BOMBAY Bombay is the last stop on my one month tour of India. Looking back I think we got it just about right. I don't think we could have seen much more, save a couple of spare days in Jaipur, and most of our travel turned out to be well planned and spaced out. Bombay, or Mumbai as is now known, is a fast paced, vibrant city, similar to other metro cities like Delhi. It is overpopulated and crowded, especially at night, where there are people an noise everywh...

BAGA BEACH & PALOLIM After Agonda we made our way up to Palolim, which is where Mark's uncle Desmond lives. We only explored Palolim briefly on scooter, but this was enough to get an insight into Mark's scootering ability. Safe to say his motto was definitely 'ride or die'. Baga beach on the whole was a let down, probably the first let down of the trip. It is famed for its nightlife and amazing beach filled with shacks. We got liquored up and taxied into...

AGONDA BEACH All up we stayed three nights in Agonda, an isolated beach in Southern Goa. It was amazing. I'm told it is what all of Goa was like 15 years ago. The beach is quiet and has beautiful white, soft sand. The water is beautifully clear and warm. The waves are nice, just enough to body surf, but not enough to attract surfers. It's the nicest ocean I have been in, so nice that we routinely stayed in there for hours on end. We stayed at a nice German lad...

CAVELOSSIM The train arrived in Margao in the early evening. We took a rickshaw to our bed and breakfast in Cavelossim. This turned out to be a quaint little place, with a beautiful beach only a 20 minute walk away. We only stayed one night, intending to travel down to Agonda beach the next morning. After dinner we went for a walk. After we returned, Mark went down for a yarn with some exotic German maidens. He returned 4 hours later at around 3am, ecstatic wi...

KARNATAKA BY TRAIN Today we travelled from Mangalore to Goa, through the state of Karnataka. The countryside is beautiful. As you can tell from the photo attached the scenery is not dissimilar to New Zealand, or more accurately a combination of 1800s and 2000s New Zealand. The fields are still ploughed by oxen and the locals live in huts or more often tents. This is juxtaposed with large cell towers in the distance and numerous Suzuki cars. There are also numero...