The police were useless and full of hollow promises. The hotel had no idea what to do when we informed them that police said that they would pay our hotel and when they rang the police station, using the number and name that they had given us, they were told that no one with that name was at the station and that they wouldn't be paying for a tourists' stay. We then - very optimistically - headed to the restaurant, China Gate, which the police had said they had ra...

Arriving at our hotel meant the (now usual) debacle of finding out whether or not our hotel had been paid for, which I'm sure you have guessed the outcome of? Thinking that enough was enough, we headed to the local police station to log an official complaint. It is always very hard in these unfamiliar situations as nothing is really explained to you; things just happen around you very quickly and in a foreign language so it's all a bit of a whirlwind of sceptic...

Palolem has treated us very well, the dust free skies, cold drinks, western toilets and helpful people have been a delight and an absolute breath of fresh air after our stamina sapping city hopping. Our accommodation has been very nice and I have enjoyed scratching the stray dogs here with my big toe as they seek out shade under my sun lounger. That being said, I advise anyone to never willingly sleep in a beach hut. For one thing I am a very light sleeper and ...

Shivering, sweating and convulsing throughout the night whilst enduring a pounding headache brought about the annoying reality that I had heatstroke. I have no idea how as I was lathered up to my eyeballs in factor 50 sunscreen and put plenty of water through my gills all day. Being an absolute warrior I dragged my aching muscles out of bed, eased out of my fluorescent orange pyjamas and accompanied Chelsea to breakfast. This made me feel horrendous again, so I...

Yawning and stretching with the sunrise to the irksome sound of Chelsea's alarm, I begrudgingly got out of bed. It was 6:30 in the morning and we had a boat to catch! The previous day we had arranged with a young Goan man nicknamed, 'Captain', to go fishing - foolishly we had taken his recommendation and decided to go at the crack of dawn when no one else would be about. Meeting Stahv outside our hotel we walked along the beach to where Captain was waiting for...