Goa 2. 21st - 28th Feb

Our time in Goa has come to an end and despite Sue's persistently upset tummy, we're ready to leave. Cabin Fever hasn't set in yet, but we're feeling tanned, relaxed and ready to start exploring again.

We've been pretty lazy during the last week, a typical day would go something like:

7am: Woken by the Dawn Chorus in full swing. Like everything in India, the birds are noisy too!

7:30am: Drift off to sleep again.

9:30am: Wake up properly and head out for breakfast, a variation of: tea, juice, toast, eggs, cornflakes, pancakes.

10:30am: Return to the hut for the daily chore of slopping on the sun-lotion.

11am: Hit the beach. Activities to choose from: sunbathing, sitting in the shade, reading, having a drink/ice-cream, having a refreshing dunk in the sea.

3:30pm: Having had enough of the sun, it's time for a cool drink.

5:00pm: Back to the hut for a cold shower, hoping the sun has shone on the water tank enough to take the edge off. Refreshing and good for any sunburn! Feel clean for about 5 minutes before spraying on the mosquito repellent.

6:30pm: Have a drink while watching the sunset.

7:00pm: Order dinner before retiring for an early night.

Repeat as necessary for the following days. It's tough.

Although we've been lazy on the whole, we've still managed to do a few things of note: we've explored along the beach and walked part-way up the river that meets the sea at one end of the beach. We've also walked around the headland and past a couple of coves to Patnem Beach - a quieter version of Palolem (where we're staying), with fewer people, no cows and nobody trying to sell you anything.

My cow-rustling skills have come on - I have a reasonable success-rate at shooing cows away from our shade when they come ambling over. The trick is not to let them sit down, my powers are too weak to shift a cow once it's laid down.

We've also changed huts, when we extended our stay. Our original one was booked for a group who wanted two side-by-side.

Sue has gone the whole of Feb without any alcohol or meat (excluding a Zinger Burger in Delhi airport!). Personally, I reckon a steak and a bottle of wine will sort out any remaining Delhi-belly issues, but she's resisted so far!

Having been here for a couple of weeks, we've been able to divvy up the various groups of people that visit here: the Indian tourists come in two batches really - most stroll the beach fully clothed and go into the sea fully clothed too - we've seen a couple of older Indian women fully immersed in the full Sari's etc. Then there's a younger set of lads who arrive fully clothed and then go in the sea in just their pants. Not a good look. The non-Indian tourists are predominantly white, for whom bikinis and shorts are obviously the norm. A good chunk of these are Russian/Ukrainian and there must be a fair few Israelis as well, as a lot of the menus specify Israeli food. The remainder are central/northern Europeans. There are far fewer Northern American accents here than their were up north and virtually no south/east Asians. I guess they all have beaches closer to home if they want them.

As a resort that's popular with the 'independent traveller', there's a few bohemian types knocking around. A couple of personal favourites have been a Jesus/John Lennon character in his long hair, beard, floating white robes and circular shades and a guy in a loin cloth (not a nice sight). Him and his wife (or life-partner perhaps?) have a shack-cave arrangement at the quiet end of the beach advertising homeopathic remedies. Sue and I aren't sure what our next career steps will be, so it's good to know that there are a diversity of options..

So from Goa, we head over to Chennai. We chose Chennai as our exit airport as we had intended to see more of southern India. As it happens we're quite a long way away. We fly from Goa to Chennai on the 1st, having to go north to Mumbai to change flights before heading south-east to Chennai on the renowned SpiceJet airline. Then on the 3rd we leave the country, flying to Hong Kong to change flights to come halfway back in the opposite direction to Bangkok. In the modern age of transport, the airport-hub is a bit of a pain!

So as we're leaving India, we've pulled together some memorable experiences/sights of our time here in no particular order:

Being sick: You're probably bored of hearing about it, but it's been a notable point of our trip. Our advice to anyone coming here would be to add a week contingency to your trip and stock up on the medicines beforehand.

The noise: India (especially the cities) is a noisy country. The traffic is loud, the people are loud, the hotels are loud and the cities never seem to sleep. Bring ear-plugs.

The food: Every single meal we've had has been superb in terms of taste and value. The downside is the portion of trepidation as to the potential after-effects!

Hard beds, harder pillows, wet-room bathrooms and hotel rooms with no natural light.

English: Most people speak some and surprisingly we've had no problems at all being understood. It's still an official language in India.

Pointing, staring and photo-taking: Thankfully decreased in frequency, intensity and harassment level as soon as we left Delhi.

Cows.

Men holding hands: It's a sign of friendship between Indian men, nothing more. Looks a bit odd though. Interestingly, a couple holding hands is essentially considered to be fore-play and is a no-no in public, although the younger generations are starting to ignore that one.

Man at Varanasi station carrying two full size suitcases on his head. Both had wheels on them and there were no stairs. Go figure.

The Taj Mahal: Worthy of the plaudits it receives.

Toilets with 'wings' so you can use them as a western toilet with seat, or as a squat toilet. Haven't seen that before. Will include a photo.

Lack of hygiene: In Delhi there were large signs asking people not to urinate in public. The other cities don't bother to ask. Do not look closely at small alleyways, ditches beside the road and dried streams/rivers. And try not to breathe in. Seen more bare bums than we want to.

Udaipur: Should be on everyone's list of places to visit in India.

Ranthambore: Should be on nobody's list of places to visit in India.

Dress: Apparently Indians are surprisingly materialistic despite the amount of poverty here. If that's true it definitely manifests itself in the clothes people wear. Everybody dresses immaculately and it's rare to see a man without a shirt/trousers or a woman without the full silk regalia even when doing dirty jobs.

Train stations: Extremely busy, very smelly places. At 4am in Varanasi every available space on the floor was filled by someone sitting/sleeping waiting for their trains. Walking around and over them all was a surreal moment. Each station also comes with its own assortment of disabled/crippled beggars which is distressing to see.

Indian Trains: Book as far in advance as you can. In hindsight we probably weren't helped by the Cricket World Cup being here at the same time, but still thought booking a week in advance would be ok. Try and avoid the toilets on the train, but given that it will inevitably be several hours late by the time it reaches its destination, you'll end up using them anyway!

The roads: Do not attempt to self-drive in India, there are no rules, only guidelines. Even the one about driving on the left can be ignored if you have gone the wrong way or are in a hurry. Pulling out to overtake a lorry on a motorway to come face to face with another truck barrelling along in the outside lane in the wrong direction was a good moment.

So it's farewell from India and very much looking forward to Thailand now.

Hoping you are well and speak soon,

Dan and Sue.