Exploding Cockroaches

We arrived in Goa on the 17th November and planned to spend a week or so relaxing near the end of our trip through India. The trip to Goa itself was by far our worst experience on Indian trains thus far, where we had to resort to sitting on the floor next to the toilets for 17 hours as we couldn't get a seat and had no luck trying to convince the ticket inspector to find us some; he infact threatened to fine us as we were on the wrong coach compartment. The bulk of the journey was spent trying to hold our noses every time the train stopped at a station and the lack of movement/ventilation meant that the stench of waste could be smelt throughout the carriage. Much to Sophie's disgust this didn't put Trevor off eating a vegetable biryani bought from one of the many vendors walking though the train. By the time we arrived in Patnem beach in the more quiet southern part of Goa it was 5am in the morning. We were both exhausted after the journey, with achey backs and numb bums from spending so much time on the floor. In an almost trance-like state we were dropped off on the beach and proceeded to walk along in the dark to see if there was anyone awake to ask about accommodation. Eventually after about an hour of sitting in an empty beach front bar to avoid the roves of wandering stray dogs out on their nightly jaunts, we managed to book into a room just off the beach at 'Mickey's Naughty corner'; a small basic setup of a bamboo bar, beach shacks and huts scattered near the beach with a few hammocks strung up along the palm trees lining it.

For the 4 nights we stayed in Patnem we really don't have much to report. Our average day was spent lazing around by the beach and trying the food along the various beachfront restaurants. Trevors' hunger for fish and chips was finally satisfied (almost) as we managed to find a place with proper beer battered fish. We also spent the days playing cards, trying various drinks and cocktails and feeding stray dogs... We also tried 'Hello to the Queen' which is a kind of banoffee pie topped with fudge sauce, ice cream and strawberries, along with our first whole cooked tandoori chicken, which was very tasty! The only other thing worth mentioning were the random firework displays which seemed to start spontaneously along the beach, exploding long before reaching a safe height, and almost blinding you in the process. India definitely doesn't have the same health and safety standards as back home! Patnem is one of the more undeveloped areas in Goa so there wasn't much to do along the beach itself. By day 3 we found ourselves slightly bored so thought it time to move on; sitting on the beach proved more difficult than first envisioned and quite a contrast to most of the hustle and bustle we experienced throughout the rest of India!

We moved from Patnem beach to Palolem beach on the 21st November. Whilst only about 1km away we walked it in the blazing midday heat carrying all our bags so it felt more like 10km and a lot of swearing ensued. Palolem beach is more developed than Patnem, with more beach huts, restaurants and bars as well as a number of activities available such as boat trips and kayak rentals, the latter of which we were both keen to do as dolphins are often spotted near the shore. We were ready to have a more of an action packed time in Palolem!

The remainder of the day we settled in and got to know a Norwegian couple in a nearby hut and went out to dinner with a French couple. That night however was to be the start of a long running theme on Palolem beach, and most certainly not the action that we had hoped for....the hut was plagued with cockroaches. While we admit we were at the budget end in terms of accommodation and have slummed it already on many occasions, the prospects of cockroaches crawling all over us in our sleep was slightly unnerving. Trevor mentioned this to one of the staff called 'Ron' (pretty sure it was his real name) and they promised to move us in the morning to a better room with no chance of cockroaches (their words). The next morning we moved rooms, Sophie feeling pretty tired from keeping one eye open for most of the night in case any creepy crawlies attempted to make it through our hole-filled mosquito net. By mid-morning we returned to our new room to find even more cockroaches running around the bathroom and around our bags! Having had enough of our accommodation we decided to look elsewhere and promptly packed our bags, checking that no cockroaches were being packed too, and headed further down the beach. Eventually we checked into another hut at 'Presleys'; a fairly popular place where we had enjoyed a meal the night before. Still tired from lack of sleep we settled in with the hope of a good nights' sleep, free of cockroaches. That evening we enjoyed pasta and a chicken burger on the beach restaurant and headed to a small outside cinema to watch a film with a cold beer. However, surprise surprise on our return to the room we yet again found cockroaches running around. With Sophie nearly at breaking point and Trevor checking under the bed every 5 minutes we decided yet again to see if we could change rooms. To be fair to the staff, they were only more than happy to help and 'upgraded' us to a slightly better hut (shack). It must be noted now that we were only paying 2.50GBP each for accommodation which obviously comes under some sort of threshold in Palolem where you are expected to put up with unexpected guests...

We would like to report that our cockroach troubles had ended but suffice to say that the worst was yet to come.... That night, whilst no cockroaches were actually witnessed, we did hear scurrying around in the wall behind our bed for most of the night; we can only assume that there was an all night cockroach rave taking place. By the morning, still tired from the nights' rave, we decided to make the most of the beach as we had literally spent the last couple of days continuously moving huts. That morning we ventured to the town and purchased a large can of cockroach spray, then spent the afternoon in the sea playing with the worlds' most serrated frisbee, which appeared to have been created to sever fingers! All in all though it was our first enjoyable day in Palolem. Before leaving for dinner Trevor used the whole can of cockroach spray inside the beach hut, gassing both himself and Sophie in the process in the hope of preventing any cockroach incursions from happening. Sophie meanwhile dug into the world's largest avocado out on the 'veranda'. On a side-note we randomly bumped into Tony and Lynn, the Canadian couple who had travelled up from Kerala, whilst buying the cockroach spray and shared our woes with them. That evening we enjoyed Tapas at one of the beach front restaurants and headed to the outdoor cinema for a second time to watch 12 Years a Slave. Feeling slightly rejuvenated we headed home in high spirits and confident that we had warded off another insect invasion......we were wrong. On arrival back in the hut Trevor opened the door of the bathroom with extreme caution (now the norm) and discovered the largest cockroach yet in its final death-throes; at least the bug spray was working! A brief look under the bed torch in hand, now also a standard 'relaxing' routine before bed, revealed another dying roach leaking a strange black fluid over the floor (Sophie hadn't been aware of this fact up until now). The straw that broke the camel's back however came in the middle of the night when we were both awoken by hissing coming from behind the wall and then later followed by a loud pop which we can only guess was one of the many now dying cockroaches in the wall exploding. In a half sleeping/hysterical state Sophie turned to Trevor head torch in hand (we were now at the point of sleeping with it for the sake of regular inspections) and with an almost war like battle cry shouted 'they've broken through the wall!' After further inspection and confirming they hadn't we both spent the remainder of another night in a state of readiness in case quick evacuation from the hut was required!

The following morning we scoured the beach for further accommodation yet again, but this time willing to pay whatever it cost for a decent room and a proper nights' sleep. After an hour or so without much success we were approached by someone with available rooms and agreed to check them out. Situated about 50m back from the beach and built from actual concrete we found a room at Zappia Cove. It even included a TV and a small pond out the front with turtles and catfish in! First impressions were positive and we felt confident that there were no roaches, and finally we looked forward to a proper nights' sleep so we could enjoy our last days in Goa drama free...We were wrong...again. Ok so it wasn't the roaches this time; we had finally escaped their wrath, but for the next 3 days either from stress, cockroach poisoning or probably food poisoning, Sophie became pretty ill, with crippling stomach pain and fever, and was unable to leave the room ( good job there was a TV in there)! Trevor spent the next couple of days bringing food back for Sophie, mainly consisting of dry crackers, and the following day due to the pain Sophie was in considered taking her to the local hospital. Sophie was very reluctant to do this due to grave hygiene concerns so had to make do with a ginger tea instead (Trevor hunting around the town for fresh ginger).

To summarise Palolem up until this point, we had had only 1 or 2 days of enjoyment; the rest we spent running from cockroaches and Sophie being bed ridden. We had however watched most of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit films on HBO, so at least Trevor was happy! Unfortunately during this period we had to cancel dinner arrangements with Tony and Lyn unless they were happy come and eat crackers at our room! We also decided to put our flight to Indonesia back a few days so we could spend at least one day enjoying Palolem and seeing Mumbai now that Sophie had started to feel better. During the extra days we finally squeezed a bit of enjoyment out of Palolem, going to a yoga class which Sophie spent stifling her laughter at Trevor who was actually enjoying it, followed by a traditional Indian head, back and shoulder massage, where we were taken to a shabby old hut and aggressively 'massaged' (we use the term massage loosely) by a 60 year old man who didn't speak a word of English, resulting in us both feeling worse than when we went in. We also went kayaking in search of dolphins, although sadly the only thing of note we saw was an empty packet of crisps; it was however quite a scenic trip!

Not quite recovered from the last 10 days spent in Goa we were certainly not looking forward to our next train journey to Mumbai (most likely sitting on the floor yet again).

Goa done (and overrated)!