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| From GOA 09 |
Back from Goa, what a trip! Went with gayle (of course) and Pete & Katie, two English friends come over on holidays. Don’t want to male you too jealous but it was so lovely there. I ate, drank, sunbathed and swam all day and then drove a scooter around! So much fun. Gayle and I took the plane down as did Pete and Katie(but ina different plane), little expensive but worth it as it only took 1 hour, in comparison to the 13 hour bus ride I had back from Goa to Bombay.
where Goa is in India
our hotelOur hotel was the Royal Goan in North Goa, It’s right beside baga, one of the most famous beaches in Goa (that and Anjuna beach, just North of Baga). We went to Brittos for dinner on our first day, and returned twice after. What a good shack, it’s deserves it’s good reputation as one of the best beach shacks in Goa. It’s so well known that nearly every time Gayle goes there she meets someone she knows, this time it was in-laws of her mum’s step sister who she hadn’t met in 20 odd years!
That evening (Saturday) after dinner we went for a walk along the beach. TO our surprise we wlaked past a ten strong commando unit in full attack gear basically sauntering down the beach. Goa had a few threats against it by terrorists, which was being taken seriously after the Bombay attacks, I was glad to see how seriously they were taking it.
map of North Goa with places mentioned notedView Larger Map
Google map of Baga beach, scroll around to check out Goa
The taxis in Goa are such a rip-off. A ten minute walk would cost you 50-100 ruppees, we went to morojim beach a good bit up north and it cost us 500rs.! A taxi in Bombay should cost you not more than 150 a journey, and that should be from city centre to Santacruz, a good 20kms in heavy traffic. But split between the 4 of us the taxis weren’t two bad. However, it was only me and Gayle at Morojim, because we thought we were gonna go to Panjim and buy tickets back and supplies but then realized that it was a Sunday and all the shops would be shut. So seeing as we were already in a taxi we decided to go somewhere, and our taxi driver recommended morojim, which turned out to be pretty far and quite nice.
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| From GOA 09 |
Morojim is in the next district on from Bardez, where all the most popular beaches of Goa are. We settled down at a shack called ‘seagull shack’ for the day and had our first swim of the trip. Aaahhhh. The only thing that disturbed our relaxation was when I dove into the water for the third time to notice a couple having sex in the water! I turned and left the sea to them. The funny thing was on the beach you wouldn’t even notice them, they were just a close couple. Think they were Russian, as the whole beach was full of Russians. They are one of the biggest tourist groups here. And they are all scary big men with tattooed wives and mulleted children. But they aren’t half as scary as the chockney bald britiish fellows who come to England. Not that either group ever gave me hassle it’s just that when you hear that thick English accent on a bald, huge ‘lAger; drinker I can’t help but feel I’m in a sunnier version of fever pitch. Maybe that’s just me.
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| From GOA 09 |
Anyway, we got back that evening and went out to zanibar beach shack, and ate there with Gayle’s old friend (and mine come to think of it, I’ve known her for 4 years now!) Michelle and her boyfriend Vincent (he’s French, so it’s pronounced Frenchy style). Zanibar (on Baga) is quite a mad shack, playing loud house all evening (music ahs to stop by 10.30 in Goa, a far cry from it’s rave past). There were people dancing on the tables inside (we were outside under the stars on the beach itself) and one crazy shirtless guy came out with his mac laptop listening to some tune on his headset on the beach and started dancing madly. Funniest sight ever! Monday was a chillout day, we went to Baga only and just sat at Larios shack and sunbathed and swam. There were loads of people on the beach and it was a little hassling because of that. After going back to the hotel to freshen up we went back to Baga and went to shinign star shack for a bbq (which turned out to be too expensive so we just ordered normal dinner). Michelle and Vincent and her Mum and Dad came after we had eaten and watched the tightrope walker and fire poi which was on after dinner. The funniest thing though was that they had set off fireworks earlier like 6m away from us and we had to like shrink back in case of being hit (I’m pretty certain falling pieces hit me too!).
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| From GOA 09 |
The food in Goa is so good, I can’t tell you! Oh, okay I will! Goans love their seafood. In fact, they love it so much that in Konkani (Goa’s local language) they say “what fish have you eaten today?” when aslkign how good you are? Although they have a variety of different Indian dishes available at shack (tandoori, Chinese, Tibetan and continental) it’s the fresh fish curries that are so famous in Goa. There is nothing like a good ‘fish curry rice’ in Goa, only ‘prawn curry rice’ beats it! I had calamari, kingfish and loads of other fish there. And the prices, oh the prices. For a foreigner coming to viist, they must seem so cheap, as a kingfish steak can cost you maybe 150rs. A big plate of fresh prawns could be maybe 170. And you know they are fresh cause you see all the fishermen bringint heir catch in in the morning, the same fishermen who work at the shacks during the day!. Okay, I think I’ll leave it at that for today, part 2 will be tomorrow.
Part 2 coming soon….…in which our hero drives a scooter, visits many beaches, nearly eats a star, and haggles so well at anjuna market he upsets a drum seller!
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| From GOA 09 |
p.s. click on the image bellow to see more pics of our trip to goa
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| GOA 09 |
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