My trip started on Friday, the 7th, when I went to board an overnight Volvo sleeper bus which would take me to Goa, Mapsa to be exact.
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First it took me a while to find the pick up point (in Bandra, Reclamation Bridge, which of course didn't ring a bell to the rick guy), well over an hour in the traffic. Then, I waited for an hour and a half till my delayed bus showed up. My only amusement was to watch the neverending packing and unpacking of different companies' vehicles.
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| While waiting for my ride I met a couple of people, one of them being Alice, a lady in here 60s going to check up on her Goan house. We started talking and when she found out I was travelling alone and hadn't made sure I was travelling with a female companion, she talked to the driver and arranged for me to sleep with her. |
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| It turns out there are two travellers on a bed like this. Mine, originally, was a cute Japanese backpacker so I wasn't all that thankful to the helpful lady. Might have finally practised my rusty Japanese... |
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The journey itself wasn't all that comfortable either. I took a non AC bus on purpose 'cause I always end up freezing my ass off. Unfortunately, the bus was as rusty as my Japanese and the windows wouldn't want to cooperate when I tried shutting them. So it was really cold and quite windy, plus a very bumpy and curvy road, making you feel like you were gonna roll off your bed every 15 minutes. I was situated by the window and Alice was real scared of falling off, so I spent the whole night hugging her and making sure she stays put. I guess it wouldn't have been all that bad with the Japanese guy ;)
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| I arrived in Mapsa at around 9.30 and a CSer, whom I was going to travel with, had been waiting for me for 3,5 hours by then. We hopped on a bike, went to the hotel to leave our things and headed off for breakfast to Curlie's Shack in Anjuna. This is also the first Goan beach I got a glimpse of. |
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| After breakfast we set off to Ashwem, where I got to enjoy a bit of the sun. |
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| Palm trees leading to the beach next to a very well known French restaurant - La Plage. |
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| The Ashwam beach |
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| I think it's the last picture with my lovely sunglasses... Bought them on Lombok, lost them somewhere in Goa - they got blown off my head while on the bike. R.I.P. |
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| I knew a recently met French friend of mine was in Goa at the same time but she was based in Vagator, a different area. I was discussing our evening plans with Brom, the CSer, and I found out we were planning to go to a club in that area. So I called Estelle and asked her if we could meet that evening. |
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You see that white board? I was on a towel right beside it. You see those sunbeds?
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| So, I'm on the phone with Estelle trying to figure out if we can meet in Vagator and she tells me she's not sure, as she's in a different part of Goa at the moment. "Really? Where?", "Well, I'm at this beach near La Plage". So I start laughing, get up and ask her where exactly. And then she starts laughing and gets off one of those sunbeds just couple of meters away from me. |
La Plage - owned by a French lady, almost only white crowd, mostly Englishmen and Russians (those are freaking everywhere!). Amazing food, I cannot forgive myself for not taking pics - I guess I'll just have to go back there! The Calamari Spaghetti in Carbonara Sauce, Shrimp Carpaccio and Kingfish Sashimi...
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| Happy after the great meal and ready to see the next beach. |
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| A typical shopping street in Goa. |
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| As I've already mentioned - Goa seems to be a Russian colony. Me not likes. |
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| The third beach I visited that day - Arambol. |
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If you walk a bit and pass some clothes stalls and restaurants, you'll arrive on another part of the beach, less people and commotion.
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| A lagoon where you can wash off the oceanic salt. |
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| Enjoyed my book and some fruit salad on a sunbed. |
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| On my way out I stumbled across a wedding ceremony! The Russian bride was all ready in her little white dress, prepared to say her "I do's" facing sunset on the beach. Not too bad, right? |
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| Our first evening stop was Nine Bar in Vagator where we had some really good pizza. It was also my first visit to a trance party and tried dancing as I usually would to any other kind of music. A funny feeling. |
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| After some food and a drink we visited the Saturday night market, with tens of stalls selling a variety of products ranging from spices, |
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| to clothes, shoes, home accessories, |
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| and a lot of deliciously smelling food. They also had a band up on the stage singing some oldschool rock songs. |
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| Kids sleeping in one of the 'stores'. |
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| Brom thought of partying in a place called Fresh, but the joint's more of a fancy and elegant beach restaurant than a club. So we decided to go to Curlie's again and party there. It's a two storey restaurant/cafe with a 'partyroom', behind those glass doors. |
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| And so the long day was over. |
