Stayed at; Brown Bread coco-huts - 6 more nights, Woodstock - 1 night

The rest of our time in Palolem was mainly spent making the most of the beach and the good weather! Once the weekend was out of the way (because, as you can see, we've been really busy and felt like we deserved the rest!), we made the 2 hour round trip to Margao on the bus to get our train tickets to Hampi sorted out. It was worth it though as we managed to get both return tickets for around the price that one travel agent was selling a single for!

After the effort expended getting the tickets sorted out, we needed another few days on the beach to recover…

We were moving up the coast to Benaulim (a) it was much closer to the train station (and therefore did not require such an early start!) and b) it's where we are coming back to for a week after, so even for our sun-drenched brains, it made sense) before going to Hampi, so eventually, we had to pack up our little beach hut and get ready to move on…it was probably about time! James had been chatting to the guy in the net hut to us (Nidio - from East Timor originally) about football as the local team Goa FC were playing in Margao, so they were trying to sort out tickets for the next match the day we get back from Hampi, however it was proving quite difficult, eventually they gave up and we bedded down for our last sleep in our little hut……

Around 1am, we were woken up by shouting and what sounded like a coconut tree falling over, so we quickly got up and went outside to investigate… quite scary really, but the hut next to us was robbed. An older Russian couple were staying there and someone knocked on their door talking about water (they'd reported an issue with their water that day, so assumed he was there to fix it), so they opened the door and he started pushing his way inside. Realising what the time was, they tried to get him out of the hut, but on the way out, he spotted a money belt, grabbed it and ran. The poor couple were due to fly to Delhi the next day, and the money belt had his passport and a considerable amount of cash in it. So the guys who ran the beach hut went out with baseball bats hunting for the guy, but obviously, he was nowhere to be found. A few of us were hanging around waiting to see if there was anything we could do (not much surprisingly, although our suggestions of phoning their embassy were gratefully received!), anyway Nidio said that he remembered a guy hanging around watching the huts earlier that evening. It was all very strange, and Sydney who runs the huts said this is the first time in 15 years that he's had anything like this happen! Eventually we all migrated back to bed feeling a little shaken. It's odd though that the guy targeted their hut as there were a few others and a few girls travelling alone as well. When we saw the couple the next morning and they had been to the police station to report it stolen, but they'd noted it as 'lost' (apparently if you report something stolen, they make a case out of it and you have to stay around until its finished?? So it makes no difference to just report it as lost…hmm) but they'd had news from the embassy and they were positive about being able to provide documents for them to fly. So all was not lost, but it did somewhat sully our last night in Palolem.

Well, it was time to move off, so we picked up the local bus to Margao again and then hopped on another one the short way to Benaulim. We've found the bus conductors quite amusing on these little buses; they all have a call when they get to a big station and it's hard to work out what they are saying - it's the main stops for the bus, but they say it so quickly, it's hard to separate them! We tried to say the names quickly and just ended up tongue-tied. Also, the driver does nothing but drive, we have tried to talk to the driver before and he's all but ignored us! If you get on a local bus, ignore the driver - the conductor will have all the information you need. There are also no bells to tell the bus to stop. You just fight your way to the front of the bus and he whistles to tell the driver to stop. Once the person(s) have safely (just about) disembarked from the vehicle, another whistle signals to get going again. The conductors are also responsible for packing as many people as humanly (or humanely) possible into these creaking rattily old things! Our bus to Benaulim was very small though and not that busy, so, the conductor was very helpful and indicated to us that we were there and that we were to get off. Luckily I'd downloaded a map of where we were staying though as it wasn't initially clear. Nor was it about a mile and half down the road! We ended up walking a very long way in the middle of the day with 15 kgs on our backs, after spending the past 2 weeks being very lazy! Pfff…it was tough going.

But we arrived safely and were rewarded with being upgraded to a bigger room - in fact, it should be a 6 bed dorm, but had been turned into a rather large double, jut for us. Although there is no attached bathroom, it's only a 2 second hop across the sand. The upgrade was possibly thanks to a special mention of someone we met in Jaipur…either way, it worked for us. And we had exclusive rights to the room (their words!) until we got back from Hampi. So we unpacked and re-packed into our day packs ready for our journey the next day (no point in lugging our big bags with us for only a few days - our big bags are stored safely under lock and key with nothing important in them!) After more 'trying to get cash out' missions, we settled in for a few quiet beers and takeaway dinner from the little red shack in the car park for the beach….3 beef rolls (cold beef chunks with fresh cabbage and sauce in a bread roll) and some chicken noodle soup for about £1.30! Unfortunately though, he's not open for breakfast so we'll have to find another replacement for our omellete and chai fella in Palolem.

Right, time for a bit of culture!