We left a freezing and snow bound England on 21st December to arrive in a sweltering Mumbai India just 8 hours later. The plan was to head straight down to Goa, pausing in Mumbai till the evening, when our sleeper train would leave. Having eaten a top class veg thali lunch for the princely sum of Rs. 40 (50p) each we spent the next few hours exhausted from our travels sleeping on the station floor with the thousands of others who pass through every day.
After a good night’s sleep on the train and a subsequent bus journey through southern Goa we arrived at Palolem beach, our destination for the festive period. Palolem is a popular place at this time of year for westerners & locals alike so some hard bargaining was required to secure ourselves an excellent hut with sea views.
We soon got into our routine of beach life which for us consists of eating, swimming, sunbathing, reading, eating, reading, swimming and eating.
Christmas Eve seemed like a bigger deal than Christmas day with lots of parties and fireworks, although New Years Eve was the main event with thousands of people on the beach and what I can only imagine a war zone must feel like at with barrage after barrage of fireworks.
The only event out of the ordinary took place when a drunk local stumbled into one of the bungalows in our resort, presumably to steal whatever he could find. After some confusion and a quick chase he was apprehended and dragged back to the resort where some swift local justice was dealt out in the form of a fairly minor beating. I don’t think he’ll be back!
We are now heading further south to Karnataka, first to the beach town of Gorkana then onto Hampi and Mysore.