Our train pulled out of Mumbai yesterday morning and we were glad to see the back of what we thought was a disappointing city.

No sooner had the train left the station we had people walking through the train selling every kind of food you could imagine, but we had come welll prepared and were eating our vegetable pasties, it was only 7.15am!!!

After all the pressure and nice smells from the food we caved in and bought some vegetable croquettes and i ordered my vegetable biryani for lunch it was still only 10am. Mel banished me to the top bunk and had a sleep which gave me time to read a bit and wait for my biryani.

Had a little sleep myself and when i woke it was nearly biryani time, it arrived soon after and was accompanied by poppadums and raita. I did curse myself for throwing out the plastic knife and fork that I had acquired from our business class flight to Nepal 2 weeks earlier and meant I had to fashion a spoon out of a paper plate, then proceeded to shovel away.

I woke up Mel to share my biryani which she declined but managed to polish off the poppadum and raita before returning to a semi coma. I sometimes wonder if she has an ability to just wake up and eat then go straight back to sleep, or whether she pretends to sleep so she doesn't have to talk to me!!!!

Spent a few hours chatting with other people before succumbing to the samosa guy. We had been on the train for 10 hours now and still had 2 hours to go before we reached Karmali.

For once there was no haggling with the rickshaw driver and he sped away for the 12km ride to Panjim through the narrow streets to Panjim. Our hotel is a budget affair at Rs500/ 6 quid a night and it showed. There was not a towel, toilet roll or soap in sight. It also had no bed sheets although here they are not required as it is feckin boiling and humid but the option would have been nice.

Good news is the beer is soooo cheap which makes up for it!!!!

After a not too good nights sleep on a mattress not much thicker than a jacobs cracker and a pillow like a breeze block we decided to tackle the city of Panjim. After a while it became apparent that there is not too much to do in the immediate vicinity and we took a local bus or should I say oven on wheels to Old Goa just 10km north of here to see the old church where St Xavier is entombed and also the old cathedral both built in the 16th century. While here we got starstruck as nearly every Indian and Nepali tourist wanted their photo taking with us which was good fun and I nearly started charging at one point when a queue formed!!!!

Took the oven on wheels back to Panjim and relaxed for the remainder of the day as tomorrow we have a day out to North Goa visiting some of the beaches up there and also a few sights.

Lots of love

M & M

xx