Goa goes on …… out and about.

We’re so enjoying things that time has gone out of the window, more or less. Can’t be certain when any of the following actually happened!

Getting trade is all important here and anything seems to go just to sell a room!

Doug making friends with other holiday makers.

We get the same lovely service from our room steward in the hotel as we do on  cruise ships. This time it’s a Swan and a Lotus flower.

Chilling out in the barber’s – it wont make a lot of difference Doug!

A visitor to the barber’s shop while we were there.

We took the local bus from Candolim to the ferry on our return trip to Panjim to collect our suits. The ferry doesn’t have quite the same decorum as the one we use to the Isle of Wight ………

…….. nor does it have the same safety standards! Nevertheless, it’s great fun.

It rained while we were in the Taylor’s shop. 35 degrees and rain – it’s an odd combination to us! By the way, we’re told it’s hot by Goan standards for this time of year – it should be mid 20’s rather than mid 30’s!

This is the centre of Calangute at rush hour! There’s a roundabout in this picture somewhere and the cattle refused to be intimidated!

Nope. They just stood there!

The reason for our being in Calangute (and the advanced level of mayhem which constitutes the rush hour) was to meet up with two great guys. Originally from Bombay (they insist it should still be referred to as that) and now having lived in Goa for many years, Dev and Rajaa showed us some of the sights and sounds of the local market - and the inside of a locals bar! We had a brilliant evening with them and at the end of the evening Rajaa took us home, one by one, on the back of his scooter. Travelling on the roads is something which has to be experienced to be believed. If your not actually driving it’s best to sometimes close your eyes! However, Rajaa got us both home very safely, bless him.

Believe it or not, we haven’t spent a lot of time on the beach but, on this occasion, we had some four legged company all they seem to want was a head scratch!!

We think they like the music at Ryan’s Shack ………….

……. and it’s all very romantic as the sun goes down.

Goa Begins ……………

We’ve been in Goa for 3 days now and still haven’t got totally to grips with who’s tooting at who and for what reason. Our guess is that it’s a complete obsession and nobody takes any notice of anybody else – least of all the cattle!

We have a very good room on the top floor …..

……. with a balcony overlooking the pool.

On day 2 we had a bus trip (yes – a rocket bus!) to Panjim. A 40 minute journey for 15 pence (it’s shear robbery). Panjim is quite a large town with many lovely vistas and many more that are not so lovely.

On the bus we got talking to Sam, a commerce student who, as he had time to show us around the town and who became a real asset as it turned out. We had lunch with him in lovely first floor, open restaurant overlooking the river and the “Old Patto Bridge”. Built between 1632 & 1635 and called the Pont de Linhares this is the Panjin end of the longest causeway in Asia.

Perched on a wire across the river was this giant Kingfisher (?) about the size of a rook and very pretty.

Apart from sight seeing we went to Panjim to get some suits made. This lovely family run Taylors gave us drinks and seat to sit on and took a vast number of measurements. We await in anticipation for the results on Friday.

A sneak preview of something James fell in love with! It too has to be made to measure.

To reduce the length of the bus ride back to Candolim we took the free ferry across the river. As usual, packed with cars, scooters and people.

Once off the ferry we waited for the Candolim bus opposite a scooter “garage” (AA approved of course).

A number of commercial vehicles seem to invite people to toot at them!

Inside the Rocket bus back to Candolim.

Instead of seeing his girlfriend, Sam decided to spend the evening with us at Ryan’s Shack on the beach. Perhaps it was the free beer that swung the decision! It was the least we could do as he’d been such a great help during the day.

Children’s Corner at Ryan’s Shack!

This is what the moon looks like over the Arabian Sea from Ryan’s Shack …….

  …………  and this is what Ryan’s Shack looks like from the Arabian Sea.

Back to the Arabian Sea the next morning:  You might have the same initials but you look NOTHING like him – so stop trying!

Today (Wednesday) and it was back to the Rocket bus – this time to Baga, just north of Candolim. As there was no direct bus to Baga, we had to change and pay twice.  2 x 10p!!!! (each!)

This is Baga beach – very full of locals and ………..

……… this is Baga High Street. James must have chosen the split second when there was nothing around.

Moving up the coast to Anjuna, we popped in to have a look at a small hotel (for future reference) situated in the jungle environs behind Anjuna beach. Making it’s home on the owners car was this beautiful spider.

The hotel owner, Sumit Yardi, took us for a drink a few yards down the road at the German Bakery. Oh yes, another cow (or bullock to be precise).

Anjuna Beach is lovely, and full of shacks selling food and drink.

Jeet take Doug’s order – “Two beers please”.

This was our view of the Arabian Sea for an hour or so as the sun began to head towards the horizon.

Some people play ……………

……….. and some people work.

We took the boat back south from Anjuna to Baga beach …………. 

…….. watching the sun go down on the way.

People play right up to the last minute.

Getting off the boat at Baga (a shoes and socks off sort of job) we decided to take a seat at yet another shack and have a drink and some food, as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The kind local guy who offered to take this pic put his own artistic interpretation on the event!

Baga Beach, as the sun sets, gets ready for the evening trade.

As we had our meal we watched the final moments of the day’s sunshine – a whopping 34 degrees again today!

After a taxi ride back to Candolim we popped into a local Barber’s shop. Doug had a shave and a head back and arm massage and James had a hair cut, shave (beard, eyebrows), a head back and arm massage and full facial moisturise. A total of £7 for the two of us!

And James’ barber wanted to be in on the photos!

India–at last!

Well, we’ll skip over the the fact that Gatwick North terminal was evacuated the day we wished to use it’s services to fly to India and we’ll jump quickly to the point where we landed safely at Goa airport and put our feet firmly on Indian soil for the very first time! The bus ride to our hotel in Candolim was a hoot. We were separated from the driver by a glazed bathroom door (!) and, ………

………………  although the vehicle was underpowered to a worrying degree, the driver managed to sound the horn every few seconds in an ineffectual attempt to move the myriad of scooters and motor cycles out of the way.

The hotel was more than expected – beautifully presented and, of course, staffed by ever willing people. After settling in and showering we ventured out into the town and down onto the beach. We assumed that it was due to it being Sunday that the beach was 80% being used by locals. Being carefully and lovingly buried alive seems to be a pleasurable experience in the locale!

We also had our first paddle in the delightfully warm waters and enjoyed the 32 degrees of lovely dry heat – a great difference to the recent humidity of the Caribbean.

Now, we couldn’t make the mistake of thinking we might be on Bournemouth beach here – could we?

The beach is a few minutes walk from the main “drag” and, although there’s plenty of beach shacks to sustain us we had a walk around to get our bearings and stopped for a drink and a bite to eat.

We knew India would be different! with no crash helmets and sometimes whole families riding on one scooter the place is a wonderful cacophony of horn toots and mayhem. It definitely wasn’t the beer but James swears he saw a baby being breast fed on the back of a motor bike!

We just have to go somewhere on one of these buses. This one wasn’t quite packed out but we saw people trying to squeeze onto another one which was already packed solid. James enjoys the London underground when it’s busy but a ride on a “rocket” bus might be a whole new ball game! 

It gets dark quite early around 6 o’ clock so, after a very pleasant meal, we headed back to the hotel in a “Tuk-Tuk” to have an early night before we start our adventures proper.

Our Indian guide on the bus from the airport said “Give India a couple of days and accept it’s charm for what it is and it will stay in your heart forever” Well, we’ve got 3 weeks and we hope to do just that!