nickrav

Currently at Goa airport, waiting to board our flight to Bombay before Navsari. Photos will be up over the next few days, as there are HEAPS from the last week or so.

All is good
Nick

Goa in a nutshell.
Ate too much
Drank too much
Currently paying the price....

Solid evening last night. Started with a cruise over to a different beach called Vagator to hook up with the indo-kiwi dudes and the english girls from earlier. AWESOME beach.. think cliffops, coconut palms and bamboo shacks. Not crowded at all, probably coz most of the beachgoers were happily smoking it up in the beach-shacks.

As a result I'm having a bit of a rough one today. Tender stomach and all, lets just say the rickshaw had to make an emergency stop this morning. Could be a real rough hangover or the street-side feed we bought at 5am.... We've sussed that Drunken Samosas here are the equivalent of Drunken Pies back home!

Spending the night in the Goa state capital of Panchim at a relatively nice hotel. Yes, air conditioning and hot water 24/7. Qutie a nice city... it even has footpaths and i havnt seen a cow on the road all day! Heaps of catholic churches and the likes around because of the Portugese influence. Had a wee shop-up and then boarded for a 'Sunset Cruise' in the harbour.

Cruise was a bit of a joke. Was a bit apprehensive; boarding a sketchy boat while nursing a vulnerable stomach... but that was soon all turned around by our MC for the evening and the ridiculous on-cruise setup. Fast-talking, american-accented indian dude introducing each part of the on-stage 'entertainment', followed by the 'DJ' going nuts on one of those synthesiser keyboards (the ones every 10 year old had) while some local fools tried folkdancing. It was SO cheesy, but the rest of the boat (mostly non-Goan indians) were lapping it up! Cameras out and all. Great for a laugh.

Some more of Panchim, a bit of Air Deccan to Bombay and a train ride back to Navsari tomorrow will bring Tour 1.0 to an end.

Awesome, am not risking dinner tonight as spewing beeroot-red stomach juices out of the rickshaw (in an attempt to cure the hangover I thought I'd try some healthy fruit juice...bad call) isnt my fondest memory of the adventure so far!

laters
Nick

Hey everyone

Having an amazing time in Goa, not hard to see why it's the tourist capital of India. This place is massive, littered with cool beaches and has a party scene too.

Choka with people, no shortage of bods on the beaches and in the shops. A mixutre of paisty white and crimson red Poms - they're about as much fun as a hard boilled egg. At any one time there've got be anywhere between 10 000 - 20 000 of them in Goa.

Had a couple of MEAN nights out with another planned to start in a few hours. Bumped into some other indo-kiwis in a bar called 'Mambos' and have been hitting it with them. Last night we went to this surreal clifftop club called 'Club Cabana'. Interesting cover charge policy (or just no admission for guys that arent couples...wheres the fun in that?) here, but we got in sweet as were accompanied by a couple of english chicks that I had met the night before. 500 rupees (not even 20 bucks NZ!) later you're at this poolside bar, next to a mansion / club. Seriously, thought I was in Hollywood! Went to find Cameron Diaz but to no avail.... Oh, OPEN bar nonetheless, the cover charge includes all the drinks you can handle. Needless to say it was a wicked night.

Had a mission 2 hour bus ride to Anjuna beach (its only 15km away)where we had lunch with the indo-kiwi dudes. I went to a midnight market before meeting up with them again that night. Got a henna tattoo as well, will try and post up a picture. Maya made a return visit to 'Shalom' and I'm thinking dinner there's gotta be done again.

Umm... what else? Eating delicious seafood on the beach, still drinking Kingfisher. It's still bloody hot, high 30's I'd say. Swimming, but the water's luke-warm so its not exactly refreshing!

Another full day in Goa tomorrow; may be going deep-sea fishing with the kiwi dudes on a boat they've hired. If not I'm hoping to go on this waterfall tour where you get to see sweet monkeys plus check out this 'Saint Francis Xaviar" guy's corpse. Legend has it he was a Portugese catholic missionary who died in the 1500's but his body doesnt decompose. Currently residing in a glass coffin at a church in Goa. How out-of-it is that!

Luvin It!
Nick

Now in Goa, self-proclaimed 'beach party capital' of India. Look like the peak tourist season is over though as it's not exactly pumping.

Domestic air travel in India rocks!! Rest assured there are no cows or beggars in the aisles and the service is top-notch. Had a great flight here on Kingfisher Air, and domestic airports are excellent too.

Kingfisher Air, supposedly India's 'budget' domestic airline are totally wicked. Run by a dude that owns the brewery producing the renowned beer of the same name (what a guy!), they offer a A-Z service. They're with you from taking your bags out of your rickshaw when you arrive at the airport, right through to loading them at your next port of call. Not to mention good food and inflight entertainent to rival Singapore Airlines. Reading through the in-flight mag, there was an article about the Director of Kingfisher also publishing a swimsuit calendar. Again, what a guy! Makes beer...owns planes....makes swimsuit calendars.

Anyway...In an attempt to avoid hotel issues a-la-Bangalore, we wasted no less than an hour in Panji (capital of Goa), trying to find a fax machine where we could get the Navsari travel agents to fax a copy of our passports to. Worked in the end, by which time my t shirt felt like a blanket in the 36' heat. Note to all travellers... dont expect that 'Tourist Office of India' or the 'Government Tourist Office' to be able to help you with anything AT ALL. Nothing. Zilch. Zippo.

Got a decent mid-range hotel for the night (still no 24/7 hot water, let alone carpet) as we planning to splash out for the last night or two at a food+booze provided palace. Had entrees at this AMAZING lebanese restraunt next door to Hotel called 'Shalom' - dining tables / bar are on a multi-level deck ON TOP of a massive bottom-lit pool. Totally wicked. Turns out it'd only been open 12 days. Food was a treat too! Ate Kingfish at a beach shack (with liquid equivalent on the side) for desert. Delicious.

Have walked a few kays along the beach this morning, it's totally packed with beach hut / shack restraut-bars and zillions of loungers. Ridiculous really...think Baywatch but on loungers and with 'Raj' and 'Ashok' instead of Mitch and Kit. The loungers look pretty inviting; am gonna set aside a day to lie back, get comfortably drunk and enjoy the view.

HEAPS of Hawkers everywhere here too. On the streets... on the beach.... constantly pestering. Every Dipak, Anil and Apu have "very special prices just for you" on anything from shoes and towels to lobster and margaritas!

Gameplan for today is to book some top-end accom for the next few days + get transport from Mumabi to Navsari on the 7th.

Sweet as, am gonna try upload some photos now too
Enjoy

Nick

Ok so you know the whole 'fingers crossed' thing? Didnt help. Got back to Hotel Toms at ten past two and tried talking to the manager (who was now on the front desk). After a lot of wasted time I've decided I need to get my hands on an Indian dictionary and lookup what a 'Booking' means to these fools.

He stuck to his speil that no1 had vacated and they had a 'wedding party' coming in who had pre-paid for their rooms...therefore there were no rooms available. Sure, acceptble enough. Except when the guy on the desk who we phoned the previous night said 'Yes, we have rooms available', took our details and said he'd see us at 2pm. Mr Manager maintained that this was a "conditional booking", conditional upon them having rooms available. Despite none of these 'conditions' being told to us over the phone when they confirmed our booking. Go figure. It was all I could do to open up a can of Whoop Ass (Contract Law edition) on his ass!

So.... he sent us to 'Hotel Vellara'. Didnt look too bad from the street but trying to get a room proved more than difficult. Our Navsari travel agent had advised us NOT to take our passports. Being a tad wary about only having a NZ Drivers License as ID I took a photocopy of mine. Turns out Hotel Vellara had a strict passport-checking policy for all non-indian nationals. Anway the guts of it is that most hotels here insist that THEY had to check you're a legitimate tourist (hey, forget customs and all that...) and since we were holding only a copy of my passport and nothing of mayas(thanks for your advice, Kalpna travel, Navsari!!!) we couldnt get a room.

Despite what Maya may tell you about Hotel Sunflower, it was another dump. Clean enough but nothing spectuacular. VERY bottom of the range by NZ standards. Hotel dude insisted it had hot water. Tempted by the 'hot' tap on the shower before we went out, this turned out to be a lie. He neglected to mention the hot water only runs in the mornings...

Collected a pretty good haul from the Brigaide Rd shopping area. Nice and cheap, just the way I like it!

'Out' in Bangalore is eventful once you find a place that is open past 11pm. Must take a concerted effort to get decently drunk here as you'd have to be rocking up to bars right on opening time! Hahaha it was Bollywood Night at 'Zero G' so we though we'd go along for a laugh. No less than half an hour of walking later we found it and were predicatably amused by the antics of drunk indians. Complete with token Dirty Old Men and Absolutely Munted Girl no longer able to walk. Funny tunes but they must be big pop hits as everyone(else) knew the words. Almost had to stop some people on the dance floor as it lookd they could hurt themselves....

Laters all, off for a rickshaw-tour of the city before the flight to Goa.