GOA HEAVENEST GOA!!!!! (As the T-Shirts state)

We had a lovely train journey from Hospet to Margoe,Goa. As per India time it arrived 3 hours late. We were tahnkfully with a british family on our berth. We also had to put up with 2 annoying begger kids, they tried every trick in the book to get food and money from us. The train went through some stunning tree covered hills and past the 2nd highest waterfall in India. The train took a painstaking 9 hours to complete a relativly short distance.

From Margoe Train station we took a autorickshaw direct to Palolem and when we arrived it was dark. We trawled the beach looking for some accommodation and eventually found a beach hut which was very unstable but we felt it would do for one night as we were both shattered.?

The next day we went out and eventually found a nicer hut, it was nice until dark, when a bunch of big red ants and a massive beetle decided to hang out in our bathroom!!

Palolem is gorgeous, theres a lovely sandy beach with rocks at either end, swooping coconut trees, and gorgeous sunsets. There are numerous restruants and bars around all serving western food which made it feel very un-India.

We didn't really do much in Palolem, just relaxed, ate (alot!!), sampled a few local beers, and of course played Scrabble. We were quite fascinated with the dogs here, there are absolutley loads and there seemed to be a canine West Side Story thing going on. There were a few rival dog gangs that occupied their own sections of the beach, if one dog entered onto another gangs territory all hell was let loose!! One dog would howl and then loads of dogs from that gang would run towards the imposter dog, circle it and bark non-stop until it retreated. We would love to have had doggy subtitles to know exactly what they were saying, but we can imagine the language would've benn quite colourful!!

Another dog story was when an Indian family moved into the hut next to us, they bought their own food and were sitting around eating. Two dogs were roaming around the family, eagerly awaiting some left overs. One of the dogs proceeded to try and scare the other dog away, this was done in a comedy fashion. The scarer dog looked like he was on a rubber bungee with someone controlling it, by lifting it up and down infront of the other dog (a bit like thunderbirds) a random bark would be emitted in the other dogs face. The other dog was having none of it and just looked and plodded off!!!

We found out while we were here that from the 1st May the season would be classed as low, which meant all accommodation would be half price. We decided to check ourselves into a little hotel set back from the beach with a pool for a bargain price, it was also just in time for Ellie's birthday!! The hotel was lovely, with food we'd been dreaming of, which even stretched to Earl Grey Tea. We spent another few days here doing nothing by the pool. We were kept amused by two very cute and tiny cats.?

We were looking forward to Ellie's birthday because we were going to go out and properly sample some Cocktails!!! Our hopes were dashed when we discovered there were local elections on and there was to be no alcohol consumption allowed for a 4 day duration. We didn't realise how serious this ban was until about 7 policemen turned up at the hotel and thoroughly searched the premises for hidden alcohol, they even looked in the swimming pool. They also checked through peoples food and drink reciepts for that day to make sure no alcohol had been served.

So Ellie's birthday night was spent in our little room, with 2 warm Kingfisher beers that we had managed to smuggle in, and drank in fear we would be arrested!!!

<>We loved Goa, people were freindly, streets were clean and there was a fresh smell, but this isn't the real India!!! We felt it was a false perception that westerners who came for 2 weeks, would go away and think hey i've just been to a Spanish resort!!!? The real India is totally different and we felt maybe somewhere like this should be promoting it. We think Goa needs to put this on for tourism otherwise the westerners might be disgusted and turn their noses up with a hasty retreat!!! What a shame!!! We have had a great time but feel the real India is calling us back. We miss the smells, colours, long train journeys, staring men, cows wandering the streets (even the cows sunbathed here), street kids etc......

<>Adios Goa, bring on the real India if you dare!!!!!?