Goa - the last of India

The Indian leg of our trip ended up on a bit of a downer.  I was so pumped to be going to the beachy region of Goa, especially to swim as the weather had been so hot every where we had been. Well once we arrived in Goa two things happened. 1) It rained. Pretty much non-stop the whole time. 2) Nath and I both had Delhi belly (Nath much worse than me).  So those two factors pretty much kept us holed up in our hotel room.  Luckily we had used avios points to book into a fairly nice resort in Calangute as we did not venture too far from room 311.  We did make it down to Calangute beach on our first afternoon, and Baga beach on our second afternoon.  

Day three was spent completely at the hotel.  In the afternoon I booked myself in for a body scrub & massage as I thought it would be a nice treat. I left feeling very violated, especially when I discovered body scrub in my butt crack! Quite an experience that I am not willing to pay for ever again!

Day four was our big day of adventure.  We took a public bus to the capital town of Panaji.  Here we discovered a really nice restaurant where we had prawns wrapped in bacon and a prawn curry.  We also went to Old Goa and saw lots of churches, part of the Portugese influence on the area.  We found some Western shops and I bought a top.  

As we weren't feeling too flash in Goa we actually ate mostly Western food - Pizza Hut and KFC (complete with gravity fighting giant straw!). Goa is trying to draw package holiday tourists from Europe and is introducing some Western comforts.  However, they are a long way off being the next Spain or Greece.  We found the beaches were rubbish, and of course the streets are covered in rubbish so I can't see why Europeans would choose to holiday here over anywhere in Europe.  Even a beach holiday in Cornwall would be better!

As Goa was our last stop in India here is a summary of India:

Trivial pursuit victories:

Michelle 2

Nathan 0

Delhi Belly:

Michelle 3 (3 days total)

Nathan 2 (5 days total)

Michelle's thoughts:

We have seen some pretty amazing sights in India - the Taj Mahal would have to be my highlight.  I was also impressed by the fort at Jodhpur.  I was however, totally unprepared for the place of women in society.  I think a dirty piece of toilet paper has more standing and more say than women do. On so many occasions waiters/shop assistants/tour guides/drivers/hotel staff would only speak to Nathan and completely ignore me. I was also unprepared for how dirty the streets would be.  The open drains/sewers that would over flow onto the road were just disgusting, and of course you can imagine the smell it would create.  We have seen many people living in extreme poverty and it just breaks my heart. It is very grounding to have this experience as I have a huge appreciation for the life I live, the food I eat, and the roof over my head.  I will never forget India, but I am in no hurry to return.

Nathan's thoughts (written by the man himself!):

I enjoyed India there are so many wonderful sights to be visited, there is so much history which is why it's not called the cradle of civilisation for nothing. If only they could use these sites to promote tourism more in India they would have booming industry. Unfortunately it is a very tiresome country to visit constantly being hounded by touts, rickshaw drivers and any body else trying to make a buck. We did meet many wonderful people who helped us out a lot (I remember our first night train we share with a gentlemen who was good friends with the Maharaja from Jodhpur, he had many photos and stories to share). It's sad that when ever you meet some body you are straight away thinking how they are trying to scam you, however the majority of people are very nice and only to happy to point you in the right direction. As Michelle said it is a very dirty and smelly country and certainly an eye opener which makes you appreciate what you have a whole lot more. I would like to visit again as there are many more sites to see.