Days 8-11 - Sun, sea and... trance?

After 7 days of constant traveling, we decided Goa is a place to be savoured. We flew from Udaipur and upon arriving felt like we were no longer in India.

The first thing that registered was the heat. The northern region of Rajasthan wasn't cold, reaching temperatures of about 20oC in the day. But at night it could drop sometimes as low as 1oC - hardly ideal when one of the things I was most looking forward to was escaping the constant frozen wilderness of the UK.

Unlike the north, however, Goa did not disappoint in the temperature stakes. We stepped off the plane into 33oC sunshine which has persisted over the last 3 days. But this wasn't the only difference between north and south that stuck out. Where Delhi's streets were littered with rubble, Goa's are lined with palm trees. In Agra, we asked Jamal (our rickshawallah) to teach us some Hindi. The first thing he taught us was 'Celo, celo!', which literally means 'Leave me alone'. In Anjuna, beggers are few and far between, and Jamal's much used term is almost forgotten.

On the first night we walked to Anjuna beach, and felt that, at last, we could relax. The sunset over the bay was like something out of a film, and wooden hut bars on stilts stretched from one end of the bay to the other. I need hardly to point out that, for me and Louise, little more could constitute paradise.

On the second day, we met up with Louise's friend Sophie who happens to be here in Goa with her boyfriend Leo and his dad, Hillary. We spent the day in Shore Bar, Louise and Sophie catching up, and each of us getting to know Leo and his dad. Now, as you may have guessed, Leo and Hillary are cut from pretty fine cloth. But whilst they may seem posh on paper, nothing could have prepared us for the revelation that Hillary has been coming to Anjuna for 10 years to sample the trance music scene. It was interesting to talk with two people from such a different background to our own, and yet completely at odds with the stereotypes you come to associate with rich British folk. It just shows, you can come half way around the world and still meet people from a totally different way of life from your own doorstep. Hillary seems like the kind of person you could sit with for hours and discuss his many travels, but we only had a short time for chatter because it just so happened that a trance party was starting that very day at 4pm and stretching on into the early hours, if we'd like to go.

Now, all I know about trance is that it's usually blaring out of a suped-up Nissan Micra at 2am and is often the soundtrack to a drive-by egging. But not wanting to seem impolite we consented to check it out. And it was not too bad. The music was a poor backdrop to the tranquil setting, but we were quite content sitting on the beach, watching the fire twirling acrobats and drinking. Whilst I can hardly see myself getting into trance before cutting off my own feet, it was refreshing to see people enjoying themselves without eyeing up their next fighing partner, as is so common back home.

So really, we're trying our best to chill out before heading to Bangalore to start working. And I think we're doing a pretty good job.

Main points about Goa

Richshaws are more expensive because there aren't so many.

Western commodities are more readily available. We'd joked about finding Marmite in Agra, only to find it at the first shop we went to in Goa.

Don't come here if you don't like dogs - there are wild packs everywhere who yell and bark if you intrude their territory, especially at night.

If you're brave enough, you can rent a motorbike/scooter to get you around which is much cheaper than using taxis of richshaws.

Don't come here if you don't want tourists cogging up your beach, but beer is cheap and food is cheaper.