Well i have been in Goa for a whole 4 weeks now!

first arrived after a mamouth trip from Udiapur at 12.30am at Margao station. proceeded to the pre-paid taxi and asked for a specific guest house in Colva. In true Indian style the driver took us to the beach and dumped us there. The closest hotel was right on the beach and we decided to stay for one night on account of the huge expense (800 rupee per night as opposed to our normal 300) and also the fact that it seemed to be the local Indian 18-30's hotel.

Left promptly next morning and headed for the 'ma mickey guest house' This is a small really friendly guest house. Its halfway between Colva and Benalim beach set back off the beach on a quiet, leafy road. I really liked it here, despite the shared bathroom it was really clean and the lady and her mute son who run it were really nice. We decided to head straight for the beach (which took a while due to us not being able to locate the shortcut)

We arrived on Colva beach for our first day of doing nothing! We where really relived after the hecticness of North India. Colva and Benalim beaches are next to each other and are a long stretch of white sand with beach huts selling food and drinks scattered along the way. We arrived at the first and had a lovely day sunbathing and relaxing.

Colva is more Indian tourists than Western and they tend to gawp a lot and some times even take photos. After sunbathing we took a walk to Benalim beach and found hard-rock beach hut. This was run by a Goan-English couple and we found it really friendly. It quickly became our local and we spent everyday there. Benalim beach is quieter than Colva and there was far less Indian Gawpers. Ended up staying later than we originally planned as we liked it there so much. We met loads of nice people, most of whom only planned to stay for a short while and ended up staying out the whole of their visa! The only draw back was the 30 min walk back to the guest house.

We finally forced our sevles to leave and head for Calangute and Baga 6 days later. We knew we would not like it here as its known as the Benidorm of India! We just wanted to go to do a dive and they are the only ones with a dive center. We then planned to go to Anjuna and then down to Paolem beach for 3 weeks at christmas. This plan was quickly changed to 'get back to Benalim ASAP'. We hated Calangute, it was far too busy and also packed full of Indian gawpers. The dive was also rubbish, we couldn't see anything as visability was so poor. Therefore we headed back to Benalim and decided to visit Anjuna when we were in Paolim and Seb and Shaun where over.

Went back to Benalim and rented a room at a place called Rosario's near Benalim beach this time! We had another 5 relaxing nights there.

Did a trip out to a gorgeous secrest beach called 'paradise beach'. This weas the first time i had hired a moped and driven one in my life! It was prettyeasy though once you learnt to dodge all the cow hazards, dog hazards, motor hazards, potholes and people. The rules of driving are totally different. You just beep your horn loads and hope for the best! Was a 1 and a half hour trip down to Agonda to see the beach. This was a bit much for my first time on a bike but well worth. The beach was tiny and totally deserted (v. rare for India)

Pretty soon it was time to move to Paolim to meet Kelly's boyfriend Seb and Shaun, his friend as they were staying for 3 weeks over christmas....

Palolem - 6/01/08 (im here at time of writing)

Palolem (finally got the correct spelling) is lovely! It was used in the bounty adds years ago. I dont think they would want it now though as its got pretty busy! Its a round, white sandy beach about a mile long lined by palm trees. There are also beach huts amd bars all the way along it.

We were staying in the Samer beach huts. These are about 20 beach huts lined in a horse shoe shape on the beach. They are wooden huts on stilts and really basic but pretty cool. The only problem is we are next to a 24 hour bar so i have been using my ear plugs quite a lot. There are also hundreds of crows. They are proper noisy but i dont notice them too much (at one with nature me). Shaun on the other hand has become obsessed with killing the crows. he can often be heard cursing then manically in the early hours of the moring (its quite funny) some people get up to see the sunrise early. I wake early to listen to Shaun's Vixtor Meldrew impression!

Having said that, i have changed huts 3 times in the last 3 weeks. The first one, the toilet flooded all over the floor and the second was wat too noisy. A bunch if Indian people live behind the huts and have a habit of clearing their throats in the morning and making the most discusting noise! Therefore, i moved to the huts on the other side of camp, right next to the 24 hour bar. I now get woken up by Shakira and im not sure whats worse.

Palolem is great for relaxing you dont have to walk anywhere and u have everything you need! Have spent most days on the beach and not alot else! I have been taking runs upthe beach and swims to avoid turing into a total cabbage. You do get a lot of hassle from beach sellars peddling cheap rubbish. There are a lot of beggars too. The kids do acrobatics displays on the beach to try and get money also. So far i have given nothing to nobody and am quite proud of how tight i am!!! You get a fair few Indian gawpers too, especially on a Sunday. I have got used to them now. I do give them a piece of my mind when they photograph me though! they try to be shady on camera phones, but they are rubbish at it cause they are stupid!

Its so so so so hot and im really tanned. The only real days out i have had were to Anjuna flee market. Anjuna is a crap hole, glad i didn't stay there for a couple of days. The flea market was quite funny, loads of sad old hippies selling crap. It is huge too. We spoilt it a bit for ourselves by staying out till 4.30 the previous night and therefore all feeling really rough. We ended up spending a fair bit of time on Anjuna beach with millions of flies. Not all was lost though, i got a pair of sunglasses for 200 rupees!

We have also been on a boat trip to a small pretty beach called honey moon beach and fishing. The beach was good as it was empty apart from a small beer shop! It was really pretty too of course!

fishing was rubbish. We had stupied crab lines instead of rods and nobody caught anything, although the bait kept getting eaten!

Food has been nice here too. There is an Italian run by an Italian who does proper pizza. There is a pub run by an English women which has heinz ketchup. (went there for breakky this moring) It is also doing proper jacket, beans and cheese (went there last night too, nothing like absorbing the local culture). Cuba bar is nice too. We had christmas dinner there although we where too hung over to eat most of it. This actually does local food and its right on the beach. Few other places were nice too. Infact i only had one bad meal in my whole time in Palolem. Im not too ill anymore either now. Think im finally used to the Indian climate and diet!

New years eve was amazing as was christmas eve! lots of all night partying. New Years we went to a party at the end of the beach in a place called dancing Shiva, we all got wasted and had a real laugh. At midnight there were more fireworks than i have ever seen in my life. The beach was packed and it was really good fun. We stayed out to watch the sunrise till 7.30. Needless to say, New Years day was pretty uneventful!

Have been doing all the typical holday stuff u do when your somewhere like this, eating, drinking and partying with lots of sun in between!

Im leaving for the South tommorrow and a brand new adventure, cant wait!........