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After the arduous journey I was so pleased to arrive at Wanderers Hostel in Morjim. A clean, modern building with all the hostels essentials one needs; beer and a pool table. It was after midnight when Ben the owner greeted me and showed me to my dorm room. Only one other guy was currently staying there with it being out of season, so I said a quick hello and bedded down for the rest of the night.
The next day was spent familiarising myself with the immediate surroundings, myself and Dan who had arrived 24 hours earlier went for a stroll on the beach, the sea was pretty rough and not crystal clear as you would hope. It's due to the monsoon season and the rains in the mountains washing silt and all sorts of other s***e down river and into the sea. We played a lot of pool, drank a few beers and went for food at the local restaurant, Laxmi's. The food was the best I'v had so far. I asked for the waiters recommendation which was a local Goan dish, the quality of the chicken was great and like a curry you would get back at home, just with far more flavour! The owner Ben joined us and I told him all about my trip around India, he was a well travelled guy himself and had lived in Ireland for 6 years. His awareness of backpackers was clear and prevalent in his hostel, 4 guys were there 24/7 to cater to any demands, there was comfy seating areas, free internet, wifi, cooking facilities, spotless bathroom facilities, a fridge full of beer and soft drinks and a selection of scooters that could be hired for a whole day for the princely sum of £2! Short of a dorm full of Swedish strippers the places is all but perfect.
The next day we took full advantage of the scooter hire, neither of us having ridden one before we were both rather shaky but after 15 minutes we were fine and on our way south towards the busy area of Calangute. The beach was full of local tourists all in great spirits. We found a beach bar set back from the water but still in the sands and drank a fair few of the favoured kingfisher beers. The price of beer in Goa is so much cheaper than anywhere in India, you can get a beer for 40p and a 60ml spirit with mixer for about the same!
I found the scooters incredible fun, zipping around the windy roads, no helmet, sunburnt and tanked up on kingfisher. A great day!
The next day was a 'cheap day' - to hire a scooter everyday, eat and drink excessively would demolish my budget so we spent most of our time around the hostel playing pool, drinking beers and on the evening we went to a fantastic restaurant called Amancios. I had tandoori chicken which cost £1, it was really really good. So much better than the scabby dry chicken you get at home with a tandoori mixed grill. All swilled down with a fair few Kingfisher... Can you see the pattern emerging!
Scooter day again! Heading south again myself and Dan set off for the beaches of Baga, Candolim and Vagator. We stopped at a small riverside fishing village where we saw two local fisherman. I chatted a while until one caught a small catfish. He told me how there were not many big fish in the river this time of year. Perhaps I would rethink my idea of a backwater fishing trip then.
We happened to stumble upon Aguarda Fort whilst winding through the hills but more amazing than the views were the Indian tourists taking ridiculous photos of entirely inappropriate poses. I saw one guy lying in the grass with his wife stood above taking a birds eye photo, which was great, but... Why the hell would you go all the way to an ancient fort with a panoramic sea view to then take a photograph that could have easily be taken in someone's back garden. Strange folk. Equally strange were the tens of folk stood against a wall pretending to be on their mobiles whilst posing, very cringe!
We beach hopped that day, from beach bar to beach bar which was great fun. Baga beach was the busiest by far, loud booming punjabi music and thousands of inappropriately dressed Indians, some in shirts and trousers, some in package clenching speedos, there seemed to be no happy medium. We continued our drinking and driving day back at Amancios with huge pieces of chicken tikka and seshzuan noodles. I believe it was about this time I spotted old monk rum on the menu, 15 rupees for 30ml - Unbelievable Jeff!
The following days proceeded to be much of the glorious same. Beach hopping, scooters and rum! We went far north and across the boarder into Maharashtra at one point but just before we visited Arambol and Keri Beach where we stumbled across a shady 65 year old expat who struggled to explain his being there or in fact his previous 30 years of existence! He seemed to have a fascination with fireworks. When we left, as casual as night and day he pulls what looks remarkably like a homemade firework called an 'atom bomb, and says "Here you are lad, have a go with this. Make sure you don't light it by any kids or power lines and then run like the f***ing clappers". Slightly bemused I accepted and went on my merry way. Never take sweets from strangers, well how about fireworks from an expat? This day turned in to quite a mammoth drinking day, I would hazard a guess at 15+ bars. A fantastic way to see many of Goa's beaches and some of the views were stunning. We travelled well over 100km drank more than I can even begin to count and ended up paddling in the sea at past midnight wondering how the hell we will get our scooters back out of the sand dunes they were stuck in! Total expenditure = £14.50
We decided we wanted to move on and see the south of Goa. Ben the owner of the hostel was good enough to keep our huge backpacks at wanderers, and let us take his scooters for a 5 day trip to Palolem. I had read several warnings on various forums about having to have an international driving licence, scooter paperwork and a helmet to travel in highways. We had none of he above! The hair raising journey down here tools the best part of 4 hours. One traffic officer warned us about having no helmet but we quickly scuttled away amongst the traffic and were never bothered again. The journey on the whole was very nice, in particular the final leg of rolling hills and glistening sea as he sun started to set. By the time we arrived at our hostel, Castle House it was early evening so we shot down to the beach for some food.
The beach in Palolem is stunning! A very cool vibe of local tourists and travellers and two extremely good quality beachfront restaurants which served great food. Powder white sands and a very calm sea was a welcome sight. Our first full day started with a stroll down the beach, we found ourselves drawn in to one of the beach bars and before long we joined a group from Bangalore, a brother and sister, and a guy and is wife - And no I cannot remember their names! The following 16 hours are pretty much a blur. We were joined by a real concoction of other tourists including Austrians, Indians, English and a quiet couple from Luxembourg. My hazy memory recalls a fantastic day and night. Indians are the most hospitable people I have ever met, I fought to pay for beers all night! It was midnight before I realised I hadn't eaten. Needless to say I stumbled back to the hostel, got lost at several points and slipped into a ditch. But made some great great memories!
The following days were spent eating great food, drinking more beer and relaxing on a beautiful beach. This backpacking malarkey is a breeze haha! I got up early one morning to watch some local fisherman bring in their catch for the day, I waited patiently for about an hour whilst 20 men pulled in a huge net that swept across about 1/4 of the entire bay. It was a laborious task and one that proved to be thankless! One of the workers had told me to wait around to see big fish, he was so wrong! I almost burst out laughing in his face when after all their hard work they returned a basket full of shrimps and a few measly catfish! I probably would have done hadn't it meant that a fair few families were going hungry that night! I can only imagine they have over fished the hell out of the area.
After a fantastic time relaxing in Palolem we said goodbye to the guys at the hostel and headed north back to Morjim. Fully aware of our illegal journey. The owner of the Hostel in Palolem laughed his head off when we said we had scooters from Morjim. I believe his turn of phrase was "You ride here from Morjim with no helmet, you bloody crazy, not even me would do this". So yeah it was inevitable we would get stopped by the police!
They were really quite aggressive and at first I tried the innocent clueless tourist approach, they were having none of it and tried to apply pressure to get us to pay 600 rupees each. They can not actually impose a fine and this was purely a bribe and I knew it. But they could in fact arrest us and make our lives hell for a few days so we agreed to pay which didn't sit well me. As I was sorting out the money they continued their aggressive manor which really pissed me off so I decided I would insist they provide me a with paperwork knowing full well they couldn't provide us with any! The price soon reduced to 300 rupees and we went on our merry way! A small victory for the white guys but it felt very good.
Once back in morjim we revisited our favourite eateries and booked a train up to Mumbai, our stop over on our way to Amritsar to see the golden temple. I had spent more than enough time in Goa boozing and relaxing and was by this time eager to go experience some more of India! So plans were in motion...one night in mumbai then a 32 hour train to Amritsar followed by Jodhpur and Jaisalmer for a desert trek on a camel! So excited to be back on the road
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