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!