Travels in Goa Part 2 - Beach Life
Me at my most content, morning sun on my skin, wild hair, bare feet and a string bikini. I'm a beach babe through and through.
Our itinerary for this trip covered Colva to Talpona, taking in as many beaches as we could along the way. Other than the first night's guesthouse (a place we'd stayed at last year, booked over the phone at the airport minutes before boarding our flight) the rest of our accommodation was found using our tried and tested method - one of us sits in a cafe with the bags and the other goes off to search for a suitable place to stay. Our needs are simple, a double bed, an attached bathroom and space outside to sit.
My Friend's Place, Agonda (£7 per night)
We moved six times, sleeping in coco huts and hut camps on the beach and in vividly painted guesthouses in the outlying villages. Rates varied between £3.50 and £8 a night and we haggled hard to get the best deal - when you've a combined budget of £20 a day every rupee counts!
View from our balcony at L'Allegro, our pink guesthouse in Palolem (£6 per night)
Some had hot water, others mosquito nets, all included crisp cotton bed linen and bath towels. One had no mirrors and seeing ourselves reflected a week later seemed very odd. Another had two balconies and one even had an attached kitchenette. One backed on to jungle, where the shriek of monkeys would wake us at 6am and a couple had tree frogs in the bathroom (great for keeping the mozzies at bay).
Palolem Beach
Every morning we'd be on the beach by 8am, watching the fishermen mending their nets whilst their wives sorted through their catch, tossing sea snakes and undersized crabs back in the water. We'd eat breakfast at a simple cafe in the village (authentic, fiery local food served at a shared table beats a pricey, tourist-style, bland Western breakfast on the beach hands down), then we'd buy our picnic lunch - fresh veg samosas wrapped in yesterday's newspaper & tied with string (8p each), a couple of bottles of water (15p a litre), some fresh fruit (6 locally grown bananas and a couple of oranges cost 30p) and head back to the beach.
Beach shack at Agonda
Most people use shacks during the day, lazing on sunbeds alongside fellow tourists, listening to Western pop music and being brought beer and food at regular intervals, but that's not for us. We'll walk until we find a remote spot away from the crowds and lay on the sand, seeking shade beneath a nearby boat if the heat got too intense.
Pi dogs at Agonda
We found a charity shop in Colva , raising funds for the care of the hundreds of pi dogs & stray cats roaming the beaches and back lanes of South Goa. We donated our leftover toiletries, a couple of tops and Jon's paperbacks to the cause before we left.
Sunset at Benaulim
My heidi klein bikini was the business (once I'd cut out the annoying padded lining with Jon's Swiss army knife), it kept its shape and colour perfectly - unlike the cheapo eBay ones, which faded to buggery!
Morning stroll at Patnem
...two weeks into our trip and my cheapo bikini knickers have started to go a bit saggy!
Rajbag Creek
Sometimes, in the afternoon, we'd pop back to our room for a siesta but we'd always be back in time to watch the sunset and for the last swim of the day.
Sunset at Colva
At dusk we'd shower, enjoy an al fresco rum and coke (a 75cl bottle of McDowell's white rum will knock you back £1.75) and ponder our plans for the evening - dinner on the beach or in the village.....classical Indian tunes, Italian gypsy music, German psychedelia or reggae with Graham (ex.UB40) .....South or North Indian, Tandoori or Indo-Chinese.....Where to have the first ice-cold Kingfisher of the night.....Sandals or bare feet?
Block print maxi (roadside stall, Goa), 1960s lace-up suede waistcoat (Xmas 2012 present from Liz), black vest (new from Topshop, 1999), Lamani choker, armlet and coin earrings (Indian markets)
20p breakfasts and £3.50 a night rooms mean that we can afford to treat ourselves and stay within our £20 a day budget. My block printed maxi skirt was one of my few buys at a very reasonable £4 (it seemed silly to haggle it down from the £5 asking price, but the seller expects you to and thinks you're odd if you don't). It's not vintage - they're made by the thousand and available on every street corner throughout India - although I've seen plenty of unscrupulous Etsy and Ebay sellers trying to pass them off as "vintage 1970s hippy originals"...very naughty!
Thanks for the phenomenal welcome back and for all your comments. I've used my 4am, jet-lagged early mornings constructively - sifting through photos and drafting my travel posts (don't despair, there's only four left, you're halfway through). If there's anything at all you'd like to know about Goa comment or message me and I'll answer in my next couple of posts.
Right, I'm taking advantage of a break in the rain and am nipping down to Argos to look at cheap point and shoot cameras.
See you soon!
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