Start of India for 8.5 weeks

---

Geo: 15.1029, 73.7661

GOA 7th April - 18th April 2007

6th April 2007 Dublin-London (A.L.)-Mumbai (B.A.)-Goa (Jet air) flight all painless enough, not much sleep had (longest leg 9hrs) but them's the breaks. Although Aer Lingus apparently don't know that Heathrow only allow one hand luggage i.e. this means laptop bag only if you have one. So we get to LHR and find out (after being helpfully told get the train instead of using flight connection centre which is a really great idea - would recommend) that we still had to check in my 2nd hand luggage bag. Fortunately you can do it at the gate, so no need for us to get thick! As it turns out internal Indian airlines only allow 1 hand luggage too, so you live and learn (fortunately we have not brought too much stuff for once) oh and Bombay airport looks strangely provincial.

Staying in South Goa (Heat: 30 degrees & sunny). in a very quiet but touristy place called Salcette which is on River Sal on one side and has Cavelossim beach on other and has Morbor beach 3km up the road. Hotel Haathi Mahal grand in luxury-hotel-family-orientated-way, pool, spa, gym, restaurants, bar etc. and the usual clientel Brits, Aussies but also loads of Indians which I think is a good sign - only annoyingly they let the un-nappy-trained kids in the adult pool (and now C. has an ear infection.)

Also generally noticed loads of Russians in the area which we didn't notice last year. Get the impression they are not too popular with the locals though. But fair play to the Indian's there are loads of signs in Russian everywhere. But would have to say the Indians who are traders do not miss a trick - hawkers on the beach knew exactly how much I paid the previous one and for what, who we managed to resist for a week on the grounds "It's our first day" and then "It's too early" and then "We can't be lugging around stuff for 8 weeks" and then "We will be back after the weekend and we will see". They accepted this and even just came by for a chat and a drink of water in "Sarah's" case on the intervening days but the last day all we got was "But you promised on the first day" yes we promised to look, but anyway you know how soft I am and I think they did too. Also the whole town seemed to know our names and that we are Irish. Mind you they are very impressed with our cricket team.
.
So week 1 didn't do a whole lot in South Goa other than kick back at the beach and go on a couple river cruises with Brummies and Leedionians or whatever they are called. 1st day saw dead sea snake, got sunburnt feet and had some muslim boy called Simon (they all take western names which I think is awful) ask C. did we have sex and did he (C) want to see his circumcised dick! (NO) Weird. Saw fire stick dancers and fire works at a beach party which had a good range of music (not all Trance like last year). Then I managed to have constipation and diahorrea at the same time! Nice. But we did have a sauna and steam room session which was great and an ayurvedic head and nasal massage called 'Nasya' and C also has taken to having shaves in the barbers for like 1.75euro incl. tip and I got my 1st henna tattoo. We spent a while each day dithering about what to do next, which was solved when we saw music fest. "Big Chill Goa" (which as it turns out was the inaugural one) was on the Saturday and Sunday 14th/15th weekend.

This involved travelling for 1hr 45mins to North Goa by (rip off) taxi van to buy the tickets in "Rock and Ragga" in Calengute the previous Thurs. (3000rupees or 52euro each vs. Electric Picnic at 226eur each!) but we took the opportunity to stop in Candolim (last years place) where our local beach shack owner Ganesh recognised us. Lovely guy.

Managed to wangle a free week out of Haathi Mahal (long story but our mothers would have been proud of me) and then promptly jumped ship to "Laguna Anjuna" (google it) in Anjuna, North Goa (where must see market is from last year), as we needed somewhere handy to stay for the Big Chill for the 2 nights.

Gorgeous place inland a bit with, you guessed it, a lagoon. So after a 2hr drive up there we managed to make it to the fest. by 3pm which was really only starting to kick off then so naturally we started with some 'Sula' vineyard Brut (8euro at fest. vs 20euro in bars outside, sweet). So saw 8 finger Eddie (hippy old poet I guess you'd call him), The Mad Professor djing (v.g.) followed by sunset swim to cool down, then saw Hexstatic (uk shite vj's), Shelia Chandra (english/indian Enya but good & with a sense of humour) and The Bays (uk band -some of whom were staying at Laguna I think- also v.g.). Sadly it ended at 10pm due to some stupid laws but this meant there was time for Vege Thali's and G&T's and cricket back at the Laguna, how grown up of us.

Day 2 after swims in lagoon our nice new taxi driver Camilo (not like those South Goa crooks - also based on number of injuries we saw at fest. we are very glad we didn't pick this week to learn how to ride scooter) collected us and we had lunch in "Montego bay" on Morjim beach (as suprisingly little vege food available at festival) and I mention this place for future reference as would recommend its' restaurant and it has accomdation and hammocks and a nice dog. So walked on up along the beachs to Asvem beach where the fest. was on and saw Mixmaster Morris, Raghu Dixit (Bangalore band v.g.), uk dj Norman Jay (excellent), Shri (jazz fusion which had words like 'Asian Irish connection'😉, Santhaakshia (chillout no alocohol Indians) and Coldcut who only had a short set and were a bit disappointing.

Made friends with Irish red setter dog called Bailey who originated from the slums of Bangalore. Got my ass eaten by ants. Trendy rich indians not as nice a poorer service industry ones though so far. Afterwards after talking to some Uk "Travellers" (let me tell you now I do not hold with that B.S. label we are tourists thank you very much) over chai we headed to Club Paradisio (for nose bleed techno, 'nice'😉 in Anjuna where the walk home involved us attracting attention from every dog in the neighbourhood including one mean savage one, I was scared stiff but my hero C protected me 😉 - really.

So back to Salcette on Monday 17th for 2 days where we saw a Bollywood set in action and of course discovered the best bar/restaurant on our last night "Jazz Inn" and have confirmed South Goa is more expensive than North Goa by nice waiter Vincent. You may notice by the prices I am mentioning things are not dirt cheap where we have been (i.e. in places with facilities) as is common perception but are of course cheaper than Denmark or Ireland.

So Goa is nice but wouldn't be my spiritual home or anything and after 12 days we were happy to push on, also it is dear I think we spent at least 1000 euro and that's not including 10 of the nights accom. but it does include a music festival and lots of traversing airport-south - north - south - north - south-airport.

---