Well, the etiquette of walking on or near a beach, here in India is slightly different to what we have known elsewhere, as we discovered on Saturday.

The mad trip from Assagao to Anjuna beach on the"No Spitting, No smoking, No easy ride" bus brought us to the sleepy junction of the flea market. We dodged the cows, autorickshaws and tourist coaches. As we climbed down to the beach we saw the potential for a bit of walk. The hills looked inviting and green beckoning us, tempting us. As we wanted to go to Vagator we thought we could walk along the coastal hills to get there. We decided it was chappallable territory. So in our flip flops and our innocence we set off over the slippery crags.

We met some people coming back the other way which was a good sign. However, once the path seemed to stop, col found herself on her backside as her chappal (flip flop) gave way. That was a laugh, but it sobered us into turning back. We took respite in the heat under a large boulder. Grumbling and mumbling between ourselves for a few minutes (lesson: never stop for a grumble) we were rudely interrupted by local Goan policeman with a local goon.

We were told that the locals had reported someone walking on the hillside. We thought they were having a laugh. They had to investigate apparently and we had broken some local loitering with intent law. The words 'terrorist' 'security' 'threat from Pakistan' 'tourists blaming the goan police' and in particularly bad taste 'Scarlet' (we think this was the girl who was killed) were mentioned as he went through our documents.

It was hilarious watching Mr PC get out his big book to make a report; which would require 500 rupees fine each (we weren't even sure that we would get a copy for posterity at this price). The local goon was clearly the one who had called the police and they couldn't leave empty handed. We said we had very little money with us. Nevertheless Mr PC had already started writing his report, which Col suspected was his signature on the next report sheet. But he absolutely had to fine us. After a little bit of humming and hawwing he said we could pay 200 rupees without the official paperwork. We felt like handing one 100 Rs to him and then 100 to the goon because this was obviously a scam.

We never did make it to vagator that day, but we believe its a nice place. We wrote it up in our budget as a hill walking tax and thought of it as an unnecessary but informative adventure.