I got up on the Saturday morning and decided to be really smart and not go to bed-I was scared I would miss my very early Sunday morning flight to London. I'm not too proud to admit that it was the worst thing to do!! I felt absolutely shocking for my first four days in Goa! But I have learnt my lesson-I'll wait until I can fly direct next time!!
I was hopeless at the airport-I had to ring friends in Goa and ask what to do (This was at Manchester) and Mumbai wasn't much better, I decided the first thing I was going to do was have a cigarette-which made me feel ill-and feeling dizzy and trying to change you're flight at the same time is not a good combination!!! Anyway, I managed to get an earlier flight and finally arrived in Goa.
I got picked up from the airport by friends who are out there until December-I only hate them a little bit LOL. They have a car this time, which I couldn't even try to describe to you, red with a blue bumper is probably the best I can do. It was abit unusual seeing everything closed up (I've only ever been in the season before) but I went on day trips that I would never have gone on if I had the choice of sunbathing on the beach all day.
The first place we visited was Bogmalo beach-which was really nice, I never realised there was a beach so close to the airport!! Our 'tour guide' (Our friend Richard, who has lived there for five years and knows absolutely everything there is to know about Goa) took us out in his Pope Mobile, which to you is a HUGE car with HUGE windows so you can't miss a thing! We visited Vagator aswell and walked along the rocks at the far end-and I had some cool photographs to take back to show everyone at home. There were four of us who went that day, and three of them had to stop halfway up the stairs back to the car-which would have been quite funny had I not been scared I was going to have to carry them the rest of the way up!! Actually, now I think about it, we spent most of the time on our other days out staying in the car...
We visited Old Goa aswell, it took us all of fifteen seconds to drive through-It was very pretty, there's just not all that much to see unless you're interested in looking around churches-which of course we weren't because that would require effort!
We also went to a town called Ponda (That might be spelt incorrectly) We drove past all the high schools, and everyone in uniforms-that was strange. I'm not sure why but I never imagined the schools to be the way they were-all the school kids were fascinated with us though-which was pretty funny and uncomfortable at the same time. They were all tapping their friends shoulders and pointing and waving at us. I can honestly say I have never had that happen to me before!!!
Now onto food...I think I'm going to get into trouble for mentioning this...We were so relieved when the Bhati Bar opened again!! I only had three days before I had to go home! For those of you that have ever been, the food is amazing-and I never ever describe food as amazing, I am a really fussy eater! I can't knock Johns (Or Jhons as its spelt on one sign) bar or Viva goa, because they are both really nice aswell. You're choice is pretty limited in the Monsoon time!
Richard took us to a little bar in Calangute, which I can't for the life of me remember the name of. All the walls have been signed by people who have been there, and money has been signed and stuck on the back wall!
(I even got to leave a message-just behind the bar to the left if any of you visit
We met two Indian men in there, who were artists-we seriously doubted this a the night before we met a man in Molly Malones who claimed to be a doctor. He even presented us with a card with all the products he sold-there were fridges and microwaves, all sorts of electrical stuff The artist did draw a picture of Andrew though-looking very much like Winston Churchill, and we checked his website out. The last strange guy we met was an Australian, again in Molly Malones (It sort of just attracts and unusual crowd by the sounds of things) The Australian was telling us about an 'invention' of his friends-which I can't begin to try and explain.
Anyway this message is turning into an essay, I promise I won't write anything else until I get back in November. I did have the best time though, the rain was fun and it was nice to see abit more of Goa other than Candolim beach. For those of you that are there long term-I am sooooooooo jealous! Have fun,
Hope you've enjoyed reading my very long message!
Gemma x
PS Visit Bhati bar!!
