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Stayed at; Brown Bread coco-huts - 10 nights (at the moment!)
Well, time really does fly when you're having fun….or doing nothing! We were meant to leave Palolem today and go inland to Hampi, but the train we tried to book was 'full' and the guy in the travel 'agency' was trying to sell us a ticket for 3x the price. Also, as I wasn't feeling too well, we decided to stay put for a while. The next train to Hampi with any availability is on 20th of this month (today is the 13th). We had thought about going North in Goa for this week, but from people we've spoken to, it's not as chilled as around here and is a bit more 'party-central'….so we made the tough decision to just stay put for another 6 nights!
So far, Goa has been everything we wanted (and needed) it to be; relaxed. Let's go back to the beginning…
Our train left Kochi in the early afternoon and we were surprised to find our carriage was basically empty! Given the trouble we had trying to book the tickets in Varkala, we were under the impression that the train would be full - seemed not! Luckily, we'd stocked up a few snacks at the station before we left as, obviously anticipating a quieter journey, we did not have any people coming through the carriage selling food. Oh boy! Did we long for the chai-walla, to hear his cry of 'Chai, Chai, garam Chai!'. It was not meant to be and we spent the whole 14 hours suitably chai-less (neither of us feeling brave enough to run off the train at a station and pick some up - we didn't seem to be stopping long enough at any of the stations). As it started getting dark, the prospect of a long journey on an empty stomach was not filling us with much joy, so at the next station, I stuck my head out the door - lo and behold a man walks past with biryani and parathas!! Hallelujah! It's probably a good thing that we didn't have any travel companions in our section of the carriage though - eating rice with your hands on a wobbly train proved….amusing. Well anyway, the rest of the journey passed without hiccup, and we even arrived in Goa almost bang on time….3.30am.
It is quite difficult to book the cheaper beach huts online as many of them don't have websites, so for the first time since we've been away, we arrived without any accommodation. Our only plan was to get to Palolem. Unfortunately the buses don't start running until 8am and the prospect of hanging around Margao until then was enough to stick us in a taxi and on our way…the taxi man did buy us both a cup of chai though, so somewhat sweetened the cost of the journey (at almost £10!!). We had hoped that the train would be late so that we wouldn't have to wait so long for the sun to come up, but alas, this was the one Indian train that was running to time….so, an hour later, we arrived in Palolem, in the dark and after quickly working out there was no-one around, went in search of somewhere comfortable to rest and wait…
We started walking along the beach and spotted another lone figure sitting in the dark in a bar, so we went and joined him (although turned out to be a 'them'). Etienne and Mona (French and English - have been travelling for the last 3 and half years!) had just arrived from Hampi and were waiting out the rest of the darkness, the same as us. As much as I tried to stay awake, I couldn't (James managed though)…and neither could the others. I came to just as it was getting bright and we decided to go and get some breakfast - we weren't sure whether to wake the other two up, so decided to leave them sleeping. A recommendation from the couple we met in Varkala was a guy selling 'sexy sandwiches' just off the beach and we managed to find him with no trouble at all. A cup of hot sweet chai and an omelette sandwich (with tomato, cabbage and chickpea masala) each for only 80 rupees (about 80p!) - absolute bargin - and super tasty! Refulled, we started the search for somewhere to stay!
Starting in the middle of the beach we walked to the south side where it looked like there was more choice. They're still not fully up and running for the season with a few huts still being built. We checked out a few and got an idea for prices and continued along to see what we could find. After looking at a handful, we settled back on one that we'd seen; 8 huts arranged in a circle with a nice clear area in the middle and only a few hundred yards to the beach (can't see it, but can hear it!) and we managed to get him down on price - 10 nights at 600 rupees a night. Perfect. Not long after we'd settled in though, we were approached by a man wearing nothing by a loincloth and even that wasn't covering all of the necessarys…he was carrying what looked like a left over pint of beer and asked us if we had any weed…a bit odd for 9am…anyway, we sent him on his way. We have seen him every day, wearing various different loincloths or towels wandering along the beach occasionally stealing people's drinks! Strange character….anyway ,felt we needed to mention him!
Our next mission was to try and find a cash point, so headed out to the nearest one a few kms away, it was hot, but we decided to walk it. Surprise surprise, the ATM wouldn't accept my card! Determined to find one that worked, we walked another few kms into the town….where none of the ATMs worked for me either! A completely wasted walk and after all that had to just suffice with getting a cash advance from one of the little travel agency shops (they only took 2% though, so not too bad). Overall, using the mastercard has been pretty trouble free - no charges for using it etc - but as we've found, a number of ATMs in India don't accept mastercards which can make things a little interesting. Anyway, all was well.
And so we started to settle into a bit of a routine, up early for a run along the beach (we managed that for 4 mornings - but running barefoot on relatively solid sand takes it's toll!) and then down to our guy for an omelette sarnie and a cuppa! Palolem is a beautiful beach, although quite built up with restuarants and beach huts, they all seem to blend into the forest of palm trees and nothing is really an eye-sore. The beach itself is quite clean although you do have to watch out for the odd dog/cow turd. There are a huge number of beach dogs here, but they are all so friendly - it's just a shame they are so flea ridden - poor things, we've never seen fleas quite so big! There also seems to be a family or two of cows that wander up and down, often trying to be sociable and join groups of people or hassle someone while they are sunbathing! One evening though, we watched a standoff between the cows and the dogs; there are a few calves in the herd and it looked like the dogs were trying to pack hunt the poor things. Cows won though and quickly walked off in the other direction….I mean, it's not quite the Andaman Islands with their beach elephants - but we'll settle for cows and dogs...and the odd pig.
We spent a few days chilling and easing ourselves gently into beach life, spent a lot of time just reading or drinking chai when the weather wasn't so good and discussing things we might like to do. About a 20 minute walk south of Palolem is Patnem beach - although it's not as pretty, it's a lot quieter with much less huts and eateries. Then further south is Rajbag beach, which has even less! We think we've managed to work out which little bay is Colomb bay - it's between Palolem and Patnem and is very small, with not much actual beach. Anyway, this is all irrelevant. We've made the walk south a few times now and it's been a nice little break from our norm.
Palolem seems to really come alive at the weekends with an influx of people on a Thursday evening (there was even a traffic jam last night!!). Last Saturday, we were given a flyer for a silent disco at one end of the beach, although deciding to take it easy and not drink too much, we opted out of it. Instead, returning back to our beach hut for an early night….well, best laid plans and all that! This was the evening that we properly met our neighbours and 2 bottles of rum later, a few of us decided to give this disco a try! 2 had gone on ahead so I went with a French couple - Laura and Damien - (James opting to stay back and sleep off the rum!)…although by the time we got there, Laura and I decided that we weren't really that bothered and anyway, we'd forgotten to bring any money with us and the 'bouncers' were not really being very flexible with the entry prices, nor did we have anything on our feet - so probably not sensible. So we left Damien to it and walked back over the cliffs in the direction of home…(I realise that walking over cliffs in barefeet is also not particularly sensible, but it wasn't completely dark everywhere and the path was relatively ok). Needless to say, we were all rather lazy and quiet the next day…so James and I decided it was a good day to spend on the beach. We bought a Frisbee and tried as best as we could to fight the damn rum! We were helped along a lot by the discovery of a place serving cheese and baked bean toasties - sometimes Indian food just does not cut it. We were, however, very disappointed to learn that the ex-pat run restaurant serving Sunday roast dinners had closed…hungover Sunday was officially ruined.
Feeling adventurous the other day, we hired a moped and headed north to Cola and Agonda beaches. This is the first time that we'd been on a moped since Vietnam a few years ago, so took James a little while to get used to it again - I felt quite safe on the back! The road down to Cola beach is interesting - a rather up and down dirt track, with some very big downs (I hopped off and let James take it down and then jumped back on!) but it was worth it. Again, not everything was open, but the beach was almost deserted! To try and let James's nerves settle a little we had some lunch and spent a few hours playing Frisbee and reading before we were 'befriended' by a group of dogs that had been wandering up and down the beach having an argument…we decided that it was probably a good time to head off so packed up and jumped back on the 2 wheels and started in the general direction of our place, stopping off at Agonda for a drink on the way. We managed to pick up a barely used (fairly flat!) road/dirt track back to Palolem which saved us having to spend too much time on the main road with all the other drivers. All in all though, a good day with no mishaps. Even though we've been away for a while now, that was probably the first time we've had the feeling of being completely 'free' - with our own wheels and being able to go anywhere we wanted, not having to rely on buses or trains, it was very nice indeed. That evening we met up with a couple of friends we'd met in Kochi to listen to some live music, with a promise to meet up in a few days' time for a good old session!!
When we had picked up the moped, it was almost empty of fuel, so filled it right up - not really knowing how much it would use up…we returned with the tank still basically full, so tried to see if we could do some kind of a deal - either a free day or reduced price…we were offered it again for the next day, but we still had to pay for it (full price, 300 rupees) - so no deal really. To make the most of the fuel, we said we'd take it for another day, but that morning decided that as we could walk to the beaches south, there wasn't any need to drive there (ok, we could have gone further afield, but we didn't want to be out driving for hours on end quite yet). Hmm, what to do. At breakfast, we bumped into ET and Mona from our first morning and happened to mention this to them, they responded by telling us about the lady up the road who buys fuel - fab. So this was my first time riding the bike and all was going well until I got onto the main road and almost put it in a ditch! James decided that being on the back wouldn't really help me, so was walking behind…helped me get it upright and set me off on my way. After a few confused conversations with people thinking I wanted to buy fuel, a guy stopped and asked if we needed help - told him that we wanted to sell our fuel and with that, he took us off down a little lane to his house where he proceeded to siphon off the fuel and leave us with the required litre. Our first illegal deed done, and before midday! He gave us the money (50 rupees for a litre) and sent us on our way, asking us not to tell the owner where we sold the fuel. He didn't ask, so we didn't need to lie - at least we didn't have to add that to this little escapade! All sorted and we were not out of pocket.
And we're pretty much back to where this blog began! Our session with Lesley and Steven was a good laugh - great to spend the evening with a couple of Scots - although it left us feeling a little worse for wear (second hang over in a week ouch!). I don't even think we made it to the beach…I wasn't keen on going too far either as my tummy was playing up, so we got a takeaway burger and chips and ate it at 'home' before catching up with some breaking bad.
So, here we are. Today. I'm still feeling a little ropey, but we've at least been out of our little area! We tried to book our train tickets to Hampi with little success - we went to the local train station here but they said we had to go to the main station in Margao to book them - waste of a tuk tuk ride that was! So, we're going to have to do the hour's bus trip to Margao on Monday if we have any hope of not having to pay the excessive commissions they charge at the travel places here. We've booked another 6 nights here and then we're going head up to Benaulim for the night before the train (it's only 20 minutes to the station rather than the hour it is from here…and the train is an early one!). All being well, we'll be back in Goa on the 25th, ready for James's parents to arrive on the 26th!
xxx
- comments
Upkar Kempster Wow, some blog! A good read mind... :)