Goa

After one or two issues at the airport, we got to Goa in one piece and met a man named Noor who drove us the 1hour and 30 minutes to Anjuna Beach where our guest house was located.

Following a first night booking at internet price, we haggled an off season rate for the next few nights (250 rupees each-around £3) and set about exploring the area. We walked straight into a bollywood film set at the bottom of our road, and met an American man named Allen who offered to take us out for dinner and talk us through good places to go/ things to do in Goa.

We met Allen and his friend Usa that evening, ate dinner and had our first taste of alcohol that wasn't kingfisher beer since landing in Delhi 3 weeks ago. We then went to a club on the beach named Hippies in the name of 'having one quick drink and seeing what it was like'. This turned into partying all night at hippies until it was shut down, then on to primrose, then on the back of Allens motorbike to his and Usa's place before finally rolling into bed at 5am. We met a hoast of people in this time-Lucky, Brian, Pritesh, Dubai boy, Turkey girls, Damien, Johnny and a few others, and for the next few days we continued to bump into these people almost everywhere we went.

We rented motorbikes on our third day there, and used them to drive around to different beach areas, getting lost so frequently that we more often just cruised around and landed wherever. Again hassle meant the beach was impossible to relax on, but nothing compared to the never-ending onslaught of the north. We described Goa as the holiday from our holiday. A place for parties, beaches, hammocks, good resteraunts, markets filled with tourists, and private transport. Not indemic of the 'real' India, but certainly a great place to chill out between visits.

Riding the bikes

 

Shopping in a local market

If we had longer I would of loved to carry on to Keralla and see the south, and then go to the east, particularly Darljeeling. But alas, our time was up.

Back in Delhi Abby flew home and I spent a final night alone in a nice hotel. Met two interesting guys on the flight home and sat swapping stories with them for most of the flight.

And that was India, more or less....