So, Sunday morning, 7am, possibly still pissed, having learned to ride a scooter the day before, set out on a 60 mile journey down the national highway... (sorry mum). As it turns out, Sunday is a very good day to do this as there's (relatively) little traffic & (relatively) few police (who have a habit of stopping you & extorting money from you basically for being white). This was a lot of fun - wind in hair, insects in face, lush & varied countryside
from everglade-like marshlands, to coconut groves, past waterfalls, into the western ghats (range of hills), speeding straight into a group of policemen out to earn some extra cash on their day off...
Whistle blows. We pull over.
"Show me your driving license"
(produce license)
"Show me your international driving license"
"...err... don't think I've got it with me..."
"Where is it?"
"At the hotel... Sorry?"
(Silence. Glare)
"Is there a fine I can pay" (thanks for that line Nye!)
(Smiles, marches us over to van)
"No driving license: 3000 rupees each"
(Pause. Pushing money belt, containing 10,000, further down trousers)
"I'm very sorry but I don't have anything like that amount on me"
(Show them wallet in which I'd put 200 rupees earlier for this scenario)
(Disappointment. Dejection. Talks to mate in Hindi, mate laughs)
"You can't pay fine, what shall I do?"
(Silence. Head wobble. Exasperated sigh)
"OK, you pay 100 rupees each, you need to buy food"
(Try to contain look of elation at lack of search or police station. Gratitude, shake hands(!), avoid temptation to take photo, drive off)
Arriving in Palolem was like entering paradise. A cove, about 1 mile across, white sand, rimmed by palm trees, island at one tip, waves but no rip, almost too perfect... Well, a few too many beach huts & tourists but otherwise...
Spent a couple of days there, possibly the most relaxing experience I've ever had. A scramble south round a couple of headlands leads to Patnem, which is very nearly as beautiful but with very few people because the authorities recently bulldozed all the buildings owing to a technicality! Further still is Raglam, where I spent an afternoon alone, with about 2 miles of amazing beach, 3 dogs, a couple of eagles and my mp3 player for company. Bliss.
Having resolved to avoid national highways and major towns for fear of the po-lis, I set off north on an epic tour of goa. Not the wisest move when you have a very out-of-date map which is probably some hippy's impression from memory, and there are no roadsigns at all. Approximately 1 in 4 of the people I asked for directions actually knew the way to the village next to theirs. So i went round in circles, found a 300-year-old portugese landowner's mansion where i was shown round by a man who was practically comatose and wanted me to change his prescriptions! Here's an old piano:
I had intended to make my way back to the coast, find a nice beach and get a room. However, I hadn't quite appreciated why Goa has the reputation it does amongst more discerning travellers. Until then, I'd met more holiday makers and ex-pats than backpackers, but it had been pleasant enough. But it turns out that most of central goa's beaches are quite like the costa del sol. The sun was going down, I couldn't find a nice beach anywhere, so kept on heading north, having to use the national highway - tailgating big trucks through police checks seems to work quite nicely! After about 8 hours on the scooter I had to stop, and unfortunately I was in Calangute, one of the aforementioned horrible beaches. It is terrible, overpriced, and I woke up to a room full of cockroaches. There's a massive flea-market nearby in Anjuna though:
Anyway, I'm currently staying in my train-friend Vinay's 2-bed, 2-bath, 3-balcony flat, by myself, for free! So things could be worse. Off to Hampi on Sunday. I've really enjoyed Goa. It'd be a great place to come on holiday, and if you do, rent a scooter: mine cost me 12 pounds for the week and 200 miles has cost about 6 pounds in fuel! I'm looking forward to leaving Goa and getting back to India now. I'll leave you with a Palolem sunset...
