We were picked up by Geraud at Canacona train station - confusingly called Chaudi by the locals - and taken to his Om Sai lodge. Hot showers in our deluxe, executive twin room awaited us but of course our 'twin' was a double. 'No problem sir, this bed big enough for two'. We were momentarily bemused why he was prepared to give us a room each but we soon understood the next day. His rates were about three times higher than comparable lodges! We moved hostel but this wasn't the last we were to see of Geraud in Goa.
Palolem may once have been a peaceful, hippyish fishing village but it's not now. It has a nice beach but is also full of English package tourists and Israelis who have just finished their National Service. Not two groups of people you necessarily want to spend Christmas and New Year with. So we hired scooters and decided to explore a bit and find somewhere else to stay. We visited Agonda and Varca beaches, both beautiful and in Varca's case totally empty.
We moved to Agonda, much more our scene. Little did we know that Geraud from Om Sai in palolem owned the lodge next door to the beach huts we rented. Not only that but he took great pleasure in popping in every day and telling our new hosts - his best friends - how much he had charged us! Clown.
Let me introduce our hosts: Nilesh and Sameer.
Two very hospitable jokers. Believe it or not, Goa is very cold at night at this time of year and after our first night we asked for a blanket, to which Nilesh responded 'How many nights staying', which was a thinly veiled attempt to work out if it was worth his while investing in blankets . When we told him we weren't sure how long we might stay, he told us 'blanket, maybe tomorrow. No problem'! Actually, that response was peddled out 6 days on the trot!
He was very friendly though throughout our stay, he even stroked my stomach when I told him I was feeling a little unwell. Tha was probably a bit too friendly as his sexualtiy was definitely in question.
Our huts were very rustic but perfect: light, fan, double bed, mozzie net and three quid a night. Taht said, they were were next to a dumping ground which attracted every farmyard animal. Waking up to chickens, cows, dogs and pigs eating scraps next to our huts was a daily experience!
Now we're both friendly guys and thought we'd chat to the lonely looking Japanese girl over lunch on our second day. Well, she was sort of Japanese. Her parents were from Kyoto but she was brought up in Canada and presently living in London. Interesting story and background. Dan, lucky man, got to hear this story twice but it's not quite what you're thinking.
He woke up later that night to hear his Israeli neighbour playing serenading someone with his guitar. A bit annoyed about being woken, he was wondering when he could ask them to be quiet when he heard, ' I'm Canadian Japanese but living in London"...Sleeping now wasn't an option as there was ammunition to be collected. However, the Israeli's chat was poor and his kind offer of a bed for the night was refused!
As you can imagine cricket dominated our stay in Goa. Our days usually started at Bobby's place - Ashanti - to watch the SA V Aus Test atch. His brilliant staff eventually realised that we were a bunch of jokers. . 'I'm understanding joking sir' was my favourite response!
However, the real highlight was playing beach cricket with with Bhaji, Lucky (real name), Tom and a slection of his 6 brothers and the rest. This happened everyday from 4.30pm until sunset when the chilled Kingfisher beers would be rolled out by Nilesh.
Late afternoon cricket with the boys
Nobody likes to carry cash on the beach and Bobby, Nilesh and the banana lady (Dan had to step in again to help me understand how much her bananas were!) were fine with us running tabs but when we realised we didn't have nearly enough money to settle our debts we headed to the bank in Chaudi.
We decided to use this trip as a chance to indulge in a bit of health tourism and visit the dentist. My teeth were fine apart from the ever expanding Chai stains but the lovely dentist - who subsequently let us use her clinic as a waiting room before our bus to Hampi - informed Dan know that he needed a filling. Today wasn't really going very well for Dan who had earlier visited a seemingly blind barber for his second shave in India. The cavity filled, it was time for the bill - ten pounds for the check-up, white filling and clean and polish!
One of the thing Goa is renowned for is beach parties and we were looking forward to dancing the night away on New year's Eve. We started the night drinking champagne and red bull chargers and went in search of the action. We jumped in to a rickshaw and trawled the places we'd been told would be lively but it seemed the police had other ideas... A bit disappointing but still managed to enjoy the evening.
Goan food was delicious and as you'd imagine involded a lot of fresh seafood: squid, prawns, kingfish, barracuda, coconut fish - what? really?- and tuna. Actually let's not discuss the tuna sandwich I ordered!
Next stop: Hampi.
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