A Man Is Not A Camel - Goa

And so it was that we arrived at our last stop of the trip, and not a bad one at that!

While a man may not be a camel, after almost 2 dry months in India, Hobbes was starting to resemble a toucan... as such it was fortunate that we finally arrived in Goa where the draconian taxes on alcohol levied throughout the rest of India no longer inhibit it's excessive consumption :)

Surf's up!

Arriving from Cochin by train we managed to find the upside of the archaic nature of the Indian Rail Ticket booking system... as having been required to purchase a ticket for a station 900km beyond Goa in order to comply with their quotas, we subsequently discoved that the train made a brief stop at a station in northern Goa, much closer to Arambol than Magdaon, saving us two public bus trips!! Its all yin and yang!

Taking on the morning ripples

So after much deliberation, we decided on giving Arambol a shot as our first beach stop for Goa. Arambol has an eerily similar feel to Koh Phan Ngan in Thailand, the same level of development, the same type of travellers, the same feel of 'a whole lot of nothing going on'.... Think it took about 30 minutes after arrival to feel amazingly relaxed, definitely the most relaxed we’ve felt anywhere on the trip! Swimming in the ocean for the first time in almost a year no doubt helped a lot, even if there was a dire lack of waves…

As the crow sits

Somewhat surpringly the cows made a reappearance after almost disappearing in the south, partaking in their usual pastime of eating rubbish, though this time, out of the fishing boats and nets lining the beach… after which they'd leisurly wander along the beach, hassled heaps by the big groups of dogs, yet remaining really zen, not seeming to get too bothered by it…

Now why would you do that?

Driving a hard bargain

Definitely an interesting mix of people, lots of hippie types with their kids, doing their yoga on the beach while their kids sit waiting in their pram. Long term stayers in Arambol for the “season” (hence no thought of a discount for staying 5 days).

Really nice place to just wander up the 'main' street lined with the usual Indian (and Thai) tourist items, run down the beach to Mandrem in the south, or walk around the rocky headland to the north to a more peaceful beach backed by a idilic fresh water lagoon. As in Thailand, there are a multitude of eating an drinking options, with a beach bar or restaurant never being more than a short walk away, even when you have wandered away from the main part of town.

Arambol's beach

One of many

You can definitely feel the Portugese influence in Goa, if only for the Catholism - as in Cochin, all the fishing boats have names like “God’s Gift”, “St. Anthony” and “Jesus”, while white tombstones and Churches are scattered everywhere, looking particularly spectacular against the deep green backdrop of the palm trees.

Teach a man to fish and he'll drink beer for a lifetime

In addition to finally providing much needed cheap beer, Goa is also home to a few local varieties (King’s being the most notable) which are exceedingly preferable to Kingfisher, which seems to have a virtual monopoly elsewhere in India. However, unfortunately when it comes to the gin, the less said the better...

Despite hanging out to ride a motorbike since leaving Vietnam, our plans to tour the Goan countryside were dashed by a recent police initiative to establish new licencing requirements for the people renting bikes to foreigners. Seems all the renters had decided to boycott the new requirements in an effort to make the police abandon them... unfortunately for us this just meant no bikes (unless we wanted to pay the $100 fine).

Backseat buddies on the local bus

Not being able to get a bike meant that it was a long, long bus trip to get down to the Anjuna Markets which are on each Wednesday a few beaches south of Arambol. It took about 2 hours to cover the 30km trip down the coast by foot, local bus and autorickshaw. But it was more than worth it, as the Anjuna Market is absolutely massive, sprawled over a big field, and amongst the palms finging the beach, something like Glebe Markets x 1000! Heaps of stalls, lots of incenece, hammocks, chunky jewellery, and everything you’ve seen at tourist shops throughout India - but at prices which are 300% to 500% higher, as the vendors take advantage of a lot of tourists only visiting Goa.

Anjuna Market

Quite a different mix of people at the markets compared with Arambol, as people come from all over Goa, so lots of package tourists who obviously hadn’t been in India long (hence the high prices), mixed in with the usual ferals, aging hippies and lots of sunburnt poms… The stall-holders were also a varied bunch, the usual moustached men, hard bargaining women, the jewellery shops all run by Tibetans and a whole lot of old Westerners who obviously came for a holiday and never ended up going home…

Swimming or shopping?

Mobile market

Though Anjuna is definitely not as nice a beach as Arambol, much more spread out and not really much of a town to speak of, however we didn’t go to any of the mega-bars nearby which apparently make it worthwhile… anyways, our choice of beach was looking pretty good!

Elephantitis

The crowds obviously attract the usual annoyers and there were quite a few around the market, even by Indian standards. The most recent scam appears to be dudes coming up to you presumably to try and sell you medicine, trying to tell you there is some kind of insect/bug attached to your head, not that we ever let them finish their speil. Though seems to be a bit of a dangerous occupation as one of them was almost biffed when he tried out his scam on 'roid-boy'...

It's a hard life - sunset drinks at Cafe del Mar

We decided that Arambol was pretty relaxing, so we ended up hang out there for a little bit longer than planned, partially to overcome the hassles of travelling down to Anjuna…

We ran into Arambol's more interesting residents on our last day, a 'White Wizard' who wandered out of the trees backing the beach, his white coat covered with reflective bits, long white hair flying in the wind and wearing big pink sunglasses. His brain obviously wasn’t what it once was, we later found him dancing out he front of someone else's hut by himself… so very wasted!

Palolem sunset

From Arambol (the northern most of Goa's beaches) we decided to head down to Palolem (the southern most of the beaches). As usual our red-hot advice regarding transport turned out to be flawed, the train going most of the way down, only ended up going half the way, but you come to expect that… fortunately the pakora on bread, and chai made the wait at the train station (for 3 hours) not too painful…

During the long wait at the station we had our first 'small world' incident for a while, meeting a couple on the who also used to live in Warners Ave at Bondi Beach. In addition to sharing many Bondi stories, we were also able to share a cab with them from the train sation to Palolem which made life a whole lot easier!

Beach bar action

Considering Palolem is supposedly the most idillic of Goa's beaches, it was a lot busier than we had been expecting… having said that, it is quite beautiful, white sand, clear water and fringed by masses of palm trees which seem to be trying to push the numerous beach huts out of the way. Also adding to the appeal of Palolem was that fact that there were marginally better waves, you could even almost body surf them if you waited long enough…

Palolem's palm fringed beach

There is a bit more of a party atmosphere in Palolem than Arambol, lots of beach bars playing old Ministry of Sound mixes all arvo (it was all new to Hobbes though!) , although for some unknown reason mysteriously turning it off at sunset? Perhaps it is to allow people to enjoy the many food options, which equally mysteriously comprise more Thai food than anything else??

Even though much of the music stopped, decent sized fireworks were set off from the beach at random times throughout the night??

A little piece of paradise

The accommodation is a lot more basic than Arambol (despite the otherwise over-developed feel), simple huts made out of palm leaves and a few sticks, our hut felt like it could easily fall down if we walked around too heavily (mind you we were paying $5 a night). Apparently all the huts get taken down during the rainy season, not surprising considering that they look like they could barely last that long! Having said that it was a pretty comfortable place to stay, with a view of the beach and a fan, there wasn't too much more you needed?

Barring up

As in Arambol we spent a whole lot of time in Palolem doing very little, waking up, going for a walk, having something to eat, a swim, something to drink, a read of a book, another swim, another drink, something more to eat (you get the picture).
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There is a bit of a Euro-trash feel unfortunately, with many of the bars with distinctly euro-names (Casa de Sol, Café Del Mar), fat leather skinned women intent on getting ever darker, and lots of sunburnt backpackers playing beach volleyball a little too seriously...

Party palms

Beach entertainment

Just as we had a great time in Arambol, Palolem proved a perfect way to finish off the trip, a few G&Ts (for old time sake) and beers watching the sunsets, and taking the time to reflect on the distance we had covered over the past 6 months!

Hobbes' boat

So after all the relaxation it was time to head for home, saying goodbye to the beach and commencing our 5 day trip back to Sydney… To re-aquaint us with the more familiar theme of our trip, it was to be a lot of sitting on transport before we would make it home, starting with a early morning bus trip (make that two very crowded buses) to the regional centre of Madgaon, to catch our lonbgest train ride for the trip – 35 hours back up to Delhi…

The accomodation might be basic but the view is OK

Despite Aimes having a rather large Indian lady fall on top of her climbing down from the top bunk, and being sat next to a absolute know-it-all Canadian for most of the trip, we arrived back in Delhi. It was not long after this that were given a quick refresher course on how annoying and painful Delhi is (especially at midnight), as it took us several arguements, walking between different drivers and finally paying more money than was on the PRE-PAID receipt to get someone to drive us to a hotel. It really wasn't the niavity which made Delhi so hard the first time, it is just that it is home to some of THE most persistant, devious and deceitful touts in India if not the whole world!!!

One last shot of our big noggins

We had one full day in Delhi before taking our flight to Sydney, most of which was spent shopping for Bollywood DVDs and CDs (after spending every morning watching them over breakfast in Goa) and those last few souveneirs to make sure that our bags were well and truely full…