I wasn't quite sure where to start in Goa, whether I start up north and head down south, but I didn't want to visit every beach. I decided to head to Baga beach, which was where the Indian tourists headed to. It was fairly busy and was put off by the pretentious Indians. I would have liked to have traveled further north, but decided I wanted to chill out on the southern beaches of the state and not go too mental for my birthday.

Palolem was the next destination, which turned out to be a great beach for what I wanted to do (walk along the beach, chill, swim, boogie board, chat, eat and drink). Yes it was paradise! But before I could enjoy anything I suffered from a spot of food poisoning the evening before my birthday! I spent all day relaxing in a bar by the beach keeping myself hydrated while I was feeling a little under the weather.

I got chatting with a couple and arranged to go canyoning with them and another couple. It was exhilarating jumping of rocks into pools of deep water, but I didn't pluck up the courage to jump off from 5 metres high.

I had to make the most of Palolems party scene, so I attended the headphone party. The concept was you rent out the headphones where there are three music channels you can choose from, while the DJ's are playing on a stage in front of you. The beach dancefloor had a variety of different dance moves, and I was going crazy to some drum and bass! It was strange when you took your headphones off and seeing people dance to no music! Very amusing and great fun, I was hardcore enough to stay till the final, last, finishing, never ending encore!

The party was a good ending to my visit in Goa and felt it was time to move onto Hampi. I was going on my first sleeper bus in India…