Hmm...So Goa eh? What can you say. After all we've done over the last 5 months, all the fabulous places and great adventures; it's almost embarrassing to "report back" from here.
Why'd you say that - you may ask? Well, it's not like Goa isn't a wonderful place....it is. It's a beautiful stretch of coastline and wonderful countryside....lovely old Goan villas, white washed churches and palm trees galore.
The problem is the tourist invasion. You read the entries in the guide books about package tours, you try to read between the lines regarding the restaurant reviews, but you decide to go anyway..."Well..it's on the way home and we can chill
Thomas Cook..
...can you spot the Thomas Cook sunshades? for a few days"
Hmmm.....
Why don't the guide books tell it like it really is.... "Roast diners on a Sunday"; "English breakfasts with real Heinz beans"; "Live football" (actually - I quite enjoyed that - Steve); and more miles of saggy sweaty white flesh than you can care to take.
It's such a shame when you have seen a bit more of the rest of India to see what Goa has changed into. To be fair it's a long way from Benidorm, but it's also a long way from Delhi too !! There are literally thousands of people on the beach, and many of them are very underdressed fat Europeans. The little villages are now full of newly built souvenir shops...and the restaurants have more Western dishes than Indian. It was impossible to get an Indian breakfast at the guest houses. Anyone coming to Goa for a package holiday will certainly not experience any of the real Indian - this is sanitised India in the extreme and very much the poorer for it.
I (Steve) came for a week about 10 years ago, (yep - hands up it was on one of the first package
That's better
Our 2nd room - right on the beach tours), but what a difference a decade makes. My strongest image from last time was sitting on the beach on the last evening, watching the sunset...with only a handful of fisherman to keep me company. Not this time. The same stretch of beach - not a fish in site - must of had 2000 sunbeds, 100 beach shacks and 200 hawkers (along with the afore mentioned 40 pairs of saggy tits on display and quite a few g-stringed 50- year old arses).
Anyway - it’s not all doom and gloom. We had to stay here for a few days as we had our flight booked back to Delhi, and so in time honoured Lou and Steve tradition we made the most of it. After checking out of our first hotel (the Thomas Cook sunshades just didn't do it for us), we did find a lovely room in a hotel right on the beach (sand in toes), and whilst it wasn't up to our Sri Lanka abodes - it was nice. We also found what we believe to be the only 'Indian only' restaurant in the main restaurant strip...so ended up there a couple of times. The beach shack we
used for lunch (and there are hundreds - all with names like 'Only Fools and Horses') served up a mean Dhal Fry...had two just before we left for the 16 hour trip home - bit of a risk but turned out OK !!
We also did the "let's hire a moped and drive around with no helmets" thing (very Greek Island). It was a good day, and we got up to the very north of Goa to the last of the 'unspoilt' beaches. It was quite funny seeing the clutch of sad hippy/traveller types all hanging around looking very 'cool man'. There's something so uncool about how cool/unbothered they are trying to be....
So..that's about it. That was the last few days of an absolutely amazing trip. Words cannot really sum up how fabulous it has been. Everything that everyone says about travel is true...the people, the places, the experiences are all wonderful..even on refection the bad bits (not that there are that many). It's just about being lucky enough to be able to get out there and do it. We are very fortunate to have been able to do this and hopefully we’ve done it justice.
Oh - and if anyone needs any tips about the places we've been - just give us a shout. Steve's been sad enough to catalogue every meal/restaurant for his restaurant database..so you won't go hungry for a good recommendation.
See you in the UK
Steve and Lou
Xx
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