Since our gang are all longer term volunteers, we get a long weekend as a treat. We'd already decided on some sea, sun and general relaxation in Goa. Our flight left Delhi on time and we were in Goa in the two hours flying time advertised. That was meant to let the readers know the distances involved, it is further away than Rome from the UK. That said we'd a hotel booked which at the last minute was cancelled, and Zoe (a friend of Laiah's) had booked us into a "guest house" on one of the beaches. It sounded alright, but the reality was that the room I had to myself was pretty rudimentary which I could have put up with, were it not for the battalion of bed-bugs which came free of charge. The location was indeed on the beach but the walk to it was disconcertingly dark and isolated with the occasional call from the darkened bushes in broken English.
Shanta, Erin and I decided that enough was enough and we opted to hire a taxi and go further north away from what can best be described as the worst of Ibiza with Garam Masala thrown in. It had so many expat pubs and disco/clubs that I didn't really feel that I was in India at all. The end result was another hours drive to where the beaches were cleaner, infinitely less crowded and there was a distinct lack of double base pounding out. We checked out a variety of hotels and their facilities and picked one that had us in tents, not the common or garden type of tents, rather ones that had t.v. (satellite to watch the Barclays premiership live), shower, toilet and guaranteed no mosquitos! That last item was a must. The place also had a swimming pool, catering facilities and first class service all for about twenty quid a night.
The saturday night had us travel about twenty kms to a market, but not just any old market, this one is where the hippies come out to sell their wares, it had two live bands on the go, food counters from every part of the known world, draught beer and the bonus of not having to roll a joint to get high! All you had to do was walk around the market which must have had about 200 stalls catering for all tastes (providing you have an eclectic taste!), the style was very much a la "San Francisco" in the sixties with the twist that most of the hippies were either British or European in origin. The sight of a very portly hippy with blonde (?) dreadlocks and about 60+ in years was okay till he spoke with a broad "Brummie" accent, the Jesus boots and denim outfit did look in place but incongruously the accent didn't. It just seemed out of place with my interpretation of a hippy, never mind he's positively at home there so it doesn't matter if I don't get it.
Sunday is a real chill-out day for us, as we spend it on the almost deserted beach, and having fish masala with paratha soaked in butter and straight out of the oven, a kingfisher beer on the veranda of a beach bar which isn't over-crowded is my idea of heaven! I really caught the rays there and my tan looks positively brownish, well on the face and forearms! We're not scheduled to fly out of Goa until 8p.m. on Monday evening so decide that we'll go to the waterfall in the Collem park, which on the surface sounds innocuous enough, until you find that there is a 10km drive over the roughest track imaginable, if I thought the rickshaws were a pain in the arse, then this took the biscuit! At the end of the trail there's about a 150 or so yards of climbing over boulders and the pool at the base of the falls (which are about 300-400 foot high) a lot of the visitors are swimming in this pool, but with my negative buoyancy, crap knees and spine now damaged irrepairably, I gave it a miss! The girls and I shared the Tata motors 4x4 with a couple just out on holiday from Blackpool for this back-breaking ride to and from the start point! They were good company and put up with us having to go back when Shanta had left her watch on the rock where she changed for her swim. Believe it or not she found it so all's well that ends well.
The 8p.m. flight to Delhi is late (by 3 hours) and we don't leave Goa until 11p.m. which means that by the time we get back to base it is 2a.m. and I need to get my laundry ready for the morning, this meant that it was nearly 3 before I got to bed and have to be up for 6a.m. to go to Mother Teresa's. It is done but I'm cream-crackered for the want of sleep.
An after-thought, there's two new girls from the US arrived while we were down in Goa, I swear to god that one of them is a clone of the early finishing New Yorker. I lay 5/4 on that she doesn't last the 3 weeks either! This is a pity as it makes people think that Americans are schizo's, when in fact Laiah, Shanta, Lindsay and Erin have been model examples of everything that is good about America. This latest model would curdle milk at 30 paces with the looks she's giving everything from food to the need for the door to be locked when I'm sitting in front of it, before shutting herself in her room without so much as a by your leave! The consolation is that I only have 3 more days and I can handle that no bother at all. The one from Colorado though, has to put up with her for the whole period. God help her and the staff.
Namaste from a very tired correspondent.
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