2018 India – Goa
18th January 2018
It was only a one-hour flight to Goa and how welcome was the increase in temperature when we got off the plane. It was common knowledge that there was a taxi cartel operating in the area so taxis were expensive and Uber was forbidden anywhere in Goa. The Soul Vacation Resort and Spa was only a five-minute walk from Colva Beach. The room was pretty good but in common with all accommodation in Goa, it was overpriced.
It was too late for a swim so we walked down to the beach to prepare for our assault the next day. What struck me on the road to the beach was that despite being a world-famous beach resort with an enormous income from tourism, everywhere I looked there was rubbish. The government’s solution was to put up signs saying, “No rubbish here” and the people’s answer was to use the signs to hang rubbish on. In the middle of one quiet road in a good area, I saw two soiled nappies so I assumed someone threw them out the car window. During our time in Goa, I did see a few rubbish collection trucks around the place but I suspected they were collecting rubbish from one area only to dump it in another.
The road outside our hotel that led to the beach was lined with small stalls where women sat all day, every day and without fail asked if we would like to look at their clothes which had “special prices”. There was one small woman with lots of ironmongery in her hair which in her village signified she was married. She had a lovely smile and was friendly in a different way to the others so it was obvious that at some stage we would buy stuff from her. 
It looked like all these women had families and lived in very basic buildings at the back of their stalls. As we turned the corner to the beach road, the stalls were replaced by shops. The entrance to the beach was packed with Indian families who seemed to like to pack together. We walked along the beach for 15 minutes to where it was much quieter and saw some beach restaurant shacks with sunbeds and umbrellas in front of them. I was very happy to see them as I struggled to lay on the sand for any length of time without getting a backache. Surprisingly, the beaches were very clean except for the odd dog poo that was deposited by one of the multitude of dogs in the area.
That night we had dinner in the hotel garden restaurant which was very pleasant although we were the only customers. The waiters fell about themselves trying to please us and attract our custom for future nights. They were very friendly but badly needed training which is what I would have said about most of the restaurants we had been to. The waiter served the food and then stared at us while we ate to see our reaction. I knew it was with good intentions and he just wanted to see if we were happy with the food (which was so-so) but I felt very uncomfortable. In posh restaurants the waiters hover around discreetly, ready to top up an empty wine glass but this waiter wanted to top up everything. I took a sip of beer and he topped up my glass. After every couple of mouthfuls, he topped up my plate. Even when I told him not to, he carried on until I got quite short with him. The more mundane things that he should have been doing like clearing tables were not done. When we came down to breakfast the next morning there were still bits of food on our table from the night before. It took two days for someone to pick up an empty beer bottle on the grass next to us. It didn’t matter to us as we liked to eat at different restaurants most nights.
Next morning we went armed with our beach equipment ready to start what for me was the most important part of any holiday, sitting on the beach and doing nothing but reading, swimming and eating. I had been concerned that all the sunbeds would be taken but was surprised that the further we went from the entrance to the beach, the quieter it was so we had no trouble finding a sunbed and shade. I was expecting to pay for the sunbeds or at least have to buy something from the restaurant that owned them but no one approached us. Someone did approach us eventually and after we told them we would eat lunch with them he brought a tray of fish for us to choose from. We picked out what looked like a small hammerhead shark which was about a third of the price of Croatia. We then had the luxury of continuing to lie on the sunbeds until he came to tell us lunch was ready. The next day when we approached the sunbed area a man from the restaurant came running down with a brush to sweep the sand of our sunbeds and make sure we had everything we wanted. This happened every time day and each time he brought us a tray of fresh fish to choose from. It was perfect. 
The only fly in the ointment was the women on the beach selling things. Most of the time they pestered us for a minute or so and moved on but one woman was very persistent and Federika made the mistake of showing interest in her bracelets. The woman sat down beside her and launched into a ferocious hard sell. Federika agreed to buy one so she was pressured to buy three at a special price. When she bought three the battle was on to buy six. I was lying next to them enjoying my book but this hard sell was going on and on till after half an hour I started to get irritated and in dire need of some peace. By this time a young man was kneeling at the foot of our sunbeds watching the proceedings. The battle continued with Federika saying over and over that she would only buy three until I made it clear I’d had enough and finally the woman left. As soon as the woman left, the young man sprung into action and demanded that Federika buy something from him. He kept repeating over and over “Only 100 rupees. Only 100 rupees.” I very rarely lose my temper but I sat up and shouted at him to leave. Judging by his reaction I was a little too aggressive which I was not proud of but he did get the message and I really didn’t know what else I could do.
I enjoyed reading but only ever on holiday or in Croatia in the summer. My problem was I had such a narrow field of books to choose from. I only read novels but disliked anything to do with spies, politics, sci-fi, crime or anything trite or not well-written. I often abandoned books on the first page and on one occasion had to stop reading a best seller when the writer described someone as “a real dreamboat” on the second page. With that in mind, I was so happy to find a book called A Fine Balance by the Indian writer Rohinton Mistry. Not only was it a brilliant book but it was set in Mumbai where we had just been.
We had intended to go to old Goa town and Panjim but there was a taxi strike. It started the day after we arrived and was getting pretty bad as tourists were arriving at the airport and not able to leave. The reason for the strike was interesting. The government had passed a law saying that all taxis in India had to have a speed governor fitted. The taxi union refused to implement the law and said they would strike unless the government withdrew the demand. It seemed strange logic that taxi drivers should strike for the right to break the speed limit but it was equally illogical that the government should set the deadline for this controversial law in the middle of the tourist season. If the deadline was in the middle of the Indian summer, tourists wouldn’t have even known about the strike.
After a few days with the beach routine, I was ready for something different so we were very happy to hear when the strike was over. From what I understood, the government went from the position of “This is the law and we have no choice but to implement it” to “OK forget that law and do whatever you want.”
We booked a taxi for the day and our first stop was St Blaises church near old Goa. St Blaise was made the patron saint of Dubrovnik after he saved them from the great plague. There was a strong connection between St Blaise and Dubrovnik and a small community of Croatians once lived in the surrounding towns. The church was in the middle of nowhere and our driver didn’t have a clue how to find it. As far as I was concerned, Google Maps was one of the best inventions in history and always my first port of call in that situation but Federika didn’t trust it because occasionally it sent us the wrong way. On that occasion, we had no choice but to follow Google Maps which was doing very well until it sent us up a dead end. I thought I knew where it went wrong and wanted to give it another try but Federika insisted we asked someone. Our driver asked a group of men who sent us down to the edge of a river where we were supposed to take a ferry to the other side. One look at Google Maps showed that the church was definitely on our side of the river. I got my own way so we continued to follow the GPS down some very small roads until we reached a main road and suddenly, there before us stood St Blaise church which caused great merriment. It is true that GPS is not infallible but to say we are better off asking people for directions is to forget how often people give wrong directions.
The church would normally have been closed but we were lucky that there were two men fixing some lights and the first thing they asked us was “Are you from Dubrovnik?” We were happy to chat with them and they opened the church for us. They explained that people from Dubrovnik often came to visit and there was one sea captain that came every year although he had missed the previous year so they thought maybe he had retired. It was a shame that it wasn’t until later that Federika read that there were quite a few graves of Croatians that used to live there and I do love a good graveyard. From there we went to Panjim to look around the market and shops. Once again we hadn’t intended to buy much but once again we managed to fill my rucksack.
We spent one morning in Margao for more shopping and had lunch in a lovely old building with a 1950s theme. We both ordered an expensive fish called Pomfret assuming they would grill or fry it gently so were horrified when it was served up coated in thick breadcrumbs and deep fried. What a waste of a good fish. With my standards being far lower than Federika’s I still enjoyed it but Federika had to play hunt the fish all the way through the meal.
The rest of our time in Goa was spent on our lovely beach, eating fresh fish every lunchtime where the owner greeted us like royalty. For our last day we ordered a Red Snapper which we were looking forward to but it was served with a thick, cheesy sauce. The waiter said as it was our last day he wanted to do something special for us and as he looked so pleased with himself we didn’t have the heart to put him straight. We scrapped the sauce off and it was still delicious.
One thing that happened regularly throughout the holiday was people asking if they could take a selfie with us like we were famous. I found this quite flattering until I remembered that I wasn’t in the least bit famous and had to face the fact it was because we were Westerners and it was a common occurrence. I even had a man rushing over to me while I was swimming and insisted I had a selfie taken with him standing in the sea.
26th January 2018
For the last couple of days we booked another much nicer hotel not far from Colva Beach. It was expensive but well worth it although we did have to share the air-conditioning unit with a squirrel that had set up home inside.
The local beach was the same kind of setup where we had our own sun lounger for the day and again I loved our time there. We were concerned there wouldn’t be much to do at night but we were directed to a restaurant called Pentagon which was just amazing. A huge open-air restaurant that had live music every night and that night there was quite a good duo playing all my favourite music including Dire Straits and The Eagles. Despite being such a big restaurant it was packed and included a large table for a child’s birthday party. We had to wait half an hour for a table but that soon passed with the aid of a couple of cocktails. The food and service were great and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable holiday nights I could ever remember. The birthday party was full of lively Indians who loved dancing and the fun they shared seemed to fill the room. Locals came from miles around to this excellent restaurant and we were so lucky to have found it as it was a great end to our holiday. 
28th January 2018
We had to fly back to Delhi and so stayed at the Pride Plaza airport hotel ready for our early flight to the UK the next day. What a contrast Delhi was compared to Goa. It was cold and misty with a smell of pollution in the air. It had been a weird but wonderful holiday ranging from the horrendous to the magical. It was probably the only holiday where we weren’t looking forward to going home and could have stayed a couple of weeks longer. We never like going back anywhere but we had no doubt we would be seeing India again.
Now we come to the end of our Indian adventure 2018 and it is time for me to say “alavida” until next time.
2018 India
