I feel as if I'm getting slightly behind with my travel blog seeing as we're in Malaysia now but I still haven't completed India. Luckily, there's not too much to say about Goa.

Goa 17th - 22nd March

We got a flight from Jaipur to Goa which saved us a lot of travel time. Once we arrived we headed to Anjuna to a guesthouse recommended by Myron - who we met in Udaipur - and who had already been in Goa for a few days. It seemed that no one in Anjuna travelled by foot or even car - everyone rented mopeds. The town itself is quite spaced out so it really is the most convenient way to get around. We were fortunate in that Myron had already hired a moped, so the three of us squeezed on the back of this for the five nights we were there. We were informed on the last night that it was in fact illegal in Goa to ride with three people on the back of a bike but luckily we never got stopped! It felt like quite a safe way to travel since there was very little room so we were all wedged in quite tightly.

Unfortunately on the night preceding our flight to Goa, Jane was unwell. At first she was wearing her jumper in bed with the blankets over her head complaining that she was freezing. The next moment I turned around and she was lying there in just her bra and knickers! She was also sick at the airport on the way and continued to be ill for the first two days we were in Goa. We suspected that it could have been the anti-malarials that we had just started taking, but later they didn't seem to be a problem. I was lucky that Myron was there because it meant for the first couple of days I could still go out for meals with someone!

On our first night in our guesthouse, the owner, Sebastiana, came running into our room twice following the sound of hysterical screams. "What is it?!" she exclaimed as we stood on our beds pointing at a massive cockroach on the floor. She fetched her son who came and finished it off with his flipflop. Ten minutes later she burst in again like a valiant firefighter to rescue us from another beast. "It was flying!" cried Jane, to which Sebastiana replied "Was it a butterfly?" It turns out cockroaches can fly. So besides Jane and I there were two cockroaches, a lizard, a spider, a moth and one colony of ants staying the first night in the guesthouse. After rearranging the furniture to move the beds away from the walls, we tried to get to sleep occasionally jumping and batting away insects which were probably never even there.

In the days that followed we zoomed round on the back of the bike with Myron, having lunch in beach side cafes, visiting flea markets and lying on the beach - which isn't as relaxing as it sounds when you add a crowd of relentless Indian women with countless bracelets, anklets and sarongs to sell. Before Goa we had only had to fend off eager sales men, but it turns out the women are far more tenacious and aren't afraid of grabbing your arm in a bid to keep you in their 'shack'. This was definitely one of the most negative aspects of Anjuna.

In moments of ingratitude, we discussed how Goa just wasn't as paradaisical as it was made out to be. There were palm trees, but they weren't green enough. It was hot and sunny, but windy too. The sea was blue, but it wasn't clear. The worst thing was, we had been promised a land of hedonism with all night rave parties on the beach. In reality, due to a regional curfew, all the bars shut at 10pm! It was probably one of the tamest places I have ever been to!

All in all, although it made a nice change from the rest of India, we left a bit disappointed. Still, with the beaches of Malaysia, Thailand and Fiji still to visit, we weren't too worried about not yet having found a utopia.