Goan Delight

I haven't posted in a while as I have turned into a lazy slob in Goa. It is literally paradise, the sun is always shining, it's so hot and the people are so nice. We arrived in Goa around a week and a half ago and began in a little place called Colva, it was nice but not really our scene- Indian families and middle aged Brits on tour. Pretty dull, our one bright spark in the light (apart from the heat, beach and everything!) was a lovely beach hut restaurant called Domnicks. I ate literally the best tuna of my life, Finn was incredibly jealous and I was incredibly happy and full of fish. We ate there for nearly every meal, trying a variety of seafood. One particularly memorable moment was sharing a very large Pomfret, very tasty and very fresh. Not as good as the tuna though! There's not much else in Colva so we left after four days and took a bus to Margao and then another bus to Palolem.

Now I have already talked about the crazy Indian road system by taxi/ rickshaw but the Indian road system by bus in different entirely. The journey from Colva to Margao was an eye opener, the bus from Margoa to Palolem was absolutely terrifying. Picture this; we get on the bus and put our heavy backpacks in the front with the driver, so far so good. Whilst waiting for the bus to leave we notice the bus conductor getting weed from the bus to deal on the side. So we're in a bus/ drug dealers lair. Strange. We waited for a good while for the entire bus to fill up, and then we began our epic journey to Palolem. Indian buses try to fit as many people on as possible. If you think you've been on a busy bus from your magic bus experience then you are mistaken. Every time we stopped they let more people on the bus. It was three to some seats, Finn had a very large mans crotch shoved in his face for the majority of the journey as there was literally no space for it to go anywhere else. So business aside, this packed bus starts to go at around 80 mph, tilting to the side every time it turned a corner, I was praying, I thought that this bus drive would be the end of me. On the upside the bus driver decided to play some banging Bollywood tunes blaring continuously out of the speakers (probably to cover up the peoples screams). Altogether fun, altogether terrifying!

We arrived in Palolem relatively unscathed- that was over a week ago. We're still here. I find it difficult to describe the wonders of Palolem. It is a beautiful beach, golden sands, palm trees and everything else that you'd expect. I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe listening to Bob Marley, whilst mosquitoes buzz around looking for blood. (they don't seem to have any of mine yet) Palolem is perfect, we're staying in a rickety beach hut that birds and coconuts seem to flock to when we're trying to sleep. I've never heard birds chirp so loud, they like to run across the straw and be a noisy as possible. There's also the pigs that just wander around like they own the place munching on any left over food, crisps packets etc that they can find. There's so many cute little piglets around, it's very strange! The hut has a shower that has four dribbles of icy cold water trickling out of it and nowhere for the water/dirt to go, therefore we have a little sandpit at the bottom of our bathroom. This probably sounds pretty shit, but it has the same atmosphere as a festival. Everybody is so nice and friendly, we're all in the same boat after all. It's like having your own tent pitched for you at a beach style Glastonbury. We've sat most nights with our neighbours, a couple from Israel, Maor and Michelle. They are very friendly and we've learnt a lot about their life and their religion. Israel sounds like a beautifully frightening country.

I hope this description helps you imagine our time, I would try to describe what we've been doing but it'd be one sentence- sitting in the sun all day, drinking at night, and this is all we've been doing in this beautiful, relaxing place in Paradise. I will try to update soon, you know when we've actually done something :) love to you all xxxx