Goa Part 1

After what has seemed like a whirlwind of a tour through northern India, Brendan and I have finally slowed down and decided to put our sandy feet up for a bit of R & R at Goa.

Our 'original' plan was to spend a week here and then head further south for our last two weeks in India....oh how things can change. After Brendan's health episode in Mumbai, followed quickly by a killer cocktail that put me in bed for 2 days when we first arrived in Goa (are they breeding super bugs over here or what!) we have just decided to stay put for the time being and take it easy.

Goa...how to describe this place? First, a quick disclaimer. Goa is actually a State within India, not a particular beach. Therefore, my comments are really in relation to the two beach towns that we have seen - Anjuna and Arambol (where we are currently staying at the moment).

Arambol is unlike anywhere that we have been so far. It is kind of like a cross between Langkawi (Malaysia) and Koh Tao (Thailand) but with some BIG differences. Firstly..add cows! There are cows that just wander up and down the beach, who knows where they go at night, but they seem to be back the next day. Secondly, I would say that the main age bracket of foreigners here would be 30s-50s and the average tattoo count would be about 5 per body. It kind of feels like a whole lot of hippies took a wrong turn at Kathmandu about 20 years ago, stumbled across some huts on the beach here and seemed to have lost track of time. As a result, this place has a lot less of the "beautiful people" feel that most beaches in Thailand have and seems to be a lot more chilled out (but that could just be the marijuana plume that surrounds Arambol)! While the beach isn't the picture perfect postcard of Perenthian Island or Samui, it is decent and at times has some pretty surfable waves.

Anjuna is about 15km south along the coastline. In my opinion, the beach isn't as nice and the accommodation is a lot more expensive (hence why we moved after one night up to Arambol). Anjuna does, however, have a claim to fame in its famous wednesday flea market. We rocked up around midday expecting to trawl through a few tables of "crap you don't need" and head away empty handed. Instead we were faced with several football fields worth of pretty amazing stuff - anything from jewellery and clothes to skull shaped bongs! Was a load of fun wandering around for a couple of hours and has made for some interesting birthday present shopping...

Anyway, that is about all to report so far. We have 17 days left in India and a few 100km to cover to get to the airport from where we will fly to Kuala Lumpur and then onto Melbourne. Not sure what the plan is from here...it will be a surprise for us all. Take care and hope to see Melbourne/Sydneyites really soon.


//Kate